Home Control vs. Home Automation: What’s the Difference?

How Your Fort Lauderdale Home Can Use Both

Imagine lights that shift colors for the perfect atmosphere; motorized shades that grant you instant privacy; and whole home audio controlled right from your phone. With a smart home system, it’s all synched at your fingertips

But when researching smart technology, you’ll often see the terms ‘home control’ and ‘home automation’ used interchangeably. What do they mean? While there are similarities, the phrases do not mean the same thing.

We’ll explore the differences below so you can envision what a complete home automation setup will be like for your Fort Lauderdale, FL, property.

SEE ALSO: What AV Installation Is Right for Your Home?

Home Control

We define smart home control as accessing all your home’s devices from one system. How you control your technology is up to you. You can use a smartphone, tablet, wall control panel, remote, voice-assistant speaker, or a combination.

From one app, you can turn lights on and off, activate smart locks, turn on your TV, and choose a playlist for your outdoor speakers. ‘Home control’ is essentially a centralized way to control all technology that would otherwise be disjointed.

Home Automation

Home automation takes your experience a step further, allowing your devices to interact without requiring a command. Through preset scenes like “Good Morning” or “Good Night,” your lights, thermostats, shades, and speakers can independently activate. Motion sensors and timers will set off automatic commands, so your house anticipates your needs.

Imagine that as you return home and unlock the garage, your first-floor lights automatically turn on, and AC starts blasting. As bedtime approaches, tunable lights will gradually transition into warm, golden tones to prepare your mind for sleep. You won’t even have to press a button—it’s automated!

Smart Systems to Trust

Although home control and automation are different concepts, you’ll use both within a complete smart system. Even if you have a nighttime scene scheduled to turn landscape lights on, you can turn them off from your system’s app in an instant, no matter where you are.

We trust brands like Control4, Crestron, or Savant for a high-end automation experience, each with their own unique user interface. Automation systems are more intricate to assemble than DIY smart devices, but the final experience is like nothing else.

Ready to bring the luxury and convenience of a home automation setup to your house? Based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and cities worldwide, Frangioni Media can build a system customized to your unique lifestyle. Contact us here to get started.

Choosing Between Control and Automation in a Luxury Home

Most of the homes we design in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Naples end up with both. Control gives you one interface for lighting, shades, climate, audio and video, so the house responds the moment you touch a keypad or a screen. Automation lets the house act on its own, setting scenes at sunset, closing shades as the afternoon sun comes in and securing everything when you leave. We design both layers on platforms such as Crestron, Control4 and Lutron, chosen for the way you live rather than for a brand list.

Lighting is often where the difference is easiest to feel. Tunable systems like Ketra shift color temperature through the day, which we cover in how a Ketra lighting system works. For a broader view of our approach, see our smart home automation design work. David Frangioni also explains how he selects a platform in How I Choose a Smart Home Platform for a Luxury Home.

Planning smart home control, lighting or whole-home audio? Frangioni Media designs and engineers control, lighting and audio-video systems for luxury homes in Miami and South Florida. Request a consultation, or start with the planning guide below.