Electronic Lifestyles Fall 2009 : Page 64

In this 5,500-sq.-ft. new home, the homeowner was also the interior designer who had a close working relationship with Jay Cobb of Hi-Tech Home. 64 ELECTRONIC LIFESTYLES® Fall 2009

‘Stealthing’ The Gear

Nancy Klosek

When the homeowner is also the designer, the bar for concealed equipment placement is raised.

New constructions pose an entirely different set of challenges for a wholehouse installation project than retrofitted homes. They are a “tabula rasa”—a blank slate—just waiting for ideas from clients who desire a sky’s-the-limit treatment. They can also be easier to tackle—provided the homeowner has definite goals for what he or she wants and is receptive to the electronic systems contrctor’s recommendations for how to get there.

All of that was the case with the 5,500-square-foot new property that Jay Cobb, principal of Fresno, Calif.’s Hi-Tech Home, and his team were tasked to network for environmental control, entertainment and systemsmonitoring functions. But something that added another dimension to the project was the fact that the owner, Matt Ratzlaff, a builder by trade who also does interior design, decided to collaborate on the job.

“We had done other projects with him with mutual clients, and he liked what we did,” says Cobb, explaining the circumstances that brought electronic systems contractor and client together. That mutual respect set the stage for an unruffled collaboration where both parties came up with ways to achieve smooth-running technology that was Advanced, yet simple to operate, but with an “un-techy” look that “avoided any clutter that would detract from overall aesthetics,” as Cobb describes it.

Discreet Technology

So he went to work to hide anything he could, in plain sight—and ran the entire home off a Control4 base system. “In the bathroom, there is a 32-inch Hitachi TV on the back side of a two-way mirror, along with a Solid Drive cylinder speaker that we attached to the back of the glass. We needed to make the mirror the speaker to compensate for the muffling of the TV’s own sound behind the mirror.

“In the master bedroom, what we did to hide the technology was to put a Vutec art screen over the TV mounted above the fireplace.” The TV mirror was a decision made in the postconstruction phase, says Cobb, but as luck would have it, “we had pre-wired for a TV in the garage, and that wiring happened to be on the back side of where the TV mirror would be placed”—to everyone’s relief.

Game, Set, Match

But the space where Cobb and his team did some real installation cartwheels was the upper-floor game room. “We posed the idea of a video wall to Matt—a group of six Tvs mounted on a wall together, that could show multiple programs or merge into one large program. He loved this idea, and we were off and running.

He also wanted distributed audio, lighting control, shade control and some automation capabilities in this space.” For the video wall—a configuration Cobb first puzzled out for his own home,Using four Tvs—a half-dozen 42-inch Panasonic plasma screens were selected and arrayed in a rectangular pattern.

Each display was tethered to its own DirecTV satellite receiver, and the receivers, along with other gear, were housed in a thermostatically controlled Middle Atlantic rack in a former coat closet.

For great sound that didn’t detract from the overall look, Cobb installed invisible speakers by Solid Drive mounted above the drywall in the ceiling, which turned the entire ceiling into a speaker.

“Not only can the speakers in the room play what is on the TV screens; they are tied into a Control4 matrix switch and amplifier that allows access to a wide range of audio options, including an in-wall iPort for iTunes music, Rhapsody, a DVD/CD player, a tuner and more.” The wall’s seven-inch Control4 touchscreen can work the whole room and, beyond that, control the entire home’s audio, lighting, Tvs, thermostats, alarm system and even its Somfy shades’ positions.

Moreover, says Cobb, a single button touch will instantaneously collapse the six separate TV images into one—a “wow factor” trick that can easily impress guests.

But one of the coolest features of the game room is the motion sensor. When you walk up the stairs and enter the room, the lights and the audio are activated in addition to the shades and the six Tvs on the video wall.

The home is a ‘smart house’ in every sense of the phrase, but everything in it has been designed to be operated as a no-brainer. Each control function is integrated into touchpanels with labeling like ‘Home’ for single-button control of a series of macros.

For example, if the client enters the home from the garage, hitting ‘Home’ would turn on the lights, the thermostat, Tvs, etc. Hitting the ‘Away’ button turns off all Tvs, lights, audio and initiates the ‘Away’ mode on the thermostat, and sets the alarm. The ‘Good Night’ button turns everything off and sets the alarm and thermostat.

“There were lots of new features that we put into the home,” reflects Cobb. “It was a useful learning curve, because Matt wanted everything to be very cutting-edge and advanced. We worked through the experience of the new energy-management interfaces for use with the Control4 system, and because of that, we’ll be able to apply our knowledge and what we learned in the troubleshooting process to other projects.

“All in all,” Cobb says, “this project went very smoothly in relation to how advanced the technology is. It has won many awards—and for good reason.

But what I’m proudest of is that a lot of people have seen the completed project, and each person takes something different away from the experience, be it the video wall, the iPhone control capability, or the mirror TV. So many elements are cutting edge—but I really like all of it.”

The Designer’s Perspective

Electronic Lifestyles®: Before this collaboration with Jay Cobb, had you ever worked with electronic systems contractors (ESCs)?

Matt Ratzlaff: I am a builder by trade, and an interior designer for some customers. I had worked a bit with another ESC before Jay, but found the experience complex and not too ‘user-friendly.’ Smart homes, in my past experience, required a tech whiz to operate. My relationship with Jay and his company began when I started using him to do the wiring on the building side of my business. He did some of the basic homes, and one high-end wiring project, and I could see he was in the habit of delivering exactly what he said he would. He made the complex smooth. So I engaged him for my own home.

EL: How important was it that you and Jay felt comfortable with one another during this project’s execution?

Ratzlaff: Very, and it paid off. An example of how well he worked to fulfill my needs in the home was the motorized shade part of the project.

The system on its own was simple to operate with a remote control, but integrating it into the Control4 system was difficult; but Jay worked it out. Also, we have some gas lanterns in front of the house. On their own, they’re not high tech, but integrating them into the rest of the system so they could be controlled that way was pretty complicated, and he worked out all the programming. For him to be able to interface with my alarm and HVAC contractors was not easy, but he managed those relationships with no problem.

EL: What lessons did the experience of doing this project—and working with a ESC—hold for future projects and collaborations?

Ratzlaff: I would gladly work on a similar or a more difficult project with Jay and his crew, any day. We show off our home a lot. People remark that it’s a nice combination of one-button turn-ons. Less technical people are capable of easily accessing all the complex technologies that the younger generation wants. Working with him also taught me a lot about the marketing aspect of technology in a home; the more I show my home, the more I learn about what technologies are top of mind with clients.

EL: What were some of the toughest concessions that were necessary on both sides (aesthetics, performance) to achieve the look and the total integration performance you were able to achieve?

Ratzlaff: Being a designer, I’m fussy about aesthetics. But Jay is even more so. He would always look for ways to hide controllers, because he really cared about how things looked. He really went overboard, but he always kept costs within reason.

Electronic Systems Contractor Tips:

Let the homeowner know at the outset that equipment changes are not uncommon, especially in a long-term project.

“The only small glitch was that the entertainment center, which was built out into the family room, was measured to accommodate a particular TV model that by the time we finished, was no longer available; its replacement ended up being a slightly different chassis size. So we had to modify the cabinet to accommodate the newer model.

Now, when we work with clients in choosing a TV for a specifically designed space, we tell the client that if they buy the model immediately rather than waiting for the end of construction, we will store the model for them until needed, so they will be assured of its fitting the space.”

Document. “We were careful to document everything from the get-go. We had a plan and we executed it.”

Two-way communication is imperative. “The biggest ingredient for success in any project is to understand early on what the customer’s vision, objective and budget are, and design around all those while keeping the lines of communication open with all trades involved—and making sure you use those lines frequently.”

Pick your collaborators carefully. “Make sure you have a great designer—and we did— plus, he also happened to be the homeowner!”

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