Core Brands Technologies Help Provide Independence for Wounded Veteran in New Donated Home

Smart homes can change lives. Just ask veteran MSG John Masson and his family, who were recently handed the keys and iPad to their new specially adapted smart home at a dedication ceremony held in Southern Pines, North Carolina.  After losing three limbs in Afghanistan in 2010, Masson was selected by Building for America’s Bravest, a partner program of the Gary Sinise Foundation’s R.I.S.E. program, to receive a smart home that aims to ease daily challenges and afford him independence. With new technologies donated from top manufacturers including Core Brands, almost all aspects of the home can be completely controlled through the family’s smartphones and tablets wherever they go.

“This is truly a blessing and it’s changed our lives,” Masson said of his family’s experience in the home. “I’m thankful every day for everyone involved, from the builders and workers on site to the companies that donated equipment and materials, to Gary Sinise himself who helped get this amazing house built in less than 10 months. The technology is fantastic and it helps me do a lot of things much easier, even something that seems simple like changing a DVD. That could be a challenge for me alone, but now through the ELAN g! iPad app and the Kaleidescape movie server I can change what I’m watching without needing to get in my chair and cross the room, saving me time and frustration. I’ll never be able to thank everyone enough, but I’ll continue to do so at every opportunity.”

Among the many accoutrements in the home are retractable cabinets and shelving, automated lighting, window shades and security systems, transfer benches, whole-home audio and video and more. Nearly $130,000 (retail value) of technology equipment was donated and installed, and the brain that ties it all together is an ELAN g! system that gives Masson and his family easy control.

The home includes two large ELAN in-wall touchscreens and an iPad to make it easy for the family to manage three climate zones, 29 motorized window shades, a full Lutron RadioRA 2 system, two doors with electronic locks, security, surveillance, and multi-room audio and video including a professional home theater, affectionately referred to as the man cave. With an Epson 6030 series projector, Vutec screen, five Sunfire CRS-3 ribbon speakers mounted on the wall, two Sunfire SubRosa subwoofers and six additional Niles speakers for surround, this man cave provides the ultimate home viewing experience for the Masson family.

“The man cave is one of my favorite things about the house,” Masson said. “Anything that makes my life easier or more convenient is a huge help for both functionality and my state of mind. It all comes back to the wonderful people who made this all possible, who’ve given me back a lot of freedom to live comfortably. It was challenging to have guests over since I came back in 2010, and that’s something a family needs. Now we can have our family and friends come to the house without worrying about complications or space and I can set up all the music, lights and anything else form my iPad.”

According to Joel Berrettini, the project’s lead technology integrator and owner of IT and Media Solutions, working on this home is the least he could do. “I would do anything for these men, and I will continue to do so as long as the opportunity is available. Providing wounded veterans these homes, to regain a sense of normalcy and independence, takes a lot of partners and a lot of cooperation. The product donations from Core Brands and our other valued sponsors make these homes possible and we cannot thank them enough.”

Using the latest technologies from ELAN Home Systems, Niles Audio, Sunfire, Lutron, QMotion and others, Berrettini designed a system that gives Masson as much control as possible to stay in charge of his home. In fact, Masson’s home will soon be one of the first in the world to use the new ELAN 6x4 HDMI matrix to deliver HD video throughout the home. Berrettini is expecting to install two of the matrices in early 2015.

From installing touchpanels at a height comfortable for John and using occupancy sensors in key areas to a one-button setup to turn on the home theater, fast access and ease of use is the key. Additionally, Berrettini gave John and his wife some peace of mind by setting the system so the kids can only access controls for the lights, media and window shades. Remote access was also a top consideration, which is simple with the ELAN g! system. The family can now use the ELAN g! mobile app on nearly any mobile device to check their cameras, security, lights and HVAC from anywhere in the world.

Berrettini installed the home’s technology with help from local integrator Sandhills Home Theater, who provided unexpected free labor to help speed up the installation.

Masson has served in the US Army in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, in the Indiana Army National Guard, the Ohio Army National Guard and the 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne), and was deployed during  Operation Iraqi Freedom an Enduring Freedom. In 2010, while conducting Village Stability Operations in Afghanistan, Masson stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) and lost an arm and both legs.  Thanks to his training, he was able to assist his fellow Medical Sergeant in treating his wounds – actions which saved his life.  He’s received both the Purple Heart meda

How Can You Get Your Installation on Two Cable TV Shows? Install the Largest ELAN g! System Ever!

How do you get your home or technology installation featured on national television? Make it enormous, make it impressive and create an original house that blows people away. Having recently appeared on both Discovery Channel’s “Clash of the Ozarks” and Sportsman Channel’s “Amazing America with Sarah Palin,” this Arkansas residence has many unique and luxurious features, including the largest ELAN g! system ever installed, according to installer Ryan Heringer of Sound Concepts. 

“Working on a project of this magnitude can attract a lot of attention,” Heringer said, “and now that pop culture has caught up with control technology to the point where everyone knows what it is, there are real media opportunities with a project like this. The home itself is truly astounding. The windows, the floors, the walkways, the immense space inside; it’s all pretty incredible to walk through. A 43,000 square foot house tends to create an impression, and when the whole house can be operated from an iPhone through ELAN g!, it’s something people are excited to hear about.”

When Heringer says ‘the whole house’, he really means it. There are a lot of rooms, and there are a lot of TVs and speakers, video zones and audio zones to accompany those rooms. There are nearly 30 TVs from Samsung and Sharp models, three surround systems including a 7.2 home theater with an Epson 3D projector and Dragonfly screen, 26 distinct video zones with 14 available video sources, more than 30 audio zones with 12 available sources including an incredible pool audio system with six Episode subwoofers, more than 300 fully controllable lighting loads, an HAI security system, 24 surveillance cameras, an HAI HVAC system with 12 zones and nine controlled garage doors. Beyond the AV, the ELAN system integrates the driveway gate that is more than 1,000 feet away from the house, the waterfalls and lighting control for the Playboy Mansion-like pool, and commercial-grade Wi-Fi throughout the entire property.

“The system reaches into every nook and cranny of the house, from the gym to the gun storage vault to the landscaping, where there are 25 speakers alone,” Heringer continued. “When your home is this vast it’s necessary to have a way to manage it all, and simply walking around on foot to make sure all the lights and TVs are off just isn’t feasible. With ELAN g! the owners can see everything at a glance on any iPhone, iPad or one the more than 40 ELAN touchscreen interfaces installed throughout the house. We provided a combination of large in-wall touchscreen, small in-wall touchscreens, tabletop touchscreens and ELAN HR2 media remotes to ensure every family member can adjust whichever room they are in to their liking. The remotes are especially important for TV and theater control, as they are the fastest and easiest way to control TVs and the theater thanks to hard buttons combined with a 2.4-inch touchscreen. To facilitate true go-anywhere access inside and outside of the house, each family member also has the ELAN g! mobile app on their smartphone and tablet, which gives full control of the system with the exact same interface that’s on the in-wall touch screens.”

To get an idea just how enormous this house and installation is, you have to think about how many rooms there are. To start there are eight bedrooms, six of which are occupied by the family. Then there is the theater, the great room, the living room, the kitchen, dining room laundry room, barber shop, billiard room, gym, tanning room, poker room, conference room, putting green, golf simulation room, archery range, kids’ shuffleboard room, rock wall room, a deer processing plant, the gun storage vault, a 12 car garage and a separate RV garage, plus the outdoor audio, video, lighting and surveillance. Every room has its own audio zone and most have their own video zone.

“The family has complete control over every room in the home, so each person can listen to or watch what they want, where they want, when they want,” Heringer said. “And then when they call for lights out or go on vacation, all it takes is a few swipes and taps to set the home to ‘Away’ mode and turn everything off. Not only does the system make it easy to manage the large house, it also gives the parents easy access to see what their kids are watching and listening to, as well as to see who is coming and going through the surveillance cameras.”

Because every family member has different tastes, the owners filled the system to the brim with entertainment options including eight DirecTV receivers, a Kaleidescape media server, three Blu-ray players, two ELAN ViaDJ music servers, an iPod dock, a Squeezebox, two Sirius|XM receivers and an AM/FM receiver.

“I’m proud to showcase the power and flexibility of the ELAN g! system with such a tremendous home entertainment and automation system,” Heringer added. “It’s truly incredible that today a single system can control a luxurious home like this and also be a great affordable option for a small apartment.”