Getting Started — Smart Home
What Wilsons Does in Smart Home
Control4 Home Automation (Specialist)
Control4 is Wilsons' premium smart home platform. We are an authorised Control4 dealer and have been programming and installing Control4 systems since 2014. Control4 integrates and controls virtually every system in a property from a single interface — see Control4 Home Automation — Overview for full detail.
Rako Lighting Controls (Specialist)
Rako is a professional lighting control system — wireless and wired dimmer systems with intelligent keypads and scene-based control. Rako integrates directly with Control4, and Wilsons installs it as a standalone system and as part of wider Control4 projects. See Rako Lighting Controls.
Simpler Smart Home Devices
On smaller jobs and alongside other trades, Wilsons installs:
- Smart thermostats — Hive on jobs where the customer has or requests it (Heatmiser is our specialist — see the Heating section)
- Smart lighting — Shelly retrofit switches and Philips Hue where a full Rako system is not required
- Smart doorbells and cameras — Hikvision DS-KV and Ring (see the CCTV section)
- Voice assistant integration — Amazon Alexa and Google Home
The Network Is the Foundation
Every smart home system depends on reliable networking. Before any smart home installation:
- Confirm the property has solid Wi-Fi coverage — if not, address networking first (see Wi-Fi & Networking — Getting Started)
- Control4 and Rako systems should be on a wired ethernet backbone wherever possible for reliability
- Smart home systems, CCTV, and security should ideally be on a managed switch — consider VLANs for isolation on larger installs