A case study published on SSPAI on 11 November 2026 describes a dual-system smart home in a 430 m² garden villa at Yunxi Diegu in Hangzhou. The owners wanted broad automation that would still be simple for older residents. The project team’s answer was to divide the work: a wired KNX bus for lighting, climate and shading, and Control4 for audio-video, intercom and centralized control.
What each system does
The article treats German Hager and Berker as parent and subsidiary brands in the same group. Hager KNX modules do the control; Berker KNX panels are the interface. That layer covers lighting (scenes, exhaust fans and controlled outlets), shading (motorized curtains and blinds), and climate (a water-based air conditioner, floor heating and fresh air).
Control4 handles home entertainment and video distribution, the door entry system, background music, and a shared interface on a phone app and wall-mounted screens. Panels were customized in a hotel style, with Chinese function labels and night backlighting, so routine use would not depend on abstract scene names.
Other low-voltage work named in the project includes whole-house Category 6 gigabit cabling and Wi-Fi, Hikvision high-definition cameras, a DSC alarm system, NUVO zoned audio with AirPlay, and HDMI video sharing.
The case study lists eight subsystems:
- Smart lighting — Hager KNX
- Smart shading — Hager KNX
- Temperature control — Berker KNX panels with Hager KNX modules
- Security — Hikvision cameras and a Canadian DSC alarm system
- Video intercom and access, including a motorized gate — Control4
- Background music — NUVO and Control4
- Video sharing, including satellite television — Dish and Control4
- Wi-Fi and basic network cabling — UBNT and China’s H3C
Local control stays on the wall panels. Remote control is through the Control4 app or a central screen, alongside whole-house Wi-Fi and the Hikvision system.
Four stages of the job
Drawing on its project experience, the team summarizes smart-home work in four stages:
- Design. The client sets out the functions. The integrator proposes a scheme, both sides sign a contract once the scheme is fixed, and detailed construction drawings follow.
- Site coordination. Electricians and the project lead are briefed from the drawings. Wiring is checked on site, including concealed-work acceptance. Installation is coordinated with the lighting, air-conditioning, floor-heating and curtain suppliers, and smart-home equipment is brought in to match the renovation schedule.
- Installation and commissioning. Lighting modules, air-conditioning modules, the controller and related devices are installed and tested, then background music, surveillance, intercom and the wireless network. The full system, including phone-app control, is commissioned together.
- Handover. The system is trial-run and turned over to the owners. After stable operation, a completion report is signed and the job is closed.
Control4 and KNX, as described
The article says Control4 was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It describes the company as a high-end custom-home platform working in more than 100 countries through more than 6,000 certified integrators, rather than as a consumer do-it-yourself brand. It also says an open driver library is compatible with more than 14,000 third-party devices across audio-video, HVAC and security, and that Control4 OS — which it calls one of the friendlier smart-home interfaces in the trade — runs on iOS and Android phones and tablets, at home or away.
In this villa the Control4 processor is the integration core. It is described as bringing KNX lighting and HVAC, background music, shared video, the video door station and surveillance into the app and the central screen. On the entertainment side, the article says one “watch a movie” command can turn the television on, switch the audio path, close the curtains and dim the lights. That is presented as a description of Control4’s matrix switching and streaming, not as an independent performance test.
KNX is described as the only worldwide open standard for residential and building control, with more than 500 member organizations and, by the article’s account, more than 80 percent of European sales of residential and building-control equipment. Here it runs lights, air conditioning, floor heating, fresh air, curtains and motorized doors. Each floor has a smart distribution board. Control cables for that floor’s lights, curtains and air conditioning land on modules in the board; panels and sensors connect over the KNX bus. The boards are then linked to each other on the same bus. Hager modules control the loads; Berker panels are what people touch.
Climate, security, entry, music, video and network
The article says domestic Chinese projects generally use one of two air-conditioning types: a central variable-refrigerant system, with Daikin given as an example, or a fan-coil water system, with York and Trane given as examples. This house has a Trane water-system air conditioner and a ground-source heat pump, so the design uses KNX fan-coil modules for the air conditioning and KNX floor-heating modules for the radiant heat. Thermostat panels compare the measured room temperature with the setpoint and open or close the air-conditioner’s water valve, change fan speed, and operate the floor-heating electric valve to hold a steady indoor temperature.
Cameras at important points cover the villa. A monitor in the security room, or a smartphone, can view them, and recording is continuous. Indoor alarm detectors provide the security function; the alarm panel can push alerts to the owners’ phones.
The video intercom is described as two-way audio or video with visitors, remote opening of the motorized gate, and video calls between floors. A Bluetooth card reader on the outdoor gate reads a Bluetooth card in the car and opens the gate as the car approaches, so the driver does not need a separate remote.
Background music uses one stereo pair in each of four places: the ground-floor living room, a second-floor secondary bedroom, the third-floor master bedroom, and the outdoor garden. The amplifier is what the article calls NUVO’s latest four-zone host, with USB, an SD card, FM and four AUX inputs. Multi-channel AirPlay outputs from the Control4 processor feed that amplifier, so music from a phone can play in the zones. Each room’s volume and power can be set independently, sources can be switched, and the current track information can be shown.
An HDMI matrix in the equipment room is the audio-video hub. Sources are one set-top box, one satellite feed and one Blu-ray player. Outputs go to televisions in the living room, master bedroom, secondary bedroom and a guest room. Category 6 cable carries the high-definition video, so any of those sets can select the set-top box, satellite or Blu-ray source.
All network cabling is Category 6, described as gigabit. Every room has a network outlet connected to a gigabit switch. A mainstream dual-band gigabit access point covers the central area of each floor. The router has VPN access to the home network. The owners already had a NAS and wanted to reach it while away for work.
Architecture and how it was built
The case study’s low-voltage diagram shows Hager KNX as the underlying bus and the Control4 host as the point that gathers audio-video, intercom and background music into the app and touchscreen, together with the network and camera systems.
Before fit-out, the team visited the villa and corrected the drawings against the site. Electricians marked panel positions and prepared chases. After conduit and tray were in place, cable was delivered; the network portion is all Category 6. The villa standard was KBG metal conduit throughout. Motorized-curtain control cable and background-music speaker cable were among the runs left in place. Because there was a great deal of conduit, a low-voltage tray in the central area ultimately feeds a ground-floor weak-current cabinet.
The article identifies green cable as the KNX bus for the lighting panels, and blue network cable with black power cable reserved for the intercom screen. After fan coils were installed, air-conditioning control cable was left to that floor’s board; blue Category 6 for a later Wi-Fi access point was left as well. Fresh-air control cable was reserved from the fresh-air unit’s control box to the same floor board. At each floor’s heating manifold, power and floor-heating control cable were reserved. In the entry corridor, sensor bus in the ceiling was pulled out before the ceiling closed, with the carpenters, so it would not be lost. At the living-room doorway, security-sensor cable and motorized-curtain cable in the curtain box were also left accessible. On the outdoor gate pillar, the back box for the Control4 outdoor station — shown as a black box — and the cable to the motorized gate were installed ahead of finishes. Each floor’s smart board was custom-made and installed in the electrical room; that floor’s lighting, curtain, air-conditioning, floor-heating and outlet control cables were all brought into it. The owners had a weak-current cabinet built for the site, and network, telephone, camera, music and alarm cables all terminate there.
Before the between-glass blinds were fitted, they were tested by driving the blind motors directly from a smart module at 24 V low voltage. Control modules were installed in the distribution boards and wired by an electrician. An upstream breaker protects each downstream module one-to-one, and all outlet circuits are on residual-current protection. The weak-current cabinet contains the monitor, recorder, Control4 processor, NUVO amplifier, video matrix, router and switch, among other devices. Ceiling speakers were installed with attention to joist positions before the holes were cut; the article says the owners play music from the phone app. High-definition cameras on the perimeter walls record day and night and can be viewed in the app.
A motion sensor at the entry turns on the hallway light strip when someone passes and turns it off after 30 seconds. Its own light sensor can be set so it does not trigger in daytime, and the off-delay can be set on its own. Curtain tracks were measured in advance, made to order, and then installed.
The outdoor video station is described as fully weather-resistant and linked to the Control4 processor over the network. A visitor can be seen and spoken with on the indoor screen; after the resident confirms, a button opens the outdoor motorized gate. In the dining area, a customized panel on a KNX signal module controls KNX lights or curtains, beside a KNX thermostat coupler. The left customized panel runs lighting scenes and the motorized curtains. The right-hand KNX thermostat controls room temperature, calling for floor heat in winter and air conditioning in summer. The equipment-room cabinet and power board, as listed, hold the monitor, hard-disk recorder, music amplifier, Control4 processor, router, switch, set-top box, video matrix and alarm panel, among other equipment.
What the finished house does
At the stair corridor, a backlit panel with Chinese text can turn the stair lights on, or switch off all ground-floor lighting, in one press. The article presents this as a way to simplify the system for older people and children. A Bluetooth reader outside the garage reads a card in the car at a distance and opens the garage door slowly when the owners return, so they do not have to get out to open it.
The master-bathroom window uses smart between-glass blinds. An “SPA” scene at the door panel lowers the blinds and dims the spotlights above the tub. The panel at the master-bedroom door controls room temperature, lights and curtains. A music panel beside it is there for older users; the article says younger people can also control the music from the phone app. The bedroom television can show satellite, cable and high-definition film through the video system. Wi-Fi access points are hidden in the ceiling.
Bedside panels are built together with the power outlets and include television, sleep and night modes. Night mode turns on only small night lights in the bedroom and bathroom. Sleep mode turns off all lights in the bedroom and bathroom and closes the curtains. Dining-room and living-room lighting is dimmable, including the chandelier, LED strips and LED spotlights, with different scenes and with motorized curtains able to follow those scenes.
The living-room Control4 screen controls lights, curtains, temperature, fresh air, music, the motorized gate and other devices, and it also serves as the indoor video-intercom station. The article says the Control4 app supports Apple iOS, Android and Windows, so devices in the house can be controlled from a phone.
Outcome, as the project team reports it
The case study calls the villa system complex, with a large amount of power and low-voltage design, and says more than two years passed from the start of renovation until the owners moved in. The integrator says it spent substantial time on problems during that period, that the finished system met the intended use, and that the client was satisfied. The stated split is local, stable everyday control on KNX, simplified by Chinese-labeled panels for older family members, with Control4 gathering audio-video, intercom and music into the app and central screen.
The account is one integrator’s project review. It does not include independent measurements of energy use, uptime or failure rates.
Original article: https://sspai.com/post/118785
