Lutron Installer Cheshire — Homeworks QSX, RadioRA 3 & Shading

Lutron Lighting Control Installer in Cheshire and the North West

Custom Controls are a certified Lutron dealer and installer serving Cheshire and the North West from our Didsbury, Manchester office. We have been designing and installing Lutron lighting control for luxury residential properties since 1998, from new build country houses in Prestbury and Alderley Edge to period properties in Knutsford and Nantwich. We are certified for the full residential range: Lutron Homeworks QSX, RadioRA 3 and Sivoia QS motorised shading.

We are 5 x Crestron Integration Award winners, unique in EMEA as the only company to have won the award five times, and five consecutive times. We are also a Crestron Dealer of Distinction. Most of our significant Cheshire projects combine Lutron lighting and shading with Crestron automation, and the same Didsbury team designs, programmes and supports both.

Lighting Control

Lighting Design

Crestron

Smart Home

Climate Control

25 Years of Lutron in Cheshire

Lighting scenes over the pool table in the Prestbury entertainment complex, Cheshire

In more than 25 years across Cheshire and the North West, we have designed and installed Lutron systems ranging from a single room in an apartment to large estates where the main house, guest accommodation, outbuildings, pool buildings and grounds are all managed by a single Homeworks QSX system. In Prestbury, Lutron lighting scenes set the mood for every activity in a multi-zone entertainment complex, from the cinema to the pool table and lounge.

Pre-built, pre-programmed racks. Every Lutron Homeworks QSX rack we build is fully wired, tested and programmed at our workshop before it arrives on site. Dimmer modules are wired and labelled, circuits are mapped to the programme, and scenes are loaded and verified. The rack arrives in operating condition, so on-site work involves connecting circuits and refining scenes in the finished space. For Cheshire new builds where the electrician is waiting on the automation contractor, this keeps the programme on track.

Multi-building Cheshire estate design. Cheshire’s large detached properties, with separate garages, garden buildings, pool houses, annexes and gated entrances, need a Lutron system designed across several structures. We design the rack topology for each estate: a dedicated distribution board per building where appropriate, with every structure reporting to a central QSX processor. The result is a whole-estate scene that switches on the exterior lighting, closes the blinds and sets every building to its arrival configuration from a single Crestron geofence trigger.

Motorised curtains, blinds and external shading. Lutron Sivoia motorised shading is integral to every large Cheshire installation, programmed alongside the lighting circuits into every scene. The orangeries, garden rooms and large bifold door openings common in contemporary Cheshire houses are exactly where Sivoia solar and privacy management delivers the most visible benefit.

Integrated HVAC response. Through Crestron integration, Lutron shading takes part in environmental management. Blinds on south-facing elevations can close automatically in summer to reduce solar gain and air conditioning load, and where underfloor heating is managed zone by zone, Crestron coordinates the shading and the heating programme together.

Standalone programming and system takeovers. For Cheshire properties where Lutron hardware was installed by another company, or where the original installer is no longer available, we provide standalone Homeworks QSX and RadioRA 3 programming and full system takeovers: scene updates, new zones, keypad remapping, fault rectification and Crestron integration without a full reinstall. Read more about our system takeover, repair and renovation service →

Which Lutron System for Your Cheshire Property?

Lutron Homeworks QSX is our recommendation for Cheshire new builds and major renovations, including large country houses, barn conversions and new build developments. QSX is a wired system with the full Lutron designer keypad range and native integration with Ketra tunable white lighting, and it scales to manage every structure on an estate, including outbuildings, garden buildings and gated entrances.

Lutron RadioRA 3 is our recommendation for retrofit projects: existing Cheshire homes, period farmhouses, old rectories and any property where rewiring is impractical or undesirable. RadioRA 3 is fully wireless, needs no rewiring and delivers professional dimming and scene control, so a Lutron system can be installed in one of Cheshire’s many period properties without structural disruption. Compare Homeworks QSX and RadioRA 3 →

Lutron and Crestron — The Cheshire Combination

The majority of our significant Cheshire smart home installations pair Lutron with Crestron home automation. Lutron handles all lighting and motorised shading, and Crestron provides the unified interface for AV, climate, security, intercom and access control. In our Hale garage cinema, a single button press on the Crestron system lowers the screen, warms up the projector, selects the input and recalls the Lutron cinema lighting scene, and in Prestbury one Crestron system runs every zone of the entertainment complex with Lutron lighting scenes.

Lutron Motorised Blinds & Curtains Cheshire

Lutron Palladiom wireless motorised blinds

Lutron Palladiom motorised blinds and Sivoia QS curtain tracks are a popular specification on Cheshire new builds, particularly those with large glazed openings, orangeries, garden rooms and bi-fold doors. Palladiom blinds integrate directly with the Lutron lighting and Crestron systems, so a single scene button adjusts blinds across several rooms at once.

Because Palladiom is programmed in the same Lutron Designer software as every dimmer and keypad, each blind is assigned to the same scenes and responds to the same keypads and Pico remotes, so when a cinema scene activates the lighting dims and the blinds lower together from a single button press. Lutron’s location-aware automation can also track the position of the sun and adjust each blind through the day to manage glare and solar heat gain while keeping the view, and Lutron’s Intelligent Hembar Alignment keeps hembars aligned to within one-eighth of an inch across a window wall.

They are whisper-quiet and available in wired and wire-free versions, with brackets milled from solid aluminium or brass and hand-finished in seven finishes that coordinate with Palladiom keypads. Read our complete guide to Lutron motorised blinds and curtains →

Lutron Lighting Design for Cheshire Interiors

We offer a full residential lighting design service, working with your interior designer or directly with the architect to produce a lighting scheme that uses the Lutron system to its full potential. We regularly work alongside architects, interior designers and main contractors on new build and major renovation projects across the county.

A lighting design starts with how each room is used through the day and evening, then sets out circuits, fittings, colour temperatures and control positions to suit. Scenes are planned with the client before commissioning, so the kitchen, dining room and principal suite each have settings that match how the family lives. The design and the Lutron programming are carried out by the same team, so the scheme on paper becomes the scheme in the finished house.

Lutron Maintenance & Support Cheshire

We provide ongoing support for Lutron systems we have installed and for systems installed by other Lutron dealers across Cheshire. Faults, reprogramming requests, new zones, keypad remapping and Crestron integration changes are resolved remotely where possible, or by our Cheshire engineers on site. We offer annual Lutron maintenance contracts and one-off programming services for Cheshire properties. Read more about our Lutron maintenance and support →

Cheshire Areas We Serve

Alderley Edge · Wilmslow · Prestbury · Knutsford · Hale · Hale Barns · Bowdon · Altrincham · Bramhall · Poynton · Macclesfield · Nantwich · Chester · Tarporley · Northwich · Frodsham · Congleton and all Cheshire postcodes. We also work regularly across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the wider North of England.

Lighting Control Projects in Cheshire

Lighting control shapes every one of our Cheshire cinema and entertainment projects, from the slow cinematic fades in a garage cinema to scenes that switch a whole entertainment building between sport, games and film. The write-ups below describe the lighting in each project, and the case study that follows covers our glass-walled garden cinema near Knutsford.

Luxury garage home cinema with Lutron-dimmed lighting, Cheshire

Case Study: Luxury Garage Cinema, Cheshire

An unused 18ft x 20ft (roughly 5.5m x 6m) double garage converted into a cinema room in which every light is dimmed through Lutron lighting control. The suede fabric ceiling is lit by dimmable LED strip in built-out coving, and the garage doors were kept so the outside of the house is unchanged.

With nothing changed on the outside, the lighting does much of the work of turning a garage into a cinema. The suede ceiling glows from the coving, and every light in the room can be dimmed independently through Lutron, so the room can be set anywhere from bright to fully dark for a screening.

A 400mm-deep false screen wall inside the doors houses the Artcoustic front speakers and insulates and soundproofs the doors, and a Sony 4K laser projector drives an Artcoustic 7.2.4 system, so the Lutron lighting supports a room that was built for reference-level sound. Because the doors stayed, the conversion needed no planning permission and no structural alteration to the main house. Read the full write-up →

Garage conversion home cinema with Lutron cinema lighting, Hale, Cheshire

Case Study: Garage Conversion Cinema, Hale

A double garage in Hale converted into a dedicated cinema room, with Lutron lighting control managing every light in the room. LED strip runs along the edges of the walls and ceiling and drops down the back walls, with recessed LED spotlights in the ceiling above the seating area, and each light can be controlled individually.

Lutron scenes cover a bright setting for entering and leaving, a low cinema level for film viewing and full brightness for cleaning, and the transitions are programmed to be slow and cinematic, so the room dims gradually when a film starts rather than switching off.

The cinema runs on Crestron, which recalls the Lutron cinema scene as part of the same button press that lowers the screen, warms up the Sony laser projector and selects the receiver input for the Artcoustic 7.2.2 Dolby Atmos system. Externally nothing has changed: the up-and-over garage door stays in place. Read the full write-up →

Home entertainment complex cinema with Lutron lighting scenes, Prestbury, Cheshire

Case Study: Entertainment Complex, Prestbury

An open-plan entertainment space beneath the gym of a new swimming pool and gym complex in the grounds of one of Cheshire’s finest halls, where a cinema, a pool table area, a lounge for nine and a kitchen each have their own lighting. Lutron lighting scenes set the mood for every activity and are recalled from the same Crestron control system that runs the audio video, so the space can move from film to games to entertaining without anyone touching a dimmer.

Each zone has its own lighting, so the cinema end can drop to a film scene behind the 3.8m acoustically transparent screen while the pool table area and kitchen stay at their own levels. Recalling a scene from the Crestron interface changes the room as a whole rather than one circuit at a time.

That is the case for pairing Lutron with Crestron in a space like this: lighting that follows the use of the room. The audio video side is just as considered, with Artcoustic speakers in a 5.2.2 format powered by a Trinnov receiver and amplifier package for four bespoke Cineak Intimo seats. Read the full write-up →

Modern home cinema room with Little Greene Dark Lead walls, Cheshire

Case Study: Modern Cinema Room, Cheshire

A 6m x 7m cinema room in a new home entertainment complex, where the lighting design does as much work as the audio video. Small LED up-and-down wall lights at varying heights create pools of light, spotlights pick out the front curtains and each chair has its own dedicated light. The lighting dims automatically when a film starts, and the curtain spotlights and each row can be controlled independently.

With no natural light and a single matt Little Greene Dark Lead palette throughout, the lighting is the only thing shaping the room, so it was designed as carefully as the speakers. The treatments and speakers are covered in fabric matched to the walls so nothing breaks the colour, and the rear row sits on a 300mm step so every seat has a clear sightline to the screen.

The Cineak Fortuny seats in dark grey leather return to their home position when the room is switched off, leaving the cinema ready for the next visit, and the audio is a Krix and Trinnov system modelled in software before construction. Read the full write-up →

Glass-walled garden cinema studio near Knutsford, Cheshire

Case Study: Glass-Walled Garden Cinema, Knutsford

A garden cinema studio near Knutsford where the main question was light. The room has glass on two sides, because the clients wanted to see their car collection through large windows on one side and remain visible from the swimming pool and main house on the other, and as the studio was part of a landscaping project the glass had to stay. The installation won Artcoustic’s Install of the Month award.

Controlling light is what makes the room work as a cinema. When a film starts, motorised floor-to-ceiling curtains in multiple layers of specialist acoustic fabric close across both glass walls, shutting out daylight and the view, and they open fully to the garden when the room is not in use. Gathered in a Tempo Wave configuration, the fabric also adds depth and absorption, so the studio behaves acoustically like a well-designed cinema.

In a glass room, lighting design starts with the daylight, the curtains and the way the studio reads from the pool and the house, which is why it has to be planned alongside the audio video rather than after it. The 3.8m acoustically transparent screen, Sony 4K laser projector and Artcoustic speakers then do the rest. Read the full case study →

Frequently Asked Questions — Lutron Cheshire

How long have Custom Controls been Lutron installers in Cheshire?
Since 1998, more than 25 years. We have installed Lutron systems across Cheshire and the North West, from single-room retrofits to large estates with a main house, outbuildings and grounds all managed by a single Homeworks QSX system.

Do your Lutron racks come pre-built and pre-programmed?
Yes. Every Lutron Homeworks QSX rack we build is fully wired, tested and programmed at our workshop before it arrives on site. The rack arrives in operating condition, so on-site work involves connecting circuits and refining scenes in the finished space, not building from components.

Can you install Lutron across multiple buildings on a Cheshire estate?
Yes. We design the rack topology for each estate, with a dedicated distribution board per building where appropriate and every structure reporting to a central QSX processor, so whole-estate scenes operate across every building from a single keypad or a Crestron geofence trigger.

Can Lutron control motorised blinds and curtains alongside the lighting?
Yes. Lutron Palladiom motorised blinds and Sivoia QS curtain tracks are programmed into every scene alongside the lighting circuits, so a dining scene dims the lights and closes the dining room blinds at the same time.

Which Lutron system is right for my Cheshire property?
For Cheshire new builds and major renovations, Lutron Homeworks QSX. For retrofits in existing Cheshire homes and period properties where rewiring is impractical, Lutron RadioRA 3, which is fully wireless and installs without structural disruption.

Do you offer Lutron support, reprogramming and system takeovers in Cheshire?
Yes. We provide support, reprogramming, fault rectification and full system takeovers for systems we have installed and for systems installed by other Lutron dealers across Cheshire, with annual maintenance contracts and one-off programming services available.

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