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BUILDING MARSH BARN
Follow us through this amazing Smart Barn Conversion Project in the picturesque Kent countryside.
This Beautiful Barn Conversion built in the Kent countryside has both the touches of a classic finish with all the perks of the modern home the perfect blend of what a modern home should be.
This project for us will always be in the fore front of our minds when going forward on this style home as we are particularly proud with how it came out, not only did the team work swimmingly with all other contractors making the installation a breeze but also maintained a great level of communication with the client from our first visit to system handover and now during there aftercare package.
Through this case study we will take a look at some of the key rooms the house has to offer and what Smart Home Tech was installed, then we will break down some of the back bone systems of the house in sections to show what we used, why we used it and how the integration made all this tech a super simple but powerful solution.
Kitchen / Diner
We will start with the kitchen / diner as this is the first room you you see when entering the property.
As you enter to you left you have a Control4 T4 Touchscreen. This touch screen is the perfect way to compact the home services in 1 easy to use place. This is gives full Control over the Lighting, Sound System, TV's, Intercom, CCTV & Alarm System.
We Installed 6 controllable lighting circuits for this room using a combination of Wired & Wireless lighting from Rako Controls. The touchscreen gives the option to independently control each circuit and then set different lighting scenes we have programmed, Each scene was set and picked by the way the customer wanted to feel when using the room or set because of use requirements.
For Entertainment here we have a single Large Television Mounted in the far corner of the room on a full motion bracket that can be push back flat against the wall when not in use.
For Sound the client wanted something simple and effective so went for a SONOS amp to power 4x Sonance ceiling speakers. We went for the SONOS option as quite frankly no other brand in our opinion uses "Airplay" as well and this is how the customer was used to playing their music, the only down side to this would be the integration with control4 is fairly limited but we set multiple radio stations and playlists as favourites which are available via the touchscreens and app very easily giving the customer massive streaming options and met their actual requirements.
Lounge
For the Lounge we fitted the Main TV within some custom built joinery complete with a SONOS Beam Soundbar pair with some over head ceiling speakers again power via SONOS and distributed over Sonance speakers.
Lighting controls again we used Rako Controls with a 10 button keypad for individual light control and pre-programmed scenes this included the wall lights, ceiling spots, linear lighting installation around the custom joinery & floor standing lamps.
We cabled to the Bi-folding doors for when the client is ready for us to introduce motorised blinds powered by Qmotion and integrated into Control4 offering a simple but smart shading solution this will give the client either pre programmed options so the electric roller blinds can automatically open and close at particular times of day giving not only privacy when needed but also in the summer some shade for the room to help cool the environment even if they are not around. We are Qmotion blind installation experts so when the time come we do not need to out source any of the task keeping costs as low as they need to be.
HOME TECHNOLOGY
AV Rack & Electrical Cupboard
The containment rack we feel is the perfect place to start with this system as this is where we contain most of equipment. These are typically built off site for this type of installation. Before delivery each piece of equipment is fully tested and each cable is custom made labelled and tested meaning that theres minimal distribution on site when installing this key ingredient into the system.
All hubs, controllers and main "brains" of the system are housed here including our Control4 EA3 controller
this integral bit of kit is what we use to integrate all our sub systems and entertainment equipment wrapped up in to one uniformed easy to use interface for all devices including: touchscreens, remotes and smart devices. Alongside this we have our Rako lighting hub, business grade router & Starlink router.
Within the Cupboard its self we also have our Texecom alarm panel, Rako lighting panel & cabling termination box keeping everything out of sight but neat and tidy in one place.
For visual entertainment we fitted 4x4 HDANYWHERE video matrix driven by 2x Sky Q Boxes, CCTV recorder & Apple TV giving full flexibility to view any of these devices on each TV over a single cable to each point giving the cleanest possible finish in each room where a TV was fitted.
Audio for this project was pretty short and sweet with 2x zones of audio powered by SONOS amps with a shared zone for the kitchen/diner & the second zone being the garden covering the patio and hot tub areas like the kitchen speakers we spec'd Sonnance speakers but wall mounted and designed for the outdoor environment, these were black in colour keeping in tune with the exterior facade of the property.
Other key pieces of equipment contained here are all network equipment which is mentioned below, CCTV recorder & our APC battery back meaning even if this home loses power they don't lose Network system control or even CCTV! giving peice of mind that the clients home stays connected and protected.
Home Network & Broadband
This Part of the installation came with some difficulties that were out of our control as the client had arranged to have Fibre line to be fitted for the house but unfortunately this had, had some major delays for over 9 months and as the moving date was growing ever closer we had to act so we educated them on the benefits of having a Starlink Satellite broadband Installation and shared the results we had been having when installing Starlink in Kent & other rural areas. With Download speeds of 200+ Mbps in areas, this was looking like the best resolve in the meantime with rental packages available. We installed the dish on a outbuilding bringing the network into the main house using pre- laid amoured CAT6 linking the two buildings. The installation was of course a success and we finished with typical speeds way into the 200mbps mark.
We then fitted and business grade Araknis router within the Rack and then fitted a High powered Araknis rear loading POE switch within the rack running all needed devices in the rack and around the home. For Wi-Fi distribution we deployed various TP-Link business grade in wall access points with WiFi6 capabilities all managed by a onsite controller giving us remote access for updates, maintenance & fault finding opportunities. as part of our aftercare service.
Home Security System Installation
Here we have the security system installation for this stunning Kentish home. For obvious reasons this is vage but things to mention is that system being "Smart" mean we interlinked all systems within each other but not just security components but also the lighting which can work wonders with security as we're sure you can imagine. Interlinking your security services using Control4 has some great benefits you necessarily get from a standard security system with push notifications going to specific users, with lights, audible warnings and or even having a specific CCTV camera feed populate all wanted screens when certain targeted areas are triggered giving you not only full reactive security but precision and fewer if any "false alarms" many of these great features were used when installing this system and gave the client perimitter protection, intrusion coverage, remote access but most of all piece of mind they know they're whole properties situation wherever they may be home not.
Access Control
We opted for the Control4 DS2 intercom system with a coded access full HD camera module fitted the electronic gates over 50m away from the house and being that this model is POE powered means it run on the battery back up within the main containment rack so even in a power cut calls can be answered from in the houses to the gate system. the DS2 will call to each Control4 touchscreen in the house with a pop up of the live feed of the camera on screen so you know who the visitor is before the call is even answered. all calls can be answered via your mobile phone with a similar feel to Facetime or video call and the same as the in home screens the gates can be easily opened with a on screen button or of course rejected/hung up.
CCTV
For CCTV we are using full HD IP based CCTV cameras, black in colour to keep with exterior colours of the property. These cameras come with A.I technology that over time will learn the differences between vehicles, animals, humans and general moving objects meaning less false alarms and precise notifications or reactions.
the cameras record in full colour 24hrs a day giving clearer day/night images. all cameras have optional audible warnings and controllable lights built within giving visual warnings wear needed.
Intruder Alarm
a Texecom alarm system was deployed for this home we used a mixture or door contacts, shock contacts and the latest capture PIR sensors for detection. giving the integration in Control4 we can run certain scenarios such as when the alarm is set to the away mode all the lights, certain plug sockets and AV equipment will shut off so you can leave knowing nothing has been left on. Other great features include push notifications letting know the status of you alarm, who's set and unset it and of course warnings if or when it's been set off.
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