Modern Elegance (read more…)
HOME SIZE | 11,000 square feet
BUILD TIME | 10 months
BUILDER | Graves Development
ARCHITECT | John Wald
LIGHTING CONTROL |Vantage
HOME CONTROL |Crestron
As an Architect, John has extensive foresight and an eagle eye for design and aesthetics. His mark has been left on numerous casinos here in Las Vegas as well as buildings across the country. So when John came to Ideabox with his own personal home, they naturally had their hands full. Up to the daunting challenge of matching John’s creative works with only a deadline of 10 months, Ideabox designed and installed a full automation and lighting control system that is an extension of John’s own personal vision.
As you walk up to the home, you notice the monolithic stainless steel courtyard door framed with ruby red glass. To compliment this, both the courtyard and front door feature matching stainless eHolovision call boxes. These call boxes are used to control and secure the dual front doors and electronic locks that tie seamlessly into the alarm system. Through the courtyard you are greeted with a flowing water feature that welcomes you to the front door. Upon ringing the doorbell, the water feature will “pause” so the falling water doesn’t drowned out the conversation through the intercom. When the session has ended and front door is triggered to open by way of the phone system, the waterfall will resume operation.
Inside at the heart of this home resides a dedicated control room that was featured in the January 2010 issue of CEPro as one of the 10 Greatest Racks Of 2009. The robust Crestron system powers 8 zones of video and 11 zones of audio that include 2 surround sound media zones. This distribution system allows for any of the media sources in the system to be accessed at one, or all locations in the home at the same time. John can start watching a show he recorded in the kitchen, and finish it later on in the den, or a single AppleTV can play music and scroll a personal photo slideshow on every display in the system while entertaining guests. In the kitchen John wanted the ability to watch TV but didn’t want the distractions that are associated with a typical install. To address this, Ideabox went with a 26in LCD from Samsung that lowers from the ceiling by an Auton drop down TV lift. When a video source is selected the display automatically lowers from the ceiling within a matter of seconds and will disappear in a flash with the kitchen zone is turned off.
For environment control 12 HVAC zones are programmed for occupancy so that the thermostats will automatically adjust if the home is empty to conserve energy. Upon entering the home the thermostats will seamlessly resume their previous schedule, climatizing the home to a comfortable temperature. The Lutron Sevoia shades are also programmed to track the sun, lowering and raising throughout the day to provide controlled lighting and to regulate the suns energy. These few steps keep the home cooler during the summer months while conserving energy at the same time. And to the home owner it goes unnoticed until the electrical bill shows up.
Out back, the pool, spa and misting system are also integrated and can be controlled by any touch-panel in or outside the home. The video is provided by a weatherproof SunBright HDTV since it was in a location that had no overhead coverage. To keep the system secure, both the outdoor and kids touch-panels upstairs feature password protection with auto timed lockout. The security system combines 9 commercial grade PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) cameras with video verification service for rapid response time. The cameras are programmed to preset coverage spots ensuring if they are moved by the user, after 60 seconds of inactivity they move back to their correct preset location. All cameras are viewable on any TV in the home and can be moved or zoomed with a few button presses of any remote in the system as well as any computer on the internet.
To display all the homes information, 5 Crestron TPS-6L in-wall touch-panels are strategically located throughout. At the garage entry, the touch-panel takes the place of the alarm keypad. When you arrive home and walk in from a night out on the town, the hallway entry lights will ramp up and the touch-panel will display the alarms control page. Depending on the user code entered to disarm the alarm factored in with the time of day, we can have the thermostats adjust the temp, a lighting scene light up the home, have the music server que up your favorite playlist, kick on the family room fireplace and have the spa ready before you step another foot inside. This is what truly makes a house into a home.
In the master bathroom, a custom Seura mirror TV is masked with the same aluminum frame that the homes windows are set in. This ensured that the TV is totally hidden and out of mind when the system is off. When you walk into the room nothing stands out, just like it should. To further the theme of understated, custom programmed RTI hand held remotes are located in every room & Italian designed Vantage Axolute keypads were installed to match the decor throughout the home. (In the bathroom photo located in the slideshow, notice the glass tile on the wall and also the glass tile of the keypad.)
Another out of the box feature we provide is that every closet with a light doesn’t utilize a “typical” light switch. The coat closet for example is controlled by the door itself. When you open the door the lights ramp up so you can hang a jacket or pull out the vacuum. When the door shuts the lights turn off. If the door is left open lights will turn off as well after a preset amount of time. It’s as easy as that! To overcome bedroom closets where people like to change or might spend extended amounts of time in, we use a combination of door and motion sensors. As long as there is movement in the closet, the lights stay on. Now that’s Automation!
The AV room was a different challenge in itself. The dimensions of the room are 13×10 while only 4 feet wide. Because of code requirements we brought in all the cables from the ceiling and mounted the equipment rack in the middle of the room. This gave us clearance from the lighting and electrical enclosures in the front of the rack. In the rear there is only 32 inches of clearance between the back of the rack and the two 50 inch structured wire cans installed in the back wall. With a riser added onto the base of the Middle Atlantic VRK-54, the gap was closed between the rack and ceiling giving it that monolithic stature we strived for. We then added a custom water jetted logo that was cut at Saber Cutting Solutions to the base and had it powder coated to match the racks factory finish. To hold the pieces of the logo together, frosted plexiglass was then installed behind the logo with blue neon to make it really stand out. Neon was also incorporated into the rails of the structure wiring cans on the back wall and inside the low voltage section of the Vantage lighting cans as well. To automate the entrance of the AV room and trigger the “awe” factor. We used the same technique mentioned before to control the closet lights. When the door is opened into the room, the neon lights up for 15 seconds washing the room in a deep blue hue. Just after the “awe” factor sets in, the neon turns off and the room lights ramp up so you can load that Blue-ray movie.
John came to Ideabox to design and install the automation system for his own personal home. John was pleased to see our dedication and passion that we put into his project as if it was our own. After the dust settled and all was said and done. This project was completed on time, on budget and most importantly when John and his family moved into their dream home – it worked.
