AV Case Study: Luxury Home Automation Project, Port Elliot
Adelaide Home Control throws the kitchen sink at this luxury weekender. RTI automation stars, providing comprehensive single-point control.
1 December 2025
Text:/ Christopher Holder
Photos:/ Leading Lines Photography
Adelaide Home Control offers sound and vision, home automation, security, smart wiring, multi-room sound and electrical services. Very occasionally, a client will want the whole buffet.
“We cover a wide range of services,” explains Adelaide Home Control boss, Nerge Agusi. “Security, keyless access, networking and wi-fi; we’re accredited for C-Bus; RTI automation, TV installs, home cinema, Sonos, CCTV… a huge broad range of products and systems. This was one of our bigger projects.”
The home – a beachside weekender outside of Adelaide – incorporates everything that opens and shuts, and, by necessity, needed careful planning: “It was a new build and a tilt slab construction,” explains Nerge. “So all of the conduit needed to be planned prior to getting on site. Add to that, there’s a full-height void or atrium in the middle of the house that needed traversing. It made any variations in scope a tough assignment.
“But it did mean we needed to work closely with the architect from the early planning stage. The architect was very accommodating. If something needed custom fabrication to achieve an outcome, then, no problems. For example, in the living room the architect designed a marble cover to conceal a cavity for two subwoofers next to the TV. The cover needs a suction cup to remove but creates a seamless integration with the surrounding marble finishes.
“Another example is the bedroom TV which rises out of the joinery and can spin 180 degrees depending on whether the owner is in bed or sitting in the retreat. That lift took a number of weeks to get right but achieved the result the owner was after.
“We worked really well as a team – between the electrician on site, the architect, and us – we all pulled together to make that happen. Ben and Tom from Contech [Architect] were instrumental in ‘making the building work’, to cater for all the services being installed. They were super easy to work with and very accommodating, whilst maintaining their vision of the final product.”
The bedroom TV rises out of the joinery and can spin 180 degrees depending on whether the owner is in bed or sitting in the retreat.
The architect designed a marble cover to conceal a cavity for two subwoofers next to the living room TV.
SURFS UP?
Adelaide Home Control’s mastery of C-Bus automation sees it handle all the lighting automation (sensors in most of the rooms is hugely convenient and saves on power, while outdoor lighting is scheduled), alongside motorised blinds and curtains, underfloor heating and fans.
Security is well catered for with a Ness M1 automation system and Dahua cameras, including a PTZ camera perched on the roof for the owner to check out the surf conditions.
DoorBird, is the intercom of choice, while the Sonos multi-room audio system, combined with Sonance in-ceiling loudspeakers and landscape garden speakers, ensures no space is without music – 15 zones in all.
The house is dotted with 12 Samsung TVs including a 98-inch monster in the entertainment room (alongside a 7.2.2 Krix LX-7-based Atmos setup). Augmenting the free-to-air and Apple TV content are two Foxtel boxes housed in an air-conditioned server room. HDMI extension comes courtesy of HD Anywhere encoders/decoders. Thor power conditioning and surge protection round out the rack.
With just about everything on the network, remote access provides the owner (and Adelaide Home Control, in case of any troubleshooting) with a comprehensive array of data, metrics and peace of mind.
C-Bus automation controls just about everything that opens and shuts.
A monster 100-inch Samsung TV presides over the entertainment room, alongside a 7.2.2 Krix LX-7-based Atmos setup.
RTI: RIGHT STUFF
Acting as the ringmaster for all these subsystems is an RTI automation deployment. For Nerge Agusi, the decision to standardise on RTI comes down to one word: flexibility.
“There are plenty of control systems that let you deploy quickly,” he explained, “but they restrict how you present the user interface to the client. RTI gives you the best of both worlds – speed of deployment with the ability to customise the UI to suit the project. That’s critical in a house like this, where you’ve got so much to control. Laying out the project so navigation is fast, logical, and as automated as possible takes a lot of thought. RTI allows me to do that.”
The ability to integrate multiple sub-systems into one seamless platform is another factor. “From the client’s perspective, it all has to feel like a single system,” said Nerge. “That means everything needs to talk back to the RTI head-end reliably. One of the toughest parts of my job is chasing down broken links, but with proven products and RTI’s backbone, I’ve got the confidence it’ll hang together.”
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Laying out the project so navigation is fast, logical, and as automated as possible takes a lot of thought. RTI allows me to do that
A few years back RTI overhauled its programming environment, and Nerge points to that as a turning point. “RTI introduced a module-based structure that lets you ‘cut and paste’ logic across devices and rooms, rather than coding from scratch every time. With the older ID9 platform, you were repeating yourself, and the potential for bugs was much higher. Now, if you’ve programmed a TV control template correctly, you know it’ll work in every room. That’s saved a huge amount of commissioning time.”
RTI isn’t working alone on this project. iPort iPad docks – another Amber Technology product – provide elegant user access points throughout the house. “We’ve got 11 iPads on this job, each mounted in an iPort,” Nerge noted. “They’re brilliant: wall or desktop, portrait or landscape, magnetic clip-on with charging built in. In the guest bedrooms, for instance, there’s an iPort dock on the bedside table. The client can grab the iPad if they want to walk around with it, or leave it docked as a permanent control panel.”
Amber Technology gets some props as well for its support: “Amber provides great support, to the point where they assist with designs. Amber’s Account Manager Joel Quioc is fantastic – he knows his stuff – and, if needs be, they’ll hold your hand along the way to ensure the right outcome is achieved. I’d say they’re one of the most supportive suppliers I’ve dealt with.”
There are 11 iPads providing portable control over the AV, each mounted in an iPort for power and flexibility.
OBSESSIVE DETAIL
Such a huge project for a meticulous and discerning client takes a special approach. Adelaide Home Control has worked with the client on a number of other installations and had built a rapport.
“Experience counts for a lot in this game,” observes Nerge. “I’ve gone through a lot of heartache to gain the knowledge I’ve collected, with plenty of mistakes along the way. Experience and attention to detail: my team takes pride in their work and that’s feedback we hear time and again. We get a lot of five-star reviews.
“There’s also the desire to give the customer the best outcome. Applying ourselves in the design stage is equally as important as execution. If you don’t get things right from the beginning, you’re in trouble. It’s different from just installing an air conditioner or a home cinema system out of the box. The planning that goes into every aspect of a job like this, is extreme.”
Sonance IP rated outdoor speakers take the party outdoors.
Amber Technology (RTI, Sonance, iPort, LEA): ambertech.com.au
Adelaide Home Control: www.adelaidehomecontrol.com.au
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