Customers Crave High-tech Homes

Clickers and Clappers have come to an end.
Touchscreens and terabytes are the technology of today.
For the upscale buyer and builder, high-tech home automation is more the norm rather than the indulgence of the gadget-guy who wants to be James Bond cool.
A homeowner can not only turn the bedroom lights off with the press of an icon on a touchscreen remote, he or she can turn off the lights and appliances in the rest of the house, lower the thermostats in unoccupied areas, check security cameras, turn on outside perimeter lights and cue up a movie.
The home automation business is a $1.6 billion industry nationwide and is expected to grow to $10 billion by 2010.
Home automation isn’t one-size-fits-all, and Northwest Arkansas businesses like Digital Entertainment Systems Inc. of Rogers and Intelliliving Inc. of Bentonville are putting the custom back in customer.
“We’ve yet to find anything we couldn’t do,” said Shaun Carver, design consultant for Digital Entertainment Systems. “It is really only limited by the imagination of the customer.”
A homeowner can use a cell phone or a personal computer to log on to their system to activate the hot tub, turn on the patio lights and cue up a favorite satellite radio channel on hidden speakers so the temperature and mood is right before they ever pull into their driveway.
Rob Graziani, who has been installing integrated systems since 1999, said he sees home automation as “the next stainless steel” but for now many upscale buyers are still more interested in granite countertops or landscaping.
Graziani cites examples such as buyers who don’t blink at spending $30,000 to $40,000 on their yards but blanch at the thought of paying as much or more for systems they’ll use every day.
A basic integrated system with distributed audio and video, lighting, security and heating/cooling controls can run from $25,000 to $40,000, Graziani said.
Graziani won gold for integrated home design for a system he installed at a home in Northwest Arkansas valued at $125,000.
The award was won at an expo last summer sponsored by the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association, the industry governing body.
Depending on how much a homeowner wants out of his or her system, the total can easily reach $100,000. A high-quality movie projector and screen costs about $50,000.
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant spent $4 million on his home theater alone.
But you don’t have to be an NBA star or Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to think about home automation, Carver said.
“This used to be the realm of the super-rich,” he said. “Systems are now more efficient and reliable. Lighting and security are not just for high-end custom houses.”

Is It Live?
Americans have always strived to make their lives easier through gadgets.
Genie Co. introduced the first garage door opener in 1954.
Robert Adler invented the television remote control for Zenith in 1956.
Rachael Leo and Joseph Pedott sold the first Clapper in 1985.
Americans also love their music and their movies.
Home audio technology improved greatly in the 1980s and a popular sign of yuppie excess was the tower of components featuring inordinate numbers of blinking lights and equalizers.
“For decorators and architects, aesthetics is a huge consideration,” Carver said. “Customers want the equipment to perform the tasks without being seen.”
Now those rack systems are prebuilt and tested before being installed at the home. One or two racks squirreled away in a closet space is the norm, but dedicated amplifiers for each room’s audio system, hard drives and digital recording devices for TV and security cameras can require more.
The emergence of Apple Inc.’s iPod has created another application. Docking stations can be installed and the system can recognize if it is mom’s or the teenager’s.
A home theater installed by DES or Intelliliving can be programmed to switch the television input, dim the lights, lower the shades and even turn on the popcorn machine at the press of a button labeled “movie.”
Nathan Fairchild, owner of Fairchild Construction Inc., worked with Graziani on his home at Pinnacle Golf Country Club in Rogers. He has inputs for his laptop in his home theater and can use his 123-inch screen to view Google Earth images as close as technology allows to life size.
The Kaleidescape system lets homeowners transfer every movie and CD to a hard drive and access them through a touchscreen remote or a menu on their TV screen.
The menu lists every movie with an icon. If one movie is highlighted, other movies in that genre or starring the same actors are automatically brought to view.
Parents can set controls to block R-rated movies and set volume defaults to keep kids from turning the sound up too loud after a preset time.
A commercial movie theater is designed for as many customers as possible, regardless of the acoustics of the space.
Not so with a custom-built home theater.
“People ask me, ‘Is it going to be as good as a movie theater?'” Carver said. “I tell them, ‘No. It’s going to be better.'”

Right Place, Right Time
Kevin Lambadonis started DES in 1997 at age 23 with $150 for a fax machine. His business has grown to 25 employees and has 20 to 30 projects in various stages from design to installation going most times.
Intelliliving has 14 employees and has worked with 40 builders.
The building boom in Northwest Arkansas was naturally beneficial to companies like Intelliliving and DES who were in at ground level.
Graziani has installed integrated systems for homes even valued as low as $250,000 but most are in the $600,000 bracket.
DES has done $150,000 systems in a 5,000-SF home and $60,000 systems in a 13,000-SF home.
A 10,000-SF home can have three or four miles of wire running through it, and the wire “backbone” is the one area customers can’t skimp.
There are also many commercial applications for automation. Beyond energy-saving HVAC and lighting controls, a conference room can be designed as a mini-home theater.
Graziani said his business is split evenly between residential and commercial projects. Lambadonis said DES does about 65 percent residential and 35 percent commercial.
The best way to install an integrated system is in the design phase of the home. However, the maturation of the technology and its increasing popularity has made “retrofitting” a huge part of the business.
Retrofitting can mean getting behind walls and that makes homeowners nervous.
“We have some very good craftsmen,” Graziani said. “We’re going to have to cut some Sheetrock. We’re going to have to get into attics and crawlspaces. Our guys are really good. They can cut the Sheetrock, put it back, paint it and you never know anything happened.”
Until you press a button.