As a lifelong Massachusetts resident and a 30-something-year-old guy, Boston sports are in my blood. Especially the Celtics, as I’ve been a hoop head for years.
My favorite player was Jaylen Brown, who was unceremoniously traded to the Philadelphia 76ers this summer. I was at a beautiful wedding in Italy when I heard the news, and it took everything I had not to be sad while celebrating a new couple’s marriage.
When I saw that Architectural Digest had filmed a tour of Brown’s Boston penthouse, I was happy to learn that he was holding onto it and still had a deep connection to the city where he spent much of his adult life.
As a journalist covering luxury home automation in the Boston area who regularly speaks with local integrators, I’m naturally curious about what my favorite athletes have for technology in their homes. So, of course, I was eager to see what Brown had installed.
As you might imagine in a penthouse owned by a 30-year-old professional basketball player making more than $50 million a year, no expense appears to have been spared.
The list of luxury amenities is impressive: an antique 18th-century harp, a medical hyperbaric chamber, 24-karat bathroom fixtures, a see-through wine cellar, Italian marble floors and an endless collection of designer fixtures and furnishings.
But I’m not here to write about the interior design choices of a highly paid athlete. There are a few familiar technologies visible throughout the tour, even if the AD team doesn’t spend much time highlighting them.
Where Luxury Technology Shines
Lighting is probably the most apparent, with recessed lights, decorative fixtures, linear lighting and what looks like small-aperture lighting. There are plenty of floor-to-ceiling windows, with roller shades and shade pockets visible throughout the home.
Some sleek-looking black keypads and what appear to be thermostats can also be seen throughout the penthouse. There are also a couple of large touchscreen interfaces near the front door and the entrance to the main living area.
What we don’t really see is audio, although we’ll assume at least some of that is hidden in the walls and ceilings.
Two Remotes and a TV That Won’t Cooperate
But there’s one part of the video that particularly stands out, and it comes right around the 7:30 mark.
Brown plops down on his couch, grabs two remotes to operate a motorized television and essentially begs them to cooperate for the camera. Already, not a great sign.
“Remotes – don’t be shy. Now is the time,” Brown says as he fidgets with the two remotes.
He presses a button, an audible ding is heard, but nothing appears to happen.
“The TV is supposed to come on, and it’s supposed to come out. It looks like a nice little ornament.”
This part of the video jumps around a bit and appears heavily edited, making it difficult to know exactly how long Brown struggled with the system or what was happening behind the scenes.
Eventually, the TV turns on and unfolds.
“At least it opened up,” Brown says. “This is why I need therapy, you know?”
Another piece of technology, a $20,000 toilet that apparently makes ocean sounds when it flushes, also gives Brown some trouble.
“This toilet sometimes pisses me off,” Brown said.
Then:
“This (expletive) doesn’t even work, man.”
A few things here:
- First, is Architectural Digest intentionally throwing shade at luxury technology? The few times technology takes center stage in the video, it doesn’t exactly cooperate.
- Why are there two remotes? Aren’t we past those days?
- It would piss me off if my toilet didn’t work, let alone one that costs $20,000.
What We Don’t Know About Brown’s Home Technology
Now, there are some important caveats here.
We don’t know what caused the television to malfunction, whether it was an issue with the display itself, the control system, programming or something else entirely. We also don’t know whether this was an isolated incident or an ongoing problem. We can guess as to the brands of the devices and keypads visible, but we’re a legitimate news organization and aren’t in the business of guessing. I will say that they look like things I’ve seen on the CEDIA Expo show floor.
The video is edited, and it’s entirely possible the production made these moments seem more dramatic than they actually were. It’s also worth remembering that sophisticated motorized displays often involve multiple systems and components working together, sometimes installed or programmed by different parties.
At best, it’s a minor inconvenience in an otherwise beautiful home. At worst, the industry still struggles with a complexity issue.
A Perception Problem for the Smart Home Industry
I know the video was edited, and maybe none of this was intentional, but wow, does it make luxury home technology look bad.
A few times a year, it seems, some mainstream publication runs an article criticizing smart homes, often pointing to familiar brands and products that don’t work as advertised. We’ve also seen celebrities and other public figures complain about technology in their homes being unreliable or unnecessarily complicated.
Those stories tend to reinforce a perception that the custom integration industry has been working hard to overcome: that smart homes are expensive, complicated and prone to failure.
Credit to Brown for not complaining too much or going off on a tangent about the technology in his home. But the “This is why I need therapy” line after struggling to get his television working isn’t exactly the kind of endorsement this industry wants.
And to be clear, this isn’t necessarily an indictment of the technology in Brown’s home or the professionals who installed it. For all we know, the system works flawlessly 99% of the time, and the cameras happened to capture the other 1%.
But perception matters, especially when the industry is trying to convince homeowners, architects, designers and builders that professionally installed technology can make a home more comfortable, convenient and enjoyable.
The promise of custom integration is that all of these sophisticated systems work together seamlessly, without homeowners having to think about what’s happening behind the scenes.
When someone has to juggle multiple remotes and plead with their television to turn on, that promise gets a little harder to sell.
And that’s a shame, because the best luxury home technology shouldn’t need an explanation, an instruction manual or a plea from an NBA star. It should just work.
