Parade of Homes: A Great Place to See Home Automation

It’s difficult to understand exactly how home automation systems work, unless you can see them in action. Showrooms of home systems integrators often include demonstrations, but that often requires an appointment. If you’d rather go about your investigation of home automation in a more casual manner, check out the Parade of Homes event in your area. Home builders are increasingly outfitting their model homes there with bits and pieces of home technology. You might see a home theater, or special lighting, Whole-house music systems and security systems are also popular amenities of model homes.

Minnesota Model

At Minnesota’s Parade of Homes, though, Iverson Homes pulled out all the stops by having a complete, soup-to-nuts Elan home automation system installed. To build an inclusive package and ‘wow’ Parade attendees, they partnered with technology integration firm J. Becher & Associates to design and integrate a fully functional Elan Entertainment & Control System into their 5,000-square foot Maple Grove model home.

“Every local home builder has the opportunity to showcase models in Minnesota’s Parade of Homes,” J. Becher & Associates’ Travis Hafften explains. “Realtors and home buyers can tour each model for free to determine what each builder can offer them. This year, Iverson Homes wanted to incorporate a cutting-edge home automation package to showcase what the home could do, in addition to what it could look like.”

Elan as the Control Backbone

Within the model home, J. Becher & Associates integrated an Elan system, based on an Elan g1 controller, to manage the lighting, security, and multi-room audio and video from an Elan gHR200 remote and gTP7 touchpanel, smartphone and tablet. “With Elan, prospective homeowners can see how easy it is to control the lights, shades, whole-home audio system, security system, and televisions with the touch of a button,” Hafften says. “It’s one thing to tell them about it, and it’s another thing to show them and let them use the system, which is what we were able to do during the showcase.”

During the Minnesota Parade of Homes event, J. Becher & Associates aimed to demonstrate how home automation can take entertainment to the next level. That’s why his team built a cutting-edge multi-room audio system around an Elan S86A audio controller with six zones of audio, and SpeakerCraft in-ceiling speakers installed throughout. Additionally, the team integrated two 5-channel entertainment theater systems, controlled by Elan and powered by Sony receivers. Both systems are connected to a Sony Blu-Ray player, while three Sony LED 4K televisions provide the ultimate entertainment system for prospective homeowners.

Integrated Lighting and Security

Both the lighting and security systems are fully integrated with the Elan control system as well, providing maximum functionality and ease-of-use. “The Lutron Caseta lighting system is controlled through Elan,” says Hafften. “The instant and remote control throughout the entire home is easy for prospective homeowners to understand, and when they see how Elan enables the automation of lighting ‘scenes’ – each of which automatically incorporates pre-determined settings – they start to really understand how easy a smart home system can be.

Builder Smart Home Packages

According to Megan Schwartz, client services coordinator at Iverson Homes, automation is an essential next step for builders to consider when appealing to homeowners. “A smart home component is pretty crucial to incorporate into building packages today,” she says. “Prospective home buyers want smart functionality within a new home, and going forward we will always offer a customizable package that gives them the option to incorporate home automation from the very beginning of the home building process.”

Hafften and the J. Becher & Associates team received a significant amount of positive feedback from prospective homeowners during the Parade of Homes, and he looks forward to the next Parade in Spring of 2017. “This program is bound to be a success,” Hafften says. “With ELAN’s ability to incorporate and control lighting, shades, security, entertainment and more, we are able to meet the needs of every future homeowner looking for reliable and robust smart home control.”

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