New York Metro · The Hamptons, New York
Smart Home, Lighting & AV in the Hamptons.
Houses that are full in July and empty in February, oceanfront lots in wave-action flood zones, and one wired internet provider. The Hamptons ask for a system that runs itself when nobody is home.
The Hamptons, Specifically
Built for the Months Nobody Is Home.
Only about a third of Hamptons properties are primary residences; in East Hampton, 77 percent of owners live elsewhere. A system here is judged by what happens in February: whether the network stays up through a nor'easter, whether the cameras report, whether the house can be opened from a phone the day before the family arrives.
Our 2024 Southampton waterfront project was built that way: Lutron HomeWorks QSX, Crestron 4-Series, UniFi Wi-Fi 7 that reaches the marina, and distributed audio inside and out with Coastal Source. The design decisions that follow come from the East End's rules and weather.
01 · Season
A House That Reports In
Cave Watch monitors the network, control system, audio-video, and lighting around the clock, so a dropped connection in winter is fixed remotely rather than discovered in June. Alarm and live guard video monitoring stack on the same plan.
02 · Connectivity
One Wire, So Plan for Two
Across much of the East End the wired choice is Optimum, with no Verizon Fios. We design the network with Starlink or a second carrier as automatic failover, so the house, the cameras, and the remote access survive a cut.
03 · Shore
Salt, Wind, and the Flood Line
Oceanfront parcels sit in FEMA VE zones with wave action, and houses there stand on pilings above the base flood elevation. Outdoor speakers, cameras, and lighting are marine-grade; equipment and transfer switches stay above the flood line.
At a Glance
The Hamptons in brief.
- Occupancy
- Only 31 percent of Hamptons properties appear to be primary residences; in East Hampton 77 percent of owners hold the property as a second home, in Southampton 65 percent (The Real Deal, 2024 analysis of tax records).
- House size
- In March 2025 East Hampton Town cut its allowed gross floor area from 10 percent of lot area plus 1,600 square feet to 7 percent plus 1,500, under an absolute cap of 10,000 square feet; 90 percent of the town's residential lots are under two acres.
- Historic districts
- The Village of East Hampton has four historic districts, Main Street, Huntting Lane, and The Hook among them; owners there may not change the appearance of significant exterior elements without a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Design Review Board.
- Market
- The Hamptons median sale price reached a record $2,412,500 in the first quarter of 2026, with 21.2 percent of sales above $5 million, the highest share on record (Douglas Elliman / Miller Samuel). Corcoran's report for the same quarter put the luxury average at $14.98 million, with eight sales above $20 million.
- Electric service
- The Long Island Power Authority's grid, operated under contract by PSEG Long Island, serves 1.2 million customers across Long Island and the Rockaways.
- Internet
- In much of the Hamptons, Montauk, East Hampton, and Southampton included, Altice's Optimum is the only wired provider, with no Verizon Fios; Starlink satellite service works across the region.
- Flood zones
- Almost every parcel on Dune Road sits in a FEMA flood zone; VE zones are coastal high-hazard areas where waves are part of the risk, and VE construction generally means houses elevated on pilings above the base flood elevation.
Sources: The Real Deal, who owns the Hamptons (August 2024); East End Beacon, East Hampton's house-size code; East End Beacon, lots under two acres; Village of East Hampton, historic services; Miller Samuel, Hamptons sales 1Q 2026; Corcoran, East End market report 1Q 2026; Long Island Power Authority, about LIPA; HTE, internet providers in the Hamptons; Gold Coast Homes, Dune Road flood zones.
Reading for The Hamptons
Guides and work nearby.
- Waterfront Residence, Southampton, 2024 →
Lutron HomeWorks QSX, Crestron 4-Series, UniFi Wi-Fi 7 with marina coverage, and distributed audio indoors and out.
- Monitoring a Hamptons house off-season →
What Cave Watch watches from October to May.
- Technology for a Southampton oceanfront estate →
- Smart home design in East Hampton →
- Oceanfront engineering in Sagaponack and Wainscott →
- Outdoor AV for a Hamptons house →
- The handover checklist for a Hamptons estate →
- Multi-WAN internet for houses that stand empty →
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 The Hamptons
The Hamptons, Answered
Who installs Lutron and Crestron systems in the Hamptons?+–
Cave Group does. We are a Crestron Elite Gold Partner and Lutron Gold Dealer with an office in Long Island City, and in 2024 we completed a Southampton waterfront residence with Lutron HomeWorks QSX, Crestron 4-Series control, UniFi Wi-Fi 7 that reaches the marina, and distributed audio indoors and out with Coastal Source. We work from Westhampton to Montauk.
How do you keep a Hamptons house running when we are not there?+–
With monitoring and redundancy. Cave Watch watches the network, the control system, audio-video, and lighting around the clock and fixes most faults remotely; central-station alarm monitoring and live guard video monitoring stack on the same plan. The network is designed with a second connection, often Starlink, and the rack sits on battery backup, so a winter outage does not leave the house dark to us.
What internet is available in the Hamptons?+–
In much of the East End, Montauk, East Hampton, and Southampton included, Optimum is the only wired provider and there is no Verizon Fios. We confirm what reaches the address, and we design the network with Starlink or a second carrier as automatic failover, so the cameras, the remote access, and the house itself survive a cut.
What changes for an oceanfront house?+–
Everything outdoors becomes marine-grade: speakers, cameras, fixtures, and the enclosures they live in. Oceanfront parcels sit in FEMA VE zones with wave action, so the equipment rack, the transfer switch, and outdoor electronics stay above the base flood elevation, and we plan the conduit and the generator with the elevation in mind.
Can you open the house for us before we arrive?+–
Yes. Lighting, shades, music, and the thermostats on the control system respond from the app, so the house can be warmed, lit, and unlocked for a caretaker the day before you arrive, and a scene can close it down the day after you leave. Cave Watch confirms the system is online before you count on it.
Start Here
Walk the Home With Us.
Bring the drawings if it is on paper, or the list of what no longer works if it is built. We will tell you what we would do, in what order, what it would take, and what the board will want to see.
Start a Projector call · +1 (888) 712-2283 · [email protected]