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Smart Apartment Showroom in Lugano (6/1/2010) By Sistema Casa One of the most important real estate agencies in Lugano, Switzerland, decided to have a showroom to demonstrate to their customers how new technology can be used to enhance the home. They decided to create a smart home in one of their manager's apartments in Lugano. The flat is located on the hills surrounding the city, with a gorgeous view of the gulf where Lugano is located. The project was planned and managed by Domoticaeluce, and the installation was done by Sied. The project was completed by October 2009.
The brief The primary aim of the showroom was to demonstrate the advantages of having an automated system to manage the home, with different scenarios activated though a single command. The system was to control lights, security, heating, curtains and rolling shutters, with an easy-to-use interface and a high level of integration. In addition, special care was taken to specify a professional AV system, as requested by the owner. The solution The system is based on the HAI OMNI IIe controller, the HAI Omnitouch 5.7e touchscreen, HAI temperature sensors, a lighting system provided by Sistema Casa, audio distribution by Russound, and the Philips Pronto for controlling everything with one easy user interface. For the home theatre, we chose the Marantz SR-7200 AV surround receiver and Klipsch speakers.
The Sistema Casa lighting system is fully integrated with HAI controllers and can manage a range of lamps types and motorized shutters, allowing customers to use standard switches and buttons by BTicino. Everyone was extremely pleased with the result. The installation is very attractive and we expect that the real estate company's customers will be very impressed by the technology and will be keen to increase the comfort and convenience of their homes. Challenges and requests Since the apartment is used as a showroom for clients who are interested in automation, the agency needed the system to be as robust and fool-proof as possible. It was important therefore, that we chose products that we knew we could rely on, and that we had already tested in previous installations. The requirement was to easily control lights, security and curtains and shutters from a touchscreen, so we decided to integrate the OMNI IIe controller with AV equipment and to control everything using the Omnitouch touchscreen and the Philips Pronto remote controller. The challenge was to find the right mix between the various technologies using IR, Wi-Fi and serial port connections. Further problems occurred when trying to connect all of the various products and getting them to talk to one another. The best solution we found was to integrate all of the different components into the HAI system.
Installation The installation process followed our standard approach. After doing the design and the schematic drawings, the wiring was installed, and the project was carefully managed to provide coordination between the architect, builder, electrician and the client. The main difficulty was in installing the distributed AV system to different rooms because these were sometimes very difficult to reach with wires, thanks to the existing partition walls. User feedback The real estate agency and the owner, Daniele, were very happy with the final result, and have asked us to put together a starter package to be installed in proprieties they plan to build during 2010. Indeed the experience was so positive that we have decided to extend our activities with a new company located in Switzerland, specifically to manage this and other such projects. Equipment list HAI OMNI IIe controller.
Sistema Casa is based in Italy and is the distributor for Home Automation Inc (HAI). It also offers a lighting control system that works at 230V, 50Hz, and which is fully integrated with HAI controllers.
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