24 Residential Tech Today | July/August 2019
INNOVATOR SPOTLIGHT
Simplifying Life With
Home Technology Minnesota’s J. Becher & Assoc. Automates Every Facet of
a 10,000-Square-Foot Residence
By Eric Gross
Large homes traditionally require full-time
staff to perform maintenance and assist the
owners with daily tasks, but a newly renovated
10,000-square-foot residence in Medina, MN,
shows that nearly every function of modern
home life can now be controlled and automated
through a professionally installed home control
system.
According to home electronics integrator J.
Becher & Assoc., the system allows the owners
to quickly and easily manage everything from
lighting to heating to multi-room audio, all from
the ELAN Home Control interface.
When your dream home has more than 100
light switches, 12 TVs, and 48 zones of audio,
the only way to effectively manage it all is with a
full home control system. It would be incredibly
stressful to try running a home that large
without modern technology or full-time help,
and even communication could be difficult
without an intercom system. These particular
homeowners were familiar with the ELAN
system from their previous home, so in the new
one, their integrator’s focus was maximizing
simplicity and functionality without impacting
the aesthetics.
A major benefit of the system is that it allows
all core equipment to be centralized, which
helps declutter living spaces and eliminates the
need for visually intrusive electronics. The
owners are utilizing nearly every capability of
the system, so they have control of the home’s
TVs, music, lighting, heating and cooling,
motorized window shades, security,
surveillance, garage door access, and pool
settings.
According to J. Becher & Assoc., their clients
wanted all the latest home technologies but didn’t
want their beautiful home to “end up looking like
a Best Buy.” Since they decided to renovate before
moving in, the integrator was able to run all new
wiring in the walls and use a single location for all
of the amplifiers, cable boxes, thermostats, and
lighting control modules. Now the only visible
technologies in the home are the TVs and
remotes, light switch panels, and multiple 12-inch
ELAN touch screens that blend seamlessly in
with the home design.
Using fiber optic and Cat-6 cabling, the
system offers property-wide distributed 4K
video-over-IP and high-quality audio in 48
zones totaling hundreds of speakers, including
outdoors. The owners wanted excellent audio in
every room, so they decided to use in-ceiling
speakers throughout the home and added
Sunfire subwoofers to multiple areas, including
the home theater, which has a 119-inch glassscreen
4K projection system.
While most of the components were included
in the project’s original scope, the long-term
nature of the installation – completed over
18 months – gave the owners ample opportunity
to add on special features, such as two