Get Smart

Integrated Technologies Australia was pleased to be featured recently in The Sunday Age (25/05/2010). The full article can be viewed and downloaded here.

Home automation technology is making life easier and saving money, reports  Zinta Jurjans Heard from The Sunday Age.

It’s as though there is a butler who is never seen, or a housekeeper who is invisible, but there are no wages to be paid — thanks to technology. This status symbol is so discreet, it’s invisible; a house that quietly serves, the truly smart home.

Architectural firm SJB recently completed the ultimate coast house, a gorgeously sleek contemporary sanctuary with a heart of gold. By the time the owners arrive from town, their house is already purring along, warm and welcoming.

SJB director Tony Battersby describes the interaction: “Our clients dial up the landscape lighting, the heating, and have the music going from their mobile phone connection as they head to the house.”

Now that even mass-market housing has taken on stylish designer looks, it’s smart technology that separates the haves and have-nots. The haves never need worry about cold towels — the house has switched on the rails to the desired temperature. They needn’t water the garden, clean the pool, draw the blinds or fossick through an unsightly stack of CDs — the Sonos multi-room music system can bring in more than 2 million digitally stored albums and 16,000 internet radio stations. Each room can groove to its own beat.

The owners of the SJB coast house don’t waste their precious time driving from beach to beach hunting for the best surf; they dial-up on their touch pad to see the quality of waves on offer from a camera feed of surf around the coast. Home automation systems have benefited from “radical advances”, Mr Battersby says, citing “smart” glass with coatings to minimise transference loss,reduce glare and improve views.

Automated blinds can beprogrammed to retract in high winds,rain sensors can close windows, and heating and cooling costs can be minimised through automation. “The advances are wonderful, environmentally,” he says.

Technology also gives great freedom and flexibility to designers. “You walk into a room where there’s music playing but no speakers to be seen, they are so well hidden in the plasterwork,” Mr Battersby says. The main bedroom suite in the coast house has panoramic windows to take in the amazing views across to Western Port Bay, he explains. You wouldn’t want to interrupt such scenery with a television screen, so it retracts into the ceiling when not in use.

In the home theatre, a single touch-screen remote allows total control from the comfort of the sofa. It activates all entertainment sources, allows you to adjust heating and cooling, tweak window furnishings so the light is just right, and if there is a knock on the front door, you can see on the remote who’s outside and open the door without moving. It’s the butler you have when there’s no butler.

The switched-on house is being delivered by a profession that has emerged in the past decade: integrators who design the systems to deliver the best of what’s available. The SJB coast house set-up was the product of Richmond based Lifestyle Technologies & Design.

Lifestyle general manager Jeremy Gomo says the company works with architects from the start of a project, consulting on system designs, calculating load demands and devising electrical layouts that can be incorporated into builder quotes. His crews also handle the installations.

Mr Gomo says the surge in interest in the kinds of systems his company builds comes from the lifestyle choices they embrace. And the good news is that prices are coming down. “It was quite expensive initially,” he says. “Now the products are more affordable.”

Integrated Technologies Australia can also design and install smart-home systems. ITA’s Simon Lakey says the functionality of new products such as the iPhone and iPad are proving affordably popular with clients. The smart house is indeed clever, he says. It can be programmed to know it’s late July, it’s dark, so the lights should be on, and it’s cold so the heating should kick in.

For people who want the bene?ts of these technologies in their new homes, it is vital that they “get in early, even before preliminary plans have been drawn for a house”, Mr Lakey says. “Because it’s all about the cabling in the walls. Retro-fits ts are more of a challenge. It’s hard to get the cabling from A to B without making holes in the walls.” For existing houses, a wireless system is another option.

According to Jeff Salton, a public relations consultant with the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA), automation is about controlling our little part of the world, even when we are not there. “The industry has been helped by the internet,” he says. “You can check on a web cam to see what’s happening at home. Open the door for a delivery on line, watch it take place, and lock the door afterwards.”

Mr Salton also recommends planning for future needs, such as installing wiring in a new building. “Upgrades are easy — it’s just a matter of reprogramming — idle wires can be put to use,” he says. The bottom line? “Automation is about 3 to 5 per cent of the cost of building the home,” he says.

“The drivers of home automation are convenience, comfort, security and enhanced entertainment,” says Simon Wehr, marketing manager with Clipsal. “Automation should make life simpler.”

Clipsal’s C-Bus systems are the market leaders in such lifestyle automation technology, gaining experience in projects such as the Sydney Olympics and Opera House, the MCG, Wembley Stadium in London and numerous international hotel chains.

Mr Wehr praises the technology for what he calls “the flexibility to bring the most out in a design”. For a function such as controlling lighting, it enhances a building and banishes what he calls “wall acne” — light switches, wall sockets, thermostats and the like. “Aesthetics is a big part — designers would prefer nothing on the walls. Now at least it’s not plasticky,” he says.

A more practical benefit of smart-home technology is the potential to save money. Automation can help save energy by making sure the house is working as efficiently as possible, Mr Wehr says. “Your home will learn how to live with you. It will automatically and on schedule turn power on and off, it will know to turn on appliances when the tariffs are at their lowest. In future, energy management will be total as we see on screen how much energy is being used and what’s chewing it up.”

Demand for automation is also spreading beyond the luxury home market, Mr Wehr says. “The only thing holding the industry back is the number of quality installers.”

He also emphasises his belief that “technology in the home must be done by a specialist. It’s critical to deliver customer expectations, and the customer has the right to get the best from their investment.”

The C-Bus-approved installation program is called pointOne. Mr Salton’s CEDIA refers people to certified integrators and installers.

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