Autumn heathland and birch on Chobham Common, near Sunningdale. Photo: Robert Eva, CC BY-SA 2.0An Apple household? Why the platform choice matters
Both are professionally installed platforms that run lighting, heating, audio, video, blinds and security from one app and matching keypads. We install both, so our advice is not tied to selling one. If everyone in the house lives on iPhones and Apple TV, Savant will feel familiar from the first day, and its app is the more polished of the two. Control4 connects to a wider range of devices and, in our experience, handles complicated multi-room AV better. Tell us how your household uses the house and we will recommend the right fit. Whichever you choose, we pair it with Lutron lighting control for the lighting and shading, and our in-house maintenance team supports it after handover.
From our Weybridge projectGetting technology into the garden
On a big, wooded plot the garden is often where the house is used most in summer, and it is where technology is hardest to get right. Typical Sunningdale requests include:
- A weatherproof TV and speakers on a terrace or by a pool, covered on our outdoor AV page.
- Garden lighting on scenes, joined to the same app as the house.
- A cinema or games room in a garden building, with a proper network link back to the house.
- Cameras and gate entry that you can check from your phone.
One client described the outdoor result they wanted and got: "The installation was carried out professionally, with secure mounting, weatherproof connections, and full configuration to ensure the best possible picture quality in bright daylight conditions." (Scott Atkinson, Google review, on a Samsung Terrace TV we installed)
From our Weybridge projectTrees, the conservation area and the Green Belt
Running a cable or fibre duct to a garden building sounds simple until there are mature trees in the way. Sunningdale has a conservation area, and in the Royal Borough's conservation areas trees with a stem diameter greater than 75mm, measured 1.5 metres above ground, are automatically protected; six weeks' written notice must be given to the council before most work to them. Trees elsewhere may be covered by a Tree Preservation Order. So we plan trench routes around root areas and, where needed, you check with the Royal Borough before work starts.
Planning decisions here are also shaped by the Ascot, Sunninghill and Sunningdale Neighbourhood Plan, adopted by the Royal Borough in April 2014, and by Green Belt policy around the villages. New outbuildings and external equipment are exactly the kind of thing to check with the Royal Borough's planning team first. We are not planning advisers, but we flag these questions early.
Our demonstration cinema in Walton-on-ThamesWhat we have built nearby
Our nearest published cinema is in Weybridge, about 7 miles east: a basement cinema with a sports bar, where the family watches films and sport on a 126 inch screen with the speakers hidden in the walls and ceiling. Sunningdale is about 10 miles from our Walton-on-Thames showroom, where you can hear our demonstration cinema and try Control4 before you decide. Book a showroom visit or a free design consultation.
