Crestron Touchpanels and Remote Controls

We look at the Crestron range of Touchpanels and Remote Controls

An article looking in to the various control surfaces from Crestron – from in-wall and table top touchpanels through to remote controls.

Family Home Cinema Room, Dubai

A Stunning Home Cinema Room for Family Movie Nights!

A fun filled Family Home Cinema Room for a client in Dubai! Perfect for Family movie nights.

Modern Home Cinema Room Cheshire

A Modern Home Cinema Room for a Cheshire Home

A Stylish & Modern Home Cinema Room installed in Prestbury, Cheshire. A very high end cinematic experienced enhanced by a stunning lighting design!

Krix Home Cinema London

A Very High End Home Cinema in London featuring Krix Speakers

This high end, 18 seater, home cinema in London features the very best Krix Speaker System!

Loft Home Cinema Room - Hertfordshire

Loft Home Cinema Room for a Hertfordshire Barn Conversion

A Stunning design for a Loft Home Cinema for a new barn conversion in Hertfordshire.

Bespoke IMAX Home Cinema Room - Dubai

High End IMAX Home Cinema Installation in Dubai, UAE

One of the best Home Cinema Rooms in the world! An IMAX Home Cinema Room with a HUGE specification. A must read!

Hampstead Home Cinema Room Design

A Very High End Home Cinema For a Beautiful Home in Hampstead

A very high end Home Cinema Room Design for a Client in Hampstead, London. Seating for 10 people in a beautiful classical room. A Must See!

Bowers & Wilkins Custom Theater 800 Cinema Room

Bowers & Wilkins Custom Theater 800 Cinema Room

A Simply Stunning Bowers & Wilkins Custom Theater 800 Home Cinema Room. Very high end with bespoke seating for up to 18 people! A Must See Case Study!

Home Entertainment Complex - Prestbury, Cheshire

Home Entertainment Complex - Prestbury, Cheshire

A Stunning design for a Home Entertainment Complex in Prestbury, Cheshire. A huge room featuring a Home Cinema, Pool Table, Lounge Area and Kitchen!

Small Home Cinema Room Design, London

A High End Immersive Cinematic Experience

One of our smaller Home Cinema Rooms – yet it delivers a stunning and immersive audio video experience! Seating for up to 9 people in comfort!

Home Cinema Room Design - District One, Dubai

A Beautiful Home Cinema Room in Mohammed Bin Rashid City, Dubai

A beautiful Home Cinema Room Design for a Villa in District One, Dubai. Seating for 9 people in a stunning home cinema room!

Home Cinema Room Design - Al Barari, Dubai

A Stunning Home Cinema Design for a Villa on the Al Barari Estate

A full write up for this extremely high end home cinema room design for a basement in the Al Barari estate, Dubai. Seating for 12 people in absolute luxury!

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HOME CINEMA ROOMS

Absolutely Everything there is to know about Home Cinema Rooms

Absolutely everything there is to know about Home Cinema Rooms. From how we desgn & build them through to different design styles. A must read!

TOP 5 LIVING ROOM TV SOLUTIONS

We share our Top 5 Living Room TV Solutions

Our Top 5 Solutions for integrating TVs in to Living Spaces – the options are many. A must read if researching how to install your TV in the living Room!

CRESTRON FLEX – UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

The Perfect Solution for Microsoft Teams and Skype Business

Crestron Flex for Microsoft Teams / Skype Business Integration – The World’s Leading Unified Communications Solution for Business. Available Now.

Home Cinema Garage Conversion - Hale, Cheshire

Home Cinema Garage Conversion - Hale, Cheshire

A Home Cinema Garage Conversion in Cheshire, Hale. A stunning Home Cinema Room with HUGE projection screen and Sony laser projector!

HOME CINEMA ROOM DESIGN – NIGERIA

Stunning Cinema Room Design Meets One of The Best Home Cinema Systems

When a client based in Abuja, Nigeria asked us to design a Home Cinema Room for his home he had one brief – quality. As experts in cinema design we are used to maximising return for a clients budget –

FACIAL RECOGNITION SECURITY SYSTEMS

Integrating Facial Recognition in to Security Systems & Home Automation

In recent years biometric finger print access has been used to replace security codes and security alarm fobs for convenience and heightened security. However we always been slightly

HOME WIFI – WIRED WIFI VS MESH WIFI

How to improve Wifi in a residential setting

In the modern home WiFi should be treated as a utility – everyone needs it and it should be fast, reliable and always available. Unfortunately the ISP provided routers are generally low quality and built to very tight budgets. This can result in a

CRESTRON SYSTEMS FOR DISABLED CLIENTS

How Home Automation Can Make Life Easier

A Crestron Home Automation system can make life a lot easier for clients with a disability such as reduced mobility, vision or hearing. A well installed system can increase independence and reduce the need for careers.

ULTIMATE GAMING ROOMS

A Gaming Oasis installed in a family home

Our Home Cinema Rooms aren’t solely for movie nights with the family – they also perform stunningly well as gaming rooms. High end surround systems fully immerse the player with audio coming from all sides, behind and even the ceiling! The

SPOTLIGHT ON CRESTRON LIGHTING

How Does Crestron Lighting Work & How is it Installed?

If you are reading this then you are probably interested in a lighting system for home. Whether this is the first article you have read, or you are at the end of your research, we feel this article will help you work out what you need and why.

CRESTRON QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

Answers to the Most Common Crestron Questions

We have answered the most common questions asked about Crestron Home Automation systems so whether you have just heard the term and need to know what it is or you have a complete Crestron system installed in your home, the answer

AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT TRINNOV AUDIO

Why Choose a Trinnov Home Cinema?

OK, You are in the market for a Home Cinema to be installed in your home by a home cinema installation company. Why would you choose a Trinnov system? What does it offer over a high end AVR from the likes of Anthem or Denon? It costs a

CRESTRON HOME OS 3

Crestron Pyng Upgraded & Enhanced!

In this blog post we explained about how Crestron Pyng is revolutionising the Home Automation market. The imminent release of OS3 (UPDATE – Released and available on the app store as of September 2019!!) brings a huge amount of improvements

HOW WE WORK WITH ARCHITECTS AND INTERIOR DESIGNERS

Ensuring Complete Client Satisfaction

We regularly work with Architects and Interior Designers to deliver their vision of a client space. We are Home Technology specialists which means we can simply the process of integrating home technology in to a home and crucially

CRESTRON WINDOW COVERINGS

Crestron Electronic Blinds & Curtains

Crestron dimming systems are well established in the lighting control system field. Hugely flexible and powerful lighting control systems are as happy dimming a studio apartment as they are controlling the lighting for a multi-building complex.

WHAT IS A LIGHTING CONTROL SYSTEM?

A Beginners guide to Lighting Controls

What do you think of when you think about home lighting? Perhaps it’s the bulb hanging from the pendulum fitting in your living room. Maybe it’s the standard lamp in the corner. There are a few variations on the theme, but that pretty much covers

HOME AUTOMATION? WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?

An in depth explanation of Home Automation & Smart Home Technology

Everything these days is “smart”, from your smartphone through to smart TVs. You might be able to remember when all this technology began to be introduced – it wasn’t that long ago. Like every new

AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT CRESTRON PYNG

UPDATE!! Crestron Pyng will shortly be upgraded to Crestron Home OS3 – A huge upgrade which is due Spring 2019. Read more here – https://www.customcontrols.co.uk/blog/crestron-home-os-3/

Crestron Pyng Comes of Age!

Crestron Pyng has been around for a

DOUBLE GARAGE HOME CINEMA CONVERSION

Converting an Used Double Garage in to a Bespoke Home Cinema Room

Double Garages can be the perfect space to transform in to a stunning, bespoke home cinema room. Very few people actually park cars in their garages nowadays as cars get bigger and the

INTRODUCING: SONY CINEMA PROJECTORS

Our go to Home Cinema Projectors

Sony have been our go to range of Home Cinema Projectors for some time now – they represent great value for money and the range ensures a projector for most budgets and requirements. The latest range has a stunning 4K resolution and is

BESPOKE HOME CINEMA ROOM DESIGN

A Stunning Bespoke Home Cinema Room Design for a London based Client

A Stunning Bespoke Home Cinema Room Design for a London based Client

We love designing home cinema rooms and this client came to us with the perfect brief – “Please convert this unused room in my home in to a bespoke home cinema room.” The client pointed us in the

SMART HOME INFOGRAPHIC

An Infographic to Explain What We Do

We have created the below Smart Home infographic to clearly show what we do. We hope you enjoy it – feel free to share it around social media etc! You can download as a pdf here.
What Can A Smart Home Do for You?

How to Choose a Home Cinema Projector Screen

How to Navigate the Huge Array of Projector Screen Options!

We have a huge range of Projector Screen options available for home cinema designs and we thought an article laying out the differences and explaining why we choose certain models over others might be handy for prospective clients and also

MOVIE ASPECT RATIOS EXPLAINED

Widescreen, 16:9, 1.85:1 and 2.39:1 – What!?!

Movie aspect ratios seem very confusing! What do they mean and how do you decode them?

In the good old days with 14″ portable TVs which were as deep as they were wide we used to watch TV on a 4:3 (or 1.33:1)

SAMSUNG THE FRAME TV

A Totally New Approach to Installing TVs

The new Samsung “The Frame” TV is one of the best products we have seen for some time. Normally we balance TV picture quality with aesthetics – normally choosing Samsung TVs to go in our home entertainment systems due to the great

LIGHTING & AV CONSULTANTS IN LONDON

Specialist Lighting & Audio Video Consultancy in London

As Custom Installers we design and install high end lighting and audio video distribution systems. We fully appreciate that our high end systems are not suitable for every home being built and for every client, however we do feel every new build

SPOTLIGHT ON ORIGIN OUTDOOR

Using Origin Acoustics Outdoor Speakers

We regularly install audio solutions in to swimming pools, terraces and gardens but they can be very tricky places to make audio sound good – particularly if the area is also a video zone with the need to hear voices clearly. Our usual audio distribution

THE C SEED OUTDOOR CINEMA SOLUTION

Using C Seed to Install the Perfect Outdoor Home Cinema

Outdoor cinema makes perfect sense in climates warmer than most of the UK. Our Clients in Dubai and Africa spend huge amounts of time outdoors – hosting dinner parties and enjoying time in their swimming pools. The logical extension to

INTRODUCING AGATH MIRROR TV

High End TVs hidden behind Mirrors!

Agath Mirror TV solutions have been featuring in our whole home audio video installations for some time – traditionally with a small mirror TV at the end of the bath or in the shower. They are a great way to relax and catch up with recorded TV

Home Cinema Acoustic Treatments

How We Design & Install Home Cinema Acoustic Treatments

Acoustic treatments are fundamental to delivering a good home cinema room. It is important to minimise unwanted reflections in a room across all frequencies – so no boomy bass or “chattery” spaces.

INTRODUCING CINEAK HOME CINEMA SEATING

High Quality & Hugely Flexible Home Cinema Seating

We have been specifying and installing Cineak Home Cinema Seating for years (our earliest case study with it is our Dubai Home Cinema Room) for a few simple reasons:

• The range is huge. There is literally

CHOOSING HOME SECURITY SYSTEMS

Follow our Guide to Choosing Home Security Systems

Unfortunately a good home security is a necessity in the modern world but there are so many options! Follow our guide to choosing home security systems. Most people look around at their neighbours homes to get the contact of a local alarm

AMAZON ALEXA FOR MULTI-ROOM AUDIO

Amazon Alexa – The future of Multi-Room Audio?

There is no doubt voice control is here to stay and leading the charge is Amazon Alexa. The convenience of being able to start and stop your favourite music simply by talking to Alexa is revolutionary – and that is only one trick up Alexa’s sleeve.

Home Cinema Lighting Design

How to Design the Perfect Home Cinema Lighting

Home Cinema lighting design is crucial to creating an enjoyable home cinema room. Lighting levels should be just right to create the perfect environment!

CRESTRON DESIGN & PROGRAMMING

Crestron Design & Programming in London & Cheshire

Proper Crestron design is fundamental to delivering a reliable home automation system. We are an official Crestron Dealership which means we are trained by Crestron on the latest technologies and best practices for system installation and

SPECIFYING HOME CINEMA SEATING

How to choose a specific type of Home Cinema Seating

Home Cinema Seating is one of the most important elements to a successful Home Cinema Installation – clients can spend a lot of time spent in one position watching a film or a box set and they must be comfortable. If the seating choice is wrong

GARDEN HOME CINEMA ROOMS IN LONDON & CHESHIRE

Garden Home Cinema Rooms – Create the Perfect Home Cinema.

Building a garden room can be an easy way to add value and space to your home – transforming the old patio at the bottom of the garden in to a stunning room which is isolated from the rest of the property. A

VISIT THE CRESTRON SHOWROOM LONDON

The Best Home Automation Showroom in London

As London based Crestron Specialists we love taking clients to the Crestron Showroom London. The Showroom resembles a high end apartment packed with the latest technologies – it’s a great way to show clients the possibilities and

THE ULTIMATE SMART HOME AUTOMATION GUIDE

Everything there is to know about Smart Home Automation

Smart Home Automation systems allow complete control of your home while home or away – providing convenience, comfort and security. Most home automation systems come complete with some form of Artificial Intelligence – for example a

Top 20 Home Cinema ideas

Our Top 20 Home Cinema Rooms as shared on Social Media

Our top 20 cinema rooms – as shared and liked on our social media accounts!

VISIT THE ARTCOUSTIC SHOWROOM IN CHELMSFORD

Experience one of the Best Home Cinema Systems in Europe!

Experience the Artcoustic Range of Multi-Room Audio and Home Cinema Speakers in absolute comfort! One of the best Showrooms in the UK!

DESIGNING YOUR DREAM HOME CINEMA

We Help You Design Your Dream Home Cinema Room

Who goes to the cinema anymore? We live in a world where entertainment is a lot more personal and, because it is easily accessible, a lot more comfortable. After all, if you can put together the best home cinema in your own home, why would you

SPECIFYING HOME CINEMA SCREENS

Ensuring you have the right size Projection Screen

Choosing the right size home cinema screens is crucial to designing a successful cinema space – but it is a tricky thing to get right! Before working out sizes there are a couple of decision points – is this a dedicated cinema or a room

TOP 5 POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A CRESTRON DEALER

How to choose a Crestron Dealer? Top 5 Things to Consider.

So, you have decided on a Crestron home automation system – you have done your research and have a rough idea of costs – how do you choose a Crestron dealer to work with? This is a crucial question and

BUILDING A HOME THEATER??

The Five Steps to Building a Successful Home Theater or Cinema Room

Building a Home Theater? Our team of expert installers share their knowledge to allow you to build a successful home theater or cinema room. The key to success is preparation and planning –

HOME CINEMA DESIGN FOR GHANA

Home Cinema Design for a Ghana Private Cinema Room

Our high end Home Cinema Designs all benefit from full renders – allowing clients to visualise the space before construction begins. This home cinema design for ghana has been produced to show a client the home cinema room designed to fit in a

TRINNOV HOME CINEMA 3D AUDIO SYSTEM

Introducing the Stunning Trinnov Home Cinema Audio Solution

It could easily be argued that the Trinnov home cinema range of audio products (the Trinnov Altitude32 Pre-amplifier, Magnitude32 Processor and Amplitude8 amplifier) are the most important home

HOME CINEMA SEATING – DISTANCES?

What is the correct distance from the screen for home cinema seating?

When designing a home cinema room the distance from the screen to the seating is crucial to delivering a great user experience. There are a number of variables to take in to account – room size,

SPECIFYING HOME CINEMA PROJECTORS

Choosing Home Cinema Projectors For Cinema Rooms

There are a huge array of home cinema projectors available so how do we choose which model to install in our home cinema and home theater rooms? We have a number of criteria which we evaluate when proposing a projector for a

HOME CINEMA DIMENSIONS

Ideal Home Cinema Dimensions & Ratios

A well designed home cinema room will allow your sound system to perform at its absolute best – home cinema dimensions are the key. Standing waves and acoustic reflections can influence even the most expensive sound system available –

CRESTRON VOICE CONTROL – ALEXA, SIRI & GOOGLE HOME

Crestron Voice Control with Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri & Google Home

It’s not that long ago that controlling your home via your voice would of seemed particularly far fetched. Voice control in cars had been around in niche vehicles for some time but was fairly unreliable and

CASE STUDY:- SONOS MULTI-ROOM AUDIO INSTALLATION PUTNEY, SW15

Sonos Multi-Room Audio & Home Cinema – Putney, SW15

One of our simpler jobs –Multi-Room Audio Installation Sonos London (Putney, SW15) – this client got in touch as she had just purchased a new home which was wired for Multi-Room Audio but had no sources in place. She has Sonos

BOWERS & WILKINS SPEAKERS – B&W DEALER & INSTALLER

We supply the full range – Custom Install to Cabinet Speakers

We are very pleased to be a partner of the British speaker manufacturer B&W. We have access to the full range of equipment, from their custom install range to the 800 series speakers installed in

SMART HOME VS HOME AUTOMATION VS CONNECTED HOME

Home Automation, Smart Homes and Connected Homes – Explained

Smart Home vs Home Automation vs Connected Home – With the rise of the Internet of Things more and more people are realising the benefits of an intelligent home. New products from the likes of

INTRODUCING THE AUTONOMIC MMS MUSIC SERVER

A Hugely Flexible Digital Music Solution from Autonomic.

The Autonomic MMS Music Server frequently serves as the cornerstone to our whole house audio systems. The MMS is a hugely flexible digital music server – allowing a world of music to be enjoyed anywhere in the home when partnered

LUTRON LED LAMPS

Lutron Homeworks QS, Quantum and Grafik Eye Compatible LEDs

Lutron lighting control systems excel at energy efficient mood lighting and automated lighting controls – however specifying compatible Lutron LED lamps has always been far from straightforward. Cheaper LED lamps can change colour

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A SMART HOME SYSTEM?

8 Ways Smart Home Technology can benefit Home Owners.

What are the Benefits of a Smart Home System? Smart Home Systems are becoming more and more common, with a huge number of devices becoming “Smart Home Enabled”. A huge number of manufacturers are making enabled

AUDIOQUEST CABLES – DEALERS & INSTALLERS

High End Audio Video – Audioquest Cables & Interconnects

Audioquest cables and interconnects make a huge difference to audio quality in a high end audio video installation. Our larger multi-room systems can have a huge number of zones, sometimes up to

LUTRON LIGHTING VS KNX VS Z-WAVERF – WHICH IS BEST?

A head to head comparison of Lutron, KNX and Z-WaveRF

Here at Custom Controls we believe home lighting systems should be one of the first things installed in to a new home or substantial renovation. They add convenience and security whilst showing your home off at it’s best and save energy

UPGRADE TO A LUTRON OR CRESTRON LIGHTING SYSTEM

We specialise in upgrading Mode, iLight, Vantage & Rako Lighting.

Due to the huge flexibility of Lutron and Crestron lighting control systems we can guarantee to upgrade old, obsolete lighting control systems to modern, efficient and reliable versions. We have a number of

CRESTRON VS SAVANT – WHICH IS BEST??

Crestron and Savant Smart Home Systems Explained

If you are planning to install a Smart Home system in to a residential property you will probably come across Crestron and Savant (and Control 4 but we have that covered here). These companies are the two main players in the residential smart

SPOTIFY INTEGRATION IN TO A HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

Integrating Streaming Services into a Home Entertainment System

Spotify Integration is a great feature of our home entertainment systems. There is no doubt that the future of music streaming around the home is internet based – services such as Spotify, Pandora and

CRESTRON INTERCOM SOLUTIONS

Using a Crestron Home Automation System for Intercom Functions

Update! Crestron have just partnered with 2N – a high end IP based intercom company. This allows us a huge range of door intercom stations (from a simple camera, microphone and bell right through

ENERGY MONITORING AND SMART HOME AUTOMATION

Using Smart Home Automation Systems for Energy Management

Smart Home Automation systems excel in new build properties – more and more new build properties have high amounts of insulation and renewable energy elements. Our Smart Home systems increase

MOOD LIGHTING

An explanation of Mood Lighting Systems

As a company we install lots of Mood Lighting Systems. This blog entry aims to address some of the common questions we are asked by prospective clients.
A mood lighting system is simply a lighting system which controls the lights in a room

HOME AUTOMATION FOR LARGE HOMES

Why Home Automation Systems Excel in Large Homes

A well designed, installed and programmed home automation system is a convenient way to control electrical devices in the home. Touchpanels and iPads allow simplified control of different subsystems and whole house pages allow

CRESTRON VIDEO DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL

An in depth review of the Crestron Digital Media system

The Crestron Digital Media system forms the video distribution back bone of all our projects. It is a hugely powerful and scalable video distribution system – allowing any video source to be sent to a display over HDMI, Cat6 or Fiber

CRESTRON AUDIO DISTRIBUTION & CONTROL

Crestron Sonnex – Multi-Room Audio – An in depth review.

The Crestron Audio Distribution – Crestron Sonnex system is central in the vast majority of our designs – it’s a hugely flexible system which allows 24 audio inputs which can be distributed  to up to 72 individual audio zones! Any input

CRESTRON VS LUTRON VS CONTROL4 – WHICH IS BEST?

A run down of the best Home Automation Systems on the market today.

If you are in the market for a home automation / smart home system you have probably come across the three big players in the industry and are comparing them – Crestron vs Lutron vs Control4.

CRESTRON ENERGY MONITORING AND CONTROL SOLUTIONS

Be in Total Control of Your Home Energy

Prospective clients tend to get in touch with us when hunting for a great audio video solution for the home – Multi-Room Audio Video, Home Cinema, perhaps some Lighting Control. On a new build property we can do much more. As solar panels,

WHAT CAUSES FALSE ALARMS IN WIRELESS HOME SECURITY SYSTEMS?

Troubleshoot Your Wireless Alarm System

Wireless home security systems are becoming more common – even in high end homes due to ease of installation and incredibly long battery life. Wireless can be a great way to expand a pre-installed system – for instance enhancing a home

THE ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF A HOME LIGHTING CONTROL SYSTEM

Is a Home Lighting System always a good idea?

First of all we need to lay our cards on the table – if we were embarking on a new build or renovation project a lighting control system would be the number one requirement. If budget was an issue we would install a lighting control system

HOME CINEMA SPECIALISTS – CALIBRATION EXPERTS

Make Sure Your Cinema is Performing at its Absolute Best!

As Home Cinema Specialists we are experts at designing and installing Home Cinema systems. For each and every system we install we preform a full calibration service – after all the best equipment in the room needs setting up

NEST INTEGRATION WITH CRESTRON HOME AUTOMATION

We Love Nest!

The Nest Thermostat and Nest protect (of which we are certified installers!) are bringing home automation within easy reach of most home owners. We have been offering advanced scheduling and control of Heating & Cooling for years – the savings can be immense and it is

CASE STUDY:- APARTMENTS ON KNIGHTSBRIDGE LONDON

10 Lancelot Place, Knightsbridge, London (opposite Harrods)

We have just finished working on this new apartment block opposite Harrods on Knightsbridge.Each of the 55 apartments is pre-cabled to allow easy installation of a full multi-room audio video system

CASE STUDY:- CRESTRON MULTI-ROOM AV IN LIVERPOOL

Crestron Adagio Whole House Multi-Room AV & Home Cinema

Our clients were a young couple based in Liverpool who were in the process of building a new home. The brief included a whole house audio system with surround sound home cinema in the lounge and large TV’s in the kitchen and bedroom. The

CASE STUDY:- WIRELESS LIGHTING IN MARBELLA, SPAIN

Whole Home Wireless Lighting System

This install of a Rako wireless lighting system in this villa in Marbella, Spain created some technological challenges for us – the villa was substantial, split over 3 floors and of a concrete and marble construction. The Rako wireless

CASE STUDY:- EXETER FRIENDLY SOCIETY BOARDROOM AV

High End Boardroom Audio Video & Control

“Custom Controls were a pleasure to deal with from conception to delivery. They understood our requirements perfectly” – Mr Mark Moreland, Exeter Friendly Society, Operations Director.

The Brief