Home systems professionals know that few sales tools are more persuasive than a live, working demonstration. While sleek showrooms and curated vignettes help clients envision life in a smart home, nothing compares to the real thing: a fully functioning residence where technology blends seamlessly into daily life. Gordon van Zuiden of Daisy (formerly cyberManor) in Los Gatos, California, took this principle to the next level by transforming an entire 1,300-square-foot bungalow into a Control4-powered smart home and listing it on Airbnb.
Unlike traditional showrooms, this home serves as both a showcase home and a guest rental, offering visitors a hands-on experience with everything from voice-activated scenes and motorized shades to whole-house audio, and advanced surveillance.
For many guests, it’s their first time interacting with integrated home automation and it must work intuitively and flawlessly. “Visitors expect a comfortable, enjoyable, and hassle-free stay,” said van Zuiden. “There’s no room for error. That’s why we put the Control4 X4 software platform in charge of nearly every aspect of the home environment. It provides a simple way, no matter the user’s comfort level with technology, to adjust the temperature, music, security settings, and more. This leaves a lasting impression, whether the visitor is coming in for a tour or staying an entire week.”
Control4 as the Foundation
As van Zuiden explained, Control4 was the natural choice to unify the diverse technologies in the home. “It’s the primary automation system we support,” he said. “The breadth of devices it can integrate with is unmatched.” In this double-duty showroom and smart home rental, Control4 manages centralized lighting, audio and video, motorized shades, climate control, entry and gate access, surveillance, garage gates, outdoor heating, skylights and ceiling fans, irrigation and smart appliances.
Products from a number of ADI | Snap One and third party brands are all able to co-exist in the home, with broad interoperability allowing van Zuiden to demonstrate the full scope of Control4’s capabilities to builders, designers, and end-users, all under one roof.
A Living Showroom with Real Guests
Since the smart home became available on Airbnb, nearly 100 guests from around the world have stayed in the smart home. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly from those new to home automation. A recent guest described it as “a luxurious user-friendly smart home that features a fully integrated system.”
This kind of feedback is gold for integrators, validating both the ease of use and the system’s day-to-day reliability. It also reinforces Control4’s strength in creating a unified user experience across disparate subsystems.
Scene-Based Living and Energy Efficiency
Voice activation reigns as a guest favorite for a fuss-free mode of control. Saying the phrase “I’m home” raises the shades, turns on lights and music, adjusts climate settings, and activates the backyard fountain. While the phrase “I’m leaving” powers everything down and locks the doors. Equally impressive is a passive energy scene triggered when the indoor temperature hits 78°F. It opens skylights and activates a smart ceiling fan, delaying the need for AC and conserving energy stored in the home’s Sonnen battery.
“These scenes create both a ‘wow’ factor and real energy savings,” said van Zuiden. It’s automation that’s as practical as it is magical.
Ease of Use from Media Room to Entryway
Ease of use is especially important in a short-term rental environment. That’s why van Zuiden’s team selected Control4’s Halo Touch remotes for key rooms like the media room and master bedroom. With fewer physical buttons and an intuitive touchscreen interface, Halo Touch simplifies navigation for first-time users.
Another often overlooked yet critical component in user experience is gate and entry control. Control4 access control, installed in the past year, lets guests and employees open the gate with ease.
“We mounted it in a custom enclosure that blends beautifully with the gate,” said van Zuiden. “Technology has to be both functional and beautiful and Control4 nails both.”
The new Control4 X4 platform has also been a hit with guests and visitors. Running in the home for several months, its redesigned home screen, customizable widgets, and quick access to live Luma camera feeds make for a rich, responsive control experience. Plus, expanded Apple Home* integration allows Control4 to support formerly standalone devices like Kohler’s touchless faucet, deepening its compatibility within the smart home ecosystem.
A Full Stack of ADI | Snap One Solutions
At just 1,300 square feet, the smart bungalow is affectionately known as a “mini mansion.” While small in size, it mirrors the room count and feature set of much larger custom homes, just scaled down with each room outfitted to showcase specific Control4 capabilities. “This format helps our builder partners and clients visualize how these systems would work in their own homes,” noted van Zuiden.
The home is secured by an advanced suite of Luma Surveillance cameras featuring 2K resolution and built-in AI analytics through Luma Insights. These intelligent systems can accurately detect and differentiate between people, vehicles, non-motorized vehicles, packages, and pets.
With Luma Insights, users can easily view live video, search footage, and replay events directly within the Control4 app – providing instant awareness of activity around the home. For enhanced functionality, the standalone Luma View app offers even more advanced surveillance settings, greater customization options, instant video sharing, and more on their preferred mobile device.
In addition to Control4 and Luma, the home integrates a full suite of ADI | Snap One technologies including Triad speakers for whole-home and media room audio, WattBox IP-controlled outlets for power conditioning and remote reboot, Access Networks routers and Wireless Access Points fully integrated with OvrC remote management system.
These brands, available through ADI | Snap One, work together to create a resilient, high-performance system that’s easy to install, support, and scale.
Validation Through End-User Experiences
Daisy (formerly cyberManor)’s smart Airbnb bungalow is both a showroom and a test bed for integrated home automation. The project demonstrates how a Control4-based ecosystem, backed by ADI | Snap One’s broad portfolio, can deliver a rich, intuitive experience for even the most tech-wary users. For integrators, it's a living case study in how thoughtful system design, robust interoperability, and remote management can transform both the client experience and their business model.
“In the end,” concluded van Zuiden, “our goal was to show that smart homes don’t have to be complicated. They just have to be smart.”
For hi-res images, see here. For a short video on the Control4 smart home, please click here.
*Apple is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions.
