Recently Filed in Lighting Control Systems

I got a good look at Lutron’s energy-saving Green button at the Greenbuild showin Boston last week. The Green button can be used with a wired or wireless Lutron HomeWorks lighting system, and enables lights to be dimmed to a preset degree. Say you have the lights on full in your media room and you want to dim them to be more energy efficient: Instead of pressing a button on a keypad until the light dims to the desired level, you just press a Green… View this story
Lighting Control • Lighting Control Systems • Green Technology • Home Control • Info and Answers

In-wall speakers have come a long way. They look great and can sound just as good as free-standing models. Still, if you look hard enough, they are noticeable. Some speaker manufacturers believe they can do better at blending speakers into the home decor—and they have, by creating models that are completely invisible. One of the pioneers of the invisible speaker category is Sound Advance. The company’s flat-panel loudspeaker technology was acquired by Sonance a few years ago, giving Sonance an even broader lineup of speakers.… View this story
Home Control • Touchpanels and Keypads • Lighting Control • Fixtures and Switches • Lighting Control Systems • In-Wall Speakers • Home Control • Info and Answers • Slideshows

Touchscreens are not just made to just sit on a tabletop. Vantage/Legrand just announced a few new touchscreens, which add plenty of placement options. First is the TPT650, a 6.5-inch in-wall mounted touchscreen. Designed to work with Vantage’s InFusion system, the unit features an Intel X-Scale processor, a Linux operating system, and personalization via simple drag-and-drop programming. It also boasts plenty of media center support, which allows users to access music, photos and more. The TPT1210-1 kicks the existing TPT1210 up a notch. Vantage says… View this story
Touchpanels and Keypads • Lighting Control Systems • Home Control • Product News

Luxury items like control systems and home theaters usually come at a high price. However, it doesn’t have to be that way, claims professional home systems installer Greg Mizerek of Advanced Media Systems of Morristown, NJ. “When you use a combination of the right products, you can enjoy all the functionality of a high-end system but pay half as much,” he says. As proprietors of their own home-building business, these homeowners know all too well how easy it can be to blow a budget when… View this story
Digital Media Servers • Home Security Systems • Home Control Systems • Lighting Control Systems • Home Theater • Multiroom AV • Security • Home Control • Cool Homes

Last year when the American Can Company factory in Jersey City, NJ, was converted into luxury condominiums, the million-square-foot industrial building not only became inhabitable for the first time in many years as CanCo Lofts, but it also went high-tech. In addition to a wireless business center and pre-wired residences, the lobby, designed by LOT-EK, an architecture firm in Manhattan, used two-dozen plasma TVs to broadcast a live feed of the New York City skyline. As more condo and apartment dwellers alike expect higher-tech amenities… View this story
Flat Panel • Bookshelf Systems • Lighting Control Systems • Home Theater • Info and Answers • Slideshows

What’s on your calendar today? Will you be driving to the airport for a business trip? Are you taking the day off to catch up on errands? Will you be hosting a dinner party or spending the evening on your own? Maybe you’ll be going to a friend’s for a backyard barbeque later on. No matter what’s happening in your life, the master suite is the place where you get prepared, whether that means donning a suit and tie or steaming away in the shower.… View this story
Multiroom Audio • Multiroom Video • Home Control Systems • Lighting Control Systems • Bedroom • Multiroom AV • Home Control • Info and Answers

The formal dining room has lost its luster. Most families use them so infrequently, they could be closed up and no one would ever notice. However, it is possible to breathe new life into this forgotten space by adding a few high-tech amenities like lighting, music and control systems. While you’re at it, consider these technologies for other eating areas, such as the breakfast nook in the kitchen, the bar in the rec room and the patio outside. With the right systems in place, you’ll… View this story
Multiroom Audio • Home Control Systems • Lighting Control Systems • Diningroom • Multiroom AV • Home Control • Info and Answers • Slideshows

For a family of self-proclaimed “TV freaks,” every day at home on the north shore of Long Island is paradise. A drool-inducing 24 LCD and plasma screens hang from walls throughout the roughly 17,500-square-foot residence. Mom, Dad and two teenage children can turn on a flat-panel TV and access whole-home audio and video in virtually every room. This paradise will be even sweeter when the dedicated home theater is completed. Until then, the family will have to settle for its high-definition TV lineup that ranges… View this story
Tools • Lighting Control Systems • Home of the Year Awards 2008 • Home Theater • Multiroom AV • Cool Homes • Slideshows

There are solar panels on the roof. There are monitors in the house that display energy savings. And there are efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) throughout. All very green—and very automated. We should say very, very automated. Lights come on and turn off automatically. Blinds shut when it’s time to cool the home. Beyond the energy-saving green functions of this abode, a sophisticated home control system provides security alerts in a woman’s voice—yes, the house talks—and can be controlled by voice commands. Incoming phone calls… View this story
Home Security Systems • Surveillance • Climate Control Systems • Thermostats and Sensors • Home Control Systems • Voice Recognition • Lighting Control Systems • Shades and Blinds • Green Technology • Home of the Year Awards 2008 • Home Control • Cool Homes • Slideshows

Did you have a new home built last year? If you did, chances were very good that your homebuilder offered you a solution to control the lighting in it. Automated lighting control is surging, aided recently by the green-ing of America that we’re seeing daily, for which lighting control has always served as an energy-efficient technology. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) confirmed this recently by reporting that 58 percent of builders offered lighting control in 2007. In the “Sixth Annual State of the Builder Technology… View this story
Home Control • Industry • Manufacturers • Installers • Lighting Control • Lighting Control Systems • Home Control • Enhancements • Product News

If you’re looking for a wow factor product in your home theater, or maybe another special room of your home, one thing that seems to blow people away is the fiber-optic starfield on the ceiling. It allows you to have a bit of lighting so the theater isn’t totally dark, it doesn’t affect the video performance, and it’s aesthetically spectacular. The California company Numinus, which exhibited at last week’s Electronic House Expo, takes the starfield approach even further to add a luxurious and cool-looking touch… View this story
Industry • Manufacturers • Lighting Control • Lighting Control Systems • Home Theater • Enhancements • Product News

For a company that provides products expanding the whole A/V gamut, why not throw in some automation and deliver a turnkey solution for the home? That’s what Sony decided to do, adding home automation from Control4 as part of its NHS-130C rack system. This streamlined approach gives professional installers a convenient solution, with everything right there pre-packaged in a Middle Atlantic rack shelf system to make it easy to implement this 12-zone video and audio distribution/home automation setup. From Sony, the chief components include: 7.1-channel… View this story
AV Components • AM and FM Tuners • Blu-ray • Digital Media Servers • Multiroom Audio • Multiroom Video • Home Control • Home Control Systems • Lighting Control • Lighting Control Systems • Home Theater • Multiroom AV • Home Control • Product News