Mark and Debbi, the clients bought a plot of land in Hertfordshire three years ago to build a new family home on. Their previous home did not have an integrated system so the new house gave them an opportunity to explore news ideas and create a truly modern interior with the convenience of an all encompassing integrated audio visual solution.
We designed a system that would compliment the family’s lifestyle, be fun, easy to use and would blend discretely with the rest of the interior.
The property features Crestron control throughout, giving full access to the entire system from various user interfaces around the house, allowing the family to choose what to turn on/off and when. Crestron’s Intercom audio and video distribution makes light work of the signals received from BPT’s door entry system; guests at the door can be seen and heard on various touch panels and display screens around the house – a must have feature for properties of this size!
Security is further enhanced by seven Vandal Resistant colour cameras with dome low lux fixed lenses which have been discretely installed in carefully selected positions around the house. The cameras cover the whole of the property and grounds with the option to upgrade them to PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) in the future. The CCTV images can be viewed (via RF) on all TV’s and selected touch panels. The system also includes a 500GB networked hard drive allowing remote viewing.
The iLight lighting system consists of ninety six channels of dimmable lighting and twenty 0-10v channels of LED dimming inside the house, with a further eight channels of switched lighting for the exterior lighting and water features. Lighting scenes can be controlled either via user interfaces or local keypads. PIR motion sensors were used in three W/C’s and in the garage so the lights automatically switch on when movement is detected. The exterior lights automatically turn on at a preset time each evening and automatically turn off in the morning, this happens regardless of whether the family is at home or not, adding an additional security feature.
Multi-room audio can be heard via Polk’s RC60i 6.5” in-ceiling speakers through the Gym, Playroom, Breakfast Room, Dining Room, Drawing Room, Study, Master Bedroom, Master en Suite, Bedrooms 2, 3, 4, 5 & corresponding En Suites, Family Bathroom and the Garage. Audio sources include DAB radio, local iPod (via Crestron iPod docking stations in selected rooms), distributed iPod (from the Family Room) and distributed Sky+.
Movies come to life in the effortlessly chic Cinema Room located in the basement featuring an Espon EH-TW4400 HD home cinema projector, a 120” Screen Research 16:9 fixed frame HD cinema screen, three B&W CWM7.5 in-wall speakers, two B&W CCM816 in-ceiling speakers, two Triad Silver Surround on-wall dipole surround sound speakers and a B&W ASW610 10” floor standing sub woofer. A Denon AVR3310 amplifier provides superior 7.1 surround sound. Video sources include Blu-ray, DVD, Sky HD, Sky+, Kaleidescape and Sony Playstation. All this and the lighting can be simply controlled via a stylish Crestron TPS-6X touch panel.
The Kaleidescape Cinema One music and DVD server is used to store the family’s movies and music collection thus simplifying management and storage and allowing the Kaleidescape System to deliver movies and music to any chosen room with a display screen at any time.
The Family Room features a wall mounted 50” LG HD Plasma Screen with a Leon HZ515 LCR channel custom build speaker mounted underneath, a pair of Polk 6.5” in-ceiling speakers, a Polk PSW111 8” floor standing sub woofer and a Denon AVR-2311 amplifier for superb 5.1 surround sound. Included is a Crestron iPod docking station; the music from this room can be distributed throughout the whole house. Control is provided via a Crestron MLX-2 handheld remote controller or a 5.7” wall mounted Crestron TPS-6L.
Wall mounted Crestron TPS-6L touch panels have also been installed in carefully selected areas such as the Ground Floor Entrance Hall, First Floor Landing, Basement Corridor and the Kitchen. These can all control lighting, music, CCTV and door entry systems - with the Kitchen panel also controlling music and lighting in the adjacent Dining Room. Wall mounted Crestron TPS-4L touch panels in bedrooms 2,3 & 4 control video, music and lighting in the bedrooms as well as the corresponding en suites. Crestron TPS-4L panels were also installed in the Gym and Playroom. Both the 6L and 4L panels have custom satin chrome metal faceplates. Crestron MLX-2’s were provided forother assorted rooms.
Various TV’s have been installed in other rooms, including Aquavision TV’s in the bathrooms, allowing individual viewing. A PC link to the screen was provided in the Study; including the PC audio via VGA.
Each TV location has a double CAT5e data socket to provide a future proof solution. Additionally, Crestron cable has been run behind specifically chosen lighting keypads to allow these to be upgraded to touch panels in the future.
Two Middle Atlantic Racks were used for the AV kit and are housed in a purpose built cupboard in the basement containing AC.
Commenting on their new home system, Mark & Debbi say: “It was our dream to build our own family home for many years and having finally got the chance we wanted everything to be exactly as we had we had imagined. We hadn’t really experienced a fully integrated home before so needed some guidance as to what would suit our lifestyle and Smartcomm were on hand at every stage to advise and help us to realise our expectations for this special house.
Smartcomm performed excellently under tight timescales and provided a variety of integrated solutions and although technology can sometimes be overwhelming with so many features and controls, the system they designed and installed is remarkably simple to use. They have programmed some really great features such as the ‘I’m going out’ and ‘I’ve just got home’ buttons which we love! It makes life so much easier when you can just press a single button and turn off the lights and TV’s in the entire house – the last thing you want to do when in a hurry is to run from room to room!
We had such a great time entertaining family and friends at Christmas and having easy access to all our favourite films and music made the celebrations even more enjoyable!”
