If there was a more perfect alignment in philosophies between a developer and a solutions provider Jack Rainey of Chesapeake Systems Services (CSS), had never seen it before. “Last year, when we began working with EYA on their new Little Falls Place townhome community in Bethesda, Maryland, the developer made it very clear to us that they wanted to provide buyers of the new townhomes with the ultimate contemporary lifestyle experience.”
Rainey demonstrated the ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System to EYA management and the result was love at first sight.
Since 1992, EYA has built its name and reputation developing more than 4000 innovative homes in more than 30 urban neighborhoods across the Washington, DC metropolitan area, tackling some of the region’s most challenging sites along the way. The developer’s unique combination of walkable neighborhoods, thoughtfully planned spaces, and timeless architecture has earned it more residential and land-planning awards than any other homebuilder, including twice being named America’s Best Builder.
Each residence in EYA’s Little Falls Place townhome community features three floors and includes a two-car garage, private elevator, balcony and a rooftop terrace with a premium outdoor kitchen. The two different home models, named Berkley and Carlton, offer up to 2,635 sq. ft. of interior living space and 1,325 sq. ft. of exterior living space. All appliances, materials and trims are premium quality, and each home has three bedrooms, two full baths and two half baths.
Rainey demonstrated the ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System to EYA management and the result was love at first sight. “They made the decision right on the spot to include a basic Home Automation Package built around the ELAN g! System.” That basic package included the ELAN HC-4 System Controller pre-loaded with the home page and messaging app; a security interface; HVAC interface; an enhanced wireless network that included an 802.11n high powered access point, 5 port network switch, as well as RS-232 connectivity for up to four on-board systems; and a computer/tablet interface.
Home buyers could upgrade from there according to their desires, needs, and budget adding on more features such as multi-room audio and video, whole-home lighting control, motorized window blinds, surveillance cameras, motorized door locks and even a home theater.
As a direct result of including the basic package with the price of the townhomes, EYA has already sold 20 of the 30 market-rate town homes that went to market with prices beginning at $1.5-million. “More amazing is the fact that 50% of the buyers upgraded from the basic home automation package to add on whole-home distributed audio and lighting controls. The developer couldn’t be more pleased with the results than they are and, for us, we demonstrated the value of our service to a very important client.”
According to Rainey, CSS has been working with EYA for more than ten years and has been selling optional home automation packages for the last four years. “Our success in selling systems on an optional basis is what helped to convince EYA to go with our recommendation to make a basic automation package a standard part of the Little Falls project. We really function as EYA’s technology solutions partner when it comes to designing smart home systems on their projects. We’re viewed as their true automation specialists and not simply as a security based automation company — and there is a world of difference between the two levels of service.”
And, while CSS does offer other options for lower priced homes, the system of choice for any home priced above $700K is the ELAN g! System. “The $700K priced home is the real threshold for true integrated whole home control systems,” he explained. “Any home priced below $700K puts you in the realm of a security based solution that never goes beyond the entrance to the house — literally and figuratively! Once you hit the $700K threshold you’re working with a different home buyer, one who appreciates and can afford of the significantly higher levels of integration and performance that, in our opinion, only the ELAN g! System delivers. There’s nothing that comes close to ELAN g! in terms of ease of installation, joy of use, reliability, remote future upgrades, and the uniform elegance of the user interface across all user platforms from the in-wall touchscreens to the smartphone or tablet. The g! System’s GUI is head and shoulders better than anything else out there.”
Rainey is even more excited by the opportunity to incorporate the next generation of the ELAN Home Control Platform in future CSS system designs. “The new Linux based ELAN platform will be a real eye-opener for our builder clients,” he emphasized. “We can now create systems priced to appeal to customers that previously would have had to limit their choices to security based entry systems that go no further than the home’s entry way. With the next generation of solutions being offered by ELAN we can offer really competitively priced packages that allow home buyers to connect to whole home audio, lighting, doorbells — the things that they all really want to be able to connect to and control.”
ELAN will showcase its smart home control technology at the 2015 International Builders Show (IBS) in Las Vegas, Nevada (January 20-22, 2015) at the Broan-Nutone LLC booth (#C4520).
