Have lots of expirience with HA, built three systems for last 10 years, all still work great. Yet, dont have much info what is “latest and greatest” to work with HA in regard to lighting/video surveillance/AC/music/…
My thoughts are:
want indipended lighting/relay system which will work in any case, HA/internet/wifi down or not. Used Philips Dynalite in previous projects, but AFAIK it’s integration was never great. Loxone seems like good option ? Maybe Aqara ?
need 3x AC units in apartment, what manufacturer have good integration, if possible without cloud
what to use to connect cameras/video surveillance possibli with doorlock
what works best with music assistant ? would like to have all rooms covered with speakers. I have dedicated stereo system which is fine to stay off the grid, so for this need something affordable
Would like to have few wall tablets, but i guess that info can be found on forum easily.
Hardwired lighting systems like Loxone usually work independently of HA and therefore cost a lot more than the more common platforms like Z-Wave, Zigbee, Thread, etc.
Many don’t have the ability to pull Cat5/6/special so use RF protocols but with local control via wall switches (e.g. a Shellydimmer + a push switch) to give local dimming, and HA control. Shelly can also control DALI.
Music Assistant is a post all in itself. Personally, I just plug a HA VPE into good speakers as it has a decent DAC https://support.nabucasa.com/hc/en-us/categories/24451727188125-Home-Assistant-Voice-Preview-Edition
Again, from the 2026 conference presentation, there’s a lot to come from MA from album art displays to more integration.
There’s a load of Raspberry Pi-based specialist audio DACs and amps out there (although RAM pricing will make them less affordable).
Interesting question. I can’t give you specific equipment recommendations, but the first thing which jumps out at me is the phrase “latest and greatest.” In the IT field we call that the “bleeding edge.”
For a system as critical as home monitoring, automation and control, I’d stick with just a few reliable, proven, well-supported and mature protocols and hardware types. I’d try to limit the number of integrations and external dependencies.
Latest and greatest was kind of a joke just wanted to say I haven’t covered anything in past 5+ years, hope something better integrated arrived. Would like to avoid KNX, dont have good expirience with it, enything else i dont know…
In regard to electricity, EU, 250v 50hz… To be more specific i live in Serbia, but electrical standards are same as in germany/italy/etc.
Understood. First, define some limits and preferences. For me that would be (1) No vendor cloud required, (2) Zigbee using ZHA where possible, and (3) ESPHome elsewhere. I’d also be looking to minimize the number of different integrations needed to support the hardware I choose.
Why? Zigbee is mature and well supported. ZHA works great, and is embedded in HA, no extra components to add to the stack (and maintain going forward.) It also leaves you the option to move to Z2M if you find later that you must have MQTT for something. If an off-the-shelf Zigbee device doesn’t exist, and I’m into a roll-your-own solution, ESPHome is also mature and well supported. I think avoiding vendor cloud solutions speaks for itself. We’ve all seen where those can leave you.
But of course YMMV. I’m more into monitoring and manual control, with just basic automations. You seem to want to get into home theater and more advanced lighting functions, which is where my advice would be useless. But the KISS principle still applies.
this post!
just wanted to say I haven’t covered anything in past 5+ years, hope something better integrated arrived. Would like to avoid KNX, dont have good expirience with it, enything else i dont know…