Design Studio
Walk your house room by room. Keep what works, fix what doesn't, and we price every button and scene per item. The walk is free.
What the Design Studio actually does
Most smart-home quotes are a list of equipment. This is a list of behaviours — what you want each room to do — and the equipment is worked out backwards from that.
You walk your house one room at a time and say what should happen there in plain language: the kitchen lights should come up gently before anyone is awake, the back door should turn the yard on when it opens after dark, one button by the bed should shut the house down. Each of those is priced as its own line, so you can keep the three you care about and drop the rest.
The walk itself is free and you can stop at any point. Nothing is ordered, nothing is charged, and you end up with an itemized plan you could hand to any competent dealer — including one who isn't us.
What smart home programming costs
Programming has traditionally been priced by the visit, which is why a fifteen-minute change to a keypad has historically cost a few hundred dollars — you were paying for the drive, the parking, and the half-day the job blocked out of somebody's calendar.
We price it per item, from $49, and do it remotely. A scene is a line. A keypad button is a line. A schedule is a line. You see every one of them with a price against it before anything runs. On a connected system, software work is only charged when it actually succeeds; on a new build there is nothing to program remotely yet, so the whole amount is charged when you accept and the programming is done at install.
That changes which jobs are worth doing. The small annoyance you have lived with for four years because it was not worth a truck roll is worth fixing when it is one line on a quote.
Questions people ask before they start
How much does Control4 programming cost?+
We price programming per item from $49 and do it remotely, so there is no visit to pay for. A scene, a keypad button, a schedule or an app re-link is each its own line with its own price, and you approve the whole list before anything runs. On a connected system, software work is only charged when it succeeds; on a new build the whole amount is charged when you accept and the programming is done at install.
Do I need to know what equipment I need?+
No — that is the point of walking it this way. You describe what you want each room to do and the equipment is worked out backwards from the behaviour. Plenty of walks end with the answer that your existing hardware already does it and only the programming was missing.
Is the walk free?+
Yes, and you can stop at any point. Nothing is ordered and nothing is charged during the walk. You end with an itemized plan you could take to any competent dealer, including one who is not us.
What if I only want one thing changed?+
That is the normal case and it is why everything is priced per line. Keep the one item you care about and delete the rest of the plan. There is no minimum and no package you have to buy into.
Does this work on a system somebody else installed?+
Yes. Reading and extending other people's Control4 and Lutron programming is most of what we do. We take a full backup of your project before changing anything, every time, without exception.
Can you do it without coming to my house?+
Programming, scenes, schedules, keypad behaviour and app access are all remote once we have a connection to your system. Anything involving wiring, mounting or a physically dead device needs a person in the room, and we say so rather than pretending otherwise.
What if I want something that is not possible?+
We will tell you, and tell you what the nearest achievable version is. A plan full of things your hardware cannot do is worse than no plan — you would find out at the worst possible moment.
Does this cover Lutron as well as Control4?+
Yes. Lighting scenes, keypad behaviour and timeclock events on HomeWorks and RadioRA are quoted the same way. Lutron dealer since 1999.