Many Australian homes already have motorised blinds, ceiling fans, garage doors and outdoor lights that run perfectly but are not “smart”. They are controlled by the little RF remotes in drawers, on keyrings or clipped to the car visor.
With Home Assistant’s new RF platform, those same devices can now join the rest of your smart home without being replaced. Your existing remotes stay as a backup, but Home Assistant quietly takes over the routine work.
For homeowners in the Southern Highlands and across Australia, this is a practical way to modernise an established property. You keep the hardware you have, add a small RF “bridge” or two, and open the door to sophisticated automation and voice control.
Below, we explain what RF control actually is, how the new Home Assistant update works, the hardware choices involved, and the kinds of real-world automations Highlands Smart Homes is now designing around it.
What Is RF Control and Why It Matters Now
Radio frequency, or RF, is the low-frequency wireless signal used by many everyday remotes. When you press the button on your garage key fob, or the handheld remote for your patio blinds, you are sending an RF command on a specific frequency such as 315 or 433 MHz.
In Australian homes this shows up everywhere: outdoor blinds on Bowral terraces, roller doors in suburban garages, ceiling fans in Queenslanders, budget RF power points from Bunnings and even RF-controlled string lights in alfresco areas.
Historically, these RF devices sat completely outside the smart home ecosystem. They did not have Wi‑Fi or apps, and there was no simple way to ask Home Assistant, Google, Apple or Alexa to talk to them. Integrations existed, but they were niche and device-specific.
Home Assistant’s 2026.5 release changes that by making RF a “first-class” platform alongside Wi‑Fi, Zigbee, Z‑Wave and Matter. Instead of treating each brand of remote as a one-off hack, Home Assistant now understands RF as a standard way to address devices you already own.
For renovators and architects, this reframes RF hardware from “legacy” to “asset”. Those outdoor blinds you put in ten years ago can now be automated, scheduled and linked to sensors rather than ripped out and replaced.
How Home Assistant’s New RF Platform Works
At the heart of the new platform is an RF transmitter inside your home. This is a small device that can “learn” the signals from your existing remotes, then replay them on command from Home Assistant.
You still press the remote once during setup, but from then on you treat the blind, fan or garage door like any other entity in your Home Assistant dashboard. Scenes, schedules and automations all apply as if the device were a modern Wi‑Fi product.
Behind the scenes, Home Assistant exposes RF as a shared platform. Integrations such as Honeywell RF string lights and Novy RF cooker hoods already use it, and more will follow. Once an RF bridge is in place, each new supported device type simply plugs into the same infrastructure.
Crucially for Australian conditions, all of this runs locally. Commands travel from your phone or wall tablet to your Home Assistant hub, then via RF to the device without touching a cloud server. In areas where NBN and 4G can be patchy, this keeps blinds, fans and doors dependable.
It also fits neatly with premium wired and KNX-style systems. RF can act as the link between those robust in-wall controls and the “dumb” RF equipment around the edges of the property, without compromising responsiveness or reliability.
Choosing an RF Bridge: ESPHome DIY vs Broadlink
There are two main paths to add RF capability to Home Assistant today: a custom ESPHome RF bridge or an off‑the‑shelf Broadlink unit. Both can work well in Australian homes, but they suit different priorities.
An ESPHome bridge typically uses an ESP32 board paired with a CC1101 RF module. It is very flexible, supports multiple bands used locally, and can be tailored by a professional integrator to your floor plan. The trade‑off is that it needs design, assembly and tidy installation.
The Broadlink RM4 Pro is the best‑known ready-made RF and infrared bridge. It is compact, available from Australian retailers, and pairs quickly with Home Assistant using the new platform. For many existing homes, a single RM4 Pro placed centrally will cover common RF blinds, fans and garage doors.
In premium builds around Bowral, Mittagong or Moss Vale, Highlands Smart Homes often combines both approaches. We might place a discreet Broadlink in a living area for AV and fan control, then hide ESPHome RF nodes in ceilings or AV cupboards to ensure reliable coverage across thicker walls and steel framing.
Whichever path you choose, RF planning should sit alongside Wi‑Fi, Zigbee and hard‑wired cabling in your overall design. Physical placement, power, and antenna orientation all influence how consistently your RF signals reach garages, patios and upper-level windows.
Engaging a specialist integrator means these decisions are made early. Bridges can be powered from hidden outlets, co-located with network equipment, and tested with your actual RF devices before plaster goes up or cabinets are closed.
Real Automation Ideas for Australian Homes
Once RF devices appear in Home Assistant, they behave like any other controllable point in the home. The real value comes from combining them with sensors, weather data and your daily routines.
Here are some of the practical patterns we are implementing for clients.
Blinds that protect comfort and glazing
Motorised RF blinds on west-facing windows or alfresco areas can be linked to light, UV and temperature sensors. On hot summer afternoons, Home Assistant can lower them automatically when solar gain reaches a threshold, keeping interiors cooler and protecting timber floors and furniture.
In exposed Southern Highlands locations, we often add wind protection too. When a weather station or Bureau of Meteorology feed reports strong gusts, patio blinds can retract to prevent damage, then resume their usual schedule once conditions calm.
Garages that look after themselves
RF garage doors lend themselves to simple, high-impact automations. A nightly “lock-up” routine can check whether any door is open after a set time and close it, sending a notification if something obstructs the path.
Geofencing and licence plate or presence detection can add further refinement. Arrive home after dark and the door opens, lights in the entry and mudroom turn on, and security cameras arm themselves once you are inside.
Ceiling fans and outdoor comfort
Many RF ceiling fans and fan-light combos in Australian homes have never had a smart option. With RF support, Home Assistant can pre‑cool bedrooms before a hot night, or cycle fans in a Queenslander living room during the day to keep air moving without over-reliance on air conditioning.
On covered decks and pool terraces, fans and RF-controlled string lights can become part of an “Entertain” scene. One tap sets fan speed, lighting levels and even outdoor audio, then restores everything to its previous state afterwards.
Outdoor lights tied to conditions
RF garden lights and power outlets can follow more than just a fixed clock. They can respond to actual sunset times, unexpected storms, or even smoke alerts during bushfire season, ensuring paths and access points are visible when it matters.
Because everything is centralised in Home Assistant, it also becomes trivial to have “Holiday” modes that randomise RF lights and blinds within a window, creating a lived-in appearance while you are away.
Planning an RF‑Ready Smart Home
For new builds, RF should be considered part of the services design, not an afterthought. For retrofits, a brief audit of existing remotes often reveals surprising opportunities.
In double-brick, Hebel or steel-framed construction, RF propagation needs particular care. Strategic placement of bridges, use of ceiling cavities, and access to power and Ethernet all contribute to a seamless end result.
Retrofit considerations
In an existing home, we typically start by gathering every RF remote and identifying frequencies and brands. From there we can stage the project: one RF bridge and a few high-impact automations first, then additional coverage and devices as required.
This approach keeps disruption low. Blinds, doors and fans remain usable throughout, and you avoid committing to expensive replacement hardware until you are confident the RF layer is working the way you want.
New builds and major renovations
For architects and builders, the opportunity is to design RF, Wi‑Fi, Zigbee and wired controls together. That might mean allowing recessed niches for RF bridges, providing dedicated power in AV cupboards, and routing structured cabling so that Home Assistant hardware and RF nodes can live in ideal locations instead of where a random GPO happens to be.
It also means specifying devices with an eye to longevity. Where it makes sense to use open protocols such as Zigbee or Matter, we will. Where clients already have high-quality RF blinds or fans, we plan to integrate rather than replace, extending the useful life of those fittings.
Bringing Your “Dumb” Devices Into a Smart Plan
Home Assistant’s RF platform turns a whole class of overlooked hardware into something you can orchestrate with the rest of your home. Instead of juggling key fobs and wall remotes, you gain a single, coherent layer of control designed around how you live.
Whether you are updating an established Southern Highlands property or designing a new architectural build, RF is now a serious, sustainable path to smarter blinds, garages, fans and outdoor spaces.
If you would like help auditing your existing RF devices, choosing the right bridges and designing reliable automations, Highlands Smart Homes can handle the technical detail and installation while you focus on the experience you want in each room.