Tucked into the slopes above Edwards, Colorado, a few miles west of Vail, stands a home that captures what modern mountain living can be. At first glance, it’s a showpiece of Colorado architecture — timber framing, stonework, and panoramic windows framing the Sawatch Range. But beneath that rustic elegance beats a technological heart that rivals any urban penthouse or commercial control room.
Inside, this home is alive. Lights rise gently with the sun. Music follows you through every room. Radiant heat flows under all wood, carpet, or tile floors, tuned precisely for each zone. Snow-melt systems trigger automatically when the weather calls for snow. Even the irrigation and garage doors tie into one intelligent network.
This is not a house with gadgets. It’s a carefully orchestrated environment, designed by the team at ContractOne (www.contractone.com) and powered by URC’s Total Control platform, seamlessly integrated with more than a dozen third-party systems. Every function, including entertainment, comfort, security, and environmental management, responds through a single ecosystem.
Designing for the Mountains
Building a technology-rich home at 8600 feet demands a rare blend of engineering precision and environmental respect. Here, winter temperatures swing from 45 degrees to below zero in a day. Summer brings dust, heat, and high-altitude UV. Connectivity is challenged by distance and weather.
The design team approached the project with one guiding principle: make complexity feel simple. The homeowners wanted luxury that required no learning curve. Whether checking septic sensors or streaming music to the patio, everything had to work instinctively.
“Reliability comes first up here,” says Bryan Johnson, of ContractOne. “If the system needs constant attention, it’s not luxury, it’s labor. We wanted intelligence that reliably disappears into the background.”
That meant designing a unified network backbone, choosing automation components with proven stability, and ensuring remote service capability for all mission-critical systems.
The System Core
At the center of the home’s automation is URC’s MRX-30 advanced system controller. Acting as the central processor for the estate, the MRX-30 connects distributed audio, lighting, climate, shades, cameras, irrigation, and security into one responsive environment.
From the main rack, the MRX-30 manages two HDA-8100 amplifiers, one HDA-4100, and an HDA-SW5 network switch, delivering 32 channels of high-definition audio with DSP precision. Every corner of the home, including living spaces, bedrooms, decks, and even the garage, can access music through the URC interface.
Two TRC-1480 handheld remotes, eight TKP-5600 in-wall panels, two TKP-7600 displays, and two TKP-8600 touchscreens provide localized control. The TDC-9600 tabletop controller and TKP-8300 panel offer command centers for full-house scenes. Six TRC-1120 remotes round out personal control in guest suites and entertainment zones.
The TKP-5600, TKP-7600, TKP-8600, and TDC-8300 are located to replace a large bank of light switches. Reducing wall clutter and confusion, a single TKP-5600 touchscreen replaces four or more switches and creates a more readable and better overall user experience. The wall panels allow for easy access to everything at a convenient location with easy-to-read displays.
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Environmental monitoring is handled by the Tekmar system, reading inside/outside temperature and inside humidity, with the MRX-30 pulling those readings to trigger different systems. The CMF sensor monitors the septic system alarm and triggers a whole-house audible alarm and a push notification alerting of the alarm status. The VOLT sensor is used to monitor the drive sensor to trigger a whole-house audible alarm and a push notification when a vehicle comes up or leaves the driveway.
The MRX-30’s processing speed, paired with URC’s reliable two-way IP communication, ensures immediate feedback across the system. In a property of this size, with more than 50 integrated devices and subsystems, milliseconds matter.
A Whole-Home Ecosystem
While URC provides the command infrastructure, the home’s sophistication comes from the way diverse technologies interconnect. Total Control serves as the bridge between brands that usually live in their own worlds.
Lighting design begins with Lutron, responsible for both dimming and automated shade control. Dozens of circuits and motors respond to day/night cycles, motion sensors, and voice commands through Amazon Alexa.
Philips Hue fixtures add layers of color and warmth. Morning presets mimic natural sunlight; evening scenes use amber tones to support circadian rhythm.
The integration extends beyond lighting with Zooz Zen-16 Z-Wave controllers that link window operators, hose bibs, and snow-melt systems to environmental triggers. On freezing mornings, for instance, the driveway heaters activate automatically, while window operators can remain locked for energy conservation.
At that altitude, heating and cooling are less about luxury and more about necessity. Tekmar thermostats manage radiant floor heat and forced air across multiple zones, interfacing directly with URC for unified scheduling.
With 17 in-wall Alexa units, the ability to control any home system is only a quick voice command away. According to the homeowner, “the Alexa units are a great addition to the home with all the services they provide, like updating to-do lists, adding to grocery lists, checking current or future weather, conducting internet searches, and more. And with them all installed in-wall, you never know they are there until you need them.”
With the Alexa App, “setting up my own custom commands/routines is simple, no need to call a technician,” says the owner. “And with the command ‘Alexa go dark,’ I can also power on all the Alexa units without interrupting any other house system.”
Water management is handled by Flo by Moen, integrated for flow monitoring and automatic shutoff in case of leaks. Rachio irrigation controllers use weather data to adjust sprinkler schedules, balancing moisture for native grasses and landscaping. Both systems are also monitored by URC to provide notifications of any unusual activity. If Flo closes the water valve, the MRX-30 sends push notifications alerting the homeowner to the event. These systems not only deliver comfort, but also help protect the property from damage and inefficiency in a volatile mountain climate.
This home’s AV system would make most resorts envious. A Just Add Power HDMI video matrix, including a UL-759A video tiling encoder, distributes content from five Roku players to five Samsung displays in the game room and an Epson projector in the theater.
Audio comes alive through URC’s HDA amplification combined with Denon AVR processing and HEOS and Sonos streaming sources. Every zone can access independent content or join in whole-house playback with no perceptible delay. The game room Roku sources are also tied into the URC’s HDA system, allowing for room-filling audio from the Roku sources.
Thanks to URC’s HDA architecture, guests can cue playlists, select movie sources, or manage volume from any touchscreen or handheld remote. “It feels like the music follows you naturally,” the homeowner says. “You never think about it…it’s just there.”
The home’s security is quietly sophisticated. An Elk M1 Gold alarm system ties into URC’s logic engine for event-based triggers. When the alarm arms, the system automatically closes all garage doors, locks doors, sends notifications identifying the zone where the triggering event occurred, and adjusts lighting to simulated occupancy mode.
Entry is managed through a DoorBird IP video intercom, giving residents two-way communication from any URC panel or mobile app.
Four Truth Sentry powered window operators integrate into security and climate sequences. When the outside temperature drops below a threshold or the indoor temperature rises above a threshold, the URC systems can close or open the windows automatically and notify the homeowner via push alert.
Even nontraditional systems tie into the network: a drive sensor detects approaching vehicles, triggering exterior lighting, while a septic system alarm is monitored directly through URC’s environmental sensors to prevent costly issues in remote conditions.
Network Infrastructure: Built for Altitude
Behind the elegance lies industrial-strength networking. Every packet of data — audio streams, lighting commands, video switching, environmental telemetry — travels through a Luxul enterprise network engineered for redundancy and speed.
Three Luxul SW-610-48P PoE switches and an XFS-1816P manage over 80 connected devices. A Luxul ABR-5000 router provides dual-WAN connectivity, and the XWC-2000 wireless controller balances 14 access points across multiple SSIDs.
Indoor coverage comes from seven XAP-1610 access points, while two XAP-1440 units serve the exterior, and a dedicated XAP-1510 Wi-Fi handles garage automation. Four more XAP-1610 nodes are reserved exclusively for URC traffic, ensuring uninterrupted command latency even when streaming services are saturated.
For technicians, Luxul’s remote management interface allows firmware updates, reboots, and diagnostics without a site visit — critical in mountain locations where winter weather can limit access for days.
Automation in Everyday Life
The brilliance of this project isn’t the technology. It’s how invisible it feels. Every function is available by voice command through Alexa and ties back to lifestyle moments rather than menus or buttons.
- Morning Routine: The “Good Morning” scene raises Lutron shades, fades on Hue lighting, warms the kitchen floors, and starts a Denon-powered jazz playlist.
- Away Mode: One tap on a TKP-8600 locks doors, arms the Elk alarm, turns off entertainment zones, and sets thermostats to eco mode.
- Movie Night: The URC macro activates the Epson projector, dims lights to 15%, and switches Just Add Power to the theater input — all within seconds.
- Snow Day: The drive sensor detects snowfall; URC triggers Zooz-controlled radiant snow-melt zones and sends confirmation to the homeowner’s mobile app.
- Party Scene: All Sonos and HEOS zones synchronize, Philips Hue lighting shifts to color mode, and exterior Wi-Fi enables guest streaming.
- Good Night Routine: The “Good Night” command (through Alexa, URC remote or keypad) turns off all interior lights, turns off all TVs, closes garage doors if open, and alerts if any alarm zones are in alarm state (like a door is open).
These presets transform the home from reactive to anticipatory. Instead of thinking about controls, the homeowners simply live.
Challenges in Remote Integration
The biggest challenge wasn’t the technology; it was geography. Installing an automation ecosystem this advanced at high altitude required planning around logistics, power reliability, and climate variation.
- Power Management: Voltage irregularities at remote elevations can damage sensitive electronics. Johnson and team installed a commercial-grade UPS that is providing battery backup in case of a power outage and monitoring incoming voltage. No need for a massive, separate power system.
- Thermal Control: AV racks are vented and temperature-monitored through URC and Luxul systems.
- Connectivity: Redundant ISPs ensure control continuity, while on-site battery backups maintain essential functions during outages.
Weatherproofing outdoor components, burying conduits, and ensuring that the network maintains communication integrity across multiple wings of the home required extensive collaboration between AV, electrical, and construction teams.
Human Design, Digital Backbone
What distinguishes this project isn’t just its specification sheet. It’s the philosophy guiding it. Every system was chosen for one reason: to serve the rhythm of mountain life.
The homeowners travel frequently. They wanted the confidence that their property could think for itself — monitoring, adjusting, and communicating.
“Technology should reduce mental load,” says Johnson. “In a house like this, success means you never notice it working. You just notice peace of mind.”
The Result
The system’s ability to send alerts, automate responses, and optimize energy use means the home functions as both residence and caretaker. The result is a living environment where nature and intelligence coexist. Guests can operate everything intuitively, yet the infrastructure behind it rivals that of a small resort.
- URC Total Control synchronizes more than 60 subsystems
- Lutron and Philips Hue manage the lighting ambiance
- Luxul keeps every device connected
- Elk, DoorBird, and Axis secure the property
- Tekmar, Zooz, and the URC unified utility keep it comfortable and efficient
Every device, every command, every scene is part of one cohesive story: a mountain home that thinks ahead.
A New Standard for Smart Estates
This Colorado residence redefines what high-end automation looks like in natural settings. It’s not about flashy screens or voice gimmicks. It’s about integration so deep and seamless that technology becomes invisible.
From the snow-melt systems humming quietly beneath the driveway to the streaming zones filling the air with music, it reflects a design philosophy that places human experience above all else.
At 8600 feet, amid snow, stone, and sky, the home proves that luxury isn’t about having everything. It’s about having everything work together.
Ron Pence is the marketing lead for URC.
