Texas Home Wired for Everything

A two-year installation yields solid and expansive A/V, control and security systems.

Located in a Dallas, TX, suburb, Chateau Britannia was once scouted and selected as a set for an A-list movie. Although the homeowners’ schedule could not accommodate the production timetable and the home was not used, the electronic systems in this 12,000-square-foot residence could be right out of a Hollywood script. The homeowners can remotely control just about everything on the 7-acre estate, from firing up the projector in the media room, to setting the temperature of the indoor pool, to turning on the outdoor pathway lighting and fountain. Using a Crestron-based automation system, Advanced Home Theater Systems of Plano, TX, worked on Chateau Britannia after taking over for a contractor who had originally wired the home for another planned project.

“We came in and utilized the existing setup but ended up putting in a full-blown automation system,” says Advanced Home Theater’s Rick Smith. “The way everything was wired, we had the backbone to do a complete Crestron system. One good thing about the house was that it was actually overwired; we had to identify what we needed, get other wiring out of the way or streamline the existing wiring.”

Smith says the project was accomplished over a two-year span and in three phases: the “life systems,” such as lighting, security and HVAC; the audio and video distribution throughout the house; and, finally, the media room. Almost an afterthought because the homeowners told Smith they didn’t expect to utilize it much, the media room has become their chief nightly TV-viewing area.

Perhaps the Runco 1080p DLP projector and 110-inch Firehawk screen from Stewart Filmscreen, along with the Toshiba HD DVD player, have something to do with that. Another reason is, as systems installers frequently hear, the wife “was afraid she wasn’t going to be able to turn on any lights in this house,” Smith says. But now she’s apparently the biggest user of the control system.

Advanced Home Theater installed 43 controllers to operate the various systems of the home, but to simplify things as much as possible for the homeowners, only three of the touchpanel-style controllers are portable—one downstairs, one upstairs and one in the media room. “They wanted the walls all nice, neat and clean,” Smith says. “The biggest thing was that the system had to be simple to use and not have a bunch of stuff cluttering up the house. Those were basically our marching orders.”

Other moves toward stealthy A/V included recessing an LCD display behind a mirror over the breakfast area fireplace and utilizing custom cabinetry to house a 61-inch DLP in the game room. There’s no video in the indoor pool area, but music can fill the room through KEF in-ceiling speakers.

Finding music and movie content was simplified, too. There’s an Escient DVD/CD organizer and three satellite receivers (one dedicated for XM radio and the other two essentially reserved for his-and-her high-definition digital video recorders). So no clutter there, either. If he wants to record a season’s worth of football games, she can tell him to do it on his own DVR.

EQUIPMENT LIST

Control Systems
• Crestron PAC2 processor
• Crestron C2ENET-1 Ethernet card
• Crestron C2IR-8 IR/serial output card
• Crestron C2COM-3 RS 232/422/485 interface card
• Crestron CT-1000 3.8-inch wall touchpanels (2)
• Crestron TPS-2000 5-inch ISys wall touchpanels (8)
• Crestron TPMC-10 10.4-inch Wi-Fi touchpanel
• Crestron MT-1000 3.8-inch wireless touchpanels (2)
• Crestron CNX Series 8-button keypads (30)

Audio/Video components
• Crestron C2N-IVDS24X24 video switcher
• Crestron CNX-PAD8A audio processors (3)
• Crestron CNAMPX-16X60 16-channel multiroom amps (3)
• Crestron C2N-DAP8RC 7.1 channel surround processor and room control
• Crestron CNAMPX-7X200 7-channel surround amp
• Denon AVR3806 receiver
• DirecTV HR10-250 HD-DVRs (2)
• DVDO VP30 1080P video scaler
• Escient DVDM-100 DVD-CD system
• Runco RS-1100 Ultra 1080P DLP projector
• Samsung HP-S4273 42-inch plasmas (2)
• Samsung HL-S6188W 61-inch DLP TV
• Sony 777ES 400-Disk DVD-CD changer
• Samsung
• Sony KDL-V26XBR1 26-inch LCD TV
• Samsung
• Sony KDL-40XBR2 40-inch LCD TV
• Stewart Filmscreen SNDQ110H 110-inch FireHawk screen
• Toshiba 23HLV25 23-inch LCD TVs with DVD (2)
• Toshiba HD-XA1 HD-DVD player

Speakers
• Earthquake SuperNova MKIV 12-inch subwoofer
• KEF Ci-100QR in-ceiling speakers (2pr)
• KEF Ci-200QR in-ceiling speakers (15pr)
• KEF Ci-1500 in-wall speakers (2pr)
• Monitor Audio Bronze 1 compact bookshelf speakers (1pr)
• Snell LCR7 center channel-speaker
• Snell Acoustics XA-1900T THX LCR speakers (3)
• Snell Acoustics SR30THX side speakers (2)
• Snell Acoustics AMC550Mp rear speakers (2)
• Velodyne DD12 12-inch subwoofer

Lighting
• Crestron CLT Series lighting

Security & Climate
• Crestron CHV-TSTAT HVAC thermostats (12)
• Crestron CHV-RTHS HVAC remote temperature and humidity sensors (12)
• Direct Connect DC3112 cameras (6)
• Everfocus EDSR900F 9 Channel LAN enabled DVR with 320GB
• GE Networx NX8e security system

Additional Equipment
• Acoustex acoustically transparent fabric
• Gefen HDMI repeater
• Linksys Wireless “G” Router, 10/100 switcher and wireless access point
• Middle Atlantic rack system
• Panasonic KX-TA824 digital phone system
• Richard Gray’s Power Company SubStation 240
• UltraLink XLO wire and interconnects
• United Leather plush fabric theater seating (6)

CONTACT
Systems Design & Installation
Advanced Home Theater Systems
Plano, TX
972-516-1849
www.advancedhometheater.com

Builder
C. Michael Jones Design/Build
McKinney, TX

Interior Design
Dallas Design Group
Dallas, TX