Home Automation, System Integration, Intelligent Home, Smart Home. These are some of the terms used to describe the joining together of technology in the home.
The past few years has seen great advances in technology both at home and in the workplace. Also prices have reduced considerably bringing many of these things within the reach of most homeowners. As an example, a great percentage of homes would now have at least one computer and many have more than one, with Internet access distributed over a local network. With the reduced prices of computers and other electronically controlled appliances, it is now rare to find a home without any of this type of equipment. The average home would now have a mixture of computers, telephones, audio and video equipment, and there becomes a need to be able to control these items as a group rather than as individual items. To do this, some form of integration must be realised. Once the needs are established, a design can be implemented. When designing and building a new home, it is nice to sit and imagine the house having every conceivable modern device, but for most of us, this is not achievable. Therefore it is necessary to design your new home around the items that are affordable at the time. So what happens in the future when you have the finances to realise some of the technology that at building time were unobtainable? Retrofitting of some technologies is not possible in most houses due to the construction or may be expensive at the very least. However, we can supply alternative products that can utilise existing electrical wiring.
However if the correct cabling was installed at building time, then installation of these new items would be a matter of connecting to the installed cabling. For some years now, the accepted best method of wiring for this scenario has been to install a structured wiring system. If this were to be implemented at building stage, the new control type home appliances could integrate into this system. So making a small investment to set this up now would be worthwhile. At least the hardest part will be done.
Some suggested items that fall into this category are telephone systems, computer networks, lighting control, alarm systems, garage door opening / closing, video surveillance cameras and home theatre --including video and audio distribution around the home. Other items that can be controlled include curtain opening & closing, air conditioning and irrigation systems. Most of these items can also be controlled via remote control and some via the Internet or phone line. The list is ongoing and limited only by your imagination.
A good starting place is with lighting. When building a new home, it can be cabled to take advantage of this new technology for little more outlay than conventional electrical wiring. Usual functions include switching lights on or off at pre designated times or due to motion or light level. Light switches can be placed anywhere and can control lights in any area. Energy savings can be realised due to special switching techniques used in the controllers. Another important consideration in the modern home is computer networking. With Internet access becoming an essential tool in both work and family life, installing data cabling for your computers becomes almost mandatory. When a structured wiring system is installed correctly, both telephones and computers can be connected easily and reconfigured by the home owner. We can design a cabling solution to integrate all or some of the devices mentioned and will be tailored to suit your immediate and future requirements.

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