Radical Renovation Calls for PoE Shading from Somfy

When the owner of a roughly 7,800-square-foot Miami residence decided to fully renovate her home seven years after its original construction, the shading scope was significant. The project included 23 roller shades and 11 motorized drapery tracks serving bedrooms, social spaces, and large architectural openings, including windows rising 28 feet high and another stretching 15 feet wide. Quiet operation, total blackout in bedrooms, refined aesthetics, and a high degree of automation were high on the homeowner’s checklist.

Designed to integrate seamlessly with Control4 (as well as other leading third-party control platforms), the Somfy shading solution recommended by Meridiani Interior and installed by Mainstream Automation ensures precise positioning throughout the day, opening and closing automatically to manage glare and block the intense Miami sun. According to Luis Sierra of Mainstream Automation, climate control was a primary concern. “This wasn’t just about convenience or aesthetics,” he explains. “The homeowner wanted the house to actively manage heat and sunlight on its own. The shading system plays a major role in keeping the home comfortable and reducing the load on the HVAC system, especially with the amount of glass in the design.”

Coordinating reliable, precise, and exceptionally quiet movement across dozens of shades—each varying in size, style, and application—had the potential to make this a highly demanding project. Meridiani Interior and Mainstream Automation addressed those challenges by shifting away from traditional battery and line voltage powered solutions in favor of Somfy’s Power over Ethernet (PoE) Sonesse® motors for roller shades and Glydea® Ultra 60 RTS motorized drapery tracks.

With both parties aligned on a PoE-based shading configuration, Meridiani Interior led fabrication and installation while Mainstream Automation oversaw system integration, automation logic, and commissioning. “For a project of this size and complexity, PoE made a noticeable difference,” says Daniel Bolivar of Meridiani Interior. “It gave us the precision and reliability the client was missing before, and it allowed us to deliver a system that was quieter, easier to program, and far more consistent day to day.”

A New Lease on Shading Life

The decision to replace the home’s original window coverings was driven in part by past frustrations. In its original configuration, shades rarely seemed to be in the right position. Movements were inconsistent, synchronization was difficult, and quiet operation—one of the homeowner’s top priorities—was never fully achieved.

By moving to PoE-based architecture, those issues were eliminated. When power and control signals travel over a single Category 6 cable, RF interference and battery-related issues of other shading options are eliminated altogether. “For large residences with extensive automation like this, PoE replaces complexity with predictability,” says Sierra. “It creates a foundation that is inherently more reliable, scalable, and easier to support long term.”

A Layered Shading Strategy Supported by PoE

Meridiani Interior executed a layered shading approach tailored to each space. Bedrooms were equipped with side-channel roller shades to deliver total blackout and complete privacy. In social areas, including the great room, family room, and library, shades were selected to provide effective solar protection while preserving views. Large architectural openings, such as the 28-foot-tall sheer drapery installation and the 15-foot-wide family room opening, required motors capable of smooth, quiet, and powerful operation.

By employing Somfy PoE motors, the team was able to treat shading and drapery as a networked system rather than a collection of standalone devices. Each motor receives both power and data over a single Cat5 or Cat6 cable, enabling precise two-way communication and real-time position feedback.

From an installation standpoint, PoE dramatically reduced the physical burden of deploying motorized shades across the home. With no need to run line-voltage power to each window, cable volume was significantly reduced and coordination with millwork, ceiling pockets, and architectural details became far more straightforward. For both the fabricator and the integrator, this streamlined approach shortened installation timelines, minimized risk, and resulted in a cleaner, more organized infrastructure, an important advantage on a project with dozens of shades spanning multiple levels.

Commissioning was equally efficient for Mainstream Automation. Somfy PoE motors are automatically discovered within the Control4 environment, allowing each shade to be quickly imported, named, and assigned without manual pairing or signal troubleshooting. Continuous position feedback ensures the control system always knows the exact state of every shade, improving automation reliability and reducing post-install service calls.

With PoE-enabled shades fully integrated into the home’s automation platform, the system now responds intelligently to the homeowner’s lifestyle rather than requiring constant manual intervention. Shades and drapery adjust throughout the day to balance daylight and privacy, reduce heat gain during peak sun hours, and shape the home’s atmosphere as evening approaches. A single “Good Night” command, for example, closes designated roller shades, blackout shades, and draperies while simultaneously shutting down lighting and audio systems. Because the shading system is fully network-based, schedules and scenes can be refined remotely over time, delivering not only day-to-day comfort, but lasting flexibility, reliability, and peace of mind for both the homeowner and the integrator.