For fun, relaxation and peace of mind, this home's a natural.

Aspen, Colorado, is about more than celebrities on the slopes. For the family who own this 12,500-square-foot house, it's about having fun together in a beautiful setting, being environmentally conscious, enjoying simplicity and having the peace of mind that only comes with security. n They have all that and more in this post-and-beam- style vacation home, thanks to many technological conveniences that manage not to intrude on their lifestyle or the decor. Yet this natural-looking second home contains 32 separate audio zones, 60 lighting zones, 9 different video zones, 27 heating and ventilation zones, 32 security cameras, 21 video zones, a powerful media-room home theater, swiveling and pop-up plasma screens, a sophisticated home-control system that can be operated remotely over the web, and an environmentally friendly heating and cooling system.

"They wanted a combination of security, fun and convenience in one simple package," says Anson Fogel, chief operating and technology officer for Electronic Systems Consultants (ESC) in Aspen. "They wanted it to be easy to use and powerful, but without compromising the architecture."

In addition, Fogel says, "The homeowner pushed us to do things we hadn't done before, and to come up with unique solutions to day-to-day problems. The end result is one of the more sophisticated houses. There's an incredible amount of technology and power in this home, but you don't see it unless you want to."

Hidden Treasures

You can start looking for technology in the "media room", which at first glance seems to be a great place to kick back in comfortable chairs, enjoy an après-ski drink and maybe shoot some pool. But concealed behind the rich wood-trimmed cabinets at one end of the room is the power to change all that. At the press of a button on the wireless touchscreen remote control, an 8-foot-wide Stewart screen descends from behind the woodwork, a Sharp high-definition Digital Light Processing (DLP) projector descends out of the ceiling, and a Meridian digital surround processor and several Bryston amps crank up the sound. It's movie time—or game time if the kids fire up the Microsoft Xbox to play on the big screen.

In fact, Fogel says, the screen doesn't just hang there: It descends within the front woodwork to maintain the feel of the architectural design. And guests will never see the front NHT Evolution speakers unless they open the doors flanking the screen. Two NHT subwoofers are concealed in cabinets beneath the screen, and the center-channel actually rests on the shelf behind the perforated screen, because that was the place it sounded best. Four NHT surround speakers blend in as well, though they remain in plain sight as small bookshelf speakers. The audio and video components are in equipment racks behind doors as well, though the custom-built 700 to 800-pound racks can slide out and swivel for quick servicing without requiring extra tools, as do many large slide-out racks.

Even the sound in the media room can be somewhat concealed. When the door to the room is opened while the volume is above a certain point, it automatically turns down so people in nearby rooms aren't disturbed.

In the dramatic cathedral-ceiling master bedroom, a 42-inch NEC plasma screen rises out of a console that appears as part of the wainscoting and window sill. In addition, two sets of motorized shades can emerge from the window casings, one a translucent screen that lets some light through and the other a blackout shade. The Tischler windows used throughout the house come with built-in sensors and window treatments and motors, resulting in a much cleaner appearance. There is no surround-sound system here, as not a lot of serious movie-watching takes place in the bedroom. However, stereo sound comes via two in-ceiling SpeakerCraft speakers or wireless Sennheiser headphones.

The family room adjacent to the kitchen has a surround-sound system, but with an innovative twist. A plasma screen swivels on an arm so it can be viewed at an angle, and it even faces the opposite way so it can viewed from the breakfast area or kitchen. Two speakers were also built into the swiveling console to provide front-speaker sound. And you thought plasmas only looked cool hanging on a wall!

A wired and wireless computer network is also concealed throughout the house amid carefully planned cabinetry, with computers, scanners and other devices concealed in cabinetry in two offices and other areas of the house.

Some technology in the house is purposely visible. Take the video camera mounted on the ceiling in the dining room. The homeowners wanted their guests to know there is a video camera and a microphone on the ceiling. Nothing covert here; they want their guests to know they can keep track of the conversation while getting something from the kitchen next door. The video is played back on a small LCD in the kitchen, and the live audio/video feed is activated with a button on the wall-mounted LiteTouch lighting-control keypad.

Safety and Responsibility

In all, there are 32 cameras throughout the house—some visible, some not so visible. "The homeowners expressed a wish to have cameras that covered every possible entrance and exit to the house and to monitor things their children might interact with like pools and spas," says Fogel. All cameras throughout the house can be viewed on any of the TVs, even a small LCD panel mounted at eye level over a urinal in the master bathroom.

Three commercial-grade digital video recorders (DVRs) record video from all the cameras on computer-like hard drives. With 32 cameras, that seems like a lot of recording, but only about a frame per second is recorded until motion is detected, then any event is recorded at a higher rate. The homowners can search the hard drives by time or event, or even view the video from the cameras remotely via the Internet.

These aren't "web" cameras, however. As Fogel explains, those generally are sensitive to climate and don't have the sophistication of pan-tilt-zoom cameras. In addition, the cameras record in color by day, but have infrared illuminators to be functional at night. "It's a beautiful thing because the cameras aren't visible at night, but they record everything that's going on in the dark," Fogel says.

There is even a camera set-up that looks at the curved driveway from two different angles, with a 27-inch Sony monitor relaying the video to the garage so the driver backing out knows if there are any toys or other objects left in the way. In addition, some cameras are positioned to look at the nearby mountains so the homeowners have a feel for the weather and ski conditions before arriving.

The homeowners appreciate natural beauty and are concerned with environmental responsibility, so they created an environmentally sensitive home. The home itself, despite its rustic wood-beamed look, had been built with engineered and pressed lumber that was recycled. The engineered lumber is also more impervious to decay and rot than natural timber. In all, Fogel says the house was built with an extremely high R-value, indicating its insulating properties.

A sophisticated heating and ventilation system consists of high-end condensing boilers that even re-use waste heat in some conditions. A radiant floor heating system regulates water in its sub-floor tubes according to the temperature outside. And most of the windows have motorized blackout shades to reduce solar glare in the warmer months and help warm rooms in the winter. Motorized window treatments can be quite effective at helping to control temperature inside the home. "If you can reduce solar gain, your cooling bills are going to go down quite a bit," advises Fogel.

Simple Control

The powerful AMX NetLinx system can control virtually any electronic feature in the house, including the climate control.

"Our system simply says what temperature someone wants in this room," Fogel explains. And that includes house-wide scenes that also include more detailed control of lighting, music and other functions at the press of one button. The NetLinx system is controlled by wall-mounted keypads in most rooms, and in places such as the family and media rooms and the master bedroom by AMX ViewPoint wireless touchscreen controllers.

Although many systems can be controlled by the NetLinx system, ease of use was essential. The challenge, Fogel says, was to make sure that any user walking into the house would see only the what that they needed to see to operate things such as lights, music, and preset "scenes." All the keypads were generally standardized for setting the lights and music high or low, Fogel explains. Yet if someone wanted more detailed control, they could do that, too.

ESC writes its own programming for the control interface on top of the AMX NetLinx system, even allowing the homeowners to see their music library stored on a media-server-like hard drive.

Life sure is a whole lot better when in Aspen. And with a house that exemplifies safety, security, and simplicity and is built with respect to the environment, why wouldn't it be?

Equipment List

HOUSE-WIDE SYSTEMS
AMX NetLinx system
LiteTouch Lightening system
ADA 6-Channel Amplifier (12)
AMX Audio Controller (2) and Preamp
Extron 60-440-30 Audio Distribution Amp 1x3 (9)
Blonder-Tongue Modulator (3), Multiplexer
Sony SAN24MD1 HDTV Satellite Dish
Spaun DMK5582F 8-Way HDTV Multiswitch (4), Amp
Sony SATB65 Satellite Receiver (7) 2 Music Only
Sony SATT60 DSS/TiVO Receiver/Recorder
Sony STSA50ES AM/FM Tuner
ESC Web Control Software
ViewSonic airpanel 110 Web Tablet

SECURITY
Channel Vision TAC-631 Panasonic Doorphone (2)
Channel Vision HS3 Splitter-Combiner —3-way (6)
Panasonic WJ-HD500AV Hard Disk Camera Recorder (3)
Channel Vision 6005B Color pinhole Camera (5)
Extreme EX-26C7xxBU All Weather Camera, Color (5)
Extreme EY-82D8VA4B IDN Camera (12)

MEDIA ROOM
Bryston 2B-LP 2 Channel Amplifier
Bryston 9B SST THX Amplifier (2)
Meridian 561M Digital Surround Computer
Microsoft Xbox Deluxe Set, with 2 Control
NHT M5 Evolution 3-Way Speaker, Center Channel
NHT SB2-Blk Surrounds, Super Audio Speaker (6)
NHT T5 Evolution Modular Tower System, Left and Right
NHT W1 Subwoofer, Dual Woofer —12-inch (2)
Xantech AV61 Audio Video Six-way Distribution Amplifier
AMX VPN-CP Wireless Touchscreen Control System
Extron 60-203-02 Audio Distribution Amp
Panasonic AG1980 SVHS HiFi VCR
Sharp XVZ9000U HD-DLP 16:9 Front Projector
Sony DVPNS900V High Quality DVD Player
Sony SATA65 Satellite Receiver
Sony SATT60 DSS/TiVo Receiver/Recorder
Stewart Filmscreen Electriscreen Microperf GreyHawk

FAMILY ROOM
AMX VPN-CP Wireless Touchscreen Control System
NEC FWMK Flat Wall Mount Kit
NEC PX42VM3A Plasma Television—42 inch
NHT SuperZero Xu Satellite Speaker (2)
NHT W1 Subwoofer, Dual Woofer —12 Inch
Panamax Max6 Allpath Surge Protector
Sony CDPM333ES ES CD Player, 5 Disc
Sony DVPNS900V High Quality DVD Player
Sony SATT60 DSS/TiVo Receiver/Recorder
Sony SLVN99 Stereo VHS VCR
Sony STRDA3ES Audio Surround Preamp/Amp

Contact:
Electronic Systems Design & Installation
Electronic Systems Consultants (ESC) Inc., Aspen, CO
970-925-1700
www.escusa.com

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Simple on the Outside

Electronic Systems Consultants (ESC) of Aspen, CO, has been designing home control systems and building interfaces such as the one in this home for 15 years. But that doesn't mean it's easy. In fact, this home required a control interface that was detailed enough for one of the tech-savvy homeowners, yet simple enough for everyone else to use, including two children. "The challenge is to separate the detailed functions from the common everyday functions, and make those very intuitive for everyone to use," says Anson Fogel, chief operating and technology officer of ESC.

In addition to an array of wall-mounted six-button AMX keypads throughout the house, there are wireless AMX ViewPoint touchscreens and a ViewSonic web tablet that displays a sleek but easy-to-operate control interface so lights can be dimmed, music selected, temperature changed, the spa heated, whatever.

ESC custom-designs its own graphical interface atop the powerful AMX NetLinx controller that integrates lighting, music, security, heating and ventilation and other systems throughout the house. One of the tech-savvy homeowners can arrive at more detailed controls by simply going to different pages on the user interface. A web-controlled interface allows the homeowner the ability to create or adjust his own house scenes, whether from the den, the media room or another continent. They can also see camera images from anywhere in and around the house, including views of the nearby mountain, get a quick update on whether the security system is armed and if any windows are open, and see a report on movement throughout the house.

ESC builds a basic interface used by its clients, then customizes it as needed. "We have to balance the needs of the tech-savvy member, but also allow the others to walk into the room and turn things on very easily," Fogel says. "When applying technology to a modern house, the simpler the system is on the outside, the more complicated it is on the back-end."

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Highlights

• A home-control system is made user-friendly for owners and guests.
• Cameras throughout the house help the parents keep the kids out of trouble.
• Building techniques and an innovative heating and ventilation system conserve energy.
• The dining room has a visible camera and microphone on the ceiling (top) so the hosts can enjoy their guests' conversation while in the nearby kitchen.

Steven Castle is a Senior Editor and the resident wit of Electronic House magazine. Email Steve at scastle@ehpub.com.

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