This year has seen us deliver the largest project we have ever undertaken, with a value of around half a million pounds for this phase. The first phase of the project has been the main house and, over the coming years, we will deliver similar services into a number of other properties that form part of the entire project.
Unfortunately, for security reasons, we can not share many photos of the actual rooms in the house, but trust us, the results are quite astonishing!
The project featured 28 individual audio zones, utilising invisible Stealth Acoustic plaster-in speakers throughout and a Crestron Sonnex audio distribution system and amplifiers. The Stealth speakers mean that no speakers are on view anywhere in the property (other than the media room and courtyard gardens). Just because the speakers are invisible does not mean their performance is lacking, even we have been amazed by the performance in many of the rooms.
There are 11 zones with TV displays ranging from 85 inch LED screens to 32 inch waterproof Aquavision screens. All of the high-definition video sources are distributed using a fibre-optic network based on Crestron Digital Media hardware. We are distributing many sources (around 30 individual sources) ranging from Sky HD decoders to Apple TV to Kaleidescape Movie Players. The system has the ability to be upgraded to 4K should the family want to incorporate 4K sources in the future.
Control over all audio-visual, heating, lighting and intercom systems is presented in very intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces ranging from simple hand-held remote controls for fast channel-surfing up to 10-inch in-wall Crestron touchscreens. The ease-of-use was a clear priority for the family and we spent considerable time creating a new series of Crestron layouts that are identical across all interfaces and have had fantastic feedback from all that have used them.
There are around 160 circuits of lighting within the main house and it’s gardens and courtyards. These, along with a number of electric blinds, are all controlled with a Lutron QS system to offer exceptional dimming performance throughout. The house had an older Lutron Homeworks dimming system in place and we were able to retain a number of dimming panels from that system which had a very beneficial impact on the costs. The keypads were all replaced with custom units that have then all been painted to match the décor in the room.
The demands of the client have required us to develop solutions to offer exceptional reliability and resilience against any equipment failures. We have looked at every facet of what we do, both in terms of the hardware we use and the software used to control these systems. We have developed a number of innovative solutions that ensure that we are able to both monitor and interrogate any of our systems remotely. In the case of any failures of sources such as Sky HD decoders, the house staff can simply press a button on an internal website that both emails us to let us know about the failure and simply swaps the failed box out, within software, for one of the spare units we have in the rack.
Beyond the audio-visual elements, we also have complete integration and control with the very large and complex Building Management System from Trend. We are able to offer the homeowner and their staff very granular control over their environment with a number of very unique characteristics based on the family’s specific requirements. This was one of the largest number of heating/cooling zones we’ve interfaced with and it has all worked as designed and the family can have the control they requested for this very important aspect of the project.
In one of the more interesting special projects on this large project, we liaised between the many parties involved in creating a full golf-simulation room with a large projection screen and high-speed motion capture cameras to offer the homeowners the ability to play a round on a golf course of their choosing, whatever the weather and all within arm’s reach of a bar! It was a first for us and a very enjoyable part of the project that we hope will give the family many hours of enjoyment.
It has been a great pleasure to work on such a challenging project and we’re really looking forward to the next phases on the properties. It has helped us develop and improve in virtually every area as a company and we look forward to applying many of the tricks we’ve learnt onto many future projects, large and small.
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