A newly-refurbished two bedroom apartment situated over 1165 sq ft in a third floor building in London’s Sloane Street.
The brief by the client was to keep a contemporary style and décor along with sophisticated but simple technology. All aspects of the home entertainment and automation system had to disappear into the apartment’s modern design and act as subtle as possible.
Our involvement
Initial design and specification
Total system design
Cable run out schedules and CAD designs
Managing and overseeing the first fix works
Second fix installation and equipment supply
System programming and commissioning
Supply of Cyberhomes operating system manuals
After sales training and support
Key elements
Hardwired and wireless networks
Multi Room music system
Audio and Video distribution
Surveillance monitoring
Lighting and Curtain control
Intercom and access control
In particular, it was essential that it could all be controlled in a convenient way. The controls should be comprehensive enough to provide ‘blanket’ coverage of all systems, yet intuitive enough to allow use by all in the house—even the less technically minded!
In order to fit in to the carefully planned decorative finishes of the house, it was decided to use stainless brushed steel in wall key pads and touch screens to control Audio and Lighting. All the speakers were in-ceiling Speakercraft 8 drivers, with their grills and surrounds painted in the same finish as the ceilings they were mounted in.
In-wall Kef speakers were specified for the Home Cinema lounge’s front array with Speakercraft AIM series in-ceiling speakers complimenting the rears. The technology in the outside terraced areas also had to remain invisible, but also be weatherproof as it was an open roof terrace.
Home Automation and Lighting Control systems
The Lighting was controlled using a Rako Lighting system. The apartment was completely rewired during the refurbishment so every room was spoilt with atmospheric scene lighting.
The sleek steel keypads were capable of four individual scene settings and a dim up, and dim down facility. Every room was individually programmed to have its preset scenes individually tuned to the client’s liking.
The Home Cinema Lounge also had electrical curtains which on the Rako system, and control came via a combined Living Control and Rako in wall keypad. This meant that only one keypad was needed again avoiding wall clutter.
The entrance hall had a wireless Rako remote control by the front door, which was capable of turning the whole apartment on or off or to a preset scene. The idea being that when leaving a single button press would ensure all the lights were switched off, and similarly turning lights on when returning in the evening.
A second remote was also used for the outside terraced areas. This meant that no external keypad need be fitted, and still gave the client a choice of four preset scenes.
Products Used
Multi-room Audio
Living Control
Touch screen control
Living Control and Clipsal
Lighting Control
Rako Controls
Speakers
Kef and Speakercraft
Cinema Audio
Denon, Lowe
Audio Systems
A 6-zone Living Control multi-room audio system was provided and distributed throughout the apartment to Speakercraft in-ceiling speakers and ‘Speakercraft’ rock shaped speakers on the terrace; a hard disc sound server was used to store all the clients’ cd’s, album and cover art information which was then viewable from the cinema room and any plasma within the property. The in wall touch screens provided full control of all the equipment stored within the rack (ie DAB tuners, sky, DVD, Sound server) and audio within each zone.
The terrace was a sub-zone of the kitchen area, so there was no need to install an outside keypad, keeping the walls free from clutter.