Run by husband and wife team, Oliver and Emma Hall, Ultamation installed home automation technology to control light, audio, video, CCTV, security and heating in the Cheshire home

Liverpool tech firm Ultamation has helped transform a family home in Cheshire into a fully-integrated ‘smart home’ and the project has already scooped two awards.

The house, in Alderley Edge, was renovated by Llama Group and Janey Butler Interiors and Ultamation was brought in to install home automation technology to control light, audio, video, CCTV, security and heating.

Different technologies

Run by husband and wife team, Oliver and Emma Hall, the firm has developed its own user interface and programming framework that allows different technologies to communicate with each other seamlessly.

With an array of companies now supplying smart tech for homes and businesses, integration is a major issue. For example, there are two competing products dominating the vice-controlled speaker market – Amazon Echo and Google Home.

Ultamation’s technology addresses this and offers ease-of-use for everyone in the home or business.

The Alderley Edge project, which cost £165,000, won the Best Integrated Home Award in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) at the 2018 CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) Awards.  It then went on to win the Best Integrated Home Global Award, beating amazing houses around the world.

Hands-on

Oliver Hall said: “When technology works best it slots seamlessly into your life, and that was our ambition with this home. We wanted the owners to have hands-on control, but also to make it as easy to use as possible.

“Our user interface, singled out by the judges as being a fantastic feature, has been honed and developed over the years. We’re so proud it has won this recognition.”

The brief from the homeowner was to create a sleek and modern technology experience, suiting the family’s day-to-day life, with their love of entertaining, while also being intuitive and simple to use. 

The result was a home that responds to the family’s routine, with automated responses to their needs and behaviour, as well as illustrating the opportunity for home automation technology. 

Morning scene

Their day begins with a morning scene lighting in the house, which starts to wake the family 20 minutes before the alarm goes off, gradually fading the lights up and raising the blinds.

At sunset, the system checks any lights switched on and adjusts them to an evening level. At bedtime, when the alarm is part set, lights are focused on the bedroom and ensuite areas.

Lights are turned off when there is inactivity in a room for 30 minutes. Sensors are used to track when the family arrives or leaves the home. Having monitored their regular routine, when the family is away, the lights mimic their normal activity. 

Lighting and entertainment, for example TV and music, can follow the family from room-to-room. The television is hidden in a bookcase in the sitting room, which only reveals itself when turned on, where it lifts up and turns rotating it to the perfect viewing angle.

The home-owner said, “The whole process has been effortless with the guys making sound recommendations, and even when things have gone wrong, which I know they always do in complex project like this, it’s the way that they deal with the problem that’s really impressed us.”