Smart Home Installer Alps
Smart Home Installer Alps — Crestron & Lutron for Alpine Chalets
UK-based Crestron Dealer of Distinction with an Alps office in Montriond, Haute-Savoie. Bespoke smart home automation for luxury chalets across France and Switzerland since the early 2000s.
Custom Controls are a UK-based smart home installer with an Alps office in Montriond, Haute-Savoie — at 297 Route du Cret, 74110. We have been delivering bespoke Crestron and Lutron smart home systems for luxury alpine chalets since the early 2000s. We are five-time Crestron Integration Award winners and hold Crestron Dealer of Distinction status. Our Montriond office covers the Portes du Soleil region directly; we also work across Haute-Savoie, Savoie and the Swiss Alps through our UK delivery methodology and trusted local partner network.
The smart home requirements of an alpine chalet are distinct from those of a primary residence. The property may be occupied for as few as eight to ten weeks per year. It may be managed as a rental property during unoccupied periods. Its owners may be in the UK, Dubai or anywhere else in the world when an issue arises. And it needs to arrive — every time, automatically — at a state of warmth, light and welcome that makes the mountain experience the best it can be. These are exactly the requirements that Crestron is designed to fulfil.
Smart Home
Music Systems
Mood Lighting
Security
WiFi
Smart Home for Alpine Chalets — What We Deliver
Crestron Home Automation. The central intelligence of every Custom Controls alpine smart home. Crestron manages heating, AV distribution, lighting, security, access control and cinema — from a single interface on a Crestron touchpanel, iPad or smartphone. The defining feature for alpine use is geofenced arrival preparation: the Crestron system monitors the owner or guests’ location and begins heating the chalet, activating lighting and warming the ski room automatically as they approach the property. Every time, without any manual action.
Heating Management. Alpine chalets are typically heated by underfloor systems across multiple zones. In unoccupied mode, Crestron maintains each zone at frost protection temperature — preventing freeze damage without the energy waste of heating the whole chalet to comfort temperature throughout the offseason. Before each arrival, zones ramp to comfort temperatures in the correct sequence. The energy saving from intelligent heating management in a chalet that may be unoccupied for 40+ weeks per year is substantial — regularly 30–40% of the annual heating bill.
Lutron Lighting & Shading. Scene-based lighting across every room in the chalet, with scenes designed for the specific rhythm of alpine chalet life — arrival, ski-day morning, afternoon rest, dining, cinema and departure. Lutron Homeworks QSX for new build chalets; Lutron RadioRA 3 wireless for retrofit installations. Sivoia motorised blackout blinds in all bedrooms.
Whole-Home Audio Video. Music in every room of the chalet simultaneously — or different sources in each zone independently. Crestron NVX for 4K video distribution to every TV in the property; Bluesound or Crestron NAX for multi-room audio; Kaleidescape for the cinema room source.
Home Cinema. Cinema rooms are the most-requested technology addition to alpine chalets. From a compact cinema room in a Morzine chalet to the 11.4.2 Dolby Atmos installation in Châtel, we design, install and calibrate every alpine cinema room to the same standard as our London and Cheshire installations. Read more on our Alps home cinema page →
Enterprise WiFi & Networking. Alpine chalet construction — thick stone, heavy timber, reinforced concrete — is one of the most challenging environments for WiFi. Consumer systems consistently fail to provide reliable coverage throughout a multi-floor chalet with these materials. We design and install Ubiquiti UniFi enterprise WiFi networks with wired PoE backbones across all floors, providing consistent, fast coverage everywhere in the chalet — including the ski room, boot room and garage. Read more →
Security and Access Control for Rental Chalets. For chalets managed as rental properties, Crestron access control with time-limited codes for each rental party transforms the guest experience — no physical key collection, no key safe, no lockbox. The rental agency issues a code before arrival; it expires automatically at checkout. Owners can view every entry and exit in the full audit log. CCTV, perimeter detection and alarm monitoring integrate within the same Crestron system.
Unoccupied Property Management
The smart home’s most important function in an alpine chalet may be what it does when no one is there. Every Custom Controls alpine installation is enrolled in remote monitoring from our UK operations — we receive automatic alerts when any element of the system degrades, when a heating zone drops below its set point, when a network device goes offline or when an unexpected entry event is logged. Most issues are resolved remotely without any site visit. For issues that require physical access, our Montriond office covers the Portes du Soleil region and our local partner network covers all other alpine areas.
Smart Home Support & Maintenance Alps
We offer pre-season maintenance visits — scheduled before each winter and summer season — covering the full system: heating configuration review, Crestron programming updates, Lutron scene verification, cinema room calibration check, WiFi network health and security system test. Annual alpine smart home maintenance contracts cover these visits alongside unlimited remote support and priority response throughout the season.
Alps Smart Home Case Studies
Châtel, Portes du Soleil
A complete Crestron and Lutron smart home installation in a large Châtel chalet — one of the most fully featured alpine smart home installations in the Portes du Soleil area. Crestron manages the heating across all fourteen zones, AV distribution to eight rooms, cinema room operation and security with access control for the rental programme. Lutron Homeworks QSX controls all interior lighting across four floors with twelve scenes per floor. The geofenced arrival system activates two hours from the property: by the time owners or guests arrive after the journey from Geneva, every zone in the chalet is at comfort temperature, the arrival lighting scene is set and the Kaleidescape library is available in the cinema room.
Megève, Haute-Savoie
A large prestige Megève chalet with a complete Crestron and Lutron smart home installation — eighteen Lutron lighting zones, Crestron heating management across sixteen underfloor zones, whole-home AV distribution, a purpose-designed cinema room and enterprise WiFi throughout the chalet and ski room. The Crestron system manages the rental programme with time-limited access codes for each booking; the full access log is available to the owner via the app at all times. Pre-season maintenance visits are scheduled each October and April, ensuring every system element is fully operational before the winter and summer seasons begin.
Morzine, Portes du Soleil
A Crestron and Lutron smart home installation in a substantial Morzine chalet demonstrating the system at a more accessible scale — eight heating zones, Lutron RadioRA 3 wireless lighting control (installed in a week without opening walls), enterprise WiFi across all five floors including the garage and ski room, and Crestron managing the whole-home AV distribution. The geofenced arrival system is the feature the owner cites most — arriving to a warm, lit chalet after a long journey from the UK has transformed how they use the property.
Alps Areas We Serve
France: Morzine · Les Gets · Châtel · Avoriaz · Megève · Chamonix · Les Contamines · Saint-Gervais · La Clusaz · Les Arcs · La Plagne · Les Menuires · Val Thorens · Méribel · Courchevel · Val d’Isère · Tignes · Alpe d’Huez
Switzerland: Verbier · Zermatt · Crans-Montana · Villars · Gstaad · Saas-Fee
Our Montriond office covers the Portes du Soleil region directly. We work with local partners across all other alpine areas.