Contemporary House in Venice Area

Recently finished a prewire on a contemporary house in the Venice area. The house is wired for TV, Data, a surveillance camera system, satellite, indoor/outdoor audio, and a burglar alarm system. We will also be doing the programming and integration of the lighting and shades in the the URC Total Control system. The two areas of the home that stand out are the conversation pit in the living room and the large artist studio.

The living room is designed around a large 1970s inspired, recessed seating area with an 85” Samsung 8K panel positioned above the fireplace. There will be a next gen gaming console and subwoofer housed in a custom caabinet system below the TV. This will allow for reliable connection for the game controller and convenient loading of physical media such as games, Blurays, and CDs. All other video and amplification equipment will be remotely located in the garage rack.

The art studio will have a 4K projector aimed at a large, two story wall with a transom window above to fill the area with natural light and will also have black out shades when needed to block out all light when projecting images for art purposes. The audio will more than compliment the video projection with two subs and two large commercial quality loud speakers to fill the space with high quality sound.

Cant wait to see what the final product will look and sound like.

Northside Santa Monica

Going through the photos recently, we remembered that we never posted the finished project in Northside SM. Not sure how it got overlooked because it was a big job. We ultimately installed 11 TVs around the house including two 80” Sony 950G.

The first series of photos highlights how much effort goes in to setting up for a whole house audio system, camera system, and data network. The conduits seen in the upper left hand corners are for future use, except for the run to the garage as that is the incoming service from Spectrum. The rack is mounted back to back of the structured wiring panels in the first photos. The basement rack houses all the networking gear, whole house audio, and camera system. The camera system was designed so that the live video of the cameras could be viewed on all main TVs in the house.

One of the exciting elements of the system was the outdoor audio. We paired four outdoor satellite speakers with two subs to create a full rich sound. The speakers were evenly distributed around the yard so as not to create any loud or quiet zones in the yard. This thing CRANKS, without any distortion when the volume is up. It sounded crystal clear all the way in the front yard, and I’m sure a block away, when the volume was beyond any normal listening level. The video was recorded on a cell phone and only begins to do the audio fidelity justice.

Recent Home in Hermosa Beach

Recently put the finishing touches on a new, custom home in Hermosa Beach. This is the fourth house that we have worked on for the owners.

Starting with the media room, we know the owner likes to go big. We ended up installing a Sony 98Z9G. That is the 100’ class Master Series 8K TV. This picture blows you away at how sharp the detail can get in a TV.

In the Family room, design and space were crucial as this is most used room in the house. It needed to have form and function. In order to fit an adequate sized TV, it had to be mounted over the fireplace, which is the focal point of the room. Viewing the TV at such a height can cause neck pains if viewed for a prolonged period. A motorized articulating mount was the solution. It easily tucks the TV up away from the walkway and then drops it to the perfect view height, all with a touch of a single button on the URC TRC-1480 remote.

Throughout the house, there are 7 zones of Sonos, including the master bathroom. In the master bath, we routed the TV audio through Sonos, to the in ceiling speakers. The TV audio will automatically take over the speakers whenever it is turned on, enhancing the sound to fill the space more than the small speakers on the TV itself.

Moving to the master bed, we did a simple flat wall mount in the bedroom and an articulating mount for a TV viewable from any where in the bathroom. In addition the the TV, we added a dedicated security monitor.

We also installed Lutron Radio Ra 2 lighting control. Lighting control allows the owner to define lighting scenes and then consistently recall those through the touch of one button. We programmed a vacation mode so that a “home alone” effect is achieved, lights coming on and going off in a realistic pattern.

If the lighting effect does not keep out intruders, the alarm system and camera system will. The security system notifications, along with central station, is sent to the owners phones. They will know right when something unexpected happens as well as simple things like when the front door is unlocked or the garage door is left open for too long. If something does unfortunately happen, the 4K cameras around the property will capture all that happens, with live footage and recorded clips being viewable around the world.

Cell Coverage at Home and at the Office

Cell phone coverage is important now days. We choose providers that offer the best coverage where we live and work. Historically, provider choice was all we could do to give ourselves the best chance of having coverage at home or office. While this might have proven successful in order to secure coverage in front of our house, that did not promise coverage in all parts of the home especially basements. Today, we can install cell boosters that provide a measurable increase in cell signal strength in parts of homes that had spotty or no coverage at all.

In a recent install, we were able to retrofit a home with a Wilson Cell booster using existing wiring. By using the existing wiring, we did not have to run any new wires which can sometimes mean cutting holes and patching/painting. Utilizing the existing wiring also means less labor costs to complete the job.

The end result of the install was an increase of cell strength from -103 to -63 ( Closer to 0 is better) all the way in the basement office. Coverage went from just enough to think you can take a call to almost better than street level since the antenna was mounted on the roof and pointed directly at the closest cell tower.

New Gates, New Solutions

Finished an install where a client added a wall/gate out front of their house. They wanted to be able buzz people in to the yard, have a way to open the new rolling gate, and also keep an eye on what was happening out on the street. Doorbird has very sleek door stations that offer these exact features.

We had some idea that the gate/wall was going to be built so we had the fore thought to run some wires as well as conduit, the ultimate in future proof, to the most accessible location in the front of the house. A few meetings with the gate/wall contractor, we were all on the same page and they agreed to get out conduit out to the new wall location since they were going to be excavating some of the yard anyways.

After construction of the wall and welding of the gate was complete, we arrived and executed our plan. We ran Cat6 out to the outer edges of the yard for two IP cameras as well as Cat6 and control wires to the man gate and new rolling gate operator. After some custom bending of conduit, all necessary wires were in place. Install of the door station looked very clean and thoughtful once installed. We added the two IP cameras as well as the stream from the Doorbird station the NVR.

The client is now able to remotely answer on their phone and open either gate whether that be a service worker or an expected packaged delivery. With three cameras across the front gate, all activity is now reviewable if necessary.

Keeping it Cool

Recently finished an install where the customer was complaining of heat from their whole house audio system (we did not do the original install and the company that did would not return for service). The cabinet that housed the equipment was getting so hot that a mylar balloon touched the cabinet face and melted to the wood. Luckily the amps were not damaged due to heat and we were able to still use them.

To combat the heat, two fans and a thermostatic controller were added to cabinet. One fan was set to pull fresh air in and the other set to push the hot air out. With the thermostatic controller, the fans ramp up in speed as needed to keep the electronics at a cool operating temp.