Custom Resort Home Uses ELAN® g! To Offer Simple Control For Guests And Full Automation For Owners

Designing a home automation system that homeowners will love usually comes down to one thing – usability. If the system is easy to use, delivers all the functions the owners desire and makes their daily home life easier, it’s a dream come true. Simplicity becomes an even bigger factor when the home will serve as a guest rental for much of the year.
 
For Tom Taylor, a veteran high-end residential architect, this level of sophisticated yet simple home automation was a must-have for his new home and rental property at the Amangani Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. To achieve this, he hired Connecticut—based C&T Systems to install an ELAN® g! Entertainment and Control System that makes it easy to control the home’s lighting, heating, audio/video, pool, spa, security and surveillance systems.
 
According to Andrew Spalla, C&T’s director of engineering, every step in the project was carefully considered and the design was fully orchestrated before installation began, ensuring a smooth process and a perfect result. “We agreed that for the home to be comfortable for the Taylors while also being simple and luxurious for guests, it needed to provide controls that are intuitive and can be operated by anybody with zero training,” he said. “And it was important to minimize the visual impact of the control system keypads while keeping the operation simple for lighting, music and AV.”
 
All the lighting controls throughout the house are intuitive, from LED light strips and recessed lights that have pre-set ‘high’ and ‘low’ dimming levels to motorized window shades that can be raised or lowered through the ELAN g! mobile app or an ELAN HR2 remote. Each room has a lighting keypad that includes buttons for ‘high’, ‘low’ and ‘off’, plus up and down arrows for diming that allow guests to set their perfect lighting level. The system is intelligently designed to fit each space in the home, so that the ‘high’ level is brighter in the kitchen than the ‘high’ level in the master bedroom, and that certain light fixtures automatically adjust brightness at night and in the daytime. In addition there are select scenario buttons that set scenes throughout the house for things like entertaining.
 
The owners have special settings for themselves that use the intelligently hidden LED light strips to accentuate the grain of the redwood walls, stone fireplaces and the texture of the semi-transparent Lutron window shades that block sunlight but allow the views of the mountains to show through.
 
The shades are an important component, giving the Taylors and their guests control over sun glare when enjoying TV or a movie. A simple tap on an ELAN keypad, HR2 remote or the g! app on an iPad or iPhone lowers the shades and then fires up the home theater or living room entertainment area.
 
“When designing this home and the electronics systems, aesthetics always came first,” Spalla added. “We used Sunfire speakers in the home theater to provide true theater quality sound, and we replaced the spa system’s ugly controller with an attractive keypad that matches the home’s décor and design. By combining all the home’s functions into the g! system we eliminated a lot of standard wall clutter, like light switches, thermostats and a spa control dial. Now it’s all controlled from a single light keypad in each room, or from an iPad or iPhone. We also kept the system as hidden as we could, using Niles and SpeakerCraft speakers that mount flush into the ceiling and can be painted. Unless someone points them out to you, you’d never even know they were there.”
 
The Lutron lighting keypads can be specially programmed, such as the one located near the doorway to the outdoor seating area; it features a special ‘Spa’ button that tells the ELAN g! system to turn on the patio lights and hot tub jets, while automatically turning on the outdoor audio system and playing selections from the owner’s playlist or streaming sources such as Pandora. Spalla and Taylor chose Niles speakers for the outdoor area because they are extremely weather-resistant and provide superior sound quality. Other rooms use multi-function buttons as well, such as the bedrooms where a ‘Suite Off’ button switches off any lights, TV and music that are currently on in the room.
 
The keypads are wonderfully easy to use for each room, but managing the entire home’s bevy of electronic systems requires a true touchscreen experience, which Spalla delivered with a 10-inch in-wall ELAN TS10 touch panel in the kitchen. Through the TS10 the Taylors and guests can manage, monitor and control everything in the home, from the audio, video, security systems and surveillance cameras to the snow and ice melting system. All of this control is also available on the ELAN g! mobile app, which the owners and guests use on their iPads or iPhones to adjust heating, lighting, windows shades, audio and video without getting off the couch, or even when away from the house.
 
Setting up for a movie night is easier than ever using the ELAN HR2 remote or an iPad, which allows the viewer to turn on the home theater or living room media system, choose their favorite program or movie, turn down the lights, turn up the volume and set the heat to their ideal level. And several of the home’s TVs are recessed into the wall, creating another super-custom touch that makes the architecture and design the main attraction.
 

Design and ELAN g! Control Provide Ultimate Comfort in Bayfront Florida Home

Modern luxury homebuilding isn’t just about square footage and exotic materials. The best new homes today incorporate smart designs that minimize energy usage, maximize living comfort and provide aesthetics that perfectly match the owner’s personality. Florida homebuilder Josh Wynne of Josh Wynne Construction knows this better than most, and it’s why he combines designs that utilize the natural elements of a building’s lot with smart home technologies that make home life simple and efficient.

In his latest award-winning LEED-platinum certified home, dubbed “the Pearl”, Wynne has taken eco-conscious design to a new level, achieving the highly regarded certification without the use of solar panels or rainwater cisterns. In addition to making the home friendly to the environment, Wynne made sure the home was friendly to the owners, installing the ELAN® g! Entertainment and Control System that gives them complete control over everything from climate to pool controls with the ELAN g! Mobile app on their iPhones and iPads.

The home is custom designed from top to bottom, including exposed trusses that Wynne hand-built himself. Because the owner likes to host parties but is also a private-minded person, the home features a progression of public spaces, intermediate spaces and private spaces, both indoors and in the landscaping.

To make all these spaces comfortable and easy to manage, Wynne had Mark van den Broek of SmartHouse Integration design and install a variety of high-tech systems. With van den Broek’s help, Wynne delivered the owners a level of home comfort that they couldn’t have imagined just a few years ago. Everything in the home – lights, air conditioning, heating, irrigation, TVs, multi-room audio, security, surveillance and even pool controls – can be turned on and off, scheduled and adjusted from a single iPhone app.

“This home is a culmination of the owner’s aesthetic tastes, my unique mind for sustainable luxury design, and Mark’s technological know-how,” Wynne said. “Walking into the huge open kitchen and living room area, the sense of space and freedom is incredible. We were able to extend the awe even further by implementing smart home systems so the owner could walk into that room and hit a single button to dim the lights, turn on their favorite playlist and adjust the climate to the perfect temperature. It’s a home that uses technology to simplify living.”

With TVs, speakers and lights both indoors and outdoors that can be controlled on an iPhone or iPad, every area in the home can be custom programmed with scenes for different scenarios such as cooking, hosting a party, movie viewing, or even an “Away” mode that turns off most systems and automatically sets the security and surveillance systems. One special part of the security system is a custom-designed digital “gate” on the driveway that alerts the homeowners whenever a vehicle approaches the homes.

According to van den Broek, “The home has three driveways, so a gate wouldn’t have been feasible. I came up with a solution using laser triggers on each driveway, so when a vehicle crosses the beam a video feed of the driveway comes up on the large touchscreen in the kitchen and master bedroom. And if the home is set to ‘away’ mode, the system turns on indoor and outdoor lights and sends an alert to the owner’s cell phone.  It’s a surefire way to protect the house when they are away and a convenient way to see when friends are arriving.”

The most important aspect of the home’s technology is that the owners can use it without any training, without any hassle, and without any stress.  When people drive up, the camera feed simply appears on the touchscreens.  When they are away, they can open the ELAN g! Mobile app and check their surveillance cameras and even view histories of which lights have been on and what the indoor temperature has been. If they are home and want to watch a movie, all they need is an iPhone to turn off the lights, turn on the TV and Blu-ray player, and raise the volume. For parties, switching audio sources to different zones and adjusting volume is a breeze with the on-screen sliders. All in all, the owners of this beautiful Florida home have total control in the palm of their hands, and they don’t have to worry about a thing.