Home Automation System Extends from the Inside to the Outside

With roughly 100 acres of land, the owners of a Toronto-area Property had many choices to make when designing their new residence built by  Den Bosch + Finchley. Big fans of fundraising and entertaining, they decided to use a large area of their lawn to create the ultimate outdoor party space. Den Bosch + Finchley connected the homeowners with Toronto-based technology integration firm  Synergy Systems Group to install a robust home automation system that would extend throughout the home to the event lawn. Synergy met with the owners to learn more of their needs and determined that the ELAN Entertainment & Control   platform would be the ideal solution for the job.

We’ve been in business for 24 years, so we have worked with many automation systems; our go-to is now ELAN,” Rob Campol, president of Synergy Systems Group states. “ELAN is one of those platforms that just works, it doesn’t have any idiosyncrasies or ‘gremlins’ that the automation industry seems to be plagued with.”

In order to enhance the event lawn, Synergy Systems Group pre-wired the area for audio, making it an ideal space for the charity fundraising events and private parties often hosted by the homeowners. “The events are often held in outdoor tents, so we pre-located four speaker-jacks in irrigation boxes in the ground,” Campol explains. “That way they can wheel outdoor speakers into the tent and easily connect them to the audio system.”

The event lawn’s audio is only one of the home’s 15-zones of audio, which also includes the pool area, outdoor terraces, media room and various locations throughout the home. Beyond audio, Synergy Systems Group connected the home’s thermostats, front gate, security system, cameras, spa controls, Vantage lighting, motorized shades and eight zones of video into the ELAN system.

Very successful in the IT world, the homeowner was unsure that a home automation system was the right solution for his lifestyle. “He is a do-it-yourself electronics tinkerer,” Campol explains. “Everything in his old home he had installed himself, from the stereo system to volume controls and IR repeaters. Since he was already technically inclined, the ELAN system was not a big stretch for him. However, it took a couple of meetings to lay out how the automation system would make his family’s lives easier, running such a large home.”

According to John Tackaberry, an owner at Den Bosch + Finchley, “Automation is one of those items that is often tough to sell the first time, but once a client experiences the benefits by living with and using the system, they can never imagine their life without it.”

The benefits of the ELAN system extend beyond the daily at-home uses, such as entertainment and climate control. The homeowners are able to monitor and maintain their home from anywhere in the world on the ELAN app on a mobile device. Best of all, the ELAN system is easy for all family members to operate. The homeowner’s teenage children can easily select their favorite movie, channel or song with one touch, and the multiple zones of audio and video frees each family member to enjoy their own media choices.

“The homeowner realized that he was able to seamlessly turn on different music in the kitchen, dining room, family room and down in the rec room from a single app on his iPad while roaming around his home,” Campol says. “It was like seeing a kid on his first two wheeler bike.”

Tackaberry adds, “The homeowner’s enjoyment of the home is another benefit of automation. His appreciation of the integrated systems increases with every use.”

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