London Luxury Dream Home

The home’s polished marble floors and glass walls exude sophistication. They also presented some acoustic challenges for our sound engineers to overcome.

We installed high-performance, in-ceiling James loudspeakers and subs in nearly every room, which allowed us to fine-tune audio performance using a spectrum analyser. The living-room also benefits from Meridian DSP7200SE active speakers linked to a Tidal Masters account, producing flawless sound quality when the family listen to their favourite music.

The home’s 17 TVs are all connected to a Zektor 4K video matrix, each with comprehensive digital signal processing adjustments. This enabled us to create perfect lip-sync between each TV and the external speakers in the room, which enhances the viewing experience.

We made the AV system a joy to use. The family can choose what to watch or listen to with a tap of the Control4 app on a smartphone or tablet, or turn to pre-programmed settings via the wall-mounted Control4 touchscreens in most rooms. The soothing sounds of Classic FM, for instance, play when they press the ‘Audio’ button on the wallplates in the hallways and study. But the installation’s aims weren’t only technological; the system also had to support the integrity of the design. A prime example can be found in the bedrooms. Here, we used Nexus21 motorised mounts to make the TVs automatically disappear into bespoke cabinets when turned off.

The cinema room also created some conundrums for the Cyberhomes team. The owners wanted to preserve the double doors between the cinema and the hallway, which restricted how much wall space would be available for the screen.

At the same time, the shape and size of the room, and the beautiful bespoke ceiling fixture, meant our sound engineers would have to be creative. Innovative speaker selection, positioning and configuration means the family can experience ultimate Dolby® Atmos® 7.1.4 cinematic surround sound. And by hiding the speakers and acoustic treatment behind pleated, stretched-fabric walls, the cinema room appears equipment-free when not in use.

The projector disappears into the ceiling, and even the screen is invisible, thanks to full side-masking. We worked with Screen Research to create a bespoke cinema screen, as the room’s configuration was beyond the capabilities of anything on the market. And we ensured stunning depth of colour with an optical-fibre connection between the projector and 4K movie server. A second optical connection allows a games console to be plugged into the cinema room and fed back to the video matrix.

The result is large-screen gaming with full 4K resolution, high-frame rate support and Dolby Atmos surround sound—an ultimate gaming experience that the couple’s children love sharing with friends. Despite the complexity of the technology, operating the cinema couldn’t be simpler. One touch of the ‘Movie’ button on the wallplate lowers the projector from the ceiling; opens the screen’s side-masking; turns on the Kaleidescape player; and selects the right lighting, audio and video inputs. All that’s left to do is choose which movie to watch via Control4 or the remote control.

The homeowners have used lighting to set off their home magnificently. We provided a Lutron Homeworks QS lighting control system with over 130 circuits.

Each room has several pre-programmed lighting scenes, which can be turned on from the room’s remote or wallplate, or with a tap of the Control4 app or touchscreens. We fitted motion detectors to automate the lighting in all the bathrooms. Motorised blinds activated by dedicated engraved wallplate buttons further enhance the atmospheric lighting.

The blinds are also linked to an astronomical clock, so that they close at certain times of the day. This protects the couple’s valuable works of art from sunlight damage. In the event of a power failure, a diesel generator restores emergency lighting in the master bedroom, hallways and stairwell.

Similar attention was paid to the detail of the climate control.

In this instance we weren’t only considering the 16 underfloor heating zones, but also seven zones of air conditioning throughout the property, as well as natural ventilation via a series of motorised skylights. It’s very easy for heating, cooling and ambient heat to all ‘fight' each other to reach the desired temperature in each room. To avoid this we turned to a building management systems from North Building Technologies to ensure the systems all co-ordinated in harmony.

This was also integrated into Savant to allow skylights to be opened to allow fresh air into rooms without confusing the climate control system. As this type of integrated solution was relatively new for North, Cyberhomes engineers invested considerable time with them prior to final system design to ensure it would all work seamlessly.

The house is protected by a Texecom Intruder alarm and fire detection system.

This is integrated into the automation system, so that it can be quickly and easily armed and disarmed. The property’s perimeter can be armed separately from the house. Entry to the grounds is via automated sliding gates complete with intercom, which can be opened from the home’s touchscreens and family’s mobile devices. It is monitored by a network of 11 Visualint CCTV cameras, whose footage is constantly recorded on a network video recorder.

This arrangement enables 24-hour monitoring and status notifications. If the perimeter alarm is armed and motion is detected, the system emails snapshot images of the disturbance to the homeowners. Any power failure sends the house into emergency mode. The generator powers the CCTV system and Wi-Fi network, and the rack room is safely shut down by uninterruptible power supplies.

Such extensive home technology requires a very large rack installation. Two system processors share the workload.

One handles the AV and touchscreen interfaces; the other processes everything else. A spare processor is programmed ready to effect a ‘hot swap’ if one of the main units fail. We designed the racks so that natural convection controls the amount of heat generated.

A dedicated air-conditioning system then removes all heat from the plant room. In addition, the rack room’s temperature is remotely monitored by Cyberhomes. Our innovative design makes the racks easy to maintain, despite the complex technology involved.