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In a home configured by Systems Integration and Support, a network management and consulting firm, nine sleek, pivoting plasmas are wall-mounted discreetly throughout the house. Every room, large or small, has stereo audio or surround sound. Imagining a rat’s nest of wires and a rack of remotes? The headache caused by figuring it all out? You won’t find it here: there is not a wire in sight, and a menu intuitively guides you with prompts. Tucked away in a closet, processors and servers hum amid almost a mile of wires. Coaxial cables loop through walls and ceilings, connecting to ports on your entertainment devices. Tiny wireless routers and adapters add capabilities and remote access. Ideally, the wiring infrastructure is installed in a home’s construction phase, notes Larry Collins, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Systems Integration and Support. However, in an existing home, wires and cables can be threaded through holes that drywall contractors can patch and paint over.
Realizing that headaches are bad for business, today’s home technology systems must pass the “spouse acceptance ” test, says Collins. The time has come for technophiles to cede control: “Guys tend to be techno geeks with six or seven remotes in front of them…they’re the only one who can run the system.”
To combat this problem, SIS’s configuration is controlled by a single “intuitive” touch-screen menu that operates four integrated networks: data, audio, visual, and control. For example, the menu asks simple questions, beginning with what you want to do: watch, listen, or control. Then, it prompts you through the system so you can choose to watch TV, select DVD’s or CD’s from your own custom audio and visual library, or surf the web. The “control” function allows you to do things like answer the front door, turn down the furnace, or open the garage door or front gate.
Outer Space
Omnipresent, your home’s networking capabilities can extend outdoors. Today’s weatherproof flat screens, when networked, can broadcast the Super Bowl, a feature film, your latest vacation photos, or an outdoor Rolling Stone’s concert taking place in Asia. As guests soak in your hot tub or recline in comfy patio furniture, they can experience the quality and ambience of your home’s inner comforts. Speakers, cleverly designed as realistic boulders, planters, and even waterfalls, artfully surround your company with sound.
“Future-Proofing”
William H. Thompson, president and founder of UStec, headquartered in upstate New York, has pioneered innovations in digital entertainment technologies. He believes that the transformation from analog to digital technology in the home is well underway. Eventually, wireless technology may evolve and improve, transmitting consistently error-free signals. Until then, Thompson, Collins, and other industry professionals agree that a combination of wired and wireless technology still provides the best quality audio and visuals. They encourage homeowners to “future-proof” their investment. Installing quality cable wiring, preferably cat5 or higher, will enable them to take advantage of future generations of high definition broadband technologies, including wireless.
Networked Entertainment: Some networking products can run over a single cat5 cable with sufficient bandwidth to channel multiple video signals throughout the home. Here, the powerful “TecStream” system is designed to handle 16 simultaneous independent streams of live HD video. What this means is that you, your family, and friends can watch HD TV, DVD’s, play games, listen to music, check e-mail, and share digital photos anywhere ther is a monitor, all at the same time.
One of UStec’s networking products, called “tecStream,” runs over a single cat5 cable with sufficient bandwidth to channel multiple video signals throughout the home. According to Thompson, this powerful system is designed to handle 16 simultaneous independent streams of live HD video. What this means is that you, your family, and friends can watch HD TV, DVD’s, play games, listen to music, check e-mail, and share digital photos anywhere there is a monitor, all at the same time.
Affirming industry consensus, Thompson believes that the best learning curve when it comes to using new technology is “very small to nonexistent.” He designed his company’s digital whole-house entertainment network precisely for busy people already on information overload. “My wife has no desire to learn anything new, she wants to do things in a couple of clicks…if she had to go into a computer and set up a network, forget it!”
When high tech home audio heads outside, it might be hiding in an unassuming planter alive with sound. Photo courtesy SIS.
Though your equipment is what drives costs up, hard-wiring an entire home is not cheap. “Often, those gorgeous and elegant systems come with a gorgeous and elegant price tag,” notes Michael Taylor, Marketing Director for Intel Corp’s Home Digital division. Intel is currently marketing a pc-based platform, “Viiv,”(which rhymes with jive) that offers home entertainment networking and costs between $799 and $3,000. From their flat screens or portable media players, users can access the Internet, share personal music and photos, and watch satellite and cable TV. Acting as a “conduit” to the Internet, Viiv “serves up” an entertainment menu distributed to the whole house. Basically, the technology, comprised of dual core processors and chipsets that support high-definition audio and visual, connects your PC to your TV and to the entertainment equipment you choose to configure.
Because it does not seek to automate all of your home’s appliances or claim to support sixteen streams of data, at least not yet, a half-mile or more of wiring is not necessary. Instead of servers centrally housed under the stairs or in a closet, the application runs right from your desktop computer. The hard drive exists on a tower or home theatre designed to complement your home’s interior. Coaxial cables extend from ports attached to the rear of the tower. As with other whole-house systems, they must be threaded through your walls by an installer and connected to your equipment.
Taylor agrees with other industry experts—complex systems that make “everyone pull their hair out” are obsolete.Remote controls or touch-access panels in every room of the house “wake up” the PC, so you can operate your home entertainment system from a simple touch screen menu. Taylor claims that games can be played, TV viewed, movies downloaded, and DVD’s listened to “without missing a note” or “dropping a frame.”
Digital Communities
“With computers at the heart of the home, controlling digital entertainment with a PC is very natural,” says Taylor. He calls attention to a relatively new phenomenon: digital communities full of “smart houses” wired for innovative home technologies. For example, D.R. Horton, in partnership with full-service technology provider YRT2, is constructing “digital” neighborhoods in the Carolinas. Pre-wired for gigabyte technology, the residences contain high-capacity fiber optic networks able to support whole-house entertainment and theatre systems and sophisticated home computing offices. YRT2, which stands for “your residential technology team,” provides a suite of technologies for homeowners to choose from, including Intel’s Viiv entertainment PC’s. Powerful servers, routers, telephone gear, and video receivers are located on-site in community “bunkers.” Lawn care and computer maintenance come with the deal: your concierge will do more than accept your pizza delivery. Need a repair? Technically trained, they may troubleshoot with you over the phone to fix the problem or, if your hard drive should crash, zoom right over.
Kymberly Taylor is the Assistant Editor of ChesapeakeHome.
Contacts:
UStec: ustecnet.com or 585-924-1740
Systems Integration and Support: Larry Collins, sis-md.com or 410-381-7288
Intel: intel.com
YRT2: info@yrt2.net or 1-866-626-1901
D.R. Horton: drhorton.com
