PROJECT GALLERY

Building your dream home means having everything you want. For this ultimate dream home, the residents wanted technological amenities to include high-performance autio and video, simple control, and room to expand in the future.

Home Theater of Long Island was tasked with providing a single integrated system from the main house and two other buildings on the property. The owners placed a very high priority on making sure the system was aesthetically integrated into their residence. The company built in a full fiber infrastructure for video and managed Wi-Fi with 16 access points to cover the entire property. The integration system eventually grew to cover 50 audio zones and 26 video zones, including one theater and three media rooms.

Homeowners can control the Lutron lighting system, 16 zones of HVAC, security, gate and pool access, and more via their Savant system, which they can operate via any of 18 iPads, seven in-wall control panels, or on any TV via Savant TrueCommand.

"The greatest challenge on the project was the level of detail that was paid to integrating the entire system into the aesthetics of the home," says Home Theater of Long Island. "Working in conjunction with the designer and builder, we had to come up with several creative solutions to meet the demanding aesthetic standard set by the clients." In the kitchen, for example, Home Theater of Long Island designed a custom sub/sat system, which included eight high-performance ceiling speakers mated with two custom-made subwoofedrs. These subwoofers were fully integrated into the base of the dual kitchen island, and the homeowners couldn't be more pleased.

Picture this: a primo apartment near New York City's Central Park and sporting some grand views of the city. All one needs is some music, video and a control system to add the necessary background ambiance. And the apartment was even gutted for renovations, which usually makes an installation easier. But a gut renovation in a high-rise New York City apartment can be a challenge for builders, architects, and interior designers alike. It is even more so for an audio-video contractor who is consulted late in the game. So electronics system installer Home Theater of Long Island (HTOLI) armed itself with a slick control system and some audio/video economy to provide an understated but powerful system. Rotel components, Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) speakers and a Savant control system offer up tremendous audio, facile control, and equipment that would not overpower the room or detract from some of the best views of Manhattan.

The main hurdle was fitting all of the desired equipment in a cabinet that had already been built and installed. HTOLI had to find the appropriate equipment that would not only provide the level of performance and aesthetic requirements the owner sought, but would also fit within the cabinet. One of the first things Kaloma Smith, managing director of HTOLI, decided was to forgo a distributed audio system that would gobble up rack space, opting for two Rotel receivers instead. The receivers send music and soundtracks to B&W CM series bookshelf speakers and a B&W subwoofer, which Smith picked for their excellent sound quality in small, attractive packages. HTOLI also discreetly hid two slide-out racks in the cabinet, maximizing real estate for components.

In the bedroom, HTOLI worked with the homeowner to design a custom speaker and back plate from Leon speakers, along with custom LED lighting. To easily control the entire apartment, a Savant system handles audio/video, shades, lighting, and more, all at the touch of a button.

"We did everything the client wanted and, considering this was a project where we could not make a lot of design decisions, it came out extremely well," says Smith. "We also gave him a tremendous amount of value by installing a system for under $50,000 in an apartment worth millions."

This Manhattan apartment belongs to a couple that was wholly disenchanted with home automation thanks to a previous system that was difficult to use and didn't meet expectations. In fact, Anthony Chrisostomo and Kaloma Smith, managing directors of Home Theater of Long Island, had to do a lot of legwork to get the homeowners to let go of the idea that the technology is not worth the trouble. "I often tell people that my biggest competitor is not another integrator, but technology installed by integration firms that does not live up to clients' expectations," says Chrisostomo. "There are a lot of people that have the money to do what we do, but have been so turned off by their previous experience that they want nothing to do with it."

To get past this negative mindset, Home Theater of Long Island took the homeowners to the Savant NYC Experience Center to show them what was possible now, as opposed to five or six years ago when the original system was installed. Next, Chrisostomo took the homeowners to a previous client's home where he and his team had successfully installed a Savant system. "We had to do a lot of proving that this was the right solution and that it actually worked in a real-world situation," says Chrisostomo. After several months of back-and-forth, the homeowners agreed to hire Home Theater of Long Island to do a complete overhaul of the system, which was spread across three racks, a media room, seven video zones, 16 audio zones, an 88-load lighting system, a shading system, 12 zones of HVAC, and two surveillance locations.

They had two main hurdles: simplifying the clunky and over-designed control system and user interface, and reducing the overkill of the three-rack system and doing away with unused equipment that the clients were oversold. Home Theater of Long Island got over the first hurdle by installing a Savant system, which used Savant on-screen displays in the main areas and Savant Select remotes in the secondary systems. iPads were mounted in the walls permanently, luckily with no required patchwork on the existing wallpapered and Italian stucco walls. For the second hurdle, they turned the three messy racks into one immaculately dressed rack where every component is crucial. To make up for lost sources, Home Theater of Long Island judiciously added equipment where needed. "We only added components that actually enhance the homeowners' lifestyles, like a media-streaming device with local radio station so he can listen to Ranger games," says Chrisostomo.

When all was said and done, Home Theater of Long Island had replaced the existing control, AV distribution, network, and surveillance systems, reprogrammed and integrated the existing lighting, shading and HVAC, and overhauled the equipment room. "Given this project's constraints as a fully finished residence, a jaded client, and a previous poor install, we have been able to deliver a system that was well engineered, well executed, and performed above expectations," says Chrisostomo. In fact, the homeowners like Home Theater of Long Island's work so much, they are having them do something similar in their Hamptons abode - proof that the homeowners' outlook on technology, along with the system itself, was completely transformed.