SMART HOMES MAKING YOUR LIFE EASIER

Welcome to the first installment of a new MOVES column on all the advancements and wonders of home technology. Being a first, it’s important to discuss the basics of what makes a “smart home.” By checking out an awesome smart house that actually won the gold medal last year from CEDIA (the industry organization for this sort of thing) for the best integrated home system in the $1-3M range, you’re able to realize how Smart House can make your life easier. Audio One, designed and installed this system from the conceptual level all the way through to the finishing touches. This is a great illustration of how such a high-end system can be realized. Here’s an overview of the entire system.

What exactly is a smart house? Why do you need or want one?

A smart house offers centralized, easy-access control of, at least, the following:

►Lights inside and outside

► Sound throughout the house, inside and outside

► Security controls to arm/disarm alarm as well as instantly see which zones are “open” in the house such as doors or windows

► Cameras visible on touch panels and TVs, either with control of the Pan, Tilt, and Zoom (PTZ) or only static views of each area inside & outside of the house

► Thermostat control so that the temperature can be viewed and set for any area in the house from a touch panel That’s just a basic smart house. But you can take it further with these options:

► Shades & window treatments controls to open or close any shade throughout the entire house from anywhere in the house

► Access control to lock and unlock doors and gates from anywhere in the house

► Intercom to page and communicate with people in your house (as you’re watching a camera, for instance)

► Pool & Spa control to control fiber optic pool/waterfall lighting and heat up the spa from inside the house

► Video distribution to watch DVR’s, Cable/Sat receivers, and DVD Servers from one central location to any and all TV’s throughout the house. This eliminates locally stored equipment and greatly simplifies viewing recorded programming anywhere in the house

► Specialty items such as fountains, garage doors, irrigation systems, waterfalls and more

Obviously, every house has control of its lights, alarm system and HVAC. There might even be some motorized or hand controlled shades, or a few cameras that can be displayed on a TV, computer screen or over Internet. A lot of houses have intercom functionality using a phone system. But these disparate elements do not make a Smart House.

What makes a Smart House is integration. In these homes, each of the elements are controlled from a centralized, instantly accessible touch panel or keypad.

Here’s at a quick example using lighting. For instance, when you walk into a room, there is a single keypad on the wall to control ALL of the lights in the room. Gone are the banks and rows of lighting switches on the wall cluttering up the aesthetic.

Each of the buttons above can be custom engraved and can also be programmed to control any groups of lights. The top button can be a simple on/off for the entire room. The middle button could trigger a pathway from one room to another room on the other side of the house while the bottom button could control landscape lights. The options are totally customized, endless in their options, yet very easy to use.

More than just lighting control, a Smart House uses touch panels to offer one-button control and access to all said technologies. Take a look below:

From the touch panel screen above, you can press the “TSTAT” button and see the temperature, humidity, and status of every air conditioning zone in your house, throughout the estate. One press and you can set all of them to any desired temperature or turn off zones that are not being used to conserve energy and power consumption. The thermostats could also be on timers using the Smart House system so that they cooled higher in the day. On the same timer, the Smart House system could close the shades two hours after sunrise and open them one hour before sunset, automatically. You can even override your automated programs from any touch panel throughout the house should the circumstances (or weather) change.

The above touch panel also has control of cameras and gate control. Here’s a scenario in which the power and convenience of a Smart House comes to life on the touch panel.

The gate doorbell rings. The screen on the touch panel turns ON and automatically displays the gate camera. You press the “talk” button on the screen to ask who is at the gate. They respond (which you hear on the touch panel speaker because the panel has a builtin microphone & speaker). You press the “open gate” button, also on the touch panel, conveniently superimposed over the gate camera image. The entire process takes three seconds and has no delays such as warm up time or turn on sequences. Everything is instant. Four separate functions were all controlled from one screen on the touch panel without any complications. Even a first-time houseguest could easily understand that they were looking at the gate and had to press “talk” to respond. This powerful, complex system is remarkably easy to use and reliable in operation. This is just one example of how a smart house makes your life easier.

Ultimately the purpose of a Smart House system is to integrate the program smoothly, taking the basic “to do’s” in your home and alleviating them from your daily routine. Smart House does this without the complexity that obscures its purpose of simplicity. The skies virtually the limit with the vast functionality of the Smart House system! www.audio-one.com