Digital Garage: The Last Frontier

When A/V follows car enthusiasts into their automotive sanctuaries, installers revel in a new set of tech design challenges.

Source: DIGITAL HOME MAGAZINE
Publication date: 2007-11-01

By Dan Daley

WHEN A CERTAIN ALPINE, N.J., HOMEOWNER CLICKS THE REMOTE CONTROL in his car, he does more than just open a garage door. He activates a digital garage. At the tap of a button, recessed halogen lighting illuminates a 1,600-square-foot subterranean car park that holds what may well be the finest collection of vintage Lamborghini sports cars in North America. Adding to the glitter and gleam are a few Ferraris and a Maserati MC12 that, alone, is valued at $1.2 million. The sound system is pretty impressive, too.

NICK ROTONDO

It's an experience that has people drawing comparisons not normally reserved for a new home's garage.

“It's like entering a high-end auto showroom,” says design consultant, Steve D'Gerolamo, owner of Ultimate Garage in nearby Emerson, N.J.

Or as integrator Gabriel Karlis, president of JD Audio and Video Design in Fort Lee, N.J., puts it, “It's like going into the Bat Cave, only with better audio and video.”

Today's new family room almost certainly has a flat-screen TV, and a kitchen may have smart appliances. A basement often holds a home theater, while an entire home may have built-in audio and lighting controls. These are the hallmarks of the digital home. But what's a designer to do with the garage? Many are finding out.

The newest frontier in residential technology may be the garage, a notion that makes complete sense to some designers and integrators.

“The garage is becoming a more integrated space because more utilities and data—electric, water, gas, broadband, cable—are using it as the point of entry into the home,” says D'Gerolamo, who has been designing high-end garages since 1994. “I treat it like a data center.”

Some garage touches are decidedly high-end, meant to accommodate something spectacular like an extensive car collection. Others are logical extensions of systems that run a digital home. In the Alpine garage, an automated, 12-foot turntable in the middle of the room helps in maneuvering any of the homeowner's 24 cars. Temperature and humidity monitors, and water leak detectors are integrated into the home's security system to protect the expensive auto collection. And that's just the beginning.

The garage in Alpine was built along with the house in early 2007 and includes a $175,000 audio/video system that might make a Lamborghini jealous. Karlis installed eight ProVideo CVC-185DC B/W Dome cameras with infrared illuminators that cover the space from all angles and tie into the home's main security system. The video feed is accessible from any display in the home, including the Sony KDL-32S3000 LCD TV mounted in the garage, near the entrance from the house. Everything the cameras see goes to a Nuvico 16-channel digital video recorder.

For audio, Karlis positioned six Sonance Symphony 625TR in-ceiling speakers to minimize sonic reflections from the walls (and aided by a little equalization to avoid acoustical treatments that might interfere with the interior design). Backed by a 12-channel Sonance Sonamp 1230 amplifier, the garage system can play audio from the home's Crestron Adagio music server, digital radio, or from cable music channels. Controlling any of the systems, from the A/V to the car turntable, is a snap using the garage's Crestron TPS-2000L in-wall touchpanel.

The technologically sophisticated garage is Karlis' magnum opus. The central challenge, he says, was the absence of the usual positioning cues of an installation such as a home theater.

“It was new construction, which helped with the wiring,” he recalls. “But we wondered, for example, where we should place the LCD.” The solution to that problem was intuitive, he said, when he realized that the only space that would not be occupied by cars was near the entrance to the house. Today the homeowner can easily keep an eye on Bloomberg market reports while tinkering with his cars.

Not every digital garage holds a veritable parking lot's worth of luxury cars, however. In Louisville, Ky., Tony Rossini, owner of Digital Lifestyles, a local integrator, turned the three-car garage of a $1 million home into an A/V marvel. Anchored by a 61-inch Runco CW-61 plasma display, the Louisville garage could be mistaken for a home theater.

“This is the place in the house where the homeowner goes to smoke his cigars, tinker with the cars, and hang out with his friends,” says Rossini. “Not the den, not the home theater, not the great room—the garage.”

Rossini integrated six B&W CCM80 two-way, in-ceiling speakers, a B&W ASW650 sub-woofer, and a Rotel RKB-650 six-channel amplifier. On the back end there's a Kaleidescape DVD server, and, as in the Alpine home, everything is controlled through a Crestron TPS 2000L in-wall touchpanel.

The installation was done two years ago when the house was nearing completion, making the system's integration relatively straightforward. Rossini simply let the contractor know where he needed extra power outlets to accommodate the A/V electronics. But the project woke Rossini to the potential of a largely untapped market.

“The garage has become an extension of the home itself,” he says. “This client even has his housekeeper put [the garage] on her cleaning route along with the rest of the house.”

Garage technology installations that Steven Hooper, owner of Audio Video Design Consultants in Nashville, Tenn., has been doing for custom builder Forte Building Group in nearby Brentwood, Tenn., have also been progressively more sophisticated. Hooper's most recent project was in Nashville's West End neighborhood. A click of their car's remote greets the high-tech garage's owners with his-and-her music selections from either a Sirius digital radio or an Elan Via!dj 250MB music server. The music flows through SpeakerCraft Aim5 One in-ceiling speakers.

As the music scene comes up, a Lutron HomeWorks lighting system kicks in, illuminating the way to the study or the kitchen, depending on which scene is activated. Scenes can be programmed at the Elan Via! Valet 6.4 touchpanel, which also displays images from a pair of security cameras at the end of the driveway.

“This is definitely a trend,” says Hooper. “With each garage Forte builds, the installed technology is increasingly more sophisticated. People want their houses to talk back to them, and now that's extending to the point of entry, namely the garage.”

The growing interest in tech-savvy garages suggests new upsell opportunities for builders and installers. Rossini's recent project started out with a 50-inch plasma screen, four speakers, and no subwoofer. When the homeowner realized how much time he was spending in the garage, he asked Rossini to put in more —and better—components. It's a simple equation, Rossini says. “He realized the garage was becoming his personal sanctuary, and he upped the technology level accordingly.”

ZOOM ZOOM: Tony Rossini's garage installations often include streamed content.

Designers and integrators have this advice for builders: Point out to home buyers the garage's emerging status as a (mostly) male haven-in-the-home. Then, just as for home theater upgrades, ensure a home's plans can include the structured wiring and component rough-ins necessary to support a digital garage.

“Now when I talk to builders, I find myself bringing up the garage as a place to install systems,” says Rossini. “That's something I hadn't done before.”

It's a question of value, Karlis says. “Putting A/V technology into the garage helps buyers look at the space as a part of the house they could actually live in, and that adds more of a sense of value for price.”

<i>Dan Daley is a frequent contributor to Hanley Wood's</i> DIGITAL HOME.