Ever had a perfect day? I have. I recently enjoyed a night’s stay in the Skylofts at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas—a collection of penthouse suites appointed as stylishly as the chicest apartments on Park Avenue and automated to a degree few other lodgings in the world can match.

Upon entering the suite, I lowered the shades on the 18-foot-high windows to moderate Nevada’s intense afternoon sun. I brought the temperature down a few degrees to cool me after my jaunt from the airport. And I turned on the Bang & Olufsen plasma TV and audio system so I could catch a few minutes of CNN before hopping on the WiFi and catching up on official Home Entertainment business.

And I did all this without moving from the couch. I simply seized the Crestron touchscreen controller from the coffee table and started punching on-screen buttons. And when I awoke the next morning, I cued up a light jazz CD on the bedroom audio system, notched the heat up a few degrees, raised the shades, and elevated the lighting to a welcoming glow—all without lifting my head from the pillow.

Such luxuries may seem impossibly exotic to most people. Yet, in thousands upon thousands of homes around the world, they are now common.

Because most of us simply are not aware of what home automation products do or how they can make our lives simpler and more comfortable, we decided to profile a couple dozen of the latest, most exciting offerings in this field. Few, if any, of these products are available at retail; to acquire them, find a custom electronics installer through the manufacturers’ websites or by clicking the “Find an Electronics Systems Contractor” link in the left column on cedia.net, the home page of the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association.

COMPACT CONTROL Would that every room in every home had its own touchscreen, as my Skylofts suite did. But such luxury may be overkill for a bedroom, a bathroom, a hallway, or a laundry room. (Don’t laugh—I have seen laundry rooms outfitted with $3,000-per-pair speakers.) Touchscreen specialist AMX recently introduced several products designed to provide the convenience of home automation in these humbler settings. (Click image to enlarge)

Two 5-inch in-wall control panels—the color Modero 1 (pictured, above) and the black-and-white DMS 2—provide plenty of information to make home control easier, yet take up no more space than a couple of light switches. The Modero provides full touchscreen luxury, with on-screen buttons customized to your taste and needs just as they would be on a larger screen. The DMS uses conventional buttons along with a simpler LCD screen to provide a more basic, function-first control experience. You can also get a DMS with a touch-sensitive slide control reminiscent of the touchwheel control on an Apple iPod.

If you prefer to control everything without getting up from your chair, AMX offers the R1 3 and R2 4 customizable handheld remotes. These are like the remote controls we are all used to, but far more capable—the buttons can be custom-engraved and programmed to perform practically any task you can conceive. The same remote that changes channels on your TV and adjusts the volume level of your surround-sound system can also ramp your lights up and down. The two are identical except that the R2 uses radio-frequency transmission, so it works through walls.

HOME AUTOMATION IN A BOX Just as a home-theater-in-a-box system lets you create a home theater with but a single component, Crestron’s new Adagio line gives you the basis of an entire home automation system in the space of an audio/video receiver. The heart of the system is the AADS audio distribution system 5, which provides 45-watt-per-channel stereo audio for as many as six rooms. Connect a Crestron keypad to select the audio source and control the volume from any room. The keypads can also access the AADS’ built-in dual AM/FM radio tuners, or its XM satellite radio tuner. And the keypads can also control lighting, heating/air conditioning, and security through various add-on Crestron modules. Got more space? Add six more rooms of audio with an AAE audio expander 6. By adding one or two more AAEs, you can supply sound for as many as 18 rooms.

It seems a shame to connect such a modern multiroom audio system to an ordinary CD player, but the Adagio line offers many modern alternatives. For example, the AAS audio server 7 makes it easy to access your music collection through the AADS. Insert a CD in the AAS, and it automatically stores the music on its internal hard drive. You can see what music is stored on the AAS through a video monitor or one of Crestron’s TPMC touchscreens 8, easily selecting specific albums, artists, or tunes, or arranging custom playlists of your favorites. And the four-zone version of the AAS can play as many as four different tunes in four different rooms at once. (Click image to enlarge)

Sound like a home version of an iPod? It is. But if you prefer simply to connect your iPod directly to the Adagio system, no problem—the CEN-IPOD Apple iPod Connect dock 9 makes it easy. Add more docks to connect more iPods. Whether you decide on the AAS server or a CEN-IPOD dock (or both), consider upgrading to the APAD wall-mount LCD controller 10, which shows all the tunes on your AAS or iPod on its backlit LCD screen, so you can browse your music collection easily from anywhere in your home.

ANY WAY YOU WANT IT Many home automation companies offer custom-engraved buttons for their control keypads—but what if you someday want to change the button functions? Colorado vNet’s touchpad 11 lets your installer rework your lighting control in minutes, instead of waiting weeks to get new buttons engraved. The touchpad uses an overlay that can be produced on an ordinary computer printer. As many as eight buttons—to control lighting or multiroom audio—fit on a single touchpad. Perhaps best of all, though, are the elite finishes, including pewter 12 (pictured, above) and black marble 13.

Colorado vNet has also launched a new color touchscreen 14 (pictured, left) that looks far more upscale than the generic plastic screens most home automation companies employ. The TA1-70’s touchscreen panel seems almost to float on its chassis. It also incorporates a 35-watt-per-channel stereo amplifier, so adding sound to a room is as simple as installing the touchscreen and connecting speakers. (Click image to enlarge)

POWER TO THE PEOPLE If someday the average American home includes complete automation, Control4 may be the company most responsible. You can automate a home theater for as little as $600, starting with the AVM-HTC1-B home theater controller 15. Then add LDZ-101-W 16 automated light dimmers for $100 each, add distributed audio for a few hundred dollars more, and so on, expanding gradually until the entire house is at your command. The AVM-HTC1-B comes with a radio-frequency remote, or you can upgrade with any of Control4’s touchscreens, from the tiny TSG-3.8C1-W in-wall screen 17 (pictured, right), to the slightly larger KPM-TTK1-B tabletop screen 18, to the 10.5-inch TSM-10.51-B touchscreen 19. (Click image to enlarge)

Although Control4 touts a low-budget ethos, it recently bestowed true high-end capabilities on its products by launching a $99-per-year online service 20. Through this service, your house is online just as you would be at your computer. It can e-mail you if your son has not typed in his alarm code by 3:30 p.m., or if your elderly parents haven’t touched a light switch that day, or if your basement leaks, or if there’s a fire or a break-in. You can let the plumber in the front door from halfway around the world. The possibilities go on and on.

BETTER SERVER SERVICE Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition software offers great home entertainment options—it turns a computer into a media server, so you can watch DVDs, play music, record TV shows, view photos, etc. But it seems a shame to use all the computing power solely for entertainment. Exceptional Innovation’s Life|ware software 21 expands MCE so it can control lighting, heating/air conditioning, and security through the same attractive, intuitive interface screens that make MCE so appealing. It also controls audio throughout your home.

Of course, you can control all of this through the video display or monitor connected to your computer. Or you can add one or more of Exceptional Innovation’s stylish touchscreens: the LT890 8.9-inch LT890 22 (pictured, right) or the LT121 12.1-inch LT121 23. (Click image to enlarge)

BEYOND LIGHTING Many installers love Vantage’s robust lighting control systems and often adapt the company’s keypads to control other components in the house. In recent years, though, Vantage has expanded into complete home automation systems and gone far beyond the simple button-based keypads that made its reputation. The company’s most elegant interface to date is the new TouchPoint 1210 24, a 12.1-inch screen that controls every automated function in your home: lights, security, thermostat, video, audio, pool temperature, and more.

The 1210 interfaces with Vantage’s new InFusion controller 25, one of the most powerful home automation controllers made. The InFusion can command as many as 120 wired devices, and another 300 devices through optional wireless adapters. Which may make it inadequate for Bill Gates’ mansion, but probably makes it more than suitable for practically any other installation.