Smart Home Integration in Luxury LA Homes: What Actually Works
Crestron vs. Savant vs. Control4, structured wiring, and the AV rack details that separate a smart home from a science project.
Smart-home integration is one of the most under-scoped line items on a luxury LA renovation. Done well, it disappears into the house; done poorly, it becomes a five-year support headache. Our construction team at New Horizon Development coordinates the low-voltage trade on every luxury project we build, and the recommendations below are what we've settled on after hundreds of homes.
Platform choice
Crestron and Savant dominate at the top of the LA luxury market; Control4 is common in the tier below. All three are capable platforms; the difference is the integrator behind the platform. Vet the integrator harder than the platform.
Structured wiring
We pull redundant Cat6A to every likely access point, fiber to any AV rack over 25 feet from the switch, and speaker wire to every ceiling where an in-ceiling speaker might one day live. The cost delta at rough-in is trivial; the cost of adding it later is enormous.
The AV rack
The AV rack should be in a dedicated, ventilated room with its own dedicated circuit and a mini-split for cooling. Every serious integrator will thank you. Every homeowner who has skipped this has regretted it.
Lighting control
Lutron HomeWorks is the standard we specify on almost every luxury project. Programming the scenes is a two-week engagement at the end of the project — don't shortcut it.
If you're planning a luxury renovation and would like a smart-home walkthrough of one of our recent projects, our team would be glad to arrange one.
