Alberta, Canada-based custom integrator Home Concepts, Inc. has found the perfect client — he’s a loyal customer, he loves the latest technology, and he has built, lived in, and then sold three houses in the last five years, installing an ELAN Home Systems AV distribution system in each, and outfitting the latest one with the ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System.
The latest system won the CEDIA 2011 Electronic Lifestyles Silver Award for Integrated Home in the $70,500 – $105,500 level.
Homeowner Dr. Femi Adekeye, a Calgary-based Occupational Health Physician, said, “I enjoy designing and building homes, and including the latest technology adds a new level of interaction and sophistication with each house I build. We’ve been using ELAN systems for about five years now, and the systems keep getting better and better. I use my iPhone to adjust the system and check on things constantly, because I always have it with me, and the ELAN g! app is very simple to use. The whole-home control of audio/video, lighting, security and surveillance will be a big selling point when I put this home on the market, just as the audio/video systems were in my last two homes.”
The 6,000 square-foot home features an extensive audio/video system to keep the whole family entertained — the 7.1 home theater uses a Runco projector and 106-inch screen, seven ELAN in-wall speakers and a Sunfire HRS-12 subwoofer, and the rest of the house has six flat screen HDTVs including a 52-inch in the family room and master bedroom, a 40-inch behind the bar and three 46-inchers side-by-side in the gym. There are 12 independent audio zones and a total of 24 speakers, in addition to the home theater. These systems get their media from three satellite feeds, an am/fm receiver, a Sony 400-disc Blu-ray changer, Shoutcast Radio (built in to ELAN g!) and Apple TV for videos. The system also integrates with the home’s security, four outdoor surveillance cameras and DVR, and the CentraLite lighting system.
According to P.J. Aucoin, sales manager of Home Concepts, the company has been in business for seven years and has been an avid supporter of ELAN products since day one. “We were excited when the ELAN g! Entertainment and Control system was released, and that’s pretty much all we use now. I love the off-site programming capability so I don’t have to make a house call to change a single button, and it’s amazing when I show my clients that the user interface is the same on an iPad, an in-wall touch screen and a TV on-screen display. This is the second CEDIA award we’ve won in the Integrated Home category for an ELAN g! installation, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”
Work has already begun on Dr. Adekeye’s next home, so now it’s just a matter of time before this home with the ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System is on the market.
The family can control the ELAN g! system through a TS7 seven-inch in-wall touch screen in the kitchen, seven TS2 touch panels throughout the house, several iPads, the kids’ iPod Touches and Dr. Adekeye’s iPhone and office computer. The equipment rack, tucked away in the wall of the home theater behind tinted glass, houses an ELAN HC12 Home Controller, ELAN V85 Component Video Controller, two ELAN S86A Multi-Room AV Controllers, an ELAN C2 Communications Controller and an ELAN DT11 Tuner.
“My clients love how easy it is to go from lighting to HVAC to security all on one touch screen,” said Aucoin. “In new homes for sale, the ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System is what people gravitate to and remember about the home more than anything else. Pushing one button to turn on the lights or music in any room is so much more impressive than just a big TV hung on a wall, and it really separates these homes from others on the market.”
