Case Study: Whole Home Automation Installation Kensington, London

Full Crestron HD Audio Video and Lighting Control

This stunning Kensington Mews home benefits from a full Crestron Whole House Lighting and Audio Video system.  Crestron wireless lighting controls allow easy control of all lighting levels in the home, with lighting scenes that can be recalled by wall-mounted keypads, Apple iPads or Crestron MLX-3 handheld remotes. Scene setting is straightforward – simply select the room and applicable lighting channels are presented on the iPads, adjust and save down to one of the scene buttons. It couldn’t be simpler and easier to use. Key rooms benefit from Crestron MLX-3 handheld remote controls, allowing easy control of the room – including all AV sources and lighting too.

The Advantages of a Crestron AV & Lighting System:

The Crestron Audio Video distribution system allows the clients to enjoy their music collection in any room of the house, from the basement bar area to the master bedroom en suite. Several music streams are available – allowing different people to listen to different songs simultaneously – including iTunes music, Spotify and internet radio. Rooms can be joined together to create mini parties which is great if entertaining guests, but is also used day-to-day in the master bedroom suite when moving between the bedroom, dressing room and en suite. HD Video sources are equally well-distributed – any TV can access any source allowing the client to start watching a film in the living room and continue in the bedroom. Centralised Sky HD allows the clients to enjoy their recorded TV wherever they are in the home, whilst CCTV inputs allow any camera to be viewed anywhere in the property. Different rooms can, of course, enjoy different sources simultaneously. Input plates in the living areas allow games consoles or other sources to be added to the system and enjoyed in full HD video and surround sound, whilst Smart TV apps such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer are sent back to the AV receivers in the centralised rack. This flexibility is key to our installs; we design our systems from the ground up to be flexible and future proofed; should a new games console be released the client can simply plug it in to a wall plate, requiring no reprogramming or changes to the system.

Crestron Wireless Lighting Controls:

Lighting Control provides a whole host of benefits: one button press can instantly recall lighting levels in a room, with different levels for different activities. All scenes are fully and simply programmed by the client so tweaks as seasons or requirements change are easy. Outdoor lighting features colour changing LEDs, allowing the home to be bathed in different colours for different occasions. The alarm system is fully integrated into the Crestron system – setting the system switches lights and AV off in the building whilst un-setting brings on certain lights during night hours.
This home is particularly special as it uses the new Crestron wireless dimmers range (the house was purchased with a traditional switched lighting system so rewiring would have been impractical and expensive). The Crestron wireless dimmers replace the light switches allowing a huge amount of flexibility whilst – crucially – allowing a full integration. No other wireless dimming system allows this level of control – scenes can easily be changed by the client through the custom created iPad application. When selecting a room in scene setting mode, the lighting channels are represented by bar graphs; setting a scene is as easy as dimming channels up and down until the right effect is found and then pressing and holding a scene button. The saved scene can then be recalled from lighting keypads in the room, an iPad or a handheld MLX-3 remote control. The wireless lighting keypads even control audio volume in the room in addition to motorised blinds. A truly flexible solution and great for retrofit!

A Beautiful Home Enhanced by a Crestron Home Automation System:

The entire home benefits from the Crestron system: lighting shows it at its best whilst the fully integrated AV system removes unnecessary clutter from rooms and offers huge amounts of functionality. All this is achieved while the system increases convenience and enhances the aesthetics of the home.