Everyone has an idea of what life would be like without an 8-to-5 grind. Some people sock away their savings for a piece of land on a crystal-clear lake where the most taxing exercise might involve baiting a hook. Others long for a well-appointed condo sandwiched somewhere between holes eight and nine. But no matter where you envision living or what you plan to do during your retirement, there's one prerequisite voiced by nearly every stressed-out, time-crunched professional. The living has to be easy.

Claude and Diane felt the same way. After years on the road, wearing a tie, sitting behind a desk and packed around conference tables, Claude was eager to trade in the fast-paced world of business for a slower, simpler retirement.

For Claude and Diane, this meant relocating from a home in Connecticut to the sleepy outskirts of Montreal, where the couple owned a prime piece of property situated on a small lake fed by the St. Lawrence River. On this serene slice of land they planned to build their dream home.

Electronics without the Hassle

In a world buzzing with cell phones, pagers and computers, a person who craves simplicity would no more choose to integrate a bevy of mind-reeling electronics into a retirement home than he would don a business suit and necktie on a sunny afternoon. But Claude thought differently. He knew that the same electronics that can make a person's head spin could also create a more restful, relaxing environment for him and his wife--the type of leisurely environment where very little effort would be required to maintain and manage their household. The incorporation of state-of-the-art electronic systems, he felt, would ultimately create more free time for him and his wife to finally sit back and enjoy some of their favorite activities.

It just so happens that one of those pastimes is listening to music. Watching movies is another. Oh, and there's also gardening for Diane. Naturally, Claude and Diane's house would need the usual assortment of audio and video gear to prepare it for at least two of those pastimes. Not ones to settle for mediocre entertainment, the couple hired a professional home systems installation company for advice on what types of products to purchase, as well as to design their systems and install the gear in an eye-pleasing way. This dream home, after all, would reflect their personal style through its architecture and interior design.

To preclude a major design faux pas, yet achieve the acoustic and visual thrills that only the biggest of speaker systems and video screens can provide, Claude and Diane knew that they needed the expertise of a professional, and that they needed that input well before the walls of the house went up. While still living in Connecticut, the couple asked the home systems installation company Multilum, of Montreal, Canada, to join the team of architects, interior designers and builders involved in the project.

Music to His Ears

Prior to the construction of the new house, Claude had already owned a huge library of CDs and vinyl records consisting mainly of jazz and blues music. Listening to the likes of Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson was something he'd always enjoyed in their previous homes, but until now, it was an activity usually relegated to one room. Multilum made sure that in this new house Claude could hear every song in every room, crystal-clear and undistorted.

For the task, top-of-the-line in-wall and in-ceiling Niles speakers were installed in nearly every room. A variety of music sources, including a turntable, a 300-disc CD changer, a digital satellite receiver, and a music hard drive on which Claude can store hundreds of MP3 music files, were tucked inside an entertainment cabinet that resides in a large multipurpose media room. Each component is connected to a central processing unit that delivers music to the appropriate rooms, based on commands it receives from any of 12 in-wall keypads located throughout the house. This MRX-8e system from Matrix Audio Designs is smart enough to interpret and carry out several commands at once, enabling different music to play simultaneously in different areas of the house. That's a huge relief to Claude. He can still listen to his favorites even when the grandkids visit. The grandchildren can tune in to their favorite DSS pop station in the kitchen, for example, while Grandpa hears his classics in the home theater.

Spreading the Songs

There's just one problem with having so much music at one's fingertips: finding what you want. To minimize the amount of button pushing and guesswork that might be involved in unearthing a favorite tune from a mountain of music, Multilum added an Escient FireBall music server to the audio accouterment. Claude downloads MP3 files from the Internet into this powerful audio/video component and burns his own CDs to create a huge music repository. This device not only stores hundreds of hours worth of music on its hard drive, but gathers titles, cover art and other information about each and every music file automatically through an Internet connection to the Gracenote music data web site.

On its own the FireBall can display the music information on one TV only. However, through some additional design and installation work, Multilum created a whole-house music jukebox, where the music choices can be viewed on all three of the home's plasma TVs, as well as on a five-inch LCD TV that flanks the big 60-inch NEC plasma screen in the media room. The five-inch LCD was an afterthought, Maurice Bouskela of Multilum admits, but completely necessary. "Rather than interrupt a movie that the grandkids might be watching on the home theater plasma screen, Claude uses the smaller screen to view the music library," says Maurice.

Perfect for Music and Movies

The media room, in fact, is where the best listening takes place, says Bouskela. "The room was originally envisioned as being a place dedicated to watching movies, but the owners also wanted a place for very serious music listening. For this reason, we decided to make it more of a multipurpose entertainment area rather than a dedicated home theater."

For awesome sonic reproduction, the room was outfitted with Tannoy Eyris speakers and two subwoofers. Although the speakers sound wonderful, their natural wood color clashed with the design of the room. To help them blend in better with their environment, Multilum disassembled the speakers and enlisted a professional cabinetmaker to refinish the speaker housing in a rosewood color to match the entertainment cabinet. After reassembling the speakers, Multilum installed them. The result is a perfect harmony of form and function.

That took care of music. For movies, the room also needed additional rear speakers to pump sound effects into the space, as well as a big, bright video screen. Multilum added Tannoy Eyris speakers on the walls and Niles DS Series speakers into the ceiling. Although they are intended primarily for the playback of movie sound effects, the speakers are just as capable of handling the subtle nuances of 5.1-and 7.1-encoded music CDs. An Integra 9.1 receiver located inside the entertainment cabinet is able to extract those additional channels of audio from any component in the cabinet.

At the time the home was constructed in 2001, the biggest plasma monitor available measured 61 inches. Naturally, that's what the room received, in the form of an NEC 61MP1. Recessed into the woodwork of the entertainment center, it's ready for action. A T2 remote control from RTI cues the movie sources, including an Integra DVD player, a JVC VCR and an HDTV satellite receiver.

Claude and Diane use the same remote to roll down the window shades. There are two coverings from which they can choose. If casual entertainment or music listening is on the agenda, they will likely engage a sunscreen to minimize the glare. Movie watching calls for a heavier blackout shade to create the perfect viewing environment. With the shades down and the lights off, the room resembles a real movie theater. Two rows of motorized leather recliners complete the effect.

Plasma Pervades

The master bedroom and dinette may not possess the movie-theater quality of the media room, but 42-inch plasma monitors give the couple a great viewing experience in these areas. To ensure that Claude and Diane have plenty of viewing options, each TV connects to its own suite of dedicated video sources. A linen closet holds a DVD player, a VCR and a satellite receiver for the bedroom plasma; the dinette plasma gets its movies from a similar trio of equipment stored in the basement below. This autonomous arrangement allows Claude and Diane to watch different movies simultaneously on different TVs.

"DVD players and VCRs are very affordable, these days," says Bouskela. "To design a system that would give every TV access to a single set of video components is actually more expensive than buying each TV its own system." Even when movies aren't playing, the bedroom plasma is still performing. At a given moment the screen, which hangs above a fireplace, might show a beautiful piece of scenery or a family photograph. A direct connection to Claude's desktop computer located in the nearby home office provides the ever-changing material.

Setting the Stage

The ability to enjoy top-notch entertainment in your own home certainly promotes relaxation and enjoyment. But big screens and audio systems alone aren't the key to leisurely, carefree living. Claude and Diane also find their Lightolier Compose lighting control system and Aegis 3000 security/home automation system helpful. Thanks to the two systems, there's no need to race around the house turning off lights and locking the doors before leaving. Pressing away on the Aegis keypad arranges both the exterior and interior lights and arms the doors and windows.

The systems even help Claude and Diane prepare the house for company. After receiving a signal from the Aegis keypad, the Compose system might light a pathway from the driveway to the front of the house to welcome guests. The Compose system makes sure that at sunset the landscape and gardens are beautifully lit, as an invitation to stroll the grounds and admire the architecture of the house. After everyone is inside, Diane might press the on button of a nearby keypad to lead guests from the foyer to the kitchen and the media room. The guest button is another option that sets the lights a little softer. And when Claude and Diane have the house to themselves, evening dims the lights even further.

Relax and Unwind

Whether the lights are being controlled by a button press or adjusted automatically based on the time of day, Claude and Diane appreciate their home's ability to create a relaxing environment. In record time, the couple can arm the house, dim the lights and unwind with a good movie or with music in the backyard. And should their free time involve travel, as it often does, they can leave knowing their house is in good hands.

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Equipment List

Whole-house Music System
Matrix Audio MRC-8e 8zone pre-amp/amplifier
Matrix Audio zone splitter
Matrix Audio keypads (12)
TEAC AM/FM tuner
Sony CDP-555ES 300-disc CD changer
Escient FireBall CD management system
Satellite receiver
Technics SL-1200MK turntable
5-inch LCD screen
Niles 8-inch HD speakers (8 pair)
Tannoy bookshelf speakers (1 pair)
StereoStone planter speakers
Niles OS10 outdoor speakers

Media Room System
NEC 61-inch plasma screen
Draper plasma bracket
Integra DTR-9.1 A/V receiver
Integra DPS-9.1 DVD player
JVC HRS 9911 VCR
Panamax surge protector
RTI T2 TheaterTouch remote
Tannoy Eyris E3 front speaker
Tannoy Eyris EC center-channel speaker
Tannoy Eyris ER rear dipole speakers
Tannoy PS110 subwoofer
Niles 8-inch HD ceiling speakers

Lighting Control System
Lightolier Compose PLC lighting control system
Lightolier Compose keypads (16)
Lightolier Compose dimmer switches (48)
Home Automation/Security System
Aegis 3000 with 3 LCD keypads

Phone System
Panasonic TD308 PBX
Panasonic KXT7431 phones (3)
Panasonic KXT-7433 phones (5)
Panasonic front door intercoms (2)

High-Speed Wiring Network
OnQ Technologies structured wiring system

Installer
Multilum
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
514-683-3321
www.multilum.com

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Keeping It Simple

Buttons have a way of complicating even the simplest of tasks. Take the remote control: Who wants to hunt for the right buttons every time they want to watch TV? It'd be much simpler with maybe six buttons, right? This "less is more" philosophy also influenced the design of Lightolier's Compose PLC lighting control system. No more than six buttons per keypad are allowed. If that's too much, homeowners can still use conventional-style dimmer switches to control the lights.

This simplicity of design is one of the main reasons homeowners Claude and Diane chose the Compose system for their new home. The system was neither intimidating to use nor to design. Their home systems installation firm made sure that every keypad in the house--12 in all--contained the same group of buttons. For example, each keypad received a button labeled "guest." This button creates the same look for each room.

The settings of the lights are not set in stone, as they often are when controlled by other types of lighting control systems. And now that the house is finished, Claude and Diane are free to alter the scenes. If they want to achieve a softer effect in the guest mode, for example, the keypad can be reprogrammed by simply adjusting the room's individual dimmer switches and pressing the appropriate "program" button on the keypad. In minutes, the homeowners have created a new guest scene for any or all rooms.

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