Overlooking a New England lake is a family vacation home that recently got a serious upgrade in entertainment. An indoor pool, bowling alley and paddle tennis court were all planned for this space, and the homeowners came to TSP Smart Spaces in Boston to help bring this space to its full potential.
“The original AV design had visible speakers and traditional TVs for the bowling alley displays,” explained Aaron Stallings, director of smart spaces at TSP. “For this project, we needed to create a space that is much more than just lights and speakers.”
Creating Scenes for Every Occasion
This building is meant to be a hub for family fun, so it needed to be easily usable by any member of the family. The homeowners fortunately had some experience with home automation and let TSP have a lot of creative power, beginning with the lighting.
TSP worked closely with Peter Romanelli of Conceptual Lighting to install Ketra Lighting throughout the space. According to Stallings, Ketra is often used in art galleries and museums, so their product offers the broadest spectrum of white color on the market as well as a diverse range of colors. Ketra also integrates with Lutron’s lighting controls, which enabled the team to create specific and fun scenes for the space.
In the bowling alley, lead design engineer Chase Rowe took inspiration from his own midnight bowling experiences and created dozens of space-themed scenes, such as “Mars” and “Saturn.” Colorful lights like pink, blue and midnight purple make the bowling alley feel like a dance party. However when the space is not being used, the lights synchronize with the outside sunlight.
Ketra was also installed in the recessed lighting fixtures around the pool. Paired with the walls’ wavy plaster, the blue light creates an aquatic effect that makes this New Hampshire home feel like it’s surfside.
“We enjoyed coming up with solutions for this space,” said Stallings, adding that one of his favorite touches is an LED stretch light fixture above the pool that makes the space feel like part of a luxury resort.
Music for Both Partying and Relaxing
Providing audio across several acoustically challenging spaces was no small feat, but TSP found that Amina gave them what they needed. Amina’s invisible speakers are featured in the faux beams in the pool’s ceiling, allowing for sound to resonate throughout the pool without any visible speakers or grills. Lubell Labs’ underwater speakers were installed in the pool so that even while swimming guests can hear the music. An in-wall subwoofer and four invisible speakers were also put in the bowling alley.
For the outdoor tennis court — which would be subjected to extremely cold temperatures in the winter — the team used Revel Speakers’ Extreme Climate line of products. Four satellite speakers, which were designed to function in the coldest of temperatures, were installed throughout the area. In the core of the court, a direct burial subwoofer was installed for a completely immersive experience. All of these are connected to a Sonos system, which can stream from Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify and Tidal.
Establishing a Secure and Comfortable Environment
This is a vacation home for a family with young children and people coming and going, so security was top of mind in the project.
“Security received a particular amount of attention during the install,” said Stallings, adding that he’s been seeing more requests for intricate security systems from high net worth clients. “Figuring out the security was one of our biggest challenges.”
There are several door access requirements for the different doors — internal and external — which can give some people access to one space but not another. There were special requests for pool sensors, including glass shattering sensors around the pool and a sensor that will even detect a break in the water. TSP worked hand in hand with a local alarm company to manage the installation of these.
“When it came to the alarm company, we were the interpreters for the homeowners,” the integrator added.
Along with remotely monitoring the security of the property, the homeowners can also control the indoor climate. Smart Savant CLI thermostats were integrated into the building so that the owners can maintain control of each room in the complex from anywhere in the world.
“Then we installed Meraki cloud-managed sensors in the server/maintenance room for the unit to ensure our IT infrastructure is always safe and protected from damage without us there,” said Stallings.
Bringing It All Together
The addition’s fun factor would be dampened were it not easy to control. This is why it was integral that the addition worked seamlessly with Savant, which also now controls the main house. The homeowners had been using another platform they disliked, so the addition gave TSP an opening to introduce them to Savant. After trying it out, they decided to make the switch in the main house and in their other properties as well.
“With all of the types of activities going on in that facility, you need something more than Lutron to control everything,” said the integrator, explaining that touchscreens throughout give the homeowners a higher level of control. “Savant made this project possible and seamless.”
Equipment List:
Amina ALF80 subwoofers
Amina MOBIUS in-wall loudspeakers
Axis network cameras
LG commercial displays
Lutron Homeworks QS system
Lutron Sivoia QS roller shades with blackout capabilities
Palladiom and Pico keypads and remotes
Revel Extreme Climate landscape speakers
Savant smart thermostat
Savant in-wall touch screens
AV over IP 4K video distribution from Savant
Savant Pro remotes
Project Partners:
Integrator:
TSP Smart Spaces
Aaron Stallings
www.tsp.space
Lighting Installation:
Peter Romanelli
Conceptual Lighting
Architect: Shope Reno Wharton
shoperenowharton.com
General Contractor: KVC Builders
kvcbuilders.com
Interior Designer: Manuel de Santaren
www.manueldesantaren.com
