What is “Home Automation”?
Home automation is a broad term that can apply to many different types of home systems. We think of it as easy, all-purpose control that makes life simpler, safer, more fun, and saves energy: all at the same time!
A typical home has many systems in it. These can include whole house music, intercom, distributed video, networking, security, lighting control, heating and cooling systems, cameras, pool and spa control, gate control, etc. A home automation system ties all of these systems together so you can interface with them from one point of contact. With custom programming, you can automate all kinds of things to make your life simpler and make your home a safer place. For example, custom programming can allow events to happen based upon other events. A fire code from the alarm system can cause the home automation system to tell the lighting system to flash your exterior lights so your home is easy for emergency personnel to find.
Smart Home Automation
Hippo’s offers Crestron; the premier brand in home automation systems. Crestron is one of the oldest and most successful automation companies with systems in prestigious homes around the world, Fortune 500 boardrooms, and some of the world’s finest luxury hotels.
Crestron makes advanced home technology easy, offering a lifestyle of convenience and comfort. Total control is always at your fingertips, whether from an easy-to-use color touchpanel, remote or a customized keypad. Crestron represents the best system of its kind, making it your ideal home-control solution.
Crestron lets you indulge in luxury with one touch. Using one button, your lights dim, shades close, the flat-screen TV turns on, and you relax as your favorite movie begins. Listen to jazz CDs while you read in the den, the kids play video games in the media room, and your spouse listens to the radio on the terrace. Control your music from any room in the home: there’s no need to walk to the stereo to choose a component, select CDs, change tracks or adjust volume. You can control security cameras and watch what’s going on around the house on your Crestron touchpanel. Monitor your front door, watch the kids by the swimming pool, or check on the baby napping in the nursery.
Our exclusive roaming panel technology is Crestron’s touch of distinction. This technology lets you walk all over your home with one panel. From your den, you can control the surround sound system there, go down to your basement and control the media center at the basement bar, walk out to the pool and control the music outdoors or in the whole home, and access a camera page on your touch panel to see who is at the front door! No specific panel is needed for each area; each panel can do anything and everything. Nothing we have seen can beat the ease of use of Crestron.
The fun part of custom programming is when you are ready to relax or entertain, and pressing one button starts a whole sequence of events such as setting lighting scenes, starting music in the appropriate rooms, and telling landscape lights to stay on late to accommodate a party you’re throwing.
A complete home automation system includes and communicates with all of the subsystems mentioned above. In a well-designed automation system, any single subsystem can operate independently. You can use a wireless touch panel, a wall mounted touch panel or keypad, or even an iPhone or iPad to tell your home automation system how to control all of your subsystems.
Designing an automation system that meets your needs is a process that involves discovering how you will use your home and what is important to you. Here, at Hippo’s, we have two great home automation systems: Crestron and URC Total Control. Make your home a Smart Home!
Whole House Audio
Imagine having a stereo in every room of the house! With a Hippo’s multi-room audio system, you can. Choose the basic option of volume control knobs, or control your audio with sleek keypads offering many additional possibilities. Keypads allow the flexibility of choosing preset radio stations, XM or Sirius satellite radio, iPod players, or standard CD players. Operation of our systems is simple, with navigation easily learned by a non-technical person in a matter of minutes. You also don’t have to listen to the same thing throughout the entire house. You can choose a source for each room to give multiple listeners the chance to enjoy different sources.
Hippo’s multi-room home stereo systems can be done in new construction, or retrofitted for most existing homes. By using a multi-room audio system, you have more elegant design possibilities. You can locate all of your equipment in a remote location, and then place speakers inconspicuously on bookshelves or in the walls or ceilings. You can then use a keypad in the wall of each room to control the system.
Hippo’s systems will take your parties up a notch. Have you ever tried to fill a house with music, and had to have the system so loud it drowned out all the conversation? With our systems, you can go to the keypad in each room and adjust the source and volume accordingly. Or if you’d like, you can push one button and the entire home music system can be shut off.
Hippo’s home automation is limited only by your imagination. Whether you want basic volume control, an advanced keypad system, or control through wireless touch panels, your system is custom designed to meet your needs and to provide the level of control you desire.
Hippo’s recommends music systems from Crestron, Bluesound, and Sonos. Many systems now allow you to start out with a basic multi-room home audio system and expand it later to include the convenient home automation features of lighting control, climate control, camera control, and much, much more!
