Project Name: Pool House
Project Location: Virginia, United States
Award: Crestron Integration Awards 2012 – Unique Application, Electronic Home Awards 2013 – Best Outdoor Space
This installation incorporates four processors which all interact seamlessly over fiber. The main house has a DigitalMedia system with several audio/video sources, including a mac mini, 2 tivos, iPod dock, and media server which can be transmitted to the poolhouse. Inside the main house, video is transmitted over an 8×8 DM switcher to various displays. One of the DM outputs also can be piped to the poolhouse over a Crestron HD-TX3. In addition to the video, any audio source in the house can be transmitted through a PAD8a over the same HD-TX3 transmitter to the poolhouse AES-XM processor. This processor is connected to pro audio amplifiers which allowed Casaplex to equalize and calibrate the audio to perform well over the vast backyard in several zones. The two seperate CAEN lighting control enclosures in the main house and the pool house communicate with eachother over fiber to allow for lighting proof communication between both structures. The client can choose to turn on or off the pool house area from the main house, eliminating the need to walk down to the poolhouse to doublecheck whether or not lights were left on. Additional scenes allow for timed dimming of the walking patch through the woods back to the house, allowing the home owner’s guests to walk back to the main house safely after using the pool facilities. One of the most interesting aspects of the installation is the grotto, which features audio, lighting, and exhaust control via the touchpanels in the pool house. The panels are able to adjust the flow of the waterfall as well as illuminate the waterfall and interior of the grotto using fiber light fixtures.
Brilliant Lighting Design
This extraordinary poolhouse featured two custom pools with various lighting, diving boulders with light seeping through its cracks, a lit underground swimming tunnel and a grotto enclosed by a waterfall. Over 40 indoor and outdoor lighting loads were run out of a centralized CAEN lighting panel, allow the user to control all lights from either a TPS-6X panel or a TPMC-8X wall mounted panel. Outdoor lights include flood lights which can illuminate the entire yard for security purposes, as well as spot lights to illuminate 3 archery targets in the backyard, over 300 feet away from the main structure. In addition to the lighting system in the poolhouse, there were several loads at the main house running on a seperate processor which uses intersystem communications over a Crestron fiber baluns to allow scenes to be triggered from the main house. Several custom scenes with timing were created to make life easier for the end user. For example, upon leaving the pool area, the home owner can recall a ‘shutdown’ scene which slowly turns off all pool lighting over a 5 minute period in a particular order which allows them to walk to the main house with a well illuminated path, and not have to walk in the dark, which would be unsafe. Fiber optic lighting was used to illuminate the entry to the grotto as well as the waterfall itself – giving the falling water a surreal glow at night. The interior of the grotto not only has lights, but also has an exhaust fan which is turned on to keep the interior air from getting stale. Lastly, the Crestron system is being used to set the waterfall to different speeds, allow for anywhere from a small trickle of water to a torrential downpour which creates complete privacy within the grotto. What makes this lighting control system brilliant are the variety of lights used, as well as the interaction of two lighting processors in two completely different parts of the property over lightning proof communication fiber.