South Carolina home features a cutting-edge Lutron lighting system controlled and automated by ELAN with audio by Niles and Sunfire, and power protection from Panamax.
When building their new 9,000-square foot home in Bluffton, South Carolina, the homeowners sought to seamlessly fuse classic country design with innovative modern technology. Particularly, they wanted to incorporate an automated lighting system to enhance both the home’s aesthetic and overall functionality. To achieve their goals, they called on local integration firm Advanced Integrated Controls(AIC) to design and install an ELAN smart home system with integrated Lutron lighting.
“Automated lighting was the initial objective for the project,” AIC President Curtis Hubner explained. “The homeowners had dealt with a finicky control system in the past, and were looking for a new reliable system that would meet all of their lighting control needs. They wanted to be able to manipulate the lights from anywhere in the world, or automate them to act on their own based on the time of day. I knew that ELAN was the perfect solution to meet both requirements.”
Hubner and his team installed an ELAN gSC10 controller to control the extensive Lutron lighting system, along with the home’s eight 4K video zones, 12 audio zones and 45 integrated zones of security, fire, and water detection. The integrated Lutron lighting system incorporates 84 centralized and 24 local HomeWorks QS zones, three dedicated landscape zones, and 17 Sivoia shades with custom woven fabrics.
AIC integrated the Lutron system into the ELAN system to coordinate several events to happen automatically. For example, each day the outdoor lights react to the sunrise and the sunset on an astronomical time clock. In the evening, lighting gradually powers on with the sunset until the outdoor lighting fully illuminates the dark pathways throughout the property. In the morning, the lights gradually fade in time with the sunrise.
Inside, Hubner and his team configured similar events to occur throughout the residence, including in two of the children’s bedrooms. Since the children must wake up by 7:30 AM, the homeowners wanted the lights to gradually increase – as they do outside – to slowly wake them up instead of blasting them with light early in the morning.
The lighting system is also accessible remotely through the ELAN Mobile app or an ELAN HR200 remote while inside the house. “In addition to the automatic systems, it was important that the homeowners can instantly control any light in the house with the touch of a button,” Hubner commented. “ELAN is the best platform for both seamless control and sophisticated automation.”
In addition to the extensive lighting system, AIC outfitted the home with several entertainment features. The team installed an 85” 4K Sony display in the home’s media room, accompanied by twenty 7” Nilesin-ceiling speakers paired with two Sunfire HRS10 subwoofers to create a 5.1 surround sound system. Outdoors, AIC installed a 75-inch 4K Sony TV and two 49-inch 4K Sony TVs paired with another in-ceiling sound system – all of which are controlled by ELAN.
“We relied on Niles and Sunfire to provide top-of-the-line sound without disturbing the design and flow of each space,” Hubner commented. “Sunfire is the best at building powerful audio into small enclosures. That was particularly appreciated in a home with such a traditional aesthetic.”
AIC worked with Simpson Construction to conceal the technology throughout the home as much as possible. The goal was for the technology to be experienced and felt, but not necessarily seen. According to the company’s President, Josh Simpson, the two teams worked closely together to build custom recessed housings to hide technology, such as the drop-down televisions at the screen porch fireplace. “AIC consistently does a great job of working together with all parties involved to make sure that the technology properly integrates throughout the rest of the home,” said Simpson. “The entire process was extremely seamless.”
AIC also protected the homeowner’s technology investment with one Panamax MB1500 uninterruptible power supply with BlueBOLT control for each equipment rack. “We rely on Panamax to protect the main Lutron processor, all networking routers, and every piece of audio/visual equipment,” Hubner emphasized. “Through BlueBOLT, we can schedule events that enable the automatic re-powering of the main modem and networking equipment, just to make sure that everything continues to run smoothly. BlueBOLT does the equipment management for us, and Panamax provides us with peace-of-mind.”
According to Hubner, the homeowners are extremely happy with their new home automation system, and both the automation and control of the entire home has been smooth sailing. “The ELAN system exceeded all of their expectations,” he concluded. “Despite the size and scope of this project, we were able to configure the system in a way that seamlessly works for them.”
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