For WOW Media’s Luis Rodriguez, the beauty of his client’s Jamestown, RI, vacation home was made possible for what you cannot see. Despite having a tech budget of more than $2-million dollars, the smart home features within the 20,000 square foot coastal property are incredibly well hidden thanks to the inventive use of motorized lifts, ingeniously concealed automated window shades, and a “quiet ceiling” featuring small aperture speakers and lighting fixtures and more.
All told, the residence, which was designed by Tom Lucas from the architectural firm Hull Cove Design, contains 88 Lutron Roller 64 motorized window, 12 Lutron automated drapery tracks, 17 TVs, and 70 speakers. At the center of it all is a home theater located within woodworking that is an actual hull of a yacht, custom designed and built by Newport Yacht Builders (special kudos go to Artnovion Acoustics for helping reduce the potential nightmare of acoustical reflections, according Rodriguez.
Wow Media was one of three integration companies brought in by builder Jerry Kirby from Kirby Perkins to submit tech proposals for this new home build. Initially, Rodriguez bid only the carriage house portion of the project, but his lighter touch in selling (helping his future clients paint a picture of their daily routines and emphasizing how his company could create a system that would work for them; “more listening than talking…”) won over the homeowners and earned his company the entire project.
Wood ceilings were one of the initial design challenges of the project. The goal was to avoid marring their elegance with too much tech. The specification of Environmental Lights REVI (Remote-Voltage Illumination) low-voltage recessed lighting and linear tape lighting provided WOW Media more flexibility when avoiding seams between the wood panels in the ceiling.
Rodriguez says he dislikes the look of exposed rollers when installing motorized window shades, so he worked with his master carpenter at Kirby Perkins to improve the way the Lutron headers and trims were installed into the wood ceilings throughout the project as well. The result: when the shades are completely open you won’t see rollers for any of the windows throughout the home. Yet they’re all accessible for maintenance thanks of a special clamping system that the builder’s master carpenter designed for every window.
The abundance of technology in this project posed numerous challenges like this for the builder, according to Kirby Perkins’ Matt Dragon. “We devised solutions to conceal all the components and systems while ensuring access for future maintenance,” he said. “Removable panels, trims, and casework serve as access points to pockets, crawl spaces, and concealed areas. This was accomplished through the exceptional skills and engineering mindset of our highly skilled carpenters and WOW Media, leaving the hidden elements seamlessly integrated into the structure. The walls, ceilings, and various other areas of this extraordinary smart home hold a wealth of hidden features.”
In addition to the lighting and shades, the Rhode Island home also includes Control4 AV switches, TV remotes, and touchpanels, Ruckus networking switches, SeeLess smoke detectors, HVAC vents, and APs recessed in the ceiling, IC Realtime security cameras, and the 70 small aperture in-ceiling speakers are from Sonance-owned James Loudspeaker. JL Audio subwoofers are used throughout the home along with PowerPipe subs from James Loudspeaker in various ceiling locations, as well. Ninety percent of TVs are Sony models, with and Leon art frames concealing two of them, and two hidden by in-floor lifts from Future Automation. Seven other TVs are hidden by foot-of-the-bed motorized lifts from Future Automation. For the property around the outside of the home, WOW Media supplied Infratech outdoor heaters, James outdoor speakers, and five outdoor motorized screens from Progressive Screens.
The yacht-inspired home theater features Triad surround speakers, six JL Audio subwoofers. AudioControl power amplifiers, Environmental Lights REVI linear tape lighting, a Future Automation projector lift, a Sony VPL-GTZ380 4K laser projector with a short-throw lens, and 135-inch Screen Innovations screen.
During WOW Media’s first meeting with their client, they gleaned that the quality of the lighting in the house would be fundamental to their experience. As a result, every light in the home is tunable.
“We have a very close relationship with the interior designer (Pattricia Watson, Taste Interior Design),” Rodriguez said. “She can be the best designer in the world, but if the lighting is bad, then her work is going to suffer. We see how different [lighting] color temperatures look with, say the color of the sofa, and then we lock in the ones that look best. We can tailor each room to accentuate what’s in there. The goal is figuring out how to make a house this size feel homey and not like a museum.”
According to Dragon, the most memorable aspects of working on this home was the dedication, care, thoughtfulness, and pride displayed by everyone working on the project, daily, who were united by a common goal of completing something truly exceptional.
“We assembled a remarkable team that pulled this one off, and a special bond was forged during the process,” he said. “We’re all incredibly proud of this achievement.”
