Over the past year I've been struggling to determine how to properly outfit our home with an appropriate level of whole-house automation and audio.


Not long ago, doing so would have required hiring AV and home automation professionals and numerous hard-wired wall-mounted speakers, sensors and devices throughout the house. A low-end home theater install can cost you $3,000 to $5,000 just in the living room and more ambitious smart-home projects can easily run into five or six figures. What's worse is that these technology solutions could be a money pit; with the rapid pace of change in technology, we need to replace our gadgets every couple of years just to stay "current". I've seen too many luxury homes with dated and defunct home intercom and lighting system built-in to the walls that are no longer used and audio components that are too complicated to use, so the homeowner just wires their phone into a portable speaker. Not to mention visually all these devices compromise the uncluttered minimalism we are working so hard to achieve.

Fortunately, the professional installation route is no longer the only option if you wanted an integrated technology solution within the home. As smart-home platforms like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Nest, and Apple’s HomeKit have matured and are starting to play nice with more products, it’s now entirely possible to set up a robust smart-home system all by yourself.

As a software engineer by trade and a moderately handy DIY-er,  the thought of tying myself down to a single manufacturer and relying on authorized technicians or a customer support team (probably based in India) to troubleshoot a problem or upgrade the system is a huge issue for me.  In my opinion, using a single product company also creates a single point of failure and increases the risk of system-wide catastrophic shutdown.  Reading the article "Why I Regret Making My House a Smart-House" confirmed my answer to the age-old question on whether to go with best-of-breed products or an integrated solution.  I had to draw the line somewhere, and for me, using a integrated solution like Control4 or Crestron, is too smart; to me, a smarter home and a dumber homeowner is a losing proposition.