Our mantra here at Electronic House is using electronics systems not only for fun, but to improve your everyday lifestyle. That means plenty of benefits, ease of use, conveniences – maybe a lot of stuff you didn’t think you needed before it was installed in your home that now has you thinking, “How did I ever get by without this?”

Like lighting systems, and those dimmers and keypads to control it that perhaps you never gave much thought to. Spend a few days with an AuroRa system from Lutron or pressing buttons on keypads from Vantage/Legrand, CentraLite and Colorado vNet, though, and you’ll quickly see why these Products of the Year become indispensable.

Take another step and add control solutions like Exceptional Innovation’s Lifeware 2.0 or remote capabilities from companies such as AMX, Insteon, SmartLabs, RTI, Logitech and Universal Remote and you might never want to leave the comforts of your home.

However, you will want to keep track of who’s coming and going into your personal Fort Knox, so be sure to increase the ante on security – our award-winning suggestions include Control4’s IP camera integration and Holovision’s Bio-view Access Control biometric access entry system.

And you thought fingerprint scanning was only for secret government rooms at the Pentagon!

Check out other Product of the Year Award winners.