Home Control at the Touch of a button

The most important aspect about this project was to provide whole house automation which can be used by the whole family from a four year old to visiting grandparents. The family is headed by a very tech loving person which gave us the all clear to be complete tech geeks on the project. The final product matched everyone’s expectations and was a CEDIA award finalist project in 2008.

The home has been wired with a comprehensive cabling infrastructure and all the home network is wired via a patch panel system over high bandwidth multi media cabling. The high bandwidth allows for the distribution of data, television, and telephone over one cable and maximising the flexibility of the services provided in one room via the Universal Socket.

The house lighting was installed using components programmed via the KNX protocol. Pathway lighting was created for night time lights in the home and the system uses its memory to provide lighting sequences based around the families activities when they are away. The range of switches that are available for the KNX systems provided the family with the interior look they required without compromise.The heating system was also integrated into the KNX system to provide easy access to changing the temperatures and creating set points.

The audio visual side of the project was very exciting with the client opting for a Kaleidescape Movie and Music Servers to allowaccess to Movies and Musicfrom the servers around the home, including their dedicated Home Cinema Room and the master ensuite bathroom. To minimise the technolgoy in areas of the home mirror televisions were chosen to provide an elegant finish to the room as mirrors when the television is not on. This equipment is particularly useful in the dining area where there is much family viewing in the afternoon but no requirements whilst entertaining guests.

Where there are no televisions for the access of the Kaleidescape music server the music is distributed via the Sonos Multiroom System. The Children can access their audiobooks at bed time and the owners have access to their music collection in areas such as the home office.

The dedicated Home Cinema Room is one of the focul points of the project providing a relaxing environment to watch films in. The room is controlled (as much of the house is) via an Rti T2C. The Rti is programmed to changed the light settings and heating when ‘watch a film’ is chosen as well as turning on the projector, amplifiers, and Kaleidescape. During films the programming of the Rti allows for lights and heating to be adjusted to the clients requirement without disturbing viewing. The room is used a lot by the family and has a the feeling of a well loved room about it.

The integration of the KNX and the AV onto one control interface is made possible by the FreeWay and Crestron processors, all of which are programmed by our in house team of programmers.