House of Today
March 05, 2008
The high-tech homes commonly found at Disneyland no longer have to be the “House of Tomorrow” as builders can use the AHT (automated home technology) solutions in homes today.
The new Innoventions Dream Home in Disneyland will be more than 5,000-sq.ft. and will include connected technologies from Life|ware, www.exceptionalinnovation.com, Westerville, Ohio; HP, www.hp.com, Palo Alto, Calif.; and Microsoft, www.microsoft.com, Redmond, Wash. While this home, scheduled to open in May 2008, will be located in Disney’s Tomorrowland, industry experts say the type of technology featured is something builders can put in the average home today.
“The Innoventions Dream Home may seem futuristic to many Disneyland guests, but in fact, adding Life|ware entertainment and automation technology to products many people already own will bring this experience much closer to home than ever before,” says Seale Moorer, founder and CEO, Life|ware.
The featured AHT shows guests that homes can be simple and intuitive, and that their own homes can be interconnected. Taylor Morrison, www.taylormorrison.com, Bradenton, Fla., the Dream Home builder, even says their company uses much of the same technologies in the homes it builds.
“In designing the Innoventions Dream Home, we approached the project in much the same way as we have the wide range of homes we’ve built through the years—by drawing on our company’s experience, imagination, and old-fashioned ingenuity,” says Sheryl Palmer, CEO, Taylor Morrison.
Palmer also says Taylor Morrison plans to offer the Dream Home technology package in the homes it currently builds.
For builders, mimicking the Dream Home isn’t the only option to entice homebuyers. Control4, www.control4.com, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Sony New Home, a branch of Sony Corp., www.sonynewhome.com, Tokyo, Japan, recently released The NHS-130C rack system for improved custom installation of whole home entertainment and control.
For builders doing retrofit projects or installing AHT for the first time, the NHS-130C rack system provides high-definition home theater, video distribution, and multiroom audio in 12 additional zones.
The Sony system for home control of movies and music integrates with Control4 technology for home control of lighting, temperature, and security systems, getting builders one step closer to the connected Dream Home.