I am looking to automate my home.  I have 3 audio zones, 4 video zones, 10 light zones, garage, fire and security alarms, hvac.  I also have iphones, appletv, macintosh equipment.

So who do I go with?  My goal is to have an IP based system I can control with my iphones and web browsers or os x software.  Many dealers are telling me to go with Control4 while a few others say that Netstreams might be the right solution.  Crestron & AMX are out due to budget.

Any advice?

Sadly, the question was not answered at all.  Everybody is so busy spinning their own BROAD ADVICE that they all forget about us small consumers and how we need HARD-CORE, FACTUAL COMPARISONS that nobody seems to give.  But, I can answer it because I have suffered through 20 years of trying to find such a Holy Grail; and, sadly, I am still looking.  Crestron comes the closest; but, its biggest problems are very high cost, long wait times for product, only Crestron Dealers can order product, only Crestron Dealers can program software, NOT Macintosh compatible at all, high cost for any programming and software fixes which never seem to end, some system glitches that have not yet been fixed.  I have not tried Control4 or Lifeware, but I do know that Control4 is also a company proprietary deal, like Crestron, so you cannot do anything on your own and definitely not on a Macintosh.  It also requires only Control4 Remotes and Dealers.  In the past, I have also tried out SmartHome X-10 devices with Indigo Software on my Macintosh.  The Indigo software is fabulous and just keeps getting better.  The problem is the SmartHome X-10 hardware, which is so crappy and failure ridden that it totally overwhelms the great software to make the whole system terrible.  Believe me, I spent about $15,000.00 dollars on their junk and replaced every light switch in my large home, only to find myself stuck with junk, that continues to constantly malfunction and is, after 4 years now, starting to fail completely.  Insteon is supposed to have fixed all the hardware problems; but, I simply do not trust them since they left me high and dry with all their junk.  I also had ELAN control touch panels for a couple of years; but, they are not compatible with hardly anything, so I finally scrapped all 6 of them and went with Crestron instead.  The Crestron ones work great, most of the time.  Good luck!

I like how the question was stated to list the systems that can automate a house starting around $15K for a bare-bones system.

What about the systems like HomeSeer’s PRO-100 controller that handles multiple technologies and costs a small fraction of those other three?  Their DIY software has thousands of users worldwide (according to their website) so it seems their professional stuff should have been considered.

I appreciate the suggestions. While it’s unrealistic to expect our pros to write an extensive comparison article on home automation tech and features, I can assign this topic to one of our expert writers. Thanks again.

Agree with Kevin.  While the advice to seek a professional is important, it would have been nice to get a comparison of the popular home automation technologies and features (i.e. z-wave, insteon, adoption/popularity, reliability, user friendliness, web / Internet friendly).  Really poor answer.