YOU’D NEVER GUESS THAT HIDDEN behind this historic 1.6-acre estate in Pasadena, Calif., is one of the swankiest outdoor audio and lighting control systems around. By day, guests and homeowners can saunter through lush gardens that do the city’s botanical heritage justice. By night, technology emerges to transform this daytime utopia into a world-class event home, rivaling the most elaborate clubs and venues in New York and Las Vegas.
The homeowner is a former disc jockey who wanted “rock concert” audio and lighting, “something never done on this scale in a private residence before,” says Ilya Kandibur, owner and systems designer at Movietime Corp., of Pasadena, Calif. The magic begins at dusk when the commercial-grade DMX lighting system is activated by any of the homeowner’s numerous iPads, Crestron control touchpanels, and RTI handheld remotes. With more than 50 zones of lighting, control had to be straightforward and intuitive.
The homeowner can operate the lights by individual zone, group zones together, or engage preset lighting scenes for the ultimate in easy party set-up. Preset scenes like Dark Blue Chill, Warm Chill, Icy, Girly, and Lollipop are anything but static, as colors shift and move for a dynamic nightclub-like experience.
The dance patio is one of the ground’s most impressive areas, starring a large Onyx wall, backlit with Elation LED pixel tape. Across the way, even the gazebo’s curtains glow with colorful lighting control. This area features bench seating that provides the perfect ambiance for guests who want a quiet(er) place to chat away from the party. Best of all, the lighting can bump and strobe along with the beat of the music, just like it does at a dance club. “Music from the house system is fed into an audio analyzer and, with a single press of the Audio Sync icon on a Crestron touchpanel or a Crestron app on a mobile device, the homeowner can turn any area, or the entire property, into a musical light show,” says Kandibur. “The Onyx glass features on the patio start flowing back and forth like rivers of color, bumping and fading to the rhythm.”
Why Your A/V Contractor Needs a Scuba License
The pool and spa area in this amazing outdoor entertainment area feature hidden LED lighting inside and out. Underwater lights provide a cool glow inside the pool, and the homeowner can pick from 16 million colors from a color wheel on the Crestron iPad app to achieve the desired look. “However, the LED tape was very difficult to work with and has many restrictions,” says Ilya Kandibur, owner and systems designer at Movietime Corp., of Pasadena, Calif. “It can’t be run more than 20 feet long per section and the power supplies and drivers can’t be more than 20 to 30 feet away.” So for a massive area like the outdoor pool, Movietime had to run conduit to every 20-foot increment inside and outside of the pool edge, along with the entire outer perimeter and benches. Instead of an easy “home run” of wire to one place, there are six different locations around the pool (including benches and decorative posts), where all the equipment had to be spread out to keep everything within proper distance from the LED tape. All of these hidden drivers and connections had to be installed in custom, weatherproof enclosures to keep them safe.
The pool was already filled with water, and the California-drought-conscience homeowner didn’t want to have to drain and refill it in order to add the lighting. “Therefore, we had to solder nearly a quarter-mile of LED tape while swimming inside the pool,” says Kandibur. “Our techs, clad in swim gear and wearing flotation vests, used a wireless soldering iron, and it took two weeks of labor inside and around the pool to complete.” Even more interesting, the underwater DTS DMX pool lighting required a Movietime technician to don scuba gear and work underwater to install them. “Now, the homeowner tells people how his A/V integrator had to have a dive license to install underwater lighting.”
Check Out Outdoor Lighting Control Effects You Can Do Yourself
While lighting may be the first element you notice in this outdoor party scene, the massive audio system is even more intense. A whopping 25,000 watts of power pulse through six Crown Audio and two QSC amplifiers, which are products typically used for commercial projects.
On the dance patio, a JBL Synthesis system (one of three on the property) and an 18-inch JBL commercial subwoofer make it virtually impossible for guests to stand still. But the music doesn’t stop here. The swimming pool area features four 15-inch James Loudspeaker in-ground subwoofers, carefully hidden below custom flowerpots, filling the space with earth-shaking bass. Inside the benches, JBL AE series custom horn speakers put out an excess of 130 decibels. If the homeowner is in the mood to spin a set, a DJ port lets him connect his console with ease.
One of the more interesting features in this outdoor escape is the Laser Stars Hologram projector (only $125 and available at Amazon) that shines onto the spa area’s dome ceiling. Overhead, it projects images of slow-moving clouds and stars that twinkle. “We had to build the night sky projector into the ground, then mask it off perfectly so the image only hit the dome and didn’t spill over, even by a millimeter,” says Kandibur. To prevent heat generated from the projector from building up in its underground hiding spot, Movietime installed piping to exhaust the heat into a nearby closet. The only evidence of the projector’s existence is a small piece of glass cut out in the tile from which it shines. “The whole property is like this. Everywhere you turn, there is some crazy request the client had and a one-off custom project that ensued to accomplish it,” adds Kandibur.
“It’s all very surreal how this traditional space suddenly becomes a dance club come nightfall, and it’s absolutely the customer’s favorite feature of his property, says Kandibur. And that’s saying a lot, considering that Movietime also installed a world-class theater (complete with steps that light up when you walk on them) and a killer recreation room—both outfitted with commercial-grade audio and best-of-class electronics. For a DJ, however, dancing and spinning under the stars is the definition of a high-tech home done right.
Check out a video of some of this home’s features.
Photography: Mark Alexander Systems Design & Installation: Movietime Corp., Pasadena, Calif.
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