Ultimate AV Home Has 43 Speakers, 26 TVs, 17 iPads
By Steven Castle
Blending the needs of high-end audio and video everywhere required some networking derring-do.

It usually doesn't work this way, but in this house she insisted on the great audio speakers. He just wanted TVs for video in every room.

The result in this three-building, 8-acre spread? Fifty zones of audio, 26 zones of video, 16 zones of HVAC to stay comfy while enjoying all that media, and 1,200 lighting loadsall controlled by an Apple-based Savant home automation system with on-screen control on all 26 TVs and 17 iPads.



There are even special buttons to help a mother-in-law and to keep track of an autistic nephew who visits often. First the audio. The killer sounds the lady of the house wanted are delivered by 43 Meridian digital speakers. Each speaker contains its own amplifier, allowing the signal to remain digitally pure right to the speaker location.

The husband does not like watching TV with the sound coming through in-ceiling speakers, so in some rooms two separate audio zones are utilized. The family also wanted the speakers hidden, so some cool customization was in order.

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Probably the most impressive whole home solution I have seen. I can appreciate their choices of layout/design/equipment to meet there lifestyle needs.

Now I'm just curious how they like the control system.

Was all of the wiring done pre or post construction?

Agree this looks impressive. So many of these articles of celebrities/famous people have nice looking homes with systems that are really nothing special, like a huge media room with a 40inch screen and ceiling speakers.

Yes, impressive... and utterly foolish. Perhaps the reason many of the wealthy have modest media setups is also because they are smart with their money and realize they don't need such frivolous excess. I imagine the only folks putting systems like these in are the nouveau riche (thinking along the lines of MTV cribs) or have more money than God (thinking some Arabian royalty).

I'm all for high-end systems and high-end theatre rooms but what is the point of such complicated and redundant service in one house; I'm sure most medium sized hotels have simpler media setups than this one. Does a house really need 26 TV sets? There seems to be enough equipment in that house to require a fulltime IT person to monitor and keep everything in working order year-to-year. I wonder if the maintenance cost over 20 years was factored into the price of this. Secondly, if I invited guests into my home to entertain and then they walled themselves up in their rooms and watched TV/media all day, personally I'd be offended and never ask them back! Or maybe the home owners are actually this anti-social?

BTW, here's another question for those in the CEI industry. With the flexibility of decentralized and cloud based media resources (Hulu, Netflix, AppleTV) along with display oriented internet-stream appliances, aren't complicated centralized media systems becoming more impractical and pointless every year? Of course, my opinion may be in the minority on this forum.

wow insane but awesome at the same time

none of the cloud-based media sources can touch the quality of Blu-ray. If one have that much money, why compromise with the quality? I know I won't and I don't (I'd rather have multiple Blu-ray players around the house rather than use Netflix or AppleTV... both of which I own and ended up never use.)

Probly not a carbon-neutral dude.