The owner of this jaw-dropping 32,000 square-foot villa contacted Henri, a French integration firm specializing in home automation, during the very first stages of construction to implement a complete a whole-house home technology masterpiece. Four years later, the project has been shortlisted as a finalist for a 2017 CEDIA Award for EMEA in the category of “Best Home Integration over £360,000” (or what would be $423,000).
The villa spans five levels. On the ground floor is the living room, dining room, kitchen and garden. On the second floor, the bedrooms, and on the third there's an office and meeting room. In addition, Henri created a livng space in the basement containing a swimming pool, sauna, gym, dressing room, wine cellar, billiard room, game room, private cinema and garage.
Whoa.
A big “must” for the owner was that every piece of equipment — even the TV, speakers and switches — would integrate into the home decor. Even the racks are on display as a piece of decoration.
“This is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful projects realized by the Henri company,” says Michael Sherman, managing director, Henri.
Technology Choices Make a Statement
Let's start with the control. A Crestron home automation system enables the homeowners to quickly and easily access the home's extensive technology. The system encompasses 13 in-wall touchscreens, five programmable remote controls, one waterproof remote control for the pool and eight wall-mounted tablets throughout the villa.
Lighting is done with a Lutron HomeWorks QS allowing control of 284 lighting circuits, 52 electric shutters, 31 Sivoia interior roller blinds and 15 motorized windows. The lighting control is managed via 80 Signature keyboards distributed through the home.
Crestron's DigitalMedia video distribution allows the distribution of 23 sources (TV decoders, Apple TV , Blu-Ray players, HDMI connectors, and more) on eight Sony Bravia TVs and two Agath mirror televisions.
The solution is engineered to display UHD 4K@60Hz through HDCP2.2. A DVPHD processor allows multiple sources to be displayed on a single screen simultaneously.
For audio distribution, BSS Soundweb London processors and Crowncan amplifiers broadcast the sound from the TVs as well as AirPlay streaming audio and web services like Spotify, Tidal, TuneIn and others in 29 areas in the villa.
Sonance and Bowers & Wilkins provided in-ceiling loudspeakers throughout the home, while Elipson speakers hang from the ceiling in the garage and Architettura Sonora outdoor speakers are placed in the garden.
A High-Fidelity audio solution consisting of a pre-amplifier and stereo amplifier from Classé Audio plays shared music, as well as a local vinyl turntable, over two 803 Diamond column speakers from Bowers & Wilkins.
Henri Designs Dedicated Home Theater
The home theater is a stunning job all on its own. First, two built-in home theater systems allow 5.1 audio playback (with five speakers and a subwoofer) with Integra processors-amplifiers in first-floor living rooms.
In the basement, a dedicated movie theater was built entirely by Henri. That includes electronics, of course, but also acoustical treatment, layout and lighting.
A Lumagen processor works the video sources as they're broadcasted by a Christie CP4220 projector on a Screen Excellence projection screen, acoustically transparent and equipped with four motorized masks.
The sound is processed by a Trinnov Altitude processor, and then amplified through 5x300W blocks from Classé Audio dedicated to the speakers and 1000W blocks from Bowers & Wilkins for the subwoofers.
In order to reproduce the sound in the latest surround-sound formats, Dolby Atmos and Auro 3D, the room is equipped with three front speakers, six surround speakers, six in-ceiling speakers and four subwoofers, all from Bowers & Wilkins' 800 series.
In terms of acoustic treatment, the floor, wall coverings and ceiling are all treated with a Home Theater Environment solution.
Nine armchairs with motorized inclination from Fortress Seating complete this installation for a unique home theater experience. Cinema control happens via Henri's custom-made application.
Finally, all electronic equipment is centralized in a technical room and installed in three Middle Atlantic racks.
“As in each of our projects, [the racks] have been fully schematized upstream to define the best solution and the most suitable accessories for managing the cabling,” according to the company. “The racks are totally part of the decoration. They are located behind a slightly tinted glass, in the lounge of the cinema room.”
Features Offer Convenience and Control
From each room of the Villa, thanks to a touchscreen, a tablet or a remote control, it is possible to:
- Manage lighting by recalling a predefined scene
- Open or close interior curtains, roller shutters or electric windows
- Adjust the temperature of the room
- Turn on the TV and watch TV decoder channels, Blu-ray movies or movies from a server, movie rented or purchased via Apple TV, a local source plugged into a socket HDMI, CCTV cameras or the GTB dashboard
- Turn on music and listen to an AirPlay stream or a web service like Spotify, TuneIn, Tidal, etc.
- Call and start a conversation with any other touchscreen, tablet, or phone
- Answer the intercom, view the camera of the outdoor doorman and unlock the strike of the door
- Call the elevator
- Display notifications and alerts like fire detection, opening door/window, mail reception, defects of any system of the villa
- View information about weather
- View power consumption information
In some specific areas, other features are also available:
- Choose audio and video formats in the home theater
- Light the fireplace in the salon
- Activate “counter-current swim,” “waterfall” and “overflow,” and adjust swimming pool temperature
- Control the turntable of the garage, especially from a smartphone
