Bright Ideas
By Scott Fincher
By Scott Fincher
With its abundance of chandeliers and other crystalline fixtures, this Barrington mansion sparkles. But what really makes it shine is something that is almost invisible—advanced home automation by Digital Home Technologies (Digital Home) in Palatine.
Not long after the home’s groundbreaking in 2015, Digital Home consulted with the builder and homeowners to devise a comprehensive plan that would assure smooth installation of Digital Home’s visionary technologies. The goal: Take the perplexity out of complexity. Simplicity of use and system expansion inspired Digital Home’s ideas for the several thousand
square-foot residence.
As the walls went up, Digital Home technicians worked amid carpenters, plumbers and electricians to place the extensive cabling that is the skeleton for the electronic marvels to come.
If wires are the bones, the brain is Elan, long deemed one of the leading home automation systems and the winner of the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show “Human Interface of the Year” award. Translate “Human Interface” as “Control Made Easy.”
While cables rush data through the walls, few wires mar the home’s complexion. That is part of Elan’s beauty. Inconspicuous wall-mounted touchpads offer one access to control, but a house-wide Luxul wireless network also lets the owners’ tap the Internet so that they can turn on a television, set temperatures, adjust shades, check all or any of 15 security cameras, or listen to music. And they can run the system using a smartphone or tablet when they are they are virtually anywhere in the world, be it on business in London, vacationing in Rio, or traveling in their car to a local social event. Inside the home, iPads have been strategically placed for comfort.
“Alexa, turn family room on.” Within seconds, the room’s 85-inch Sony television comes alive with clarion audio projected by a surround sound setup with an Ariston sound bar. Amazon’s voice-activated Echo system is yet another way the family can control many of the system’s functions. The 85-inch is one of 10 monitors in the house, each capable of displaying a different channel or other media simultaneously. “Alexa, turn family room off.”
Maybe it’s time for music.
State-of-the-art TDG Audio low profile flangeless speakers deliver Bach, rock, jazz, or whatever into 16 different locales inside the home and out; Paradigm speakers disguised as rocks float the desired ambience in open air. Sonos provides the mixture of content for audio while Comcast HD, Amazon 4K Fire and Apple TV offer many choices for video.
In the spirit of safety first, the home has Speco IP security cameras and alarms that include a feature which allows control and monitoring of its three garage doors. The latter is just in case a familiar oversight occurs–someone forgot to close one. A quick check of the camera’s image of the garage reveals the error and a touch of a finger corrects it. Security is completed by a Ring video doorbell.
No detail has been missed to make this house a shining example of home automation, and it is all controlled easily through a friendly interface tapped by a fingertip. Astonishingly simple: Digital Home Technologies turns complexity on its head.
Digital Home Technologies is located at 346 N. Northwest Highway in Palatine, 847-776-5063, adigitalhome.com.
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