The Ultimate Digital HomeA show-stopping digital home is born from the thoughtful balance of easy-to-grasp technology and drop-dead design.

Four out of five home builders offer structured wiring to their customers, according to a 2005 survey by the Consumer Electronics Association, and 65 percent of new homes list distributed audio as a standard or optional feature. More than half of new homes boast a home theater upgrade package.

What should home builders take away from these numbers? Technology is no longer just a custom amenity for the carriage trade—it is a regular feature in a home builder's portfolio. At the same time, there's still plenty of room to grow, leaving ample opportunity for builders to separate themselves from the competition with entertainment and control packages.

Brookfield Homes is taking tech to the next level, testing standard and upgrade technology packages built around Sony's WallStation line of audio and video products. “We felt it was time because home buyers are becoming more sophisticated,” says Ellen Lehman, vice president of sales and marketing of the Danville, Calif., company. Brookfield's homes range from $700,000 to $1 million plus.

Standard in new Brookfield developments are a family room DVD WallStation unit with 5.1 surround sound and a 32-inch LCD television. According to Joe Stanley, the head of builder development for Livermore, Calif.–based Interactive Homes, the WallStation package offers an edge to builders. “So many builders don't offer anything other than the standard stuff you can find at Circuit City,” he says. “There's a lot of prewire with maybe a receiver, satellite/subwoofer speaker system, or some ceiling speakers. It's very limiting.”

WallStation's simplicity is its greatest appeal, Stanley says. Consumers press “DVD” on the WallStation panel, and all components power up to their proper settings and the movie starts. “It's very, very clean,” he says.

DH061101030L1.jpgView image gallery.

TOP TIER: This dedicated home theater, designed and installed by Hometronics of Dallas, offers the ultimate in audio and video performance, including a Runco DLP projector, Lutron lighting control, and supporting A/V gear.

DIGITAL MASTERPIECES: The Telluride, Colo., home at right features a bowling alley with Crestron's TPS-6000, which controls the pinsetter scoring computer and the AV system, lights, and fog machine. An AMX control system, like the one designed for the tony high-rise condo in the middle photo, manages lighting, TV, music, security, and more from a touchscreen. A dimmed lighting scene, shown at the bottom, sets the mood for a romantic sunset over the city.

STAR GAZING: This fiber-optic starry night sky by Doherty Design Group in Indianapolis is an in-home take on the drive-in movie. This effect was featured in many of the CEDIA award winners for 2006. find movies by actor, genre, or title,” says Greg Margolis, president of Dallas-based Hometronics. “DLP projectors have replaced the CRT projector because of its rich color palette and bright image.” Because the CRT image is so bright, the system works with various levels of ambient light.

ROOM TO MOVE: More buyers are moving the home theater experience to larger spaces. Thanks to the latest long-throw lenses, the projector can be stored out of the way and still create a bright, compelling image on screen, as can be seen in this design by Electronics Design Group.

For the ultimate home experience, consider Sony's New Home Solutions, a tiered distributed audio and video system that offers multiroom control of music and video for three to 13 rooms. New Home Solutions packages range from $15,000 to $30,000, depending on the number of rooms and the TV size.

While home entertainment is becoming more standard in new-home developments, home control has remained largely the domain of the high-end home market. Exceptional Innovation (EI), a technology company in Columbus, Ohio, hopes to change that. The company is banking on its Lifeware software to expand the market of lighting, security, and HVAC control using Microsoft's Media Center PC platform as the backbone.

Media Center PCs—closely aligned with Microsoft's next-gen Vista operating system (see “The Vista Vision,” page 27)—store TV shows, home videos, music, and digital pictures. Lifeware allows that media to be enjoyed in other rooms of the house and includes control of light switches, thermostats, security cameras, and other devices over a home network.

Mike Seamons, vice president of marketing for EI, notes that it may be difficult to get consumers jazzed by the idea of structured wiring by itself, but an entertainment package that builds on it holds a lot of appeal. “Then you're not looking at wire anymore,” Seamons says. “You're looking at a whole new way to use the TV in the living room.”

A Lifeware system is based on a Cat-5 network and controlled by PC, touchscreen, or remote control using the TV as the interface. The software organizes functions by music, pictures, video, and control options. Users can operate functions on a real-time basis or use preprogrammed settings to create, say, a party scene with a music playlist, a slide show on TV, and mood lighting.