A Clovis, California, ESC Accomplishes Many ‘Firsts’ On Whole-Home Project

First, there was the “grand-scale” technical vision of the client to consider. Then came a litany of new applications and products for the Clovis, California-based design and integration team to contend with on their whole-house AV project in nearby Fresno.

For Jay Cobb, president of six-year-old Hi-Tech Home, new technical challenges have never been intimidating, so addressing a veritable laundry list of new products and integration headaches was simply par for the course. But by the looks of that list, Hi-Tech’s “course” was like Augusta National for any golfer other than maybe Tiger Woods.

Here’s just a sampling of the new challenges that would await Cobb and his technicians as they embarked on the Ratzlaff Project:
■ A “six-pack” video wall
■ iPhone/iTouch control and integration
■ Rhapsody integration into the Control4 system
■ Pandora through VUDU
■ Escient’s new Vision product
■ Energy management consumption and tracking with data and graphs visible through the Control4 touchscreens
■ Invisible speakers
■ Garage door control through the automation system.

THE CLIENT’S GOALS
Some clients leave it to their ESC, others have a pretty good idea about what they want their AV system to look like. Hi-Tech’s client on this project was quite specific about his aspirations for his home.

"First and foremost, he wanted a dedicated theater with accessibility to any and every type of entertainment device one could imagine,” Cobb recalled. “He also wanted a game room complete with a six-television video wall so that he could watch almost every football game available on Sundays while he played pool. Further, he requested complete automation for his lighting and temperature control. All of this was in addition to complete structured wiring throughout the house, another surround sound setup in his family room, a TV behind a two-way mirror in his master bathroom, a flat-panel TV covered by Vision Art in his master bedroom, speakers in just about every room, and even an in-wall iPort to distribute music throughout the house.”

Hi-Tech's goal was to provide all of this equipment and functionality, and remain within the customer's budget. Because the project was new construction, Cobb's biggest concern was the initial design, because he wanted to make sure that he had all of the right wires in all the right places before the home was finished. "With a large two-story home, a change in design after drywall went up would be a major undertaking," he said. "Thus, our design phase was an arduous one. We had to figure out what equipment we needed to make all of the customer's dreams come true while at the same time keeping our costs from getting out of hand. Once we had all of the equipment lined out, we had to determine what wires needed to go where. Once the design was in place, it was simply a matter of getting the home wired without any mistakes."

DEDICATED HOME THEATER
The Ratzlaff theater features a Panasonic PTAE3000U- EC projector and Vutec Silverstar 92 Screen, a Sonance surround sound setup powered by a Denon AV receiver, and Sunfire subwoofers. In this room, the customer has access to a DirecTV DVR, an Escient digital movie and music

In their client’s game room, the Hi-Tech Home design team, led by Jay Cobb (far left), mounted six 42-inch Panasonic plasma TVs in two horizontal rows of three, filling a good portion of a large wall. The game room also features a seven-inch Control4 touchscreen. The home includes a Middle Atlantic ERK4425 Rack with multiple rack shelves and power strips and DUCTCOOL2 closet cooling system (top left).

server, a VUDU movie rental and purchase device, an XBOX 360 with the capability to download content from Netflix, and a Sony 400-Disc DVD changer that pulls movie cover art from an online database that shows up on every GUI in the house. The Sony 400-Disc DVD player is also wired to the family room. Because Control4 lists the movies on all GUIs, it’s as easy to pick a movie in the family room as it is in the theater.

THE GAME ROOM
In the game room, Hi-Tech mounted six 42-inch Panasonic plasma TVs in two horizontal rows of three. The Panasonics have built-in functionality that allows the TV to become a segment of the video wall, thus enabling a single large picture in addition to multiple images.

“Through programming in Control4, we were able to give the customer the functionality to have all six TVs merge into a single picture, all six TVs show different pictures, or four TVs merge into a single picture while the other two show something different. All of this is accomplished by the push of a single button,” Cobb explained.

The customer incorporated

In the master bathroom, Hi-Tech mounted a super-thin Hitachi flat-panel behind a two-way mirror. To hide the master bedroom TV when it is not being watched, Hi-Tech mounted a Vutec Artscreen, complete with wood frame.

large wood beams into the ceiling in this room, so Cobb and his team figured that in-ceiling speakers might affect the aesthetics of the room. “We decided to use invisible speakers made by Solid Drive that mount to the drywall of the ceiling in the attic and turn the entire ceiling into a speaker,” Cobb said. “We were able to get good quality sound without anything visible to ruin the look. 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, DVD/CD player, tuner, and more.”

Control4 was the basis for control in the entire house, and this room was no different. “We installed an in-wall seven-inch touchscreen,” Cobb said. “From here, the entire room, and even the house, can be controlled. This includes distributed audio, lighting, TVs, thermostats, alarm, and more. We incorporated Somfy shade controls into the shades, so from the touchscreen or any system remote, the system can be raised or drawn.”

MASTER BED AND BATH
In the master bathroom, Hi-Tech mounted a super-thin Hitachi flat-panel behind a two-way mirror. And, in the master bedroom, Hi-Tech worked with the builder on framing out a recessed area over the fireplace so they could mount a Samsung 42-inch plasma TV flush with the wall. To hide the TV when it isn’t being watched, Hi-Tech mounted a Vutec Artscreen, complete with wood frame. Through programming, the screen automatically lifts when the TV is turned on. When turned off, down comes the artwork.

“In this space, we mounted a connection to both DirecTV HD and a Denon DVD/CD unit, located in an armoire away from the TV,” Cobb said. He also connected it to a Control4 HC-300 controller that provided the ability show a front-door camera, a Weatherbug weather report, as well as control lighting, temperature, and the alarm, right from the onscreen GUI.

"The last fun feature we added was automation control tied to motion sensors mounted in both the bedroom and bathroom," Cobb said. "In the bedroom, at certain hours in the evening, when the motion sensor detects motion, it turns on the room lights to a certain percentage. In the bathroom, during overnight hours, if that motion sensor is tripped, it turns on the bathroom lights bright enough to do your business, and then sets the bedroom lights very low in order to get back to bed when you are done."

Hi-Tech placed pairs of speakers (including 14 Proficient C610s, two C620s, C600TT, and two W670s) in every room in the home, the patio, and the courtyard. These speakers are wired to a Control4 16-channel amplifier that distributes up to eight inputs to eight different outputs. Multiple satellite receivers, an iPort, DVD players, music servers, and everything else listed in the home theater are available at the touch of a button in any room in the house.

"When someone rings the doorbell, it communicates with Control4, and any TV that is on instantly switches to the IP camera located at the front door," Cobb said.

FAMILY ROOM
The family room has a second surround sound setup with a 61-inch DLP built into a cabinet and an in-wall subwoofer to save space.

Lighting and temperature can all be controlled by any remote or GUI in the home. And with the remote capability that Control4 offers, they can also be controlled from any computer on the Internet.

"The customer requested a room that integrated audio/video equipment to the décor without being overwhelming aesthetically," Cobb said. "We coordinated with the builder of the home to design a built-in entertainment center that would house a 61-inch Samsung DLP, as well as a Sonance Symphony LCR center-channel speaker and all of the components for the room."

To complete the 5.1 surround sound system, Hi-Tech used in-ceiling Sonance Symphony S623TR speakers, and a Sonance A800D in-wall subwoofer. They painted the speakers and subwoofer to match the walls in the room.

For the local equipment, Hi-Tech chose a Denon AVR-2309 receiver to handle all amplification and video processing. They also included an HD DirecTV receiver and a Denon DVD558 as video sources. Because the entire house was being controlled by the Control4 automation system, Hi-Tech installed a Control4 HCHi-300 for control.

That Control4 GUI also allows for control of other aspects of the home, including the thermostats and home security system. "Another cool feature of the Control4 system is the ability to stream digital music," Cobb pointed out. "As we installed an iPort in the home, the HC-300 can stream iPod music through the surround sound receiver. The customer also has a subscription to the Rhapsody online music service, and they can access the entire library Rhapsody offers and play that music."

FINAL THOUGHTS
So, back to those project challenges that were mentioned earlier... Cobb pointed out that one of his company’s core values (see sidebar) is to embrace new technology, which was in no short supply on this project.

“We have always pushed the envelope in being creative and using new technology,” Cobb said. “This, in my opinion, is one of the reasons why we have been so successful. It is certainly more stressful, but for some reason I always like to challenge myself and our technicians. We have some tremendous technicians and programmers that are capable of executing the proposed design. I can’t really say that any of these items were too challenging.”

Jeremy J. Glowacki can be contacted via e-mail at jglowacki@nbmedia.com.