Audio Visual
Smart home automation in Kent
Lighting, heating, audio, cameras and door entry brought into something one household can actually operate, built to keep working when the internet does not.
- Free estimates
- Insurance work undertaken
- Domestic & commercial
The question to ask before buying anything
What happens when the internet goes down, or when the manufacturer switches the service off. It is not a hypothetical. Plenty of smart home products depend entirely on a company's cloud service, and when that service is discontinued the hardware stops working. People have bought lighting and heating controls that became ornaments.
So the design principle we work to is straightforward: the important things should keep working locally. Lights should still switch at the switch. Heating should still be controllable in the house. Door entry should still let you in. Remote access and automation are a layer on top of that, not the thing holding it up.
Wired where it matters, wireless where it does not
Wireless is fine for a lot of what a smart home does and it is the only practical option in a finished building. What it is not is the right answer for everything, and the difference shows up in the things you notice.
Anything that must respond instantly and reliably, or that carries video, is better wired. Cameras, access points, door entry and any screen that streams belong on a cable. Sensors, switches and battery devices are perfectly sensible wireless. Getting that split right is most of what separates a system that feels solid from one that feels laggy and unpredictable.
Where this meets the security side
This is the part most AV firms cannot do and most security firms cannot do either, because they are usually different companies. We fit both, so the integration is a design decision rather than an afterthought bolted on by whoever came second.
In practice that means camera feeds appearing on a television or a screen in the house, door entry answered from wherever you are, alarm and lighting behaving sensibly together, and one set of cabling and one visit rather than two firms each running their own. It also means somebody who understands that a security system has to keep working when the clever bits fail.
What we set up
Scoped to what a household will genuinely use, which is usually less than the brochure suggests.
- Lighting control and scenes, with switches that still work as switches
- Heating and zone control
- Multi-room audio
- Integration of CCTV and door entry into screens and phones
- Network and wireless infrastructure to carry it, which is where most systems fail
- Single-app or single-remote control, so it is usable by everyone in the house
Usable beats clever
The most common fault we are called to on an existing smart home is not a broken device. It is a system only one person in the household understood, set up by somebody who has since left, that everybody else works around.
So we would rather fit less and have it used. A handover that leaves everyone able to operate the thing is worth more than another twenty automations nobody can edit. If a feature is going to need you to ring somebody every time it needs changing, we will say so before it goes in.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the internet goes down?
On a system designed properly, the important things carry on. Lights still switch at the switch, heating is still controllable in the house, door entry still lets people in. What you lose is remote access and anything cloud-based. That is a design choice made at specification, and it is worth asking any installer about, because plenty of kit fails completely without a connection.
Will it still work if the manufacturer stops supporting it?
It depends entirely on what was chosen, which is why we care about it up front. Products that depend on a company's cloud service to do anything at all can and do stop working when that service ends. Anything that keeps its core function locally does not. We would rather fit something less clever that will still be working in ten years.
Do I need to rewire the house?
No. A great deal is achievable wirelessly and that is usually the right approach in a finished property. Where wiring genuinely helps is for cameras, access points, door entry and anything streaming video, because those are the things that feel unreliable on wireless. If the house is being renovated or extended, that is the moment to put cable in, and it is much cheaper then.
Can you link it to my CCTV and alarm?
Yes, and it is one of the better reasons to use us rather than an AV specialist and a security firm separately. We fit both sides, so camera feeds on a screen, door entry answered from a phone and sensible interaction between alarm and lighting are design decisions rather than something retrofitted by whoever arrived second. It also means one set of cabling and one visit.
Is this only for large or new houses?
No. Most of what people actually value is modest: lighting that behaves, heating they can control, and seeing who is at the door. Those work in an ordinary house and do not need a renovation. We would rather scope it to what you will use than sell a system that impresses on paper and irritates in practice.
Free estimates
Want a free estimate in Kent?
No up-selling, just simple honest advice. Domestic and commercial work across Aylesford, Maidstone, Medway, Sittingbourne, Gravesend, Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks, Dartford, Bromley.