Two Approaches to Whole-House Audio
Photo courtesy of AMX
Like most home amenities, electronic systems can be as stripped down or beefed up as you want. As the owner of two adjoining brownstones in Dallas, TX, Tony Chiarello had the unique opportunity to explore both methods.
For the unit he planned to sell as a spec, Tony put in a basic music distribution system and prewired it for a simple control system. It sold before it was even finished. “We put in just enough technology to sell it quickly,” says Michael Dodson of Dallas-based electronics installation and design firm M Audio Video Design Group. That introduction to technology was also enough to spark Tony’s interest in equipping his own brownstone next door with some electronic goodies. Unlike the spec home, though, Tony’s place would get the works, including a high-end home management system, a powerful whole-house audio system, and more than a half dozen high-def flat-panel TVs.
Style and Substance
Four floors is a lot of ground for one person to cover, so tops on Tony’s wish list was a system that would let him turn on and off groups of lights from any room on any level. “I didn’t want to be running up and down the stairs to turn off the lights before I left the house or went to bed,” he explains, “so having a simple way to control them made a lot of sense.” The solution came in the form of a LiteTouch architectural lighting control system. As part of the system, low-profile wall-mounted keypads were installed to give Tony on-the-go control of every light fixture, as well as a quick and easy way to jazz up the interior for special occasions. A party button, for example, arranges all the lights on the first level for an evening of entertaining. “It’s not like I throw parties every night, but having a setting like this certainly comes in handy when I have people over,” Tony enthuses. “It’s important to me that every part of the house is lit perfectly when friends visit.”
The stylish, unobtrusive keypads set the tone for the rest of the electronics integration project. “Tony really wanted clean lines,” Dodson recalls. “He didn’t mind how a flat-panel TV looked on the wall, but he didn’t want to see all sorts of components sitting in a cabinet next to it.” Consequently, nearly every bit of technology—except for the home’s nine flat-panel displays—was installed in a way that would let it go completely unnoticed. Satellite receivers, DVRs, a DVD player and other audio/video components were stowed in an equipment rack in a third-floor home theater, speakers and subwoofers were tucked into the ceiling, and touchpanels for accessing and controlling the audio/video gear were recessed into the walls. With no other place to put them, Dodson even stashed a few critical components in a specially designed equipment rack in the ceiling.
Extensive Coverage
Although in most rooms it’s impossible see the equipment, Tony has tons of entertainment options at his fingertips. Each floor has its own wall-mounted AMX touchpanel for summoning music or video to the space, and nearly every area of the 6,500-square-foot home, including a rooftop patio, features a large flat-panel TV and at least a couple of built-in speakers. Twenty-four speakers occupy the first floor alone, precluding any possible audio dead spots. “When Tony turns on the music on the first floor, it sounds like you’re standing in a club,” says Dodson. However, the audio never overpowers. “With this many speakers, Tony can keep the volume at a lower level and still hear plenty of bass,” Dodson says.
The best part about the distributed audio and video system for Tony is how easy it is to use. From an AMX touchpanel (each floor has its own unit), Tony first touches an icon labeled with the name of the room he wants to relax in. After entering his room selection, a list of entertainment sources, like XM Radio and CD, appears. “He just picks one, and the chosen music or video plays over the appropriate speakers and TV,” says Dodson. “In just two steps, he’s got music or a movie where he wants it.”
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