ELAN g! Makes Lakefront Home In 'The Spa City' The Ultimate Place To Relax

It’s difficult to imagine a place that sounds more relaxing than Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is known as “The Spa City” for its natural thermal springs.  But local homeowner Brandon Adams realized that his lakefront home could be an even more stress-free environment if the house could run itself automatically — meaning that the heating, air conditioning, lighting, security and surveillance would work on their own, and be easy to adjust when necessary. After a recent installation of the incredibly powerful and simple to use ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System, this fantasy of the autonomous home is now a reality, offering him one-touch control of every major home subsystem including music and TV in every room!

First, Adams hired Taggart Architecture to design a series of pools and outdoor living areas to connect his new home with the adjacent house.  His next call was to Jonesboro, Arkansas-based custom integrator Sound Concepts, which outfitted the home, including all the new living areas, with the latest in audio, video and control technology.  The ELAN g! system integrates Lutron lighting and motorized window shades, an HAI security system, IP surveillance cameras, HAI thermostats, garage door controls, 11 Samsung TVs (one outdoors), 45 speakers (indoors and outdoors), and a 7.2 surround sound home theater with two Sunfire HRS12 subwoofers, an Epson projector and a Dragonfly 120” screen.  It even incorporates control of the LED lighting on the home’s rooftop dome, the lakefront and in the boathouses.

According to Sound Concepts owner Ryan Heringer, “Mr. Adams’ amazing lakefront home combines the best designs, building materials and craftsmanship with the best home technologies to create a true 21st century living environment, both indoors and out.  The home basically runs itself, with pre-programmed schedules for lighting, heating, cooling and the pool equipment, which he can adjust any time with just a few simple buttons on any ELAN g! interface. Simplicity and ease of use is the most important aspect of any technology, so ELAN hit the bullseye when they gave g! the same type of easy-to-understand interface that made the iPhone so popular.”

Adams uses a combination of interfaces to control his home, with easy access through the g!Mobile iPhone and iPad apps, two 10-inch ELAN in-wall touchscreens in the pool house, 13 ELAN in-wall touchscreen throughout the home and boat houses, an under-counter ELAN 10-inch touchscreen, and 10 powerful ELAN HR2 multimedia and home control remotes.

“When I’m outside it’s very convenient to use my iPhone to control the music, the lights and the pool,” Adams said, “but when I’m in the house I almost always use a touch panel or one of the ELAN remotes because they are always on, so it’s easier and faster.  The remotes are absolutely the best choice to control the TVs because of the play/pause and volume controls, and it’s just like using a normal TV remote, except it can also turn down the lights and turn up the a/c.  Taggart Architecture and Sound Concepts delivered on their promises, and I’m still blown away at how beautiful the property is and how the technology brings everything together.”

About ELAN Home Systems:

Since 1990 ELAN® Home Systems has been an industry leading manufacturer of innovative, award-winning Multi-Room audio/video systems. ELAN systems were the first to integrate audio, video, phones and third-party products to create a seamless, easy-to-use "whole house" solution. ELAN systems and products are distributed through a comprehensive channel of select Dealers and Distributors throughout the United States, Canada and more than 58 countries worldwide.  To learn more, visit www.elanhomesystems.com.  ELAN is part of the CORE Brands division of the Nortek Technology Solutions Segment (www.nortek-inc.com).  CORE Brands combines the product and marketing strengths of ten iconic audio, power management and control brands into a single business unit that includes ATON®, BlueBOLT®, ELAN®, Furman®, Niles®, Panamax®, Proficient®, SpeakerCraft®, Sunfire® and Xantech®.

New Orleans ELAN Installer Takes Brand New Elan g! Dealer Demo System On The Road To Show Consumers The Power Of Home Automation

Jamie Gannon, owner of New Orleans-based Dynamic Audio Video, is the very first dealer to take delivery of the new ELAN g! Dealer Demo System and he’s not wasting any time getting it in front of consumers. In fact, from March 17-20, 2011, he’s showing it at his home automation booth at the 2011 New Orleans Home and Garden Show, the largest consumer home show in the southeast United States.

“The new ELAN g! Dealer Demo System is a great idea, and it’s going to make it easy for me to show the system to potential buyers,” said Gannon. “Since I started Dynamic Audio Video ten years ago, I’ve been waiting for someone to make a system like ELAN g! It’s affordable enough for anyone to install and expand, and the consistent touch-based user interface makes it easy enough for anyone to use. ELAN made the g! demo system especially affordable for dealers, and I expect it to help me sell the ELAN g! system over and over again. Once a customer actually uses it themselves, they won’t want to live without it.”

The ELAN g! Dealer Demo System, which is being officially introduced to dealers and installers at the March 17-20, 2011 EHX expo in Orlando, Florida, includes a system controller, 7” touch screen, 4” touchpad in a tabletop mount, the brand-new HR2 remote, an amplifier, 2 tabletop Sunfire® speakers, a Panasonic IP camera, all the ELAN g! Pro Apps, and 5 viewer licenses to connect iPhones, iPads and computers. The system includes all the parts necessary to connect the gear and make it work. All the dealer needs to add is a television to demonstrate the On-Screen Display (OSD).

Gannon recently finished his first ELAN g! installation in a new home in Old Metairie, just west of New Orleans. “The family had actually contracted someone else to install a Control4 system, but when I showed them the g! app on the iPad, they ditched the old installer and hired me to install the full g! system. If I can do that with just the app, imagine what I’m going to be able to do with the full demo system!”

The ELAN g! Series Home Control System provides users with the most uniform and intuitive icon-based control from their favorite devices, including TVs, touch screens, touch pads, PCs, iPhones, and iPads. The standardized interface works across platforms, so that the trendy g!Mobile app that users love on the iPhone appears and works similarly on ELAN touch screens, valets and handheld remotes as well as users' televisions and mobile devices. And the system's IP backbone makes it just as easy to control the system from across the room as across the globe.