An integrator’s project write-up on SSPAI, published on 11 November 2026, reviews a dual smart-home installation in a 430-square-meter garden villa at Yunxi Diegu (云溪蝶谷) in Hangzhou. Wired KNX handles lighting, climate and shading. Control4 handles audio-video, central screens and the video door system. Figures and performance comments below are the write-up’s, not an independent test.
What the owner wanted
The owner wanted a high-specification scheme that would still be simple for older residents day to day. The integrator recommended German Hager (海格) and Berker (博科) KNX equipment together with Control4 from the United States. The article says Hager and Berker are parent and subsidiary brands in the same group: Hager KNX modules do the control, and Berker KNX panels are what people touch.
The aim was simple local control plus remote control from a phone app and central screens. The integrator reports that the finished system was stable and that day-to-day use was very good.
What was included
The design lists eight systems:
- Lighting, including scenes, exhaust fans and smart outlets, on Hager KNX.
- Shading, including motorized curtains and motorized blinds, on Hager KNX.
- Climate, including a water-system air conditioner, underfloor heating and fresh air, using Berker KNX panels and Hager KNX modules.
- Security, with HD monitoring from China’s Hikvision and an alarm system from Canada’s DSC.
- Door entry, with video intercom and a motorized gate, on Control4.
- Background music, with zoned audio and AirPlay, on NUVO and Control4.
- Video sharing, with HD video distribution and satellite television, on Dish and Control4.
- Network, with Wi-Fi and basic cabling, on US UBNT and China’s H3C.
The low-voltage package is described as whole-house CAT6 gigabit cabling and Wi-Fi, Hikvision HD cameras, the DSC alarm, NUVO zoned music with AirPlay, and HDMI video sharing.
For easier daily use, the lighting panels are customized hotel-style plates with Chinese function labels and night backlighting. The write-up says this simplifies the system so older people and children can use it.
How the integrator describes the platforms
Control4. The article says Control4 was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It presents the company as a leading provider of high-end custom smart homes, with business in more than 100 countries and regions and more than 6,000 professionally certified integrators. Unlike consumer DIY products, the write-up says, Control4 is built for customized whole-home control and can put home theater, multi-room music, lighting, climate and security on one platform.
It says Control4’s driver ecosystem is compatible with more than 14,000 third-party devices, including audio-video, HVAC and security brands. The write-up says the operating system, Control4 OS, is regarded as one of the friendliest smart-home user interfaces in the industry. It supports iOS and Android phones and tablets, at home or away. On audio-video, the article calls Control4 the “king of whole-home AV”: matrix switching and audio streaming are described so that one “watch a film” press can turn the television on, change the audio input, close the curtains and dim the lights.
In this house the Control4 processor is the central integrator. It brings KNX lighting and HVAC, background music, shared video, the video intercom and gate, and surveillance into the phone app and central screens.
KNX. The article calls KNX the only worldwide open standard for residential and building control. It says the KNX organization has more than 500 members and accounts for more than 80 percent of European sales of residential and building-control equipment.
Here the bus covers lighting, air conditioning, underfloor heating, fresh air, curtains and motorized doors. Each floor has a smart distribution board. Control cables for that floor’s lights, curtains, air conditioning and related loads land on the board’s modules. Panels and sensors connect to those modules over the KNX bus, described as a low-voltage signal cable. The boards are then linked together on the same bus.
Climate. The article says domestic projects usually meet one of two air-conditioning types: refrigerant VRV systems, with Daikin given as an example, or fan-coil water systems, with York and Trane given as examples. This villa uses a Trane water-system air conditioner and also has a ground-source heat pump, so the design uses KNX fan-coil modules for the air conditioning and KNX underfloor-heating modules for the floor heat.
KNX thermostat panels compare the measured room temperature with the setpoint and, according to the write-up, automatically operate the air-conditioning diverting valves and fan speed and open or close the underfloor-heating electric valves so the house stays at a steady temperature.
Cameras and alarms. Network HD cameras at important points watch the villa. A monitor in the security room, or a smartphone, can view them at any time, and recording is real time. Indoor alarm detectors cover the security function, and the alarm panel can push alerts to the user’s phone.
Intercom and the gate. Residents can talk with visitors by audio or video, remotely open or close the motorized gate, and make video calls between floors. A Bluetooth card reader set outside the gate is described as opening the gate automatically when a car approaches, using a Bluetooth card in the car, so the driver does not have to find a separate remote.
Music. One stereo speaker pair is installed in each of four places: the first-floor living room, a second-floor secondary bedroom, the third-floor master bedroom, and the outdoor garden. The amplifier is a four-zone NUVO unit the article calls the latest, with USB and SD-card playback, FM, and four AUX inputs. Multi-channel AirPlay outputs built into the Control4 processor feed that amplifier, so music from a phone can be played through it. Volume and power can be set per room, sources can be switched, and the current song can be shown.
Shared video. An HDMI matrix in the equipment room is the audio-video hub. One set-top box, one satellite feed and one Blu-ray player are sources for televisions in the living room, master bedroom, secondary bedroom and guest room. HD video is carried on Category 6 cable through the matrix, so any of those sets can show the set-top box, satellite television or Blu-ray.
Network. All data cabling is Category 6, specified to gigabit. Every room has a network outlet, brought back to a gigabit switch. A wireless access point in the central area of each floor provides Wi-Fi, using a mainstream gigabit dual-band design. The router has VPN so the client can reach the home network from outside. The owner already had a NAS; the article says that supports working while away.
A diagram in the original post is described as showing Hager KNX as the underlying bus, the Control4 host gathering audio-video, intercom and background music into the phone app and central screens, and network and surveillance completing the low-voltage system.
Four stages the integrator cites
From what the article calls years of project experience, the integrator groups this work into four stages:
- Design. The client sets out the intent and functions; the integrator proposes a scheme; a contract follows once the plan is fixed; construction drawings are then developed.
- Site coordination. The electrician and project lead are briefed on site from the drawings; wiring is checked during installation, including concealed-work acceptance; lighting, air-conditioning, underfloor-heating and curtain suppliers are coordinated; smart equipment is timed to the fit-out.
- Installation and commissioning. Lighting modules, air-conditioning modules and central control are installed and tested, then background music, cameras and alarms, intercom and the wireless network. The full system, including phone-app control, is tested together.
- Handover. The system is trialed and handed to the owner. After stable running, a completion report is signed and the job is closed.
Design and site wiring
Before fit-out began, the team visited the villa and made a final revision of the construction drawings against the site and the design set.
The electrician marked panel positions on the walls from the drawings before chasing and pulling cable. After conduit and tray were ready, cable was brought in. The article says the cable must be high quality; all network cable here is Category 6 gigabit. The villa specification used KBG metal conduit throughout. Motorized-curtain control cables and background-music speaker cables were reserved in that wiring.
Containment was extensive. A low-voltage tray through the central area ends at the low-voltage cabinet on the first floor. Green cable is the KNX bus for the smart lighting panels. Blue network cable and black power cable were left for the central intercom screen. After the fan coils were installed, air-conditioning control cables were reserved to that floor’s distribution board; blue Category 6 was left for later Wi-Fi access points. After the fresh-air unit was installed, a fresh-air control cable was reserved from its control box to that floor’s board. At each floor’s underfloor-heating manifold, power and heating-control cables were reserved.
A sensor bus was left in the ceiling of the entry corridor. When the ceiling was closed, the team worked with the carpenters to pull those tails out so they could still be found. At the living-room doorway, alarm-sensor cables and the motorized-curtain cables inside the curtain recess were also pulled out early. On the outdoor gate pillar, a black box is the back box for the Control4 outdoor video door station, and the control cable to the motorized gate was reserved with it. The write-up does not put the Bluetooth card reader on that pillar.
The smart distribution board was custom-made in advance and installed in the electrical room. The electrician brought that floor’s lighting, curtain, air-conditioning, underfloor-heating and outlet control cables into it. The owner had a low-voltage cabinet made for the site. Network, telephone, camera, music and alarm cables all terminate there.
Installation and commissioning
Before the built-in hollow blinds were fitted, the smart link was tested: a smart module drove the blind motors directly at 24 V low voltage, and the blinds went in only after that test passed.
The control modules are in the distribution board and were wired by a professional electrician. Upstream breakers protect the downstream modules one to one. Outlet circuits are all on residual-current protection.
Work in the low-voltage cabinet included, as listed, a monitor, recorder, Control4 host, NUVO amplifier, video matrix, router and switch. Background-music speakers were installed in bedroom ceilings; joist positions had to be checked before the holes were cut. The owner then plays music in the room from the phone app. HD cameras were installed on walls around the house for day-and-night recording, also viewable in the app.
A motion sensor at the entry foyer turns the foyer light strip on when someone passes and off after 30 seconds. It has its own light sensor, so it can be set not to run in daylight, and the off-delay can be set separately. Each motorized curtain track was measured, made to size, and then installed.
The outdoor video station is described as fully weatherproof and linked to the Control4 host over the network. A visitor can be seen and spoken with on the indoor screen; after the resident confirms, an on-screen button opens the outdoor motorized gate.
At the dining area, a customized panel on a KNX interface module controls KNX lights or curtains, beside a KNX thermostat-panel coupler. The article places the customized panel, for lighting scenes and motorized curtains, on the left, and the KNX thermostat on the right. That thermostat controls room temperature: underfloor heating automatically in winter and air conditioning automatically in summer.
The equipment room contains the low-voltage cabinet and the power distribution board. The write-up lists, in the cabinet, a monitor, hard-disk recorder, background-music amplifier, Control4 host, router, switch, set-top box, video matrix and alarm panel.
What daily use looks like in the write-up
A backlit panel in the stair corridor uses Chinese labels. One press can turn the stair lights on or switch off all the lights on the first floor. The integrator presents this as simple enough for older people and children.
A Bluetooth card reader installed outside the garage entrance can recognize a Bluetooth card in the car at a distance. When the owner returns, the garage door opens slowly on its own, so no one has to get out to open it.
The master-bathroom window uses smart-controlled hollow blinds. A SPA scene on the panel by the door lowers the blinds and dims the spotlights over the bathtub. The write-up calls that result very comfortable.
The panel at the master-bedroom door controls temperature, lights and curtains. A music panel next to it is for older users; the phone app can also control the music. Through the HD video system, the bedroom television can show satellite, cable and HD film. The Wi-Fi access points are concealed in the ceiling.
Bedside panels are combined with the socket plates and include television, sleep and night-rise scenes. Night-rise turns on only the small night lights in the bedroom and bathroom. Sleep turns off all bedroom and bathroom lights and closes the curtains.
Dining-room and living-room lights are dimmable, including the chandelier, LED strips and LED spotlights, with different scenes and linked motorized curtains. The Control4 screen in the living room controls lights, curtains, climate, fresh air, music and the motorized door, and it is also the indoor video-intercom station. Separately from the iOS and Android phone-and-tablet point above, the article says the Control4 app supports Apple iOS, Android and Windows, and can control home devices from the phone at any time.
The integrator’s close
The write-up says the job was complex, with many power and low-voltage systems, and that more than two years passed from the start of renovation to the owner moving in. It says the integrator spent substantial time on problems during that period, that the house met the designed use, and that the client was satisfied. It also says the team gained experience from the project.
In that summary, KNX is the local bus: simple, stable control, with Chinese-labeled panels intended for older family members. Control4 gathers audio-video, the intercom and gate, and background music into the phone app and central screens for remote control. The stated reason for publishing the process is to show concrete functions rather than empty smart-home claims, so the system matches actual use.
Original article: https://sspai.com/post/118785
