Audio Visual

There are 9 zones of audio and 5 zones of video throughout the main areas in the house. The brief for clean lines and unobstructed wall spaces created a design challenge for integrating and achieving a great sounding audio system. We overcame this by installing hidden in-wall speakers throughout the property. As a result, we were able to install a full range, whole home audio system, while maintaining the clean look the client and designers required.

This property also has large outdoor landscaped entertaining areas. Due to the strict requirements of the council planners on the exterior look of the heritage property, combined with the home owner’s requirements to fill the outdoor areas with audio, we used a buried in-ground sub-woofer and in-ground telescopic spike speakers set into the planting. Therefore, we created an almost invisible sound stage that fills the outdoor entertaining area.

Lighting Control

A Lutron Lighting control system was used in this home, as it is reliable and provides great energy savings, beneficial for a residence of this size. Lutron can be monitored and easily allows for changes to be made to the functionality of the system remotely. Features included turning the lights on automatically in the evening when the alarm is disarmed. Similarly, Lutron gives the ability to turn off the majority of lights from a ‘good night’ button in a convenient location within the house, leaving only a few outside lights on for security purposes. Lighting can be controlled either by switches or touch panels positioned throughout the house. We also set up pre-made pages of popular lighting areas on the Crestron touch screens and iPad’s that the home owner can easily navigate to set their favorite lighting scenes.

One of the bigger performance considerations for the design was the lighting control system and the keypads in each room, meaning we were unable to use any modern looking keypads in the design. The designers picked period-style toggle switches with modern terminals on the inside. Hence, in order for us to achieve the level of control for the lighting integration we needed, we had to have all inputs coming in as dry contact closure inputs. We home-ran all this cabling to our central hub locations, that were integrated into cabinetry in the basement. Another performance objective of the lighting control system was for automated sensors to switch on low level lighting in hallway spaces and bathrooms. In order for these sensors to integrate with the ornate period ceiling details, we used very small security PIR sensors, neatly integrated into the ceiling at the head of the doorways making them almost invisible.

The Lutron lighting system also controls three outdoor heaters, with the ability to control them from the touch screen and iPad.

Security and Access

This home has extensive intrusion detection coverage and protection, with over 20 zones throughout the property in the alarm and access control system. The home owner required an integrated security system with full property coverage, and requested push button REX opening and keypad access. So as to not detract from the clean look and period design features, we incorporated the electronic door lock releases into the lighting keypads.

We also integrated the access control in with the Crestron control system, this way the home owner could use their in-wall touch screens and iPad’s to unlock doors. This level of integration and control was also incorporated into the gate access to the property with RF remote releases from outside the property, with only one access keypad externally controlling all sets of gates to complete the minimalist look.

Surveillance System

The property features 5 cameras connected to a CCTV server, which are located externally to give a full coverage of the property’s perimeter. These cameras are also able to be displayed on the Crestron touch screens via URL streams. This allowed us to flip to the camera pages when the intercom system is called so the clients are able to see who is at the gate. This was also integrated with the access control so the home owner can allow or deny entry.

Network

The property has been extensively wired with a large structured cable network to act as a communication backbone for the Crestron control system, Lutron lighting control, HD video distribution and security and access control. All these systems communicate via IP to each other via this back bone. This network also carries Fibre broadband to the home’s devices and carries the Wifi network handling HD audio and video streaming.