Twelve light sources in a living room are atmosphere — or twelve switching decisions every evening. We plan and program lighting scenes over KNX and DALI, so that your house looks in the evening the way it was meant to.
A scene is a stored lighting state for a situation: ‘Cooking’ brings task light onto the island, ‘Dining’ dims warm light over the table, ‘Cinema’ takes everything down — the shading with it. ‘Good night’ turns the house dark, apart from a soft orientation light. You press one button, the house does the rest — every evening in identical quality.
Scenes deserve control points to match. We plan a small number of well-placed switches with a clear allocation — from Gira and Jung through to Basalte, our ultra-premium choice in brushed metal. Instead of a bank of switches beside the door: one switch with the scenes you actually use. Position, feel and labelling we settle during sample selection, so that the operation explains itself.
Behind every good scene sits clean engineering: KNX as the system, DALI for flicker-free dimming of every individual luminaire, transitions that are gradual rather than abrupt. Because every DALI luminaire is individually addressable, we change scenes later in software — without a metre of new cable. Your lighting control grows with your life, documented in the ETS.
Standard in every project: a few switches, a clear allocation, gradual transitions — cleanly documented in the ETS.
When light becomes part of the architecture: every luminaire individually addressed, the operation itself a design element.
Lighting planning ends at the luminaire. Lighting control begins exactly there: with the question of what happens when someone walks into the hallway at 11 at night. We see it in almost every existing property — twelve scenes programmed, two of them used, the rest known only to the integrator.
Before a single group address is assigned, we set out room by room which switch carries which function: position at the door, rocker direction, number of control points, the route from bed to bathroom. From this operating plan come the ETS parameterisation and the scene list — not the other way round.
A short press switches, a long press dims, a double press calls up the scene. Up is always brighter, down always darker — identical throughout the house. We assign press patterns deliberately sparingly: what nobody has explained to them is never found and never used. Status feedback on the LED belongs with it.
Switch labelling is operating logic in text form: short, unambiguous terms instead of ‘Scene 3’, the same order across all rooms, legible engraving or symbol. Guests, children and the cleaner have to manage without an introduction — that is the real test of a control system.
A scene is rarely only light. ‘Television’ moves the shading to the privacy position, dims the cove lighting, lowers the multiroom volume and adjusts the climate control. In one of our Basalte new builds exactly these calls come together over Sentido switches and a touch panel — one system, not four apps.
Scenes are given dimming ramps and delays: light moves over seconds, the shading starts offset, music fades in. Hard jumps feel cheap and wake everyone at night. With 800 DALI luminaires as in Villa Riyadh, the ramp decides whether a room feels calm or restless.
Presence detectors with a suitable run-on time, lux threshold and part-areas — hallway short, bathroom longer, the workplace with constant light control. At night the same detector switches to a second channel: skirting and orientation light at a low dimming level, warm, without the ceiling light and without anyone having to search.
An astro function with offset and limit times controls exterior, façade and garden lighting, rather than fixed clock times. On weekdays a different profile runs than at the weekend. While you are away, a presence simulation with offset, changing switching patterns takes over instead of the same 8 p.m. rhythm every evening.
‘Leaving’ switches the lighting off centrally, moves the shading, lowers the temperature and activates the simulation. ‘Good night’ leaves the night path standing. A panic function brings all the lighting to full immediately, inside and out. Disable and forced-operation objects stop the automation from cutting in.
Voice control only works with clean names: ‘Light dining table’ instead of ‘Actuator 4 channel B’, no ambiguity between rooms. On the touch panel and in the app we mirror the same structure as on the wall — favourites at the top, the technology behind. Voice adds to the switch, it never replaces it.
The family stores scene values itself with a long press: set the light, hold, done. Times, thresholds and favourites stay accessible over the panel or the visualisation. What genuinely reaches into the parameterisation we document properly — so that in five years’ time it is still clear why something behaves as it does.
In the end what counts is not how many scenes are in the system, but how many a family still uses daily after a year — and that is exactly what we plan for.
Not 40 options in an app, but one considered system — planned, programmed, documented.
Which situations there are in which room — and which scenes genuinely carry them.
A small number of well-placed control points with a clear allocation — from Gira and Jung through to Basalte.
Every luminaire individually addressed, dimming curves matched, groups changeable later in software.
Scenes, logic and transitions cleanly parameterised and documented — every adjustment stays traceable.
Dusk changeover, orientation light, everything off when you leave, presence simulation — the house serves rather than surprises.
Only daily use shows which scene needs adjusting — we stay contactable.
We work through with you, room by room, which situations there are and which switches you actually need — before the first cable is laid.
You experience switches from Gira, Jung and Basalte for real: feel, labelling and position you decide with your hands, not from a catalogue photograph.
We parameterise scenes, dimming curves and automation in the standard software for KNX — cleanly documented, so that every later adjustment stays traceable and is made quickly.
After you move in we sharpen things up: brightness levels, transitions, scene allocation. A smart home is finished in the first weeks of living in it — we stay contactable.
800 DALI luminaires across 1,200 m² orchestrated into one KNX system — including the control cabinet delivered ready-built and weeks of work on site.
Complete electrical installation with Occhio lighting, DoorBird and shading — light and operation as part of the interior, not beside it.
Sentido switches and touch panel as one consistent operating concept — when operating the light itself becomes a design element of the house.
smartfabrik is a smart home planning practice based in Düsseldorf (Reisholzer Werftstr. 31A). We plan for private clients and companies in Cologne, Düsseldorf and across North Rhine-Westphalia — and, where wanted, nationwide and internationally. A selection of the places we have already planned and delivered in:
A stored state of several luminaires – brightness, light colour, in part the shading too – that is called up with one command. Instead of dimming every luminaire separately, you press one button: ‘Dining’, ‘Cinema’, ‘Good night’. Within seconds the scene produces exactly the light that was planned for that situation.
No. Scenes sit in the KNX system and are called up primarily from switches on the wall – quicker than any app and immediately understandable for guests. A visualisation on a smartphone or panel adds to that, but does not replace it. Your lighting control works without restriction even without internet, because KNX works locally.
Depending on how it is implemented, yes: many scenes can be stored again directly at the switch – set the light, hold the button down, done. Larger changes such as new scenes or altered logic we take on by ETS programming, usually remotely. Your installation is documented with us, which is why that goes quickly.
KNX is built decentrally: there is no central computer whose failure turns the house dark. Switches and actuators communicate directly with one another. If a single device fails, that affects only its function – the rest carries on. This robustness is one of the reasons we build on KNX as the basis.
Off-the-shelf wireless solutions are quickly installed, but usually proprietary – tied to one vendor, their cloud and their product policy – and they reach their limits on scope, reliability and service life. KNX is a cross-manufacturer standard with a wired bus at its core – established for decades, supported by hundreds of manufacturers and designed for a whole house. The standard also includes a wireless variant, KNX RF. For a high-quality home that is meant to work for decades, we therefore plan KNX.
In a first conversation we settle which scenes fit your daily routine — before the first cable is laid.
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