Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Figure 14-5:
Control4’s
wireless
touchscreen
can
control all
sorts of
devices in
your home.
Chapter 14: Other Cool Things You Can Network
that used to be in the realm of only the truly wealthy. It’s the home control
system “for the rest of us” (just like our For Dummies book)!
To keep tabs on all your automated and remotely controlled systems,
Control4 offers touchscreens such as the 10.5-inch wireless touchscreen
(shown in Figure 14-5). This device uses 802.11g and that big color screen to
show you the status of all sorts of devices and systems in your home, and the
802.11g Wi-Fi connection can send control commands back to your Control4
home or home theater controllers from anywhere in the house.
If you’re interested in home automation and linking the various aspects of
your home, try Smart Homes For Dummies, 3rd Edition (Wiley). It’s the best
book on the topic. (Can you tell that Pat and Danny wrote it?)
Doing your wireless control
less expensively
You don’t need to spring for a $50,000 Crestron installation (or even a $5,000
to $10,000 Control4 installation) to get wireless control over devices in your
home. That’s because the advent of ZigBee and Z-Wave (discussed in Chapter
3) have brought lower, commodity prices to wireless control systems.
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