The contest winning solution by Vision Audio for their customer’s 17,000 square foot home demonstrates their sound and thorough design and documentation as well as their impressive installation skills. With over 30 zones of audio, 13 video displays (5 with full surround sound) and full integration and control of climate, shades, lighting, and pool heater, the entire solutions is very comprehensive. Many manufacturer products went into making this system a unique, customer-centric solution including Autonomic Controls and Crestron for integration control of the entertainment and home’s electronic systems and 5 Niveus Media Servers, leveraging the Windows Media Center experience, as the primary entertainment source throughout the home. The project also includes the Niveus Cargo Windows Home Servers for centralized storage and back up.

“Our customer is very pleased with the install. The easy to use Media Center interface and the convenience of having all the content in one place are the top reasons our customer likes the system,” said Anderson. The Windows Media Center Ultimate Install Contest, now in its third year, encourages integrators to show off their talents by presenting their most unique and creative installations that leverage Windows Media Center technologies. Vision Audio’s integration of the family’s music, movies, videos, and pictures, as well as the integration of Windows Media Center with the home automation system, and the large scope of the installation set it apart as the winner for 2009.

When Michael Kreaden approached cyberManor to provide a whole home technology solution for the Eichler home he was remodeling in Northern California, he had the following three specific system design criteria he wanted the integration firm to meet:

• The need for one consistent graphic user interface for the control of all the electronic systems in the home, specifically audio/video, lighting, security, heating/cooling and cameras. The UI had to be locally accessible from wall mounted touch screens, onscreen TV displays, and all desktop computers throughout the house.
• A centralized large hard drive for the storage of all the family’s recorded HDTV content, music and photos that could easily retrieved and controlled from all of the display locations throughout the home.
• A guarantee of system fault-tolerance – if for any reason there was an issue with the operation of the central media center control system, the whole house audio, lighting, security and HVAC systems had to function independently.

cyberManor’s solution utilizes numerous industry-renowned products from the Windows Media Center ecosystem, including:

• Niveus Media’s n9 media server with four Digital CableCARD tuners
• Multiple Niveus Edge and Xbox 360 Extenders
• Niveus Ice Vault, storing the family’s DVD movie collection
• Life|ware home automation software
• Russound distributed audio