Case Studies
Case Study #1 – Large Smart Home
“Full control of your home using one app and customized scenes”
While building a new country style family home on an acreage block in Sydney’s west, the owners considered Smart Home options and engaged Sentegrate team to deliver home automation to meet their family needs.
The owners wanted to secure their six-bedroom house with multiple common family spaces and remotely monitor the house anytime from anywhere. They also wanted to save energy as much as possible by turning off lights and other electrical devices when not in use. The owners wanted better control of their Entertainment systems and avoid using multiple remotes to constantly adjust devices including TV, Home Theater System, Foxtel box, DVD etc as well as room lighting for watching a movie. They owners were also keen in extending the automation in the future to other areas including air conditioning control, garage door control, irrigation system, automated entry gate and more.
How was this home turned into a Smart Home?
It certainly was! To begin with, Sentegrate team extensively discussed the family’s needs and how they wanted their home to operate. An agreed design was implemented over the next few weeks. This resulted in the following implementation:
Smart Security System
Real-time Monitoring with motion sensors and several external / internal cameras. Upto 2 weeks of video recordings with playback on demand facility was made available to the owner. Automated arming and disarming of the security system and cameras using occupancy sensors based on Geo Fencing and Wifi connectivity. Home owners will get alerts on their mobiles should there be an intrusion with information about the exact location of the breach.
When owners go on holidays, the system allows them to turn on “vacation lighting” to give the impression that the house is occupied.
Smart Entertainment System
The home owners can control their AV and music system from a single smart home app on their mobile or tablets. All remotes are replaced by a single touch screen smart remote. This allows them to watch a movie with just one click; no messing around with TV, audio system, streaming services and room lighting manually. A ‘Swipe Pad’ allows home users to control the entertainment systems using hand gestures to turn entertainment systems on and off, control volume, change channels etc.
Smart Lighting and Energy Saving Features
Lights are turned off automatically when no one is in the room. The system is also smart enough enough to turn off all entertainment system, lights and fans off when the occupants leave the house and the security system is armed.
Easy to use by the entire family
A touch screen tablet installed in the Foyer provide control to the entire house and also doubled as a Security control panel for arming and disarming security. All family members had access to control lighting, fans and entertainment system through their mobiles. A swipe pad, master remote and keyfob provided an additional control over Entertainment system and lighting.
Case Study #2 – Birth of the Home Automation Kit
“A pre-configured plug-n-play Home Automation Kit ready for installation”
Sentegrate received an order from an offshore Tech Company for fitting out a house as a ‘Display Smart Home’. They wanted a whole range of Smart Home features including:
· Security System Automation
· Lighting Automation / Mood Lighting
· Automatic Climate Control
· Smart Sensors
· Automation of Entertainment System
· Control through touch screen, mobile app. keyfob and voice commands
The Challenge
Due to the geographical and cost constraints, Sentegrate could not send an installer to the Customer site for installation of the Home Automation devices. The customer wanted a ‘kit’ to be sent by courier with detailed instructions for installation. This posed a number of challenges for Sentegrate to pre-configure all devices on-premise and ensure everything works together out of the box. Without a site survey it was difficult to understand the building layout, position of lights, electrical switches, sensors etc.
The Solution
Sentegrate spent substantial effort in collecting customer requirements and building / electrical plans. This was followed by detailed designs and building a Bill of Materials consisting of Home Automation controllers and devices. Plans for positioning of sensors and electrical diagrams were documented. A local area IP network was designed using a router that could be bridged with the Internet router at customer site. Zwave controller and devices were paired and configured in advance along with IP based and IR controlled devices such as Aircons and Entertainment systems such as TV, DVD player etc. For voice control, Google Home was pre-configured with user mobiles at the customer site. Everything was tested meticulously using detailed test plans. Documentation was prepared for installation, operation and trouble shooting. VPN access was built in the router for remote access. Users were asked to install the required apps in advance. The Home Automation kit was beginning to take shape but the proof was in the pudding!
The Outcome
After several weeks of configuration and testing, Sentegrate shipped the kit. After some custom challenges, the kit finally arrived at the Customer site. Installers at the site physically installed each devices, wired up the relays etc and power everything on. Voila! the entire kit came to life as one system. Connectivity with the apps and Google Home etc worked flawlessly. Minor support calls for changes to scenes and other configurations was achieved through VPN and remote access by Sentegrate engineers. Sentegrate pre-configured Plug-n-Play Home Automation kit was born!