Gigantic South Carolina Estate Hides Technology in Plain Sight

While some luxury homeowners simply want to deck out their homes in the latest and greatest in AV technology, one South Carolina estate owner wanted to blend the existing style of their home, an outdoors-centric space with lots of natural light, with the benefits of modern smart home solutions.

Thankfully, local integration company Advanced Integrated Controls (AIC) was ready and willing to take on the challenge.

According to Advanced Integrated Controls, the client came to them seeking the latest technology to keep their 7,500-square-foot home efficient, easy to maintain, and comfortable, but the design of the property made it imperative that the technology would not disrupt the home’s décor. 

As a result, the AIC team had to get extremely creative on this project, which was a worthy finalist in the Custom Home of the Year category of the CTA Smart Home Division Mark of Excellence Awards (announced during CES 2020).

The Mirror TV Mirage

To provide the ideal home theater setup, AIC first took a look at the existing space to get a feel for what the homeowners preferred. The great room, which features beautiful vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, and wainscoting was chosen as the home theater destination. AIC worked alongside local builder Richard Best Custom Homes to cleverly run wires as invisibly as possible to help preserve the style of the space.

While the great room may not appear to be a typical home theater or media room, hanging above the fireplace is a massive 6-x-5-foot mirror that houses a 55-inch Sony flatscreen TV! This magic trick was accomplished by the AIC team back at their showroom and is really something to behold.

According to the team, when powered on, the TV’s visuals are not distorted by the mirror, but when turned off, the screen is completely concealed and the mirror goes back to showing reflections. Pretty cool!

Nature-Lovers Focus on Outdoor AV

Of course, the estate’s invisible technology does not stop in the great room. The kitchen features a cabinet-concealed flip-down TV so the homeowners can watch along with their favorite recipes, while the rear porch incorporates two SnapAV SunBrite TVs alongside eight in-ceiling speakers to create an outdoor oasis perfect for binge-watching shows under the stars.

In fact, extra special attention was paid to the residence’s outdoor AV setup. Advanced Integration Controls installed new surround-sound audio zones for the pool and spa areas, each featuring discreetly placed 10-inch in-ground Bomb Tomb subwoofers and four 6-inch landscape speakers from SpeakerCraft.

To help keep the estate cool during scorching South Carolina summers, 31 sets of Lutron automated blinds were installed, allowing the owners to maintain the flow of natural light without the hassle of opening and closing blinds throughout the day. 

To see more of this hidden technology haven click here!

Full Equipment List:

• 31 Lutron Roller Shades
• 22 zones of fire and security detection
• 11 4k distributed HDTV zones
• 9-zone high-resolution distributed audio system with Zektor matrix for full lip-sync control.
• A custom outdoor music system with two 10-inch in-ground Bomb Tomb subwoofers and four SpeakerCraft 6-inch Landscape speakers 
• 1 Seura Waterproof TV for the master bathroom 
• 2 SunBrite 55-inch 4K HDTVs 
• 8 Niles 7-inch in-ceiling speakers
• 1 6×5-foot custom mirror TV using a 55-inch Sony 4K HDTV paired with a full 7.1 surround sound system and integrated in-wall subwoofers
• 1 Access Networks / Ruckus Enterprise network and 5GHz Wi-Fi system 
• 1 BlueBolt / Panamax battery backup and energy management system. 
• 1 climate controlled centralized rack system (for 42 spaces)