Relative newbies to home technology, the owners of a traditional-style 6,000-square-foot home in Lower Gwynedd, Penn., decided to incorporate a few high-tech touches after seeing a whole-house audio system running at a friend’s home. Like their friend, they were avid music listeners, and could clearly recognize the benefits of putting a control system in charge of their various entertainment components.
As the construction of their home was nearing completion, they contacted JL Entertainment Designs, of Exton, Penn., to design and install a similar setup as their friend’s, which would allow them to hear their favorite tunes throughout the house and access and control the audio equipment in an easy, intuitive manner. It was a job that would also wind up involving the integration of a Lutron RadioRA2 lighting control system and URC THZ-100 Advanced Thermostats, a strategy that would maximize the potential of the URC Total Control system that JL Entertainment Designs chose for the project.
“What this family of five needed more than anything was reliability,” says JL Entertainment Designs president Joe Lusi. “They needed a system that would work each and every time they pressed a button.” This “button” would come in many forms, as the home systems integrators at JL Entertainment Designs recommended the installation of a combination of URC touchpanels, handheld remotes, and URC’s Total Control Mobile app on the family’s existing smartphones and tablets. Variety fostered convenience; no matter where the three kids or mom and dad happen to be hanging out, there’s a control device nearby.
Although the look and feel of these control devices are distinctively different from each other, they all share a common on-screen user interface, which walks the homeowners through the process of what to listen to and where to listen to it. A user can activate at the touch of a button a URC Streaming Network Player that, with the help of URC’s Multi-Zone Network Amplifier, can stream music to the PSB and Noble Fidelity speakers in any or all of eight independent listening areas. This distribution system supports the simultaneous delivery of multiple streams of audio, which will become increasingly important as the kids grow older. They will be able to listen to their favorite tunes in the family room, for example, while at the same time mom and dad relax to their own music on the patio or any other listening zone.
The Players
Electronics Design & Installation JL Entertainment Designs, Exton, Penn.
Equipment
Control URC
Lighting Control Lutron
Smart Thermostats URC
Whole-House Audio URC
Speakers Noble Fidelity, PSB
The process of accessing and controlling their audio options (cable boxes and Apple TVs) proved so simple and straightforward for the family, that when Lusi suggested they also use the URC interfaces to control their home’s lights and thermostats, they didn’t hesitate to give the go-ahead. Thanks to the availability of URC’s two-way driver for Lutron’s RadioRA 2 system, Lusi and his team were able to mesh nearly all of the home’s lights into the Total Control networking platform. Now, just as the Total Control system provides the homeowners with valuable feedback on the status of their audio distribution system, it also delivers useful information about the lights: for instance, which ones are on, which ones are off, and their intensity levels. Even more appealing to this family, however, is the ability of the Lutron RadioRA 2 light switches to be programmed into scenes. Lighting is a natural complement to music, so the scenes created by Lighting Control Solutions, of Ardmore, Penn., and programmed into the Total Control system by JL Entertainment Designs, add a degree of sophistication to the listening environments. After selecting a particular piece of music, the homeowners can touch a button on a tablet, smartphone, touchpanel, or remote to add the perfect level of illumination for a party, relaxation, or a romantic evening. EH
Article courtesy of URC
Photos Courtesy of James Dougherty
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