Home Automation or Smart Home?

Are they the same or are they two different things? It depends on who you ask. The terms are often used interchangeably. Both terms have been applied to smart technology products like Nest, Ring, and Alexa.These products are aimed at the Do-It-Yourself (DYI) market and offer a nice helping of convenience at an attractive price. Some of the newer products can even integrate into a larger ecosystem that includes control of video doorbells, lights, security, and HVAC from a few other brands, all from one app.

That’s where it ends. These product families have a fixed feature set so there is no adding extra personalized functions. Their control options are limited to a small number of partnering manufacturers. For control of audio systems, home theater, and motorized shades you will have to use a control system, such as Control4, Crestron, or Savant. These more advanced systems require experienced techs to install and program, but they can control a huge variety of products, including most smart technology products for the DYI market.

For clarity, our position is that the term “smart home” should be used for those products that provide app control of a pre-defined ecosystem of devices within limited boundaries. The term “home automation” should be reserved for control systems like Control4, Crestron, and Savant. These systems can operate across multiple disciplines with automated scenes that require no human intervention. For example, your motorized shades can follow the yearly cycle of sunrise and sunset at your location to slowly raise and lower the shades throughout the day. At the same time, your lights can be adjusted to preset scenes that complement the activity of the shades. Another example would be tying your lights, TVs, music, door locks, shades, and HVAC into the arming of your security system. Press one button on your smart phone and you’re ready to go. Never wonder whether you left a light on, or a door unlocked again. The number of brands that these systems can control is broad and is constantly updated as new products come on the market. These systems are our specialty, and we have extensive experience implementing and maintaining them to the satisfaction of our clients.