Today, if you want Savant home automation system, the price of entry is about $4,000. But the maker of Apple-friendly home controls is rolling out a “system” at CEDIA Expo 2013 that starts at $999 for a controller and slick handheld remote.

The key is a new $500 Gateway nicknamed Big Boy Automation—as in, not a wimpy little box that Comcast sells you. The Linux box, expected to ship in Q1 2014, features the full Savant software and does not require a Mac Mini on the network (although one can be added to enhance the system).

The Gateway is packaged with Savant’s new $499 Wi-Fi universal remote, the SUR-0500.

A kit that includes one Wi-Fi dimmer/keypad one Wi-Fi thermostatand user license (both iOS and Android) will retail for $1,499.

A security-centric package is on the way.

Savant’s Jim Carroll tells CE Pro that commercials from home automation mass-marketers are driving consumers to specialty dealers.

They tell him, “We need to be relevant. … Here, I’ve got something for $1,000.”

The Gateway includes IR, two RS-232 ports and two GPIOs. It “can do everything a full-blown million-dollar Savant system can do,” Carroll says, but a full “luxury license” will be required … and of course a lot more I/Os.

Savant only recently launched a line of Wi-Fi dimmers and is adding to the Internet of Things category with $99 Wi-Fi plug-in modules and smart power supplies.