Austin · Barton Creek, Texas
Smart Home, Lighting & AV in Barton Creek.
Gated golf estates in the Hill Country, where the architectural control committee reviews what the street sees, the county issues the permits, and the wildfire code sets the materials. Barton Creek wants one system across a large property, approved the first time.
Barton Creek, Specifically
Approved Before It Is Built.
Spanish Oaks sits outside Austin's city zoning; new construction there answers to the homeowners association's Architectural Control Committee and to Travis County's permits, and the committee reviews exterior materials, roof color, window proportions, landscaping, and grading, with a typical review of 30 to 60 days. Cameras, outdoor fixtures, a generator enclosure, and a gate intercom are exterior changes in that sense.
The hills themselves are wildland-urban interface: 45 percent of Travis County residents live in it, and the Westlake fire district has adopted the WUI code. Pedernales Electric Cooperative serves much of the area, Austin Energy the rest, and the February 2021 load shedding reached both. Barton Creek's median sale price was $3.535 million in June 2025.
01 · Review
The Committee Sees It First
Exterior devices go to the architectural control committee on one drawing, with the materials and the screening the guidelines ask for, so the review is of a plan rather than a surprise. Inside, the system is yours.
02 · Distance
One Property, One System
Main house, casita, pool pavilion, and gate on one Lutron and Crestron system, carried between buildings on fiber laid with spare conduit before the drive is paved.
03 · Power
Built for the Grid
Austin Energy's largest load-shed event came in February 2021, and PEC asked its whole territory to cut demand. A generator sized for the house and a battery-backed rack keep the network and the cameras up when the grid is not.
At a Glance
Barton Creek in brief.
- Review
- Spanish Oaks lies outside Austin's city zoning; new construction is governed by the association's Architectural Control Committee, which reviews exterior materials, roof pitch and tile color, window proportions, landscaping, and site grading, typically in 30 to 60 days, with permits through Travis County.
- Wildfire
- The Austin and Travis County 2026 Community Wildfire Protection Plan reports that 45 percent of Travis County residents live within the wildland-urban interface; Austin's WUI code defines proximity zones within 50 and 150 feet of wildland and requires ignition-resistant materials for decks and patios.
- Licensing
- Burglar alarm, video surveillance, and electronic access-control installation in Texas requires a Department of Public Safety private-security license; low-voltage data and signaling work is exempt from the state electrician license, but the 120-volt feed is not.
- Market
- Barton Creek's median home sale price was $3.535 million in June 2025, up 17.8 percent year over year, at a median of $683 per square foot (Redfin).
- Electric service
- Pedernales Electric Cooperative, a member-owned cooperative based in Johnson City, serves a Hill Country territory across parts of Travis, Hays, and neighboring counties; Austin Energy's February 2021 load shedding was its largest ever.
- Internet
- In Barton Creek, AT&T Fiber offers speeds up to 5 gigabits and Google Fiber up to 8, with fiber reaching roughly half of addresses alongside Spectrum cable.
- Water
- Lake Travis, the reservoir bordering several gated communities, is considered full at 681 feet above sea level with an informal drought threshold of 640 feet.
Sources: Mission Home Builders, building in Spanish Oaks; Home Health Intel, Travis County wildfire zones; Austin Fire Department, Wildland-Urban Interface Code; Texas Electrical Authority, low-voltage systems in Texas; Tsai Electric, low-voltage work and Texas licensing; Redfin, Barton Creek housing market; ElectricRates, Pedernales Electric Cooperative; Austin Energy 2021 annual report; Reviews.org, internet providers in Barton Creek; Lake Travis Water, lake levels.
Reading for Barton Creek
Guides and work nearby.
- The complete security stack for a house →
Cameras, access, live monitoring, and the alarm a central station answers.
- What an estate network costs →
- Planning AV and control into new construction →
- Generator and UPS planning for the rack →
- Sport court, simulator, and pool room AV →
- What whole-home automation costs →
What We Install and Service
Every System. One Keypad.
Lighting & Shades
Lutron HomeWorks, Ketra and Rania light, Palladiom keypads, and shades that disappear into the ceiling.
Lighting →Whole-Home Control
Crestron and Lutron on one set of keypads and touchscreens, programmed the same way in every house you own.
Residential →Cinema & Music
Dedicated theaters, media rooms, and music in every room without a speaker in sight.
Residential →Network
Enterprise Wi-Fi and fiber sized for a large house, guest houses, and the far end of the lawn.
Networking →Security & Gate
Cameras, access control, gate intercom, and an alarm that a UL-listed central station answers.
Security →Outdoors
Landscape lighting and outdoor sound on one buried infrastructure, on the same keypad as the house.
Outdoor →Upgrades
Older Crestron and Lutron systems brought current, reusing the wiring already in the walls wherever possible.
Upgrade paths →Support
Monitoring, remote fixes, and priority response under one plan.
Cave Watch →Questions From Barton Creek
Barton Creek, Answered
Who installs Lutron and Crestron systems in Barton Creek?+–
Cave Group does. We are a Crestron Elite Gold Partner and Lutron Gold Dealer based in New York, and we design, install, and service lighting control, shades, cinema, audio, networking, security, and backup power for estates in Barton Creek, Spanish Oaks, Amarra, and Seven Oaks on a project basis, on site with Texas-licensed trades.
Will the architectural control committee review our cameras and lighting?+–
If the street can see them, yes. Committees here rule on exterior materials, color, landscaping, and grading, and a camera, a fixture, a generator enclosure, or a gate intercom is an exterior change. We draw them for the submission with the screening the guidelines ask for, so the review is of a plan, and keep the equipment inside.
How does a New York firm work on an Austin house?+–
On a project basis. Our offices are in New York and New Jersey; the design and the drawings happen with your architect and builder from there and in person at the key milestones, the installation and commissioning happen on site, and Cave Watch supports the system around the clock afterward. The licensed trades Texas requires, a licensed electrical contractor for line-voltage work and a Department of Public Safety licensed security contractor for monitored alarm work, are local.
What about the grid?+–
Standby power is part of the design here, not an option. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 took power from about 220,000 Austin Energy customers under ERCOT's load shedding, and the February 2023 ice storm left more than 170,000 without power, some for over ten days. We size a generator and a battery-backed rack for the network, the control system, the cameras, and the house, and plan the permit, the setbacks, and the noise limits with the licensed electrician.
Which internet providers serve Barton Creek?+–
Austin is unusual: AT&T Fiber, Google Fiber, and Astound compete with Spectrum, and in West Lake Hills and Rollingwood Google Fiber signed right-of-way agreements in 2023. We confirm what reaches the address, and on larger properties we design for two connections with automatic failover, so a single outage does not take the house offline.
Start Here
Walk the House With Us.
Bring the drawings if the house is on paper, or the list of what no longer works if it is already built. We will tell you what we would do, in what order, what it would take, and how we run an Austin project from New York.
Start a Projector call · +1 (888) 712-2283 · [email protected]