Smart Home &
Home Cinema Integration
Transform your living space with intelligent lighting, automated climate control, and immersive, high-fidelity home theater configurations and more.
Every layer between the light switch and the film
Smart home products are sold as individual gadgets. What actually matters is how they behave together, whether the cinema feels like a cinema, and whether the whole house obeys one command.
Zoned, dimmable, tunable from warm candlelight to daylight. Scenes are the point: the room reads the time and the household, not the switch on the wall.
Every room its own zone, every zone its own schedule. Presence sensors warm the office before you sit down and drop the cinema a degree before the film starts.
Laser projector, acoustic screen, full Atmos surround and a room tuned for it. Every source behind one remote, every scene recalling the right picture mode.
Morning, focus, film, evening, away. One command fires the lights, the climate, the blinds, the audio and the screen, because they all speak to the same controller.
What changes when the home works as one system
Most homes already have smart speakers, smart bulbs, a TV and a thermostat. What they rarely have is a system: one controller, one app, one set of scenes that actually runs the evening.
Six apps, four remotes, no shared truth
Smart bulbs in one app, thermostat in another, cinema remote for the screen, second remote for the receiver, third for the streamer. Nothing knows about anything else.
- ✕Lights and climate never move together. Every evening is manual.
- ✕The cinema needs three remotes and five minutes to settle in.
- ✕Every gadget is on the home network with its own cloud account.
- ✕Automations that exist in one app can never see the rest of the house.
One scene, one remote, one home
Every light, every climate zone, every blind, every audio zone and every AV source answers to the same controller. One app, one remote, one set of scenes that actually reflect the evening you are having.
- ✓Film scene fires lights, climate, blinds, audio and screen in one tap.
- ✓One remote for streaming, gaming, disc and audio sources.
- ✓Local control that still works if the internet drops.
- ✓Guest and holiday scenes keep everything predictable.
The numbers a well-integrated home ships with
Every installation ends with a written scene list, a zone map and the measured response times. These are typical figures from a well-integrated smart home and cinema build.
From a wall panel or remote press to every device in the scene acknowledging it. Measured locally, not in the cloud.
Morning, focus, cooking, dinner, film, evening, night, away and back. Each configured against actual light levels, not defaults.
Individual control per room, with presence override and schedules that follow the household, not the thermostat's own clock.
Reference cinema layout with overhead channels, four subwoofers and every speaker individually calibrated to the room.
What keeps working when something fails
There are three different failures, and they have three different answers. An internet outage is not the same as a Wi-Fi outage, and neither is the same as a power outage. Here is the honest breakdown, so you know exactly what your home will and will not do when something drops.
Your broadband line goes down
The controller, the lights, the climate, the blinds, the cinema, the audio and the scenes all run locally. None of them need the internet. You lose remote access from outside the house, and cloud-based services such as Spotify and Netflix stop streaming. Everything else carries on.
Keeps working
- Lights, dimming and all scenes
- Climate zones and schedules
- Blinds, gates and access control
- Cinema: projector, screen, receiver, Atmos
- NAS library and local media playback
- Local wall panels and remotes
Stops working
- Remote access from outside the house
- Cloud streaming (Netflix, Spotify)
- Cloud notifications to your phone
The Wi-Fi access points go down
This is where honesty matters. Wi-Fi is a network in the home, not the internet. If the access points stop (they crash, they are unplugged, or the switch powering them fails), every device that relies on Wi-Fi stops responding, including some lights, some cameras and some speakers. Wired devices, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread and battery-operated controls keep working, because they do not use Wi-Fi at all.
Keeps working
- Wired Ethernet devices (TV, AVR, NAS)
- Zigbee and Z-Wave lights and sensors
- Thread devices and Matter-over-Thread
- KNX and DALI lighting installations
- IR remotes and physical wall panels (PoE)
- Battery-operated remotes and sensors
Stops working
- Wi-Fi bulbs and Wi-Fi smart plugs
- Wi-Fi cameras and video doorbells
- Wi-Fi speakers and wireless audio zones
- Phone and tablet apps (no connection to hub)
- Any Wi-Fi-only wall panel
The mains power goes down
Depends entirely on what is on the UPS. If the hub, the network switches, the Wi-Fi access points and the main lighting controllers sit behind a UPS, the house keeps running for a period, typically thirty to ninety minutes on a typical install. Devices that are not on the UPS (large amplifiers, projectors, HVAC) stop immediately.
Keeps working (on UPS)
- Hub, controller and network switches
- Wi-Fi access points (if on UPS)
- Lighting controllers and keypads
- Access control and electronic locks
- Alarm panel and cameras (if on UPS)
Stops working
- Cinema projector and screen motor
- Main AVR and large amplifiers
- Climate: HVAC and underfloor heating
- Everything not on the UPS
The house does not need Wi-Fi to keep working. It needs a network, and that network should not depend on Wi-Fi alone.
The earlier phrasing was imprecise, and the correction matters. A smart home survives an internet outage because the controller runs locally. It does not survive a Wi-Fi outage in the same way, because Wi-Fi-only devices have nothing to talk to. And it does not survive a power outage for longer than the UPS holds.
That is why we design wired first. Wherever a cable can be run, we run one. Wherever a Zigbee, Z-Wave or Thread device does the same job as a Wi-Fi device, we choose the mesh protocol. Wi-Fi is reserved for the devices that genuinely need it, phone and tablet apps, cameras, portable speakers, and it is backed by access points that sit on PoE and on the UPS.
The result is a home that survives a broadband outage without any intervention, survives a Wi-Fi outage in a degraded but still usable state, and survives a power cut for as long as the UPS holds. That is the honest claim, and it is the claim we deliver against.
How the film actually gets to the screen
Before we talk about apps and controllers, there is a simpler question: how does the picture reach the projector or the TV, and where does the film live? There are four realistic answers, and they scale from a single cable to a fully custom platform. Below is what each one costs and what it delivers.
One cable, one source
The simplest route, and often the right one. A single HDMI cable from a source, a console, a set-top box, a laptop, a Blu-ray player, straight to the beamer or to a 90-inch-plus TV. Nothing between the source and the screen.
- HDMI cable to beamer or 90"+ TV
- Any source: console, laptop, disc, box
- Zero latency, zero compression, zero software
- Works with the projector's own remote
- Best for a single room with a single main source
Internet player over Wi-Fi
A small internet-connected player, an Apple TV, Nvidia Shield, Fire TV, Chromecast, or the streaming stick built into the projector, sits at the screen and streams over Wi-Fi. No cable running across the room, no source box on a shelf.
- Streaming stick or box at the screen
- Film comes over Wi-Fi from the internet
- Apps: Netflix, Disney+, Prime, YouTube
- One remote, one account, works out of the box
- Needs solid 5 or 6 GHz Wi-Fi at the screen
NAS with your own library
A Network Attached Storage box in the rack holds your film and TV library. The player at the screen pulls the file over the wired or wireless network and plays it. No streaming subscription needed, no title disappearing because a licence expired.
- NAS in the rack, 8 TB to 100 TB+
- Player pulls the file over the network
- Rip once, play forever, no licence changes
- Works with Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Infuse
- Best with wired backhaul and a proper VLAN
Custom software and control
Everything above, plus the lights, climate, blinds, audio, security and control layer, joined into a single custom platform. A custom app, a custom dashboard, a custom wall panel, one remote for everything. This is a real software project, not a configuration.
- Custom app for iOS, Android, desktop
- Custom wall panel or counter-top pod
- Cinema, lighting, climate, audio, security, one UI
- Built and maintained by certified engineers
- Enterprise-grade scope and enterprise-grade price
The all-in-one app is not a product you can just buy. It is custom software, and it needs serious expertise.
Routes 01, 02 and 03 deliver the cinema. Each is a known, well-trodden path, with mature hardware, mature software and predictable costs. We design, install and commission all three directly.
Route 04 is different. A single platform that also runs the lighting, the climate, the blinds, the audio, the security and the cinema, with one app on every screen, is not a product off the shelf. It is a software project. It requires a specification, an architecture, a development team, QA, a maintenance plan and a support contract. It takes months, not weeks. It costs what software of that scope costs. That is not a limitation of ours; it is the reality of building a custom platform.
Where a household genuinely needs that, we advise on the spec, coordinate the certified and experienced professionals who build it, and remain the single point of contact for the whole project. Where the household does not need it, and most do not, we tell them so, and deliver Route 01, 02 or 03 for a fraction of the cost and time.
One home, every screen, one control layer
Above the cinema itself, there is the control layer. We configure, install and commission. Where a system already exists that can be extended, we extend it. Where a system does not exist yet, we can advise on what to build, and we work with certified and experienced professionals to deliver it. Every option below is real, available today, and priced honestly.
Not every home needs a custom app. Most need a well-configured hub, a wall panel in the right place, and a scene list that matches how the household actually lives. That is what we deliver directly. For homes that want more, we can extend existing platforms, commission custom dashboards, or coordinate fully custom software and hardware through certified and experienced professionals who build for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux and dedicated wall panels. All options are covered below.
Configure an existing hub
The fastest, cheapest and most reliable route. We install and configure a hub (Home Assistant, openHAB, SmartThings, HomeKit, or the hub your devices already use), build the scenes, place the wall panels, and hand over documentation. Works with nearly every brand you already own.
Extend the hub with custom dashboards
You keep the hub you have. We build branded wall dashboards, custom room panels, and deeper automations on top of it. Works with Home Assistant, openHAB, Hubitat and any platform that exposes an API. The dashboard runs on any tablet, phone or desktop and looks like a product, not a prototype.
Custom app on top of a hub
A native iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux app with your branding, your scenes and your controls, running against your own hub. This is commissioned through certified and experienced software professionals who specialise in smart home integrations. You own the app; you own the data.
Custom software and hardware
A fully bespoke controller: custom software, custom wall panel, custom pod. Requires a dedicated development team. Viable at the enterprise and ultra-luxury level where a Control4, Crestron or Savant program would otherwise be used. We advise, specify and coordinate the team.
Cross-platform app
A single app built once and shipped to iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux. Same scenes, same layout, same feel on every screen in the house.
Wall panel / pod
A dedicated wall-mounted panel or counter-top pod, configured with the same app. Android panels, iPad kiosks, and OEM hardware from established manufacturers are all viable.
Platform integration
Home Assistant, openHAB, SmartThings, HomeKit, Hubitat, Tuya, Matter. We integrate what you own, and we do not force a brand change just to deliver a scene.
Certified delivery
Where custom work is required, we commission certified and experienced professionals who hold industry credentials (CEDIA, Control4, Crestron, Savant, network and software) and work to your design brief.
We configure, install and advise. Where custom work is required, we bring in specialists who do it for a living.
Davidsons IT Agency directly delivers everything up to and including hub configuration, wall panel installation, dashboard customisation and full commissioning. For projects that require fully custom software or custom hardware, we bring in certified and experienced professionals who hold recognised industry credentials and have a track record in the exact platform you need.
- ✓Direct delivery of hub configuration, scene design, wall panels, dashboards and full commissioning.
- ✓Certified specialists engaged for custom app development, custom drivers, and bespoke hardware, with credentials in CEDIA, Control4, Crestron, Savant and enterprise networking.
- ✓One point of contact. You get a single design brief, a single scope, and a single person who answers the phone when something needs changing.
- ✓No vendor lock-in. You own the hub, the app, the data and the documentation, whether the work is done by us directly or by the specialists we engage.
Every space has a different job
The cinema wants blackout and silence. The kitchen wants bright light at the worktop and warm light at the table. The garden wants music that reaches the terrace but not the neighbours. A well-integrated system handles each of those specifically.
The film scene sets the whole room, not just the screen
When the film scene fires, the projector turns on, the acoustic screen drops, the ceiling and wall lights fade to a low warm wash, the blinds close, the climate drops two degrees, and the AVR switches to the right input and profile. All from one button, in under a second.
Light that follows the day, quietly
Cool and bright in the morning, warm through the afternoon, amber at night. The household does not manage this, the system does, and the effect on how evenings feel is immediate. Bedrooms fade off over twenty minutes; bathrooms lift gently in the morning; the kitchen stays bright while someone is actually in it.
Music that follows you
In-ceiling speakers in every room and a landscape zone in the garden, all on the same source. Music follows you from the kitchen to the terrace without a pause.
Quiet savings behind the scenes
Lights that never run at 100% when they don't need to, climate zones that shut down when a room empties, and a schedule that knows a working day from a weekend.
The cinema knows when the front door opens
Cameras, locks and the alarm system tie into the same controller as the lights and the cinema. A film playing upstairs can pause the second the front gate is opened by a delivery; the hall light comes on before the doorbell rings; the away scene arms the alarm and sets every blind to a random pattern. One system, one set of rules, one place to check what is happening.
A house that behaves when you're away
Guest mode softens the schedule and simplifies the panels. Holiday mode runs a quiet, believable pattern of light and sound so the house never looks empty.
Every part chosen for the room, not for the catalogue
A small apartment, a family home and a dedicated cinema room each need a different combination of lighting, audio, climate and control. We pick every piece around the space and the household, not the box it came in.
Lighting
DALI-2 or Zigbee lighting with tunable white and RGBW options. Keypads where a keypad belongs, motion and daylight sensing where it saves energy, and scenes that reflect the room rather than the switch.
Cinema & AV
Laser projector or large-format display, acoustic screen, Atmos receiver and calibrated speakers. Sources and streaming unified behind one remote, picture modes recalled by scene.
Climate
Multi-zone HVAC or underfloor, controlled per room with presence override and humidity sensing. Cinema gets its own zone so a session doesn't fight the rest of the house.
Control & hub
A local controller that speaks to every protocol you own, including Zigbee, DALI, KNX and IP, with wall panels, an app, voice and one remote. No single vendor lock-in, no cloud dependency.
Pick the depth that fits the home
The tiers below are examples to give you an idea. Within each one, the room count, speaker layout, lighting zones and scene design are adapted to the space and the way you actually use it.
Smart living room
A focused, tidy installation for a single room or apartment. Lighting zones, one climate zone, a 5.1.2 sound system and a controller that runs the main scenes.
- Lighting3 zones · tunable white
- Cinema5.1.2 · 75" or projector
- Climate1 zone · thermostat
- ControlHub · app · 1 panel
Whole-home integration
Full home coverage. Every room lit and climate-zoned, whole-home audio, cinema in the main living space, and scenes that run morning, focus, film, evening and away.
- Lighting12+ zones · circadian
- Cinema7.2.4 · acoustic screen
- Audio6 in-ceiling zones
- ControlHub · keypads · voice
Estate-grade build
Main house, guest house and outbuildings. Dedicated cinema room with acoustic treatment, reference Atmos, whole-home audio, access control and every scene documented.
- Cinema11.4.6 · treated room
- Lighting25+ zones · RGBW · circadian
- Audio14+ zones · outdoor included
- ControlRedundant hub · full wall panels
Examples only · Every home is different · No vendor lock-in
From the first walk-through to a signed scene list
A short, tidy process. We walk the home, listen to how the household actually lives in it, and design around that, before any box is ordered.
Discovery & walk-through
We walk the home, look at room proportions, natural light, existing wiring and where the household spends its evenings. Every assumption goes into the design brief before anything else happens.
Design & scene planning
Lighting zones, speaker layout, screen size, climate zoning, keypad placement and the scene list itself, all written down and agreed before a single item is ordered or a single hole is drilled.
Install & commissioning
Cabling run through voids and conduits, speakers installed, screen hung, controller configured. Every scene is tested, every source is switched, every zone is measured with a meter or a microphone.
Calibrate & hand over
The cinema gets a proper audio and picture calibration. You receive the scene list, the zone map and the app walkthrough. We come back after a week to fine-tune based on how you actually live in the space.
Six apps, four remotes, one unused cinema room
This is the situation we see most often in homes that bought their smart products piece by piece, and then added a cinema.
Everything is smart. Nothing works together.
The household had invested real money: a good projector, a solid 7.1.4 receiver, six smart bulbs in the kitchen, a thermostat that learns, and motorised blinds in the living room. Each piece worked well on its own. But the cinema had three remotes, the lights never dimmed with the film, and the blinds were still controlled from a separate app.
- Six apps on the household phones. Bulbs, thermostat, blinds, projector, receiver, and streamer, none of them talking to each other.
- Cinema startup was a ritual. Projector on, receiver on and input set, screen down, lights down, blinds down, volume to default. Five minutes every time, in the dark.
- No scenes. Every evening the household had to set the same thing again by hand, in the same order.
- The good speakers were underused. The cinema receiver had excellent speakers but only ever handled film audio, while the rest of the house had to use a cheap Bluetooth speaker for music.
- Climate fought the room. The upstairs thermostat warmed the cinema while the film was on, because nobody had zoned the space.
The fix was not new equipment. It was a controller that spoke to every one of those devices, a proper scene design, and a receiver that could route its amplifiers to the rest of the house. Same hardware, completely different experience.
Scenes are the point
Individual smart devices are not the value. The scene that fires them all at once, correctly, is what makes the home feel intelligent.
One remote, or none
A cinema that needs three remotes to start is a cinema nobody uses. One remote, one button, or the scene fires from the panel by the door.
Great AV is worth routing
A good receiver and speakers should serve the whole home, not just the film. Routing the amplifiers correctly is a design decision, not an upgrade.
Local control stays local
An internet outage does not stop the house. A Wi-Fi outage is a different story, and that is exactly why we design wired first. The controller runs inside the home, not in someone else's cloud.
The cinema is used three times as often now. One button, film starts, lights settle. That was the only change.
Family home · whole-home buildThe kitchen lights now know it's evening, the hallway dims down after 9, and nothing has to be set manually anymore.
Apartment · lighting & scenesThe speakers they already had are now used for the whole house. That alone justified the controller.
Detached home · audio routingBefore we design a system
The things people usually ask us before the first walk-through.
Can you work with smart devices I already own?
Usually yes, and often with no replacement needed. If your existing bulbs, thermostat, blinds and receiver speak a standard protocol such as Zigbee, Matter, IP, RS-232 or IR, they can almost certainly be brought into the same controller as everything else. The walk-through is where we tell you exactly which existing devices we can integrate and which, if any, are holding the system back.
Does the system need the internet to work?
No, the controller runs locally inside the home. Lights, scenes, climate, blinds, cinema and audio all work normally if the broadband goes down, and you simply lose remote access from outside the house. This is a deliberate design choice: a smart home that stops working when the internet drops is not a smart home. The distinction matters though, and we want to be precise about it: the internet going down is not the same as Wi-Fi going down. If the internet drops, everything local keeps working. If the Wi-Fi access points drop, Wi-Fi-only devices stop responding, and only the wired, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, KNX and battery-operated devices keep running. That is why we design wired first, and why we prefer Zigbee, Z-Wave or Thread over Wi-Fi wherever a device has the choice. The full breakdown is in the Resilience section above.
Which cinema do you recommend, projector or large TV?
It depends on the room. A projector with an acoustic screen gives the most cinematic result and hides the speakers behind the image, which is ideal for a dedicated or blacked-out living room. A very large TV (90" or 98") is brighter and simpler, and works better in rooms with more daylight or where the household watches a lot of broadcast content. We size it against the room during the design phase.
How does the film actually get to the screen?
There are four realistic routes. The simplest is a single HDMI cable from a source, a console, laptop, disc player or set-top box, straight to the beamer or the 90-inch-plus TV. The most common is a small internet-connected player, an Apple TV, Nvidia Shield, Fire TV or Chromecast, sitting at the screen and streaming over Wi-Fi. The third is a NAS in the rack holding your own library, with a player pulling the file over the network through Plex, Jellyfin, Emby or Infuse. The fourth is fully custom software, which joins the cinema, the lighting, the climate, the audio and the security into one platform, and is a genuine software project with a genuine software price. We design, install and commission the first three directly, and advise on the fourth.
Can everything be controlled from one app?
Yes, but the honest answer is that the scope matters. A well-configured hub (Home Assistant, openHAB, SmartThings, HomeKit) already gives you one app across iOS, Android and the web for lights, climate, blinds, cinema and audio. Extending it with a custom dashboard or a wall panel is a normal project, and we deliver it directly. A single custom app that also runs a fully bespoke cinema, security and access platform, with custom hardware and long-term maintenance, is real software development: it needs a specification, a development team, months of work and a support contract, and it costs accordingly. We advise on the spec and coordinate the certified and experienced professionals who build it, and we tell you plainly when the cheaper route is the right one.
Can it integrate with my security and access control?
Yes. Cameras, locks and the alarm system can all feed into the same controller. The house can pause a film when the gate opens, light the hallway before a doorbell rings, and arm the whole property from the away scene. If you already have a security system, we will usually integrate it rather than replace it.
Will the lighting still be controllable with a switch?
Always. A smart home should not force you to use an app. Physical keypads stay where they belong, near the doors and at the bedsides, and every scene can also be fired from a wall panel. The app and voice control are additions, not replacements.
How are scenes designed?
By watching how the household actually uses the home, and then writing the scene list against that. A scene is not just a set of light levels, it is the whole room: lighting, climate, blinds, audio, AV input and, if relevant, the alarm state. We deliver a written scene list with the handover, and adjust it after the first week.
What if I want to add rooms or devices later?
The controller is chosen and configured so that adding a room is a design task, not a rebuild. New lighting zones, extra audio speakers, a second cinema, a new climate zone, all of these integrate through the same system, and the scene list is versioned so nothing is lost when the home grows.
Can you build a single app that runs on every platform?
Yes, and there are three realistic routes. The first is to configure an existing platform (Home Assistant, openHAB, SmartThings, HomeKit) which already has apps on iOS, Android and the web. The second is a custom dashboard that runs on any tablet, phone or desktop through a browser. The third is a fully custom native app, built once and shipped to iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux, running against your own hub. We deliver the first two directly and commission the third through certified and experienced professionals.
Can you provide a physical wall panel or counter-top pod?
Yes. There is a mature market of OEM and ODM manufacturers who build Android and Linux wall panels and pods specifically for this purpose, from 4-inch keypads up to 15-inch PoE panels. We specify the panel, install it, configure it to run the same scenes as the rest of the house, and document the setup. Where a fully bespoke pod is required, we commission it through certified and experienced professionals.
What does custom software and hardware actually cost?
It depends on the scope, and we will always recommend the cheapest option that meets the brief. Configuring an existing hub typically runs from €2k to €12k. Extending it with custom dashboards runs from €8k to €30k. A fully custom cross-platform app runs from €25k to €90k. A fully bespoke controller with custom software and custom hardware runs from €90k to €400k or more. We will tell you honestly when the cheaper route is the right one.
Ready for a home that actually runs as one system?
From the first walk-through to the signed scene list, Davidsons IT Agency designs, installs and commissions smart home and cinema systems around the way you actually live: lighting, climate, audio, cinema, and the right signal route for the cinema itself, all on your own network.
Book a Smart Home Consultation