In pursuit of pure minimalism, almost every device in this home is hidden from view.
Set in the heart of Darlinghurst, the residence was created by a renowned interior design studio, with luxury stone and curated art throughout. It has been featured on Australia's largest real estate website.
A complex smart low-voltage system runs the whole house: lighting on the DALI protocol, audio-visual through an RTI control system, and a living-room TV hidden behind a motorised art panel. As a home used to host important guests, it demands a rock-solid network and instant device response.
When the network drops, the lights, the AV —
even the painting — all go offline.
Time and distance
Owner overseas, guests arriving
On Saturday, the owner — overseas at the time — reached out to us on WhatsApp. With the whole house offline, the original smart-home installer could not diagnose anything remotely, and important guests were checking in on Sunday.
The owner set up a three-way group chat with the original installer and Sydney IT Fix, shared the door code, and handed us full control of the on-site troubleshooting.
Inside the walls
Three problems found on site
- 01Non-standard wiringIn a tight wall cavity, cables of different types had been joined directly.
- 02Mixed-up wire orderLeft over from earlier work — no way to tell from the outside which cable actually carried data.
- 03Failed connectionsEarlier joints were never properly secured, and over time the network link had broken.
Nobody home, but the owner saw every step
Our engineer arrived at 9:30 am on Sunday. Working alone, they posted a photo at every step to the group chat, so the owner overseas could follow the diagnosis and repair as if they were there.
No blind cutting — just fix the faulty joints
Instead of cutting cables blindly, we traced each line with a professional cable tester and found the real data cable in the tangle.
We then sourced new industrial-grade connectors and redid the faulty joints properly, fixing the poor contact at its root.
Systems back online — house left as we found it
Once the link was repaired and dormant ports re-activated, DALI lighting and RTI control came straight back online. After confirming every smart command worked, we tidied the cabinet and cables, cleaned up, and returned the designer furniture to its place.
Straight after leaving, we emailed a detailed repair report and a formal invoice.
