- The homeowners of a 10,000 square foot, L-shaped home carefully worked to ensure that the architectural aesthetics of their new home in Paradise Valley, Arizona were in line with their tastes. The interior design also had to complement the busy household of father, mother and four children, who range in age from 10 to 19 years — the oldest of whom lives in the family's guesthouse on the property. The landscaping suits the natural surroundings, and the amenities bring a touch of class and sense of convenience to all six family members.
"When you have one button to turn off everything, you don't have to go from room to room. The convenience factor is huge. We have another home in the mountains, and it doesn't have an AMX system. When we're there, we all miss it."
- The homeowners realized early on the importance of having the environmental control system, amenities and electronics all working in concert. They called on Elite Home Technology L.L.C. to install a uniform control system for practically all the elements inside and outside the home.
- To pull it all together, David Shake, chief operating officer of Elite Home Technology and project manager on the job, turned to AMX®. Shake has worked in the home technology and control system industry for 10 years, three of which he spent as an AMX employee before he and his partner formed Elite Home technology one year ago.
- "I love this business, and I love AMX products," Shake said. "I felt confident in the products and in the company's quality standards so much that I knew it would meet the family's needs."
- Despite any former or current loyalty Shake might have felt toward AMX, he said his business and reputation ride on making his customers happy and satisfied.
Meeting Needs
- One of the most important aspects of the control system to this family was scalability. They wanted to have system capability and capacity to upgrade whenever the family's needs evolved.
- The path for evolution was laid by Elite Home Technology, which also doubled as the electrical contractor when the house was built. The firm took both the electrical schematics and the designs for the AMX control system, and designed and installed both systems concurrently. Company technicians ran about 100,000 feet of CAT-5 wiring and coaxial cable throughout the home. The wiring also included the telephone lines, security lines and the audio/visual system, in addition to electrical wiring.
- The result was a heightened efficiency rating for the house and a lower cost to the homebuilder.
Installing Confidence
- Throughout his meetings with the family, Shake learned they wanted to centrally control the home entertainment equipment, lighting, security system, HVAC, pool and Jacuzzi lights, temperature controls and fireplaces to one centralized controller.
- The single point of the control system had to reach the master bedroom on one end of the house, the childrens' rooms on the opposite side, and the study, exercise room, family room, playroom, home theater and guesthouse toward the center of the home. The kitchen, Shake said, serves as the focal point of the home.
- The homeowners also wanted to simplify access to all the devices in the house and bring control to a single point. Elite Home Technology and the family agreed on two large touch panel controls —the 12 inch Modero® Touch Panel and the 17 inch Modero Widescreen.
- The house was divided into 36 independent audio zones and five independent video zones so each family member could listen to or watch the music or movie of their choice. Elite Home Technology installed AMX's MAX Multimedia Server to handle the storage and distribution of all the family's audio and video content. Elite Home Technology loaded 2,500 CDs and 125 DVDs.
- Each family member has a personalized, smaller Modero Touch Panel, the wireless 8.4 inch Modero ViewPoint (MVP-8400), to control his or her preferred entertainment. The domestic staff also has access to the 17 inch Modero Widescreen with a secondary bilingual interface that gives them limited access, Shake said.
- Two Axis 241Q video servers integrated over an Ethernet network connection bring in images captured from the exterior and interior security camera feeds. The security system snaps images of movements thirty times per second.
- "It's a matter of entertainment, convenience and security for the entire family," Shake said.
Satisfying Customers
- The family says they have experienced a new level of convenience and security from the AMX system. The mother of the family says they definitely experience fewer disagreements over musical selections thanks to the MAX server.
- She also pointed out that having a single point of control through the Modero Touch Panels has eliminated an untold number of remote controls that otherwise would be required to separately handle all the elements controlled by the AMX system.
- "I love it because I'm in control of practically everything in and around the house from one spot," she said.
- Security, though, tops the family's priority list
- "The safety issue is really important to us," she said. "I really like that it allows us to monitor every inch of the property through the same system that brings us home entertainment. We can see who's at the front door, or who's at a side door without having to walk to that section of the house."
- The security measures also help the mother of four tackle perhaps her most difficult job — parenting.
- "The oldest lives in the guesthouse, so I can kind of keep an eye on things out there, not that I'm checking on him," she said with a chuckle. "And when one of the other kids says they're going to their room to do homework, if I have to, I can say, 'You're not stopping by the right room to be doing your homework.'
- "It's a safety thing," she said "I know it's a little bit of Big Brother, but that's part of a parent's job."
- Beyond the security and parenting assistance, she appreciates the convenience factor of the AMX system.
- "You come to rely on this," she said. "When you have one button to turn off everything, you don't have to go from room to room. The convenience factor is huge. We have another home in the mountains, and it doesn't have an AMX system. When we're there, we all miss it."
- In fact, the mother said she would recommend a similar system to anyone moving into the neighborhood.
- "Why would you want to deal with all the household devices in any other way? If you're building a custom home and spending that kind of money, why wouldn't you have one installed?"
