Motorized Shades, Wired Into the Same System as Your Lighting
New Age Technology installs motorized shades in Plymouth and across the Twin Cities, wiring Lutron Palladiom and Hunter Douglas PowerView shades onto the same system that runs your lights so they drop for glare and lift at sunrise on their own. As certified Lutron dealers, we treat shades as the daylight layer of a lighting design, not a separate purchase in its own app. Every system runs live in our Plymouth showroom before you commit.
Owner Chad and the New Age Technology team have designed Lutron control for everything from a handful of dimmed rooms up to Lake Minnetonka estates running 40-plus lighting circuits, and shades ride on that same backbone. Every system we specify runs live in our Plymouth showroom at 15070 23rd Ave N before you commit, so you can stand there, press one keypad button, and watch the shades lower and the lights fade together on a single scene. Licensed and insured, and backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Lutron Motorized Window Shades on the Same Scenes as Your Lights
A Lutron motorized window shade is not a smart blind you control from a separate remote. It is a device on the same RadioRA 3 or HomeWorks system that runs your dimmers and keypads, which is the entire reason we push clients toward the Lutron shade line when lighting is already in play. One Palladiom keypad button can dim a room, lower the shades for glare, and set an entertaining scene together, in one press, on one fade.
The value isn't a shade you can raise from your phone. It's a shade that answers the same scene as the lights, so the room manages daylight and electric light as one layer instead of two apps fighting each other.
Here is what that integration actually buys you, day to day:
- Glare control on a schedule. Shades track astronomical sunset for your exact location, so the west-facing great room drops its shades as the afternoon sun swings around, then the lighting fills in as the sun sets, all on one schedule.
- One control surface. The same engraved, back-lit Palladiom keypad that runs your lighting runs your shades, so there is no second remote to lose.
- Privacy and away modes. Shades close at dusk for privacy and can randomize with the away schedule so an empty house doesn't look empty.
- Local reliability. Because the Lutron processor runs locally, the shade schedules keep firing whether or not your internet is up.
Want to see it move before you buy it? Call (952) 204-7222 and come watch a scene run in the Plymouth showroom.
Lutron Palladiom vs. Hunter Douglas PowerView: How We Choose
These are the two motorized shade lines we install, and they solve different problems. We do not carry every shade brand on the market, and we will tell you honestly when a room calls for one over the other rather than defaulting to whatever is easiest to order.
### Lutron Palladiom
Palladiom is the answer when the shades are part of a Lutron lighting system and you want the tightest integration and the most designed hardware. The shade fabric, the roller, and the wireless connection all live inside the same RadioRA 3 or HomeWorks ecosystem as your keypads and dimmers, so scenes are truly unified and the aesthetic is deliberate, clean rollers and matched keypads instead of a grab bag of parts. This is our default when lighting control is already on the project.
### Hunter Douglas PowerView
PowerView is the answer when the priority is the window treatment itself: a specific fabric, a specialty shade type, a designer look that Hunter Douglas builds and Lutron doesn't. PowerView motorizes that treatment and still integrates into the broader smart-home system, so you get the shade the room actually needs without giving up automation.
How we actually decide: if lighting control is on the job, Palladiom keeps everything on one native Lutron system. If the room needs a particular Hunter Douglas treatment, PowerView gets you that look with motorization. We size the choice to the room and the rest of the system, not to a catalog.
Either way, pair the shades with automated Lutron lighting scenes so daylight and electric light are managed together rather than as two separate systems.
Motorized Blinds Installers Who Handle Older Twin Cities Wiring
Most of the shade questions we get are really wiring questions: does this mean opening walls, and does my house even support it. The honest answer, in the housing stock we work in, is usually no, you don't have to rewire, and here is why that matters.
A lot of the metro's homes were never wired for motorized shades. The 1970s ramblers near Hopkins, the older Deephaven and Woodland homes off Grays Bay, the 1980s split-levels across Plymouth: most run 14/2 Romex with no dedicated wiring at the windows. Battery-powered Lutron and Hunter Douglas shades are built for exactly that reality. They mount at the window and talk wirelessly back to the same hub as your lighting, so a finished home gets real motorized shade control without fishing power to every window.
Chad's take on retrofits here: in the finished older homes we retrofit across Plymouth and Minnetonka, we lead with battery shades because the alternative is opening a wall at every window for something a good battery motor handles cleanly for years. We save the hardwired path for new construction, where we can pull shade power while the walls are open and never touch a battery again.
When we are on a new build or a gut remodel in the Maple Grove and Woodbury new-construction corridors, we do it the other way: we specify hardwired shade power and pull it during rough-in, alongside the RadioRA 3 or HomeWorks lighting wiring, and we handle low-voltage permitting through the City of Plymouth building department on Plymouth jobs. Two paths, one rule: match the method to whether the walls are open.
Request a shade consultation and we'll tell you which path your house actually needs.
Where Motorized Shades Earn Their Keep on Lake Minnetonka
Shades pull their weight in specific rooms, and on the lakefront homes we serve those rooms are easy to name. A wall of west-facing glass over Crystal Bay or West Arm bakes a great room every afternoon and washes out every TV in it. High windows in a two-story foyer are the ones nobody can reach with a wand. And the primary suite is the room where a scheduled shade lift beats an alarm clock.
The estates around Orono, Wayzata, and Excelsior commonly run these together as one shade layer:
- The great room glass wall. Shades drop for glare and screen washout in the afternoon, then coordinate with the lighting scene as the sun sets over the lake.
- Unreachable high windows. Two-story foyers, transoms, and clerestory windows get motorized because there is no other sane way to operate them.
- The primary suite. A wake scene lifts the shades gently at a set time; a good-night scene drops them with the lights.
- Media and theater rooms. Shades close to full blackout for the projector, tied into the same movie-night scene that dims the room.
On a big lakefront home, the shades aren't a gadget. They're how you keep an afternoon-sun great room usable and a projector room dark, without anyone walking the house pulling cords.
This is the same design discipline behind our whole-home Control4 and Savant automation: one interface, one set of scenes, every system answering together.
When You Don't Need Motorized Shades
Here is the part most companies selling shades leave out. If you have two easy-to-reach windows in one room and operating them by hand has never bothered you, you do not need motorized shades, and we are not going to talk you into a system you won't use.
Motorized shades earn their cost in specific situations, and it is worth being honest about which ones:
- Windows you physically can't reach: high foyers, transoms, clerestory glass
- Large banks of west- or south-facing glass where afternoon glare is a daily problem
- Rooms where you genuinely want shades on scenes and schedules with the lighting
- Media rooms that need scheduled blackout for a projector
- Homes where lighting control is already going in and shades are a natural, tightly integrated add-on
If that's not your house, standard cordless or manual treatments from an interior designer are a perfectly good answer, and they cost far less. Where we add real value is the integration: shades that answer the same Lutron scenes as your lighting, the retrofit problem-solving in older wiring, and a system that scales without being rebuilt. If a couple of manual shades is genuinely all you need, do that. When you want them on the system, call (952) 204-7222.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do motorized shades need rewiring or new wiring at every window?
Usually not in a finished home. Battery-powered Lutron Palladiom and Hunter Douglas PowerView shades mount at the window and talk wirelessly back to the same hub as your lighting, so you get real motorized control without fishing power to each window. That is why we lead with battery shades in the older Twin Cities housing stock we retrofit, the 14/2 Romex homes across Plymouth and Minnetonka, rather than opening a wall at every window. On new construction or a gut remodel we do the opposite: we pull hardwired shade power during rough-in while the walls are open, alongside the RadioRA 3 or HomeWorks lighting wiring, so the shades never need a battery. We confirm which path fits on-site before quoting.
What's the difference between roller, Venetian, and Roman motorized shades?
They're different shade styles, and the motor works with all of them. A roller shade is a single fabric that winds up onto a tube at the top, the cleanest and most common motorized look. A Roman shade folds up into soft horizontal pleats as it raises, a more traditional, layered look. Venetian-style shades use horizontal slats that both raise and tilt to control light angle. Lutron Palladiom focuses on clean roller shades that match its keypad aesthetic; Hunter Douglas PowerView motorizes a much wider range of styles, including specialty and layered treatments. We match the style to the room and the rest of the system rather than pushing one type.
Can motorized shades integrate with Control4 or Savant?
Yes. When we build a whole-home system on Control4 or Savant, motorized shades come onto that platform as one more device in a single app and a single set of scenes, alongside lighting, climate, audio, and video. Lutron shades in particular integrate natively, so a single scene can dim the lights, lower the shades, and set the room together. If the shades are part of a standalone Lutron lighting system rather than a full Control4 or Savant build, they run on that Lutron system on their own and still leave room to fold into a broader automation project later.
Battery-powered vs. hardwired motorized shades: which should I get?
It comes down to whether your walls are open. In a finished home, battery-powered shades are the right call: they install without opening walls, run for a long stretch on a charge, and are exactly what Lutron and Hunter Douglas designed for retrofits. That is our default in the older finished homes we work across Plymouth, Minnetonka, and the Deephaven and Woodland areas. Hardwired shades make sense on new construction and gut remodels, where we pull dedicated shade power during rough-in and you never deal with a battery. Both perform the same once installed; the choice is a wiring-access decision, and we make it based on the state of the house, not a default.
Do you carry brands other than Lutron and Hunter Douglas?
The motorized shade lines we install and stand behind are Lutron Palladiom and Hunter Douglas PowerView. We're certified Lutron dealers, and those two lines cover the range we design around: Palladiom for the tightest integration with a Lutron lighting system, PowerView when a room needs a specific Hunter Douglas treatment that still integrates into the smart home. We'd rather be honest about what we install well than promise a brand we don't carry.
Do the shades keep working if the internet goes down?
Yes. Lutron systems run on a local processor, so your keypads, scenes, and shade schedules keep working with no internet connection. Only remote app access and voice control pause until connectivity returns. The shades themselves keep answering the keypad and the schedule the whole time.