Casa Azul holds nothing back when it comes to technology. Set in the city of Coronado, California on a beautiful piece of waterfront property, the homeowners of Casa Azul called in Audio Impact to work with the builders and architects building out the home’s extensive AV and control systems, some of which needed to be added in retroactively due to the stage at which Audio Impact was brought in.
The biggest challenge in this respect came with the home’s massive home theater. Because it had to pass permitting and city inspections, certain aspects were not allowed, according to the integrator. This included two exterior doors that needed to remain for it to be legal.
“[The doors] comprised the space by not allowing the fabric to fully cover this area and the room had to be calibrated to account for this,” notes Audio Impact’s Kyra Mitchell. In addition, the designer added a back bar, which compromised where Audio Impact could install speakers.
On the technology end, the home theater opted out of traditional projection and instead went with The Wall, a 142-inch microLED video wall from Samsung, to bring the space to life, yet another sign of how microLED technology is making inroads with integrators.
“This product really made the space with amazing colors and capabilities,” noted Mitchell.
Employing Savant systems, Audio Impact was able to have fully DMX color-changing lights for every lighting fixture in the room, including the three-dimensional, shooting star ceiling LED fiber-optics that cover the ceiling to create the illusion of being outside on a starry night watching movies or sports.
Casa Azul also features Savant’s versatile video tiling, enabling the client to view up to nine sources at once with drag-and-drop functionality. They can also enlarge and shrink each source’s display, and at the click of a user interface change the source from which they are receiving main audio.
Also included at Casa Azul is custom motorized drapery, motorized doors, motorized awnings, heated floors, hardwired motorized shades, color-changing Ketra lighting, fountain control, smart power solutions and an intercom door station, all connected and controllable through the Savant control system alongside the massive home theater system.
The client also sought custom hidden shade pockets, but that would have required the ceiling to be reframed. As a compromise, Audio Impact designed custom mounts and valances to conceal the shades and make the shades flush with the space.
“This project really stands out to our team as this was a custom project from start to finish that we truly were able to integrate every aspect of a home possible,” says Mitchell.
“We were fortunate to have a very technical staff that would speak with various manufacturers to ensure their projects could integrate with Savant to give the homeowner an extremely unique experience with every aspect of the home integrated.”
Systems & Equipment
- Samsung The Wall
- Samsung Frame TVs
- Snap One
- JBL speakers
- James Loudspeaker speakers
- Revel speakers
- Savant controls
- Araknis Networks networking
- NETGEAR networking
- Fortinet firewall
- AVPro Edge infrastructure
- Lutron lighting, keypads, shades
- Ketra, American Lighting fixtures
- 2N door stations
- FX Luminaire outdoor lighting
- Torus, Panamax power
This project is part of our coverage for the 2023 CE Pro Home of the Year Awards. Presented annually at CEDIA Expo, the Home of the Year Awards represent the best of the best smart home innovations within the CEDIA channel. If you have a project you would like to submit to the Home of the Year Awards, stay tuned for our next round of submissions.
