B/A:  Your new advertisements mention that you do projects that cost from $25,000 to $1 million.  At what cost point is a home considered to have the ultimate electronics integration?

Mike Riley:  Using the word, "Ultimate" is very difficult because ultimate is actually in the eye or mind of the beholder.  As an example, how much does the ultimate yacht cost?  The vast majority of our customers desire upscale home theaters, but I have read in our trade publications about jobs where the home theaters alone cost more than $1 million.  We have never done anything quite that elaborate.

B/A:  Wow!  Perhaps then you can describe some of the "Great Home Integrations" that your company has done, I am sure our readers will consider them to be the ultimate.

Mike Riley:  As I mentioned, most luxury jobs begin with a home theater, a room dedicated to only one function:  watching movies.  They feature a large movie screen at the front of the room, a front projection system, a lighting system, a group of sophisticated speakers and control equipment for all these components.  As large as 60-inch plasma screen may seem, it is much too small to give a real theater experience; we install screens as wide as 14 feet.  Quite often the screen, the above ceiling projector and top mounted encased black-out window shades are all dropped into place by small electric motors that are installed out of sight.  The components are controlled with illuminated wireless touch pad that is about 6' by 6', which also controls the dimming of lights, pulling up the source of the movie, as well as volume and position of the surround sound system.  On a recent job we installed nine specialized electric controlled theater seats, which are plush leather recliners equipped with electric controls for the height and tilt, to assure maximum comfort.  Risers were installed in this 16' x 30' room so that the seats are at three different levels.  I guarantee that watching a movie in this room exceeds any experience you can have in a traditional movie theater, because you will have a better picture, acoustics and sound, in an environment completely controlled by the homeowner.

B/A:  So how much does it cost to equip a room like this?

Mike Riley:  One hundred thousand dollars can easily be spent on all the equipment in a really great room; including wiring, the integration that makes all the components work together in a seamless manner.  In other words, to make sure that the individual touch pads control all the individual elements of the room.  Keep in mind that this is just the video and sound electronics, and does not include any specialized wood work, floor coverings or extras like velvet curtains or electronic marquees.  We have been involved in many projects that had budgets of more than $150,000 for theater rooms.  On the other hand, we have installed home theaters that still far exceed the movie theater experience for around $35,000, and this price still included motorized screen and projector.

B/A:  Where do get the movies to show in such rooms?

Mike Riley:  Any digital media can be put through the projector and up on the screen.  the most common source is DVDs.  We recently integrated a multidisc changer into the home theater equipment for a client; it is sort of like a DVD/CD jukebox that holds 400 discs.  Movies can also be stored on an independent large computer hard drive that is controlled by the same touch pad.  Most clients have us set it up to have movies imported to the home theater room from their cable-TV or satellite-TV provider, and we route in local HDTV with special antennas placed on house tops.  But the kids can also play games on the big screen, and we can even access video cameras from around the house to be projected in the theater room.

B/A:  You mentioned HDTV, I'll bet that is a big item in one of these ultimate electronic home integrations?

Mike Riley:  It sure is!  We just completed a home with high-definition plasma screens in the gentleman's bedroom, bathroom, billiard room, kitchen and family room.  In these high-end homes, five screens of various sizes is about average, and the cost per screen can vary from $1,500 to $15,000, depending on the quality.  Each TV is controlled independently with a remote control and is hooked up to cable or satellite service, but most often they are wired to a movie storage unit controlled by a touch pad in the master suite, so that mom or dad can monitor activity and turn off any individual TV in the house.  Although most screens installed today are HD, they obviously can play regular TV and even VCR cassettes.  The capability of pulling up programming from several different sources is a function of the "structured wiring" system or the skeleton of the wires behind the walls.

B/A:  So how much does it cost to install that structured wiring or that skeleton of wires for one of these "Great Home Electronic Integrations"?

Mike Riley:  Boy that is a tough question.  First, you need to realize that we ask all the questions in advance for these luxury homes, planning is critical before the wiring goes in.  These questions determine our client's expectations and desires.  Actually the biggest factor in determining the cost of structured wiring is the size of the home.  Of course, when we get into really elaborate lighting systems, multiple touch-screen central controls or high-end electronic audio and visual equipment that needs to be hardwired to the Internet, the cost goes up.  However, the cost of structured wiring is often insignificant relative to the equipment that it controls through integration.  We have done many jobs where the clients have budgeted several hundred thousands of dollars in electronics, and the cost of the actual structured wiring to support their systems was less than $30,000.

B/A:  What about lighting control systems?

Mike Riley:  In these really high-end jobs, the entire house is included in the lighting control system.  Literally none of the rooms are left with only conventional lighting systems.  Every light circuit in the house is part of the control system and is wired to a central point, where they are wired into "lighting control panels."  The control panels look a lot like regular electrical circuit boxes with breakers; however, it is within these boxes that all the dimming and switching and intelligence resides to control the lighting throughout the house.  This normally encompasses 200 or more circuits.  Then in each room we install either keypads or touch-screens to control individual circuits and/or several circuits to create what we call "scene control."  A scene would be defined as groups of individual lights that are set up to work in unison at various levels of illumination.  The number and sophistication of the scenes that we set up really depends upon the client.  Examples of various scenes that can be controlled from touch-screens around the house would be a "good night button," "exterior security lighting" or an "entertaining or party button."  So on the control area of the touch pad, the client can choose any one of the scenes and change the lighting throughout the house.  Keep in mind that because we program each individual light within a particular scene, we can dim certain lights and have others at higher wattages, and it is possible to have three or four scenes set up within an individual room that actually affects the mood and colors within that room.  this concept is often used in a library that contains both books and artwork.  If you have an 8,000 to 10,000 square-foot home, and you want the ultimate lighting control, the cost will be between $80,000 and $100,000.  This would include all the separate circuitry, dimmers, separate modules controlling lighting throughout the house and Internet control of all scenes.  this means you can have a "welcome home scene" that you could turn on from your cell phone, PDA, or laptop, as you were getting off the airplane.  Once again, keep in mind that we can do some pretty amazing things with lighting for 10% to 20% of the cost for one of these really high-end installations.

To be continued in the next article, when Mr. Riley will discuss several other electronic systems that are part of the "Ultimate Home Electronics Integration," and he will tell us the total cost for all this great stuff.

This is the seventh in a series of articles featuring the knowledge of Mike Riley, who has more than 30-years of experience in home electronics.  Progressive Integrations, Inc., is owned by Mike and Yvonne Riley, and is located at 3424 Maybank Highway, Johns Island, SC  29455.  Contact them for a consultation today.