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‘Cake Boss’ Star Decorates $1.3M Home with Elan g! Control
But at home, boss Buddy Valastro wants to relax and let his control system do some of the work in the $1.3 million, 7,000-square-foot New Jersey residence.
Valastro recently had a ELAN g! home control system installed by 360 Media Innovations. The ELAN system, which cost about $97,000, integrates many of the home’s subsystems, including audio/video entertainment, lighting, security and climate.
Through a variety of interface devices, including Buddy’s numerous iPads and wall-mounted touchpanels, the family can access whole-house music, check the security system, control lights and even view family photos from a central server.
“In today’s world, if you don’t embrace new technology, you get left behind,” Valastro said. “I use state-of-the-art appliances in my kitchens, but had never spent much time thinking about other parts of the house. So I said to myself, ‘I want a space-age house. I want to turn off all the lights with one button before I go to bed, and I want music playing when I walk into the kitchen in the morning.’
Photos: ‘Cake Boss’ Star Decorates $1.3M Home with Elan g! Control
"The best thing about this system is it took no time at all to learn to use it. My family knows how to use an iPad and an iPhone, so the software feels just like any other app we use on a daily basis. Having all the systems – the heating, lighting, music, and alarms – adjust themselves throughout the day has made everyday life simpler for me and my family.”
And the system doesn’t just turn lights and music on and off. Valastro’s house is fully integrated, so he now has total mobile control over the home’s 68 light switches, four-zone HVAC system, security and surveillance system with 24 cameras, whole-house audio system with 42 ELAN Elios speakers in 17 discrete zones including the master bathroom and three-car garage, and he can even control the pool equipment.
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Article Topics
News · Slideshow · Home Automation and Control · Control Systems · Lighting · Security · Energy Management · Cctv · Elan · Elan G ·About the Author
4 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Picky, picky. So the rack sucks, so what. I’m sure the customer saw a price of $2,500 for the rack and had a heart attack. “Can’t we just get cheap shelves from [insert name of giant hardware store here]?” I hear that all the time. Compromise is the name of the game. If they (meaning, the customer) were going for perfection, then the budget would have been four to five times higher and we would have read about a more sophisticated control system, better speakers, better televisions, etc., etc. All things being equal, I think this represents an excellent project for the money.
No, you cant just get some cheap shelves. If they are willing to spend $97k, they can make it a couple more grand for a proper rack. If you are giving customers an option on a rack, you are doing your job incorrectly.
Im not as kind as stamp though. Who does an almost 3 figure system and leaves the TV’s on stands? Stands look like you just went to Best Buy and picked up a TV. Sell some articulating arms. And while you are at it, dont leave cable boxes sitting under the TV. Integrate the system.
I’m pretty sure the TVs on stands (with local cable boxes) that one commenter referred to were not part of this project. The $97k was for the Elan g! system. There are other facets of this project that will be more fully explained in a larger article appearing in the Sept issue of EH.
Looks like a great install. The home is finished beautifully and the elan G! in-wall screenshots look great.
My only negative comment is about the rack being too small. The cable boxes on top and rarely if any spacing for the components down below is evidence of that. The rack & other infrastructure are “must haves” not options.
The comments on the slide show pages would all be “nice job” if a larger rack would have been used.