Corinne L. Casazza courtesy of CEDIA

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Imagine that you are getting ready to host dinner and a movie in your own home. Your home theater, with its rows of raised chairs, is showing music videos to your teenagers until the credits roll. The dining room, stocked with goodies, has soft background music playing. The doorbell rings and you check the monitor to see who has arrived. Meanwhile, your husband dims the lights in the living room to set the mood and sifts through your CD collection for music to play in the kitchen. Pushing a few buttons delivers all this ambiance and convenience.

Home automation is about simplifying your life to make your home’s electronics, including lighting, computers, security system, home theater and even central vac, work together. The best part is that you don’t have to be techno-savvy. Professionals install it, the system runs it and you benefit from the safety and ease of living — even when you’re away from home.

Todd Sandler, president of Naturally Wired, says he can program a vacation setting so that — with the touch of a button — your security system arms, your thermostat lowers, and your lights intermittently turn on and off to give your house a lived-in look. You can even view your home via the Internet or check the status of an alarm system to make sure your neighbor has been feeding the dog.

Second to safety, home automation provides freedom from certain chores, such as opening and closing blinds. Motorized drapery systems allow many sets to be closed simultaneously and at the times of day you need more or less light.

“If you have a TV and a remote, you have the beginnings of a home automation system,” says Joel Ewald of True Aspect. “It’s really about building on this concept to automate repetitive, mundane tasks.”

From a leisure standpoint, distributed audio systems allow music to be played throughout the whole house via a series of speakers and even for different music to be played in each room. For instance, if you are relaxing on the deck, you can be listening to one radio station, while your spouse, who’s in the living room, may have on a different station or even a CD. Simultaneously, your teenagers can be listening to their iPods in their rooms. Having a whole-house system on iPod is a new trend.

But the best seller in the home automation category is the home theater system. It doesn’t necessarily have to have its own dedicated room; it could be in a family room with a TV. But the multi-plex idea of tiered seating is popular in residential design. “This is one of the things people look for when purchasing a home now — either a room that’s already a home theater or the ability to create one,” Todd says.

Tim Williamson of Applause Custom Sight & Sound agrees. His company works with contractors to create home theaters in both new construction and existing homes. According to Williamson, the latest trend in home theater is accessing video content from a hard drive. This means all your DVDs can be chosen from a menu much like the guide in a cable or satellite TV system.

He says another trend is the high-resolution picture quality available from Blue Ray Disc and HDTV. “Keep in mind, these are two opposing formats,” Tim says. He also predicts that by 2009, we won’t be renting videos from a store anymore; they’ll be available on demand from a menu in our TV system.

What is the cost of all this convenience? It really depends on the complexity of the system. For a package that includes moderate lighting control, security and distributed audio/video integration (not including the cost of the audio video system), you can expect to pay 3 to 6 percent of the cost of your house. For  an advanced system that gives you total control of lighting, motorized shades, pool pump, garage doors, security and distributed audio/video throughout the house, it can cost 10 percent of the price of your home and up. However, our experts attest that they could work with any budget.

The Home Automation Process: What to Expect

To Begin
Find a qualified installer, such as one certified by CEDIA, the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association. It offers training and certification to companies and serves as an industry watch dog. Visit cedia.net.

Consultation
Expect to spend at least an hour sitting down with a company representative to discuss your needs and what functions you want from your home automation system. This is a critical step; your system designer must understand your lifestyle to create the best system for you.

Installation
Installation begins with wiring. From there, equipment is tested then installed. System programming may be done either beforehand or at your home. Either way, the programmed system should be tested by the installers once installation is complete.

Training
Training time depends upon the complexity of the system and your comfort level with technology. The techno-savvy may prefer to have more control of the system with less integration and may, therefore, require more training. Expect to spend one to four hours learning how to use your new system.

Service and Maintenance
You may decide to upgrade certain pieces of the system or change the design. This can be done at any time. If something should go wrong, and you require service, call on your CEDIA-certified company. They stand by their installations and are there to assist you.