A guy with way too much cash and an obviously patient wife in NYC has built the dream apartment. Through the help of a custom home installer he was able to conceive and execute what might possibly be the perfect home. The winner of the Electronic House Gold Medal for Integrated House of the Year in the $50k+ category this thing likely cost about 10 times that or more. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it was a million plus. Click through to see some photos and some choice excepts from the article.
The homeowner can choose among feeds from up to 24 different video sources, including 18 cable boxes (three of which have DVRs), three DVD players and three Mac minis. The sources are routed through an Extron matrix switcher and an RGB Spectrum picture-in-picture processor that multiplexes them and allows six outputs to each of the TVs. He can view 18 sources – or 18 different channels simultaneously – with six per screen or one large picture in the middle and with six options shown on each side.
Although the TVs will show 18 video feeds at a time, he can choose among all 24, says Montgomery. That includes a high-def Blu-ray player. And if he has someone over to give a presentation, he can use his Crestron touchpanel to dig a little deeper and summon the video feed from one of the Mac minis.
This tech-happy guy doesn’t mind digging down through home control screens. He’s a tinkerer. “He wanted it complex enough so he could go in and play around, but simple enough so his wife could come in and press one button,” says Montgomery.
When the lady of this video house wishes to watch something in the living room, she indeed presses just one button, and the three 65-inch plasmas are filled with pictures from a DVR on the center screen, flanked by two of the DVD sources. Though she may opt to watch any one of the other flush-mounted TVs in the apartment.
This guy is AWESOME. I wonder if he will adopt me.