Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Come Visit our new "Smart" Home!










So, we just finished a fantastic installation at our new demo home in Silver Spring, Maryland. The "spec" home was built by Housewright Development and we were happy to assist them with automating their show house. By the way, this is not a million dollar home. The home is priced at just $699,000.00 and includes the automation solution.

Inside we installed several items that really assist the homeowner to become more energy efficient. Items like a programmable wireless thermostat and programmable dimmers and switches that allow the homeowner to program lighting scenes and schedule timers so that they can control how much energy is used throughout the day. Our goal in setting up this house was to keep things simple so that ANYONE could use it.

We installed a multi-zone amplifier that supports speakers in the dining, kitchen, living room and master bedroom. Music can be accessed with a simple touch of a single button in each room. A 3-button keypad that allows access to several play lists is installed in the living and dining rooms that allows the user to select the play list they wish to listen to by pressing the top button. Press once and light jazz begins to play. Press the button twice and today's latest pop music begins to play. Press the same button three times and your now listening to your favorite Dave Matthews albums. Hold the button down for three seconds and the system turns off. Volume can be controlled by the other two buttons, one to raise the volume and the other to lower it.

Since the kitchen is usually the most common area of the home we installed a 7" touch screen that allows the homeowner to control the entire solution from. Access Rhapsody for all of your favorite music, see the installed IP video cameras displaying who's at the front door or parked in the driveway; control the thermostat right on the touch screen; Turn off the television in the family room to call the kids in for dinner. Control every music zone in the home from one location. The system is also tied to the alarm system, which allows us to use the touch screen as the alarm system touch pad, further simplifying by consolidating the amount of separate controllers/touch pads installed in the home.

In the family room we have a Sony Plasma television installed above the gas fireplace with a Denon Surround Sound receiver and a Blu-Ray DVD player hidden inside a cabinet that flanks the fireplace. Take control of the Control4 SR-25o Remote and you have full control of the system in the palm of your hands. Press the red "4" button and the system turns on and the screen quickly shows the simple Control4 menu screen. What do you want to do? Watch television, or maybe a DVD? Or maybe you want to listen to something on your iPod or a Rhapsody play list. Whatever you want to do it's just a simple selection away from starting. We have a three button keypad that you can control the fireplace and lights from. We can even program a scene that automatically dims the lights, starts the fireplace, changes the television to the correct input to begin watching a DVD all by just pressing "Play" on the remote control! How cool is that!

We are very excited about this house and all of the capabilities that this system brings to the homeowner. If you would like to see this home in action, please give us a call at 877-343-2727 and we would be happy to schedule a live demo.