A real digital home

7/31/2009 2:01 PM EDT

I have to be honest. I have never seen a place that takes advantage of available digital home technology. Sure, I've seen demonstrations at conferences and in stores, and I know a few people that have implemented a few aspects, but none that have an extensive amount of the technology that someone was actually living in. That was, until the other day.

After meeting with a company that installs digital home systems they set me up with one of their clients to take a walk through his house. The home owner showed me his set up, which was fairly extensive. This was his third home built from the ground up, and he wanted to make sure that this one would meet his needs both today, and in the future, plus have a higher resell potential down the road.

There were a number of reasons that went into choosing to integrate a digital home concept. First, he was a techie and loved his gadgets, so he wanted his home to reflect his personality. Second, he was planning on an extensive home network, and a digital home interface was seen as an extension of that plan. Finally, it offered greater integration and ease of use for the home.

But the design was not a quick concept. He spent over two years researching different solutions to find one that would work best for his home. And each component and placement was carefully thought out because once it was set up it would not be an easy matter to change.

There were 8 zones set up. This required four Control 4 systems (with ZigBee remotes) with a UPS back up and a HAI integrated alarm with back up. Connected to the system was a Denon A/V receiver, a five disk DVD player, a BluRay player, iPod and a hard drive with music stored. There were surveillance cameras set up around the house, including at the entrances, which could be viewed from any of the TV sets.

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

Speaking of TV sets, each of the nine sets are capable of operating on their own to watch content. The home theater is designed to drop the screen down, start the relevant source and dim the lights when the trailers start at the push of a button. When the system is paused, the lights turn back on so that you are not fumbling around in the dark.

However, when trying to watch content from, say the BluRay player, which is located in the basement, on a TV on the top floor, the user would have to go down, insert the disk, and then go back up. While the convenience of being able to watch any content on any TV is there, getting the content in the first place requires a bit more work.

Sound in most rooms is provided by a pair of in wall speakers, totaling 29 throughout the home. In rooms with TVs this can also simulate surround sound by using the integrated speakers in the TV as well as two speakers on the opposite wall.

There are a number of security precutions as well.  I mentioned the alarm, which will call a cell phone if it goes off, but there are also montiors for water and gas leaks, and sensors to detect if there is a fire or if any of the windows are broken into.

When asked about what the owner would do differently he had a few ideas. First, he said that he would make sure that all of the components would integrate together. There are two furnaces in the home to better control the climate of different areas independently, but these are too new to have APIs available yet.

As well, he mentioned that changing any components out in the future will not be a simple task as it will require him to reprogram large sections of the interface as there is so much integration. For example, if he wanted to change the A/V receiver he would have to spend a significant amount of time to have the whole system work again, or he would have to bring someone in to set everything up for him.

All in all I was told that it was definately something that he would do again and something that he suggested to investigate for anyone, especially those looking at building a new home.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering what the actual house looked like

Click on image to enlarge.