Case studies

AV Integration in Swiss Chalet (1/10/2009)

By Prestige Audio

This project involved a mountain chalet in the Swiss Alps. The installation was highly commended in the CEDIA Region 1 award for best integrated home under GBP100,000 (125,000 Euros). It was completed in October 2008, had an equipment cost of GBP80,000 and a labour cost of GBP15,000.

The chalet in Swiss Alps with outdoor speakers.

The brief

The client has been with us for a number of years, and is into toys in a big way! Although this is his holiday home, and one which only gets used 2-3 months a year, the plans and venue were so stunning that he wanted an AV integration system in keeping with the property. The interior designer, Davina Merola of Space Alchemy, London, was involved from the earliest stages, and had very clear ideas about the look and feel of the installation.

Open plan living and dining room.

The client too was insistent that the amazing views should not be compromised, yet he still wanted big screens and big sounds in all of the bedrooms. Finally, remote access and monitoring of the system was essential, as he wanted to be able to view the CCTV footage from the UK.

The views were not to be compromised.

The solution

Being a bespoke wooden chalet, planning the cable routes for the first fix was a very time-consuming process. The first fix process was handled by a UK team of electricians since the Swiss contractors that carried out the main electrical contract had no experience with custom install systems.

The two main bedrooms on the top floor have 5.1 surround sound systems, but since the views from these rooms are breathtaking, the plasmas have been designed to drop from the ceiling using Future Automation mechanisms, with the centre channel hidden from view when the plasma is in the 'up' position.

The plasmas in both main bedrooms are designed to drop from ceiling using Future Automation mechanisms.

The Crestron system automatically switches to 2.1 mode when a music-only source is selected, and 5.1 when a video source is selected. To keep the clean lines in the bedrooms, Lutron Sivoia blinds were installed in hidden ceiling recesses so that they are totally out of sight when open.

These two bedrooms, the larger bedroom on the ground floor, and the living room all have AV receivers installed to handle all audio and video switching, while the smaller bedrooms and other rooms have two-channel audio with switching and amplification by Crestron, and component video switching by Kramer.

The larger ground floor bedroom with 5.1 surround sound.

The client has a massive CD and DVD collection stored on NAS drives. A DF Solutions iDyl server is installed in this property and in his UK properties, so that he can simply unplug the NAS and take it with him when he travels. This means that he only needs to load the content once - we did suggest he gets some staff to do this for him, but he says that he likes to be in control!

The interior designer and the client clashed on a number of occasions as the former wanted everything to be hidden from sight, whereas the client wanted everything to be visible. The audio performance in particular, was very important to him. In-ceiling or in-wall speakers were never going to work in a wooden chalet, so we designed some on-wall speakers for the main living room comprising a PMC Wafer 2 on-wall speaker, with an additional custom-ported subwoofer enclosure on each speaker that house a pair of long-throw 6.5" subwoofers from the automotive world. Custom grilles were made with hidden LED lights to make the speakers glow at night, and the end result sounds as good as it looks, without having any obtrusive and unsightly subwoofers on show.

Custom on-wall speakers with built-in subwoofers and LED light effects.

The property has an 8 series Lutron lighting system, with DMX control of the colour change LEDs. The effect at night is quite stunning and the house is visible for miles around.

View of the chalet at night, with DMX control of LED lighting.

The property had been specified with an EIB/KNX-based heating system, so it was a simple job to give the client supplementary control of this from the Crestron system.

Installation

The main difficulty with this project was one of logistics and language. Many of the design team spoke very little English, and being outside the EU, we had numerous problems with customs and excise when shipping such high-value items around. One fairly serious problem was when the Lutron system was shipped to site from our office in the UK and it went missing in transit! Quite how two pallet loads of Lutron hardware can disappear without a trace is anyone's guess, but I am sure that a Swiss courier has a very nice system in his house somewhere!

Despite logistic difficulties, the project was completed to the client's satisfaction.

Getting accurate information back from site regarding ceiling voids etc for the plasma mechanisms and blinds was also a problem, and in the end we had to send an engineer out to site on more than one occasion just to get accurate measurements. It was also not uncommon for us to arrive on site having had re-assurances in writing that certain works had been done, only to find out that they hadn't, and we had wasted the trip. The electrical contractor totally underestimated the current draw of the system, and once all of the lighting, AV hardware and heating systems had been fitted, a new main circuit had to be installed from the road. The system isn't totally finished, as the client has cabled for a cinema room, but for a number of unrelated reasons, this part of the system hasn't been started yet. Watch this space...

The current draw required an extra main circuit to be installed from the road.

Conclusion

Despite the project taking far longer than he originally planned, now that he can go out there with friends and enjoy the stunning views, the client absolutely loves it. During the visit we made with the photographer, he and some friends spent two whole days watching movies rather than being out on the slopes! The feedback he has had from guests has been amazing, and everyone loves the trick features such as the plasma mechanisms in the main bedrooms. The sound quality in the main living area is absolutely fantastic, and given that it made a very particular interior designer very happy, that is a resounding success from our perspective! We are now working on two other projects for the same client in the UK, so we are taking that as a sign that he is pleased with what we have done!

Featured brands

Audio Visual: Denon, Fujitsu, Samsung, PMC, DLS, Kramer, Crestron, Sherbourn, Arcam, Apple, DF Solutions.
Lighting: Lutron
HVAC: EIB/KNX controlled via Crestron
Control Systems: Crestron

Prestige Audio is dedicated to designing and creating audio/visual solutions that deliver the ultimate in performance and reliability. It has offices in London, Manchester and Dubai.

www.prestigeaudio.co.uk