This stunning home in Canadian ski country is a vacation retreat of the first order – and the smart technology planning began in the home’s blueprint stages.

HOMEOWNER’S WISH LIST

As is often the case, ease of use for a whole-home integration is important to the homeowner, but for a vacation destination, it’s doubly important: There’s simply less user familiarity. Other key considerations for a dwelling that’s often unoccupied are remote access (from anywhere in the world) and a team that can provide service 24/7, 365.

CHALLENGES

Two words fit this category: aesthetics and time. The technology had to fit the home’s spectacular look, and the job was commissioned at a time that cut the schedule for a project of this size in half since the client wanted all systems go for the family’s three-week Christmas vacation.

SOLUTIONS

La Scala Integrated Media used a custom-designed “GUI,” a graphical-user interface. This interface displays the floor plan of the house, allowing the family to simply tap a “button” on the touch screen to access any system, anywhere.

Along with the in-home controls and monitors, the home’s systems can be accessed by the house manager, and the homeowner can control the building’s closed circuit TV cameras – along with everything else – from his smart phone.

In order to marry tech to décor, La Scala worked with the home’s architects, designers and builders through every stage of the process, ensuring, for example, that enough space between joists was allowed for proper speaker placement for whole-home audio distribution.

The job was completed on schedule – in plenty of time for the December holidays – and La Scala provides return calls within 15 minutes, day or night, should any part of the system need troubleshooting. On those rare occasions, La Scala can fix the problem remotely.

Every system in this home – the HVAC, the pool and spa, distributed audio and video, shades, lighting, and security – is networked, integrated and controllable via La Scala’s custom interfaces. While it’s hard to pick a single highlight in this massive integration, installation and calibration undertaking, the home’s media room took a CEDIA award in addition to the trophy La Scala won for the project as a whole.