Huge Crestron Home Automation System — Dubai

Crestron Award Winner — Best International Project

This Crestron installation in Dubai is the most comprehensive residential home automation system Custom Controls has delivered — and, when it was completed, one of the largest and most technically ambitious Crestron residential installations anywhere in the world. It encompasses everything home automation can offer: high-end audio video distribution, lighting control, air conditioning, enterprise-grade networking, WiFi, CCTV and access control across two substantial villas and their extensive grounds. The project won Custom Controls the Crestron Integration Award for Best International Project in EMEA.

Two Villas, One Crestron System

One villa houses the family; the other accommodates guests, staff, offices and classrooms. Both share access to grounds featuring a swimming pool, basketball court, lake and stream. Eight Crestron processors provide integrated control throughout the estate, communicating continuously to deliver seamless, unified operation. Its Crestron Integration Award for Best International Project in EMEA was one of five consecutive Crestron Integration Awards won by Custom Controls, a record unique in the EMEA region.

Audio Video Distribution — Two Villas and Gardens

The AV system is built around a Crestron 32×32 HDMI matrix. Any of five satellite TV receivers, five Kaleidescape movie players or four Apple TVs can be routed to any display in either villa or the grounds. Stereo audio distribution covers 72 zones via Crestron Sonnex, drawing from eight Sonos players providing internet radio and Spotify across all zones, with four dedicated Kaleidescape audio streams for high-quality music playback.

Artcoustic on-wall speakers in family and guest rooms are complemented by high-end in-ceiling speakers in bathrooms and communal spaces. The gym features the highest tier of Artcoustic speakers with subwoofers, two 65-inch ceiling-hung TVs and a dedicated workout audio programme. Five surround sound zones include the master bedroom suite, kids’ playroom and the dedicated basement home cinema room.

Every system on the estate runs through the same Crestron environment, and the project draws on each of our core smart home services, from whole-home control and multi-room audio to lighting, climate and security.

Garden, Pool and Basketball Court Audio

The grounds are served by Origin Acoustics cabinet speakers suspended discreetly from palm trees, with sunken subwoofers at the pool and dining terrace areas. The basketball court has four cabinet speakers mounted on the floodlight towers with two subwoofers sunk into the court surface — delivering a level of outdoor audio quality rarely achieved in any residential project. Twelve iPads provide distributed control of every zone across both villas and the full grounds. Because the outdoor zones draw on the same centralised sources as the villas, the same music can follow guests from the house to the pool terrace, or each outdoor area can play its own.

Dedicated Home Cinema Room — Artcoustic Install of the Month

The family villa houses a dedicated home cinema room designed from the acoustic shell outward — one of the finest private cinema installations we have completed. A 3.5m Screen Excellence screen with a SIM2 projector, an Artcoustic surround sound system with Anthem processing and amplification, eight Cineak reclining cinema chairs with backlit Onyx side tables, and a Kaleidescape movie server providing lossless audio and full-quality video. The room also has access to all whole-house AV sources via the Crestron matrix, so live sport, satellite TV and streaming are all available on the cinema screen at any time. The cinema design and installation won Artcoustic Install of the Month, and the room remains in near-daily use.

The room is a trapezoid, slightly wider at the rear than the screen end, with a false wall concealing the front speaker array and four subwoofers, a pair of Artcoustic surround speakers level with each row of seats, and a star effect ceiling above. A Crestron TPS-6X wireless remote controls the projector, lighting and air conditioning from a single device. This was also the earliest project where we specified Cineak seating, and it remains one of the clearest demonstrations of why Cineak has been our default cinema seating ever since.

Magico & Soulution Hi-Fi Listening Room

Alongside the cinema room, one room in the family villa is given over entirely to two-channel music listening — a dedicated Magico S5 Mk II hi-fi system driven by Soulution 511 and 520 electronics, with a Lumin U1 streamer drawing from the same centralised Crestron music sources that serve the rest of the estate. Where the cinema room is built for immersive, multichannel film sound, this room is the estate’s purist counterpart: no compromise anywhere in the signal path, but still fully integrated into the same Crestron control system as every other space on the property.

The Magico S5 Mk II is partnered with a Magico Ssub M subwoofer, which extends the bass without asking the S5 Mk II’s own woofers to work beyond the register they are voiced for. The Soulution 511 power amplifier is rated at 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms, rising to 280W into 4 ohms and 560W into 2 ohms, so the Magico’s impedance swings are met with effortless current delivery. It is one room in a very large estate, but specified with the same single-minded focus as a dedicated listening room in its own right.

Lighting — 400+ Channels Across Two Villas and Gardens

Over 400 Crestron lighting channels cover both villas, the gardens and all outbuildings, with over 100 keypads throughout. Simple keypads in each room allow one of three lighting scenes to be recalled or individual channels to be adjusted. A user-adjustable scheduler automates garden and external lighting at dusk and dawn — ensuring the estate always presents correctly regardless of whether anyone is on site. Garden firepit control is integrated into the same Crestron interface, operated from any touchpanel, keypad or iPad.

Air Conditioning and KNX Integration

A third-party KNX air conditioning system is seamlessly integrated via Crestron, providing precise room-by-room temperature control from any touchpanel or iPad. A dedicated house manager interface shows live temperatures across the entire estate and allows rapid zone reconfiguration for guest room preparation. The intelligent Crestron management of the KNX system means the estate operates at approximately half the energy consumption of an equivalent unmanaged property — significant across a Dubai installation of this scale where air conditioning loads are continuous and substantial.

Integrating the air conditioning into Crestron, rather than leaving it on a separate KNX interface, is what makes that saving possible: climate becomes part of the same schedules and scenes as the lighting and AV, rather than a system running alongside them. More on our climate control →

Enterprise Network, WiFi and CCTV

An enterprise-grade gigabit network with WiFi access points throughout both villas and across the full grounds supports all AV, lighting, CCTV and climate systems operating simultaneously without contention. HD CCTV cameras run over the same managed network, viewable on any TV in either villa or via smartphone from anywhere in the world. The network was designed with full redundancy so that no single point of failure can affect the operation of any critical system.

Control Throughout the Estate

Crestron touchpanels, keypads and twelve iPads give every member of the household and staff control appropriate to where they are. The main villa control interface shows the property as a floor plan, so any room can be selected and its lighting, climate and AV adjusted in a couple of touches. Crestron control extends into the wine cellar and the boardroom, where the Kaleidescape movie servers are also available, and a bathroom mirror TV sits alongside its own integrated Crestron touchpanel. However large the estate, the experience in each room is the same: one familiar interface for every system.

Frequently Asked Questions — Dubai Estate Crestron Installation

Is the dedicated home cinema room part of this same Dubai estate?
Yes. The 8-seat home cinema room sits within the family villa and shares the same Crestron control system and AV sources as the rest of the estate, and won Artcoustic’s Install of the Month in its own right.

Is there a dedicated music listening room on the same estate?
Yes. A separate room houses a Magico S5 Mk II two-channel hi-fi system with Soulution electronics, streaming from the same centralised Crestron music sources as the rest of the estate.

How large is the Crestron system?
Eight Crestron processors control 72 audio zones, 32 video zones, five surround sound zones and over 400 lighting channels with more than 100 keypads, across two villas and the grounds.

How is the air conditioning controlled?
A third-party KNX air conditioning system is integrated into Crestron for room-by-room control from any touchpanel or iPad, and the managed system runs the estate at approximately half the energy consumption of an equivalent unmanaged property.

How is the outdoor audio designed?
Origin Acoustics cabinet speakers hang discreetly from palm trees, with sunken subwoofers at the pool and dining terrace, and the basketball court has four speakers on the floodlight towers with two subwoofers sunk into the court surface.

Crestron Installer Dubai → · Smart Home Dubai → · Home Cinema Dubai → · Whole-Villa Audio Dubai → · Crestron Home Automation → · Kaleidescape → · Artcoustic Speakers → · Origin Acoustics → · Climate Control →

Project Gallery

The estate inside and out. The images show the Crestron villa control interface, the wine cellar, the family villa living and dining rooms with their control, and an Artcoustic on-wall speaker. Outside, they show the swimming pool with its Crestron-controlled fire pits, garden audio on the terrace and the floodlit basketball court, alongside the boardroom and a bathroom mirror TV with its Crestron touchpanel.