What a smart home
actually costs.
Every integrator in South Florida will tell you “it depends” and ask you to book a call. That is not an answer. Here are the real installed ranges we work to, what moves them up and down, and what you get at each level — so you can decide whether to call us at all.
Installed price ranges.
Baselined on a 3,000–5,000 sq ft South Florida home at our Signature level. Each figure covers design, equipment, programming, installation and commissioning — not equipment alone.
| System | Typical range | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Lighting ControlLutron or Control4 keypads | $16,000–$38,000 | Keypad dimming through the main living areas, tuned scenes, and the switch-clutter gone from every wall. |
| Whole-Home AudioArchitectural speakers | $13,000–$31,000 | Six to twelve independent zones, in-ceiling or invisible speakers, streaming to any room from one app. |
| Motorized ShadesSolar and blackout | $11,000–$29,000 | Primary glass covered, scheduled to the sun. Hard-wired where possible, battery where it is not. |
| Home TheaterA dedicated room | $38,000–$120,000 | Acoustic treatment, calibrated projection or direct-view, immersive audio, seating and lighting. Does not scale with house size — a theater is a theater. |
| Video DistributionCentralised sources | $9,000–$24,000 | Every display fed from one rack. No boxes, no cables, no remotes under any television. |
| Cameras & SecuritySurveillance and access | $8,000–$21,000 | Coverage of approaches and entries, remote viewing, and alerts that distinguish a person from a palm frond. |
| Outdoor LivingPatio, pool, garden | $10,000–$27,000 | Landscape audio that disappears into the planting, weatherised video, and lighting that handles the humidity. |
| Network & Wi‑FiThe foundation | $6,000–$15,000 | Enterprise-grade switching and access points. The cheapest line here and the one that decides whether everything else works. |
| Control4 coreAdded once you have 2+ systems | $5,500–$14,000 | The processor, app and remote that make the above behave as one system instead of eight. |
A realistic whole-house number: lighting + audio + shades + network + the Control4 core, on a 5,000 sq ft home at Signature level, lands around $75,000–$170,000. Add a dedicated theater and the top of that range roughly doubles.
Same design. Different depth.
The level does not change how carefully we engineer it. It changes the hardware, the density of coverage, and how far we take the finish.
Essential
about 0.7× the ranges above- Core brands, cleanly installed
- Main living areas covered, not every room
- Wireless where wireless is genuinely fine
- Room to add later without rework
Signature
the baseline in the table- Lutron and Control4 throughout
- Whole-home coverage, engraved keypads
- Hard-wired backbone, documented rack
- Remote monitoring from day one
Reference
about 1.65× the ranges above- Ketra, invisible speakers, bespoke finishes
- Every room, inside and out
- Redundant network and power conditioning
- Coordinated with your architect and ID
What moves the number.
Pushes it up
- Retrofit into finished walls. Fishing wire through occupied, furnished rooms costs labour that new construction does not.
- A lot of glass. Beautiful in South Florida, expensive to shade. Shading is usually the line that surprises people.
- A dedicated theater. Almost always the single largest item, and the one least related to house size.
- Invisible everything. Plaster-in speakers and hidden displays carry real premiums over architectural equivalents.
- Late involvement. Brought in after drywall, we are solving instead of preventing — and solving costs more.
Brings it down
- Phasing. Wire once, add later. Pulling cable during construction is cheap; the equipment can wait years.
- Being honest about rooms. Audio in eight zones you use beats sixteen you do not.
- Wireless lighting. Lutron RA3 gets you most of the experience without opening a single wall.
- Skipping the theater. A well-executed media room in existing space delivers most of the pleasure for a fraction of the spend.
- Calling early. Coordination at design development is free. Rework is not.
Questions about the money.
Why will no other integrator publish prices?
Partly because every project genuinely differs, and partly because a range invites comparison. We think withholding it wastes everyone’s time — if $16,000 for lighting is far outside what you had in mind, you should learn that here rather than after two site visits.
Is this a quote?
No. These are planning ranges based on what we actually install in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. A quote follows a site walk and drawings. But if your project lands inside these ranges, the final number will not shock you.
What is the smallest project you take?
Realistically around $15,000–$20,000 — typically lighting control in the main living areas, or audio plus a solid network. Below that you are better served by a good local installer, and we will happily say so.
Do you charge for design?
The first conversation and walkthrough are free. Full engineering — rack elevations, network topology, load schedules, keypad engraving — is a paid design phase on larger projects, and it is credited against the installation if you proceed.
Are there ongoing costs?
Yes, and you should budget for them. Remote monitoring and support runs a few hundred dollars a year for a typical system. It is the difference between a problem we fix before you notice and a problem you live with.
Does a smart home add resale value in South Florida?
Lighting control, shading and a properly built network read as quality finishes to buyers and appraisers. Highly personalised installations — a specific theater layout, unusual control schemes — rarely return their cost. Build for how you will live, not for resale.
Put your own numbers in.
Pick the systems you want and the size of the house, and watch a range build in about a minute. No form, no obligation.
Control4 Gold Dealer · 4.9 from 44 Google reviews · Boca Raton · Fort Lauderdale · Miami · Palm Beach | sales@premiumaudiovideo.com