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Ball-park figures for whole house automation

post #1 of 11
5/26/12 at 9:04pm
Thread Starter 
I understand it may not be ethical to discuss quotes etc, but can someone give me a ball park figure of using control4 for a whole house A/V . Fortunate to have a 3500 sq. ft house, but would be better with easily accessible music via wall controller etc. Long term plan would be to expand to lighting controls etc.

Details (5 Zones):
Downstairs: Zone 1
Upstairs: Bedroom 1: Zone 2, Bedroom 2: Zone 3, Bedroom 3: Zone 4, Hall way/Staircase: Zone 5

For starters, I'd like to put a wall controller for 2 Zones.

2 of the 4 zones are pre-wired for 5.1 Audio. However, they start and terminate in the same room.

Each room does have a Coax which terminates at the Attic.

I may approach a dealer in Dallas, but would like to know some ball park figure before i go this route.

Much appreciated & Happy Memorial Day!
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post #2 of 11
5/27/12 at 8:00am
Talk to a C4 dealer, to determine the cost.

Find a good one, one who you are comfortable with. I suggest you interview a couple.

Speak with references, if possible.
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post #3 of 11
5/27/12 at 1:34pm
The factors that determine huge increases in cost will be the details.

This can be 10k-100k.
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post #4 of 11
5/27/12 at 11:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BradKas View Post

The factors that determine huge increases in cost will be the details.

This can be 10k-100k.

Thx guys. Wow, that's a big range!
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post #5 of 11
5/28/12 at 7:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by iAusio80 View Post

Thx guys. Wow, that's a big range!

It can go much higher than that...

Make a wish list, then start interviewing people. Do not get to set on the product, you will be dealing with the integrator for years to come if they do their jobs properly. Product comes and goes...

Remember a good portion of this stuff is now designed to be obsolete within 3 to 5 years. Just look at you cell phone and laptop...
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post #6 of 11
5/28/12 at 9:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by roddymcg View Post

It can go much higher than that...

Make a wish list, then start interviewing people. Do not get to set on the product, you will be dealing with the integrator for years to come if they do their jobs properly. Product comes and goes...

Remember a good portion of this stuff is now designed to be obsolete within 3 to 5 years. Just look at you cell phone and laptop...

Thx Roddy.

BTW, is there anything I could do with Coax in each of these rooms?
My goal is whole house audio for now and maybe video later. I don't use cable tv and instead stream all my content via Netflix, Hulu etc. THis may change and I may swicth back to Att U-Verse (IPTV).

Would my existing coax be used for this situation or do I pull speakers wrires + Cat6 cables aka drilling holes through dry-wall etc..? My entire home exterior has foam insulation and my assumption is that it may hinder pulling wires for my bedroom which shares the exterion wall.

Honestly, I am struggling with asking the right questions and apologize for not being clear.

Per my builder, all the home wiring start from attic and go to different parts of the house. So, my first thought was maybe i should have a patch panel in the attic for starters? The common wiring in each and every room is coax + phone. I am guessing those are useless for audio distribution? I guess I'll have to pay someone to pull speaker wires (not my forte and don't have the time to experiment)? So, before I make any decisions, I wanted to ask some basic qs in these forums. Where do i start ;( Can someone help me frame the question? Maybe i should put together a rough home sketch?

THANKS!! I understand if you can't help at this level, so appreciate your time so far.
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post #7 of 11
5/28/12 at 2:04pm
New construction? Talk to a local custom installer/integrator. He will work with your builder to determine the correct cables.

He'll wire for everything that you may want in the future, so you can install it over time - but only if the cables are correct.

What you need and don't have is knowledge and experience. You pay the pro now to avoid frustrations and cutting drywall later.
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post #8 of 11
5/28/12 at 4:23pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neurorad View Post

New construction? Talk to a local custom installer/integrator. He will work with your builder to determine the correct cables.

He'll wire for everything that you may want in the future, so you can install it over time - but only if the cables are correct.

What you need and don't have is knowledge and experience. You pay the pro now to avoid frustrations and cutting drywall later.

Thx Neurorad. Unfortunately, this si not a new construction. It's been 4 years since the house was built. I wish I had paid attention to this while it was being built.

As I said, the only things i got done were pre-wiring 2-3 rooms, that's all.
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post #9 of 11
5/28/12 at 7:04pm
I would recommend meeting with some local installers, as previously mentioned. If you have questions or concerns about their opinion or something they have specified post it on here and we can help you through it.

It's going to be a question of what features you want, and what you need and how the dust settles will help determine your total system budget.
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post #10 of 11
5/28/12 at 7:08pm
As noted above it depends on what you want to do...I use to live in a 1,200 square foot townhouse that I retrofitted a HA system in...the system was:

-- full security

-- full [i.e. all switches] lighting control on 3 floors [i.e. basement , main floor, second floor including the outside]

-- full HVAC control [1 thermostat]

-- full audio / video control including a home theater with centralized racking

-- and everything integrated [i.e. light scenes turned on and off at daylight / dusk, etc.]

It was a Crestron system and though I do not have the exact amount the light switches, panels, processors, programming and thermostat were in the $35,000 to $40,000 range...that said, it was one sweet system that did everything...the audio and video equipment and network equipment was on top of that...

Hope that helps...
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post #11 of 11
6/1/12 at 11:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by iAusio80 View Post

I understand it may not be ethical to discuss quotes etc, but can someone give me a ball park figure of using control4 for a whole house A/V . Fortunate to have a 3500 sq. ft house, but would be better with easily accessible music via wall controller etc. Long term plan would be to expand to lighting controls etc.

Details (5 Zones):
Downstairs: Zone 1
Upstairs: Bedroom 1: Zone 2, Bedroom 2: Zone 3, Bedroom 3: Zone 4, Hall way/Staircase: Zone 5

For starters, I'd like to put a wall controller for 2 Zones.

2 of the 4 zones are pre-wired for 5.1 Audio. However, they start and terminate in the same room.

Each room does have a Coax which terminates at the Attic.

I may approach a dealer in Dallas, but would like to know some ball park figure before i go this route.

Much appreciated & Happy Memorial Day!

Buy Sonos and Add HA later. Extra Vegetables are a C4 plug-in maker and have a great plug-in for C4. I have 6 sonos zones and love it. Way better than C4's native stuff from what I hear
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