Five-bedroom family home, Hertfordshire - IDS

End-to-end Crestron Home system brings dream home to life

IDS Lifestyle Technology worked with S. E. T. Builders to bring a family’s aspirations of modern high-tech living alive.

Arch House is a five-bedroom new-build family home with a footprint of 5,000sqft spread over three floors.

The property was designed to be a dream home, catering to adults and children’s needs alike. The space incorporates five bedrooms, a gym, a home office, and a bespoke cinema room.

Project

Private Client

Hertfordshire

What Was Installed

Heating and cooling Integration & Control
Multi Room Video and audio distribution
Lighting Control
Security systems
Network Infrastructure & WiFi System
Bespoke home cinema

Our brief

Like most of us, the owner of this new build was not very tech-savvy but wanted his family to enjoy a modern new-build home with all the technology that will simplify the way it works.

The family’s teenagers also had significant input on how they wanted the house to work for them.

Tas Kyriacou, IDS Director, explains, “The home was essentially designed to cater to the family. They’ve got teenage children for which they wanted entertainment spaces, so they can have friends around and enjoy time at home.”

“We didn’t face specific challenges as such. But we needed to get as much information for the brief as possible to understand how they wanted the house to work for them. Sometimes, this can present a challenge if the client doesn’t understand the technology behind the request. Our job is to understand the benefits they want and match them to the technology, which involves spending a lot of time with all parties to gain a rich understanding of what they want to achieve.”

An end-to-end system

IDS provided a fully integrated end-to-end Crestron system incorporating lighting control, AV distribution, heating and cooling integration, security, Wi-Fi, and the network infrastructure behind it. The pièce de résistance was the bespoke home cinema IDS designed and installed.

The IDS bespoke cinema design incorporated everything a cinema going would expect. 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos surround sound using Sonance speakers, an Optoma projector all wrapped up with Vicoustic panelling and Acoustiblok soundproofing – the ultimate in-home entertainment to amuse the teenagers and their friends.

Tas describes, “We designed a fully integrated solution, we incorporated every single subsystem we installed. Everything is centralised and controlled from each Crestron touch panel or lighting keypads throughout the house. This is a special project that we are extremely proud of.

Setting the scene

With day and night visits, IDS worked with the end client to set just the right scenes to enhance their lifestyle. Measuring their preferred light levels and temperature to create simple pre-sets accessed via the touch panels.

We positioned touch panels on each floor for easy access, providing the family with the flexibility to change everything anywhere in the home. From a one-touch panel, they can access the alarm systems, check their CCTV, adjust the heating downstairs or upstairs, or anywhere in the house.

Easy to use

Using a fully integrated control system allowed us to manipulate the subsystems intuitively and efficiently. The touch panels will enable the client to make easy changes to the subsystem should they choose to do so and provide complete control of the home no matter where they were. This worked perfectly for the client.

Tas details, “We went from having a client apprehensive about the tech to a happy customer who realised just how easy it is. They have pre-set lighting scenes and simple buttons to activate and control everything, including the heating and air conditioning.”

Sof Theodoulou, Director and Owner of S. E. T. Builders, comments, “We are an established construction company specialising in residential and commercial projects across London and Hertfordshire. Our success is based on positive recommendations and word of mouth, so our suppliers must deliver exemplary standards.

Automation systems can be complex, so it was essential for us to have a company that could provide a consultative approach. The network behind these systems is not easy for some end clients to understand, so there needs to be a lot of hand-holding to bridge the gap between client and contractor. IDS were on hand to support our clients throughout the project, explaining terms in simple, easy-to-understand language to extract their exact requirements enabling them to deliver the functions the client wanted for their dream home. Throughout this project, IDS has been straightforward to deal with, and we look forward to collaborating with them again in the future.”

Project Credits

Main Contractor: S. E. T. Builders

Brands:

Photography: Nick Smith