Co-ordinated and connected networks for all the intelligent services radiate through the house from a single central hub. This essential infrastructure gives connectivity, communication and control whenever and wherever needed. Every room has discrete outlets for television, telephone and data. Subtle lighting effects increase the flexibility of the rooms while clever access control and security systems safeguard the house and its occupants.
Television
With digital satellite and terrestrial television, there's no shortage of entertainment in the Integer house. But occupants don't have to sit in the lounge to watch the box. All programmes can be watched elsewhere in the house – even the remote control for the digital satellite system works in other rooms, although the set-top box always remains in the lounge.
The lounge is the main centre for family viewing. The Philips wall-hung, flat-screen television is an ideal medium for sharing epic movies or nail-biting football matches in widescreen format. And family viewing is not restricted to television. Microsoft's WebTV and PCWs Home Pilot provide Internet and e-mail access on the big screen and, for WebTV, access to enhanced television programme content via the Internet.
The television network, like the other networks in the house, uses the AMP OnQ system as a hub to deliver signals from the rooftop to the video recorder and to the satellite set-top box in the lounge. The combined signal from these is returned to the hub for distribution around the house. Local SCART connections provide direct connection between all the items in the lounge for optimum quality.
Not all viewing material originates outside the house. Cameras by the front door provide a view up the path to the car park and show callers as they ring the door bell. Another in the conservatory keeps an eye on playing children and a fourth by the pond provides an unobtrusive way to watch the local wildlife.
Telephones for people, not places
On a railway platform recently, a passenger called the Chinese takeaway at his destination to order so that his dinner could be waiting when he arrived – an indication that we expect to communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time.
The Integer house supports and improves this vision. BT's ISDN service provides two digital telephone channels, each of which can be used for voice, fax or data. Multiple-subscriber numbering gives each occupant a unique telephone number and, for the adults, a separate number for work-related calls and fax.
A Network Alchemy CyberGear Gold telephone exchange, the size of a PC loudspeaker, directs incoming calls to the most convenient telephone for each user, displaying who the call is for and the caller's name on the telephone. If the call is unanswered, the exchange passes the call on to voicemail. Calls can be directed according to where they originate and "number withheld" calls can be sent directly to an appropriate voicemail message. Night service enables all but essential calls to be sent to voicemail when dwellers don't wish to answer.
BT's Onephone can be used as an extension on the house telephone system compatible with the latest digital cordless phones. However, move more than 300 m from the house and it's a GSM digital mobile phone working across the UK and more than 80 other countries.
Computing
Centred on the hub, a 10baseT network connects the outlets in every room to the IBM Netfinity central server for common data storage and to run applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server for shared diaries. Also at the hub is the connection between the data network and the CyberGear Gold telephone exchange which provides sub-second Internet access from any computer in the house.
An IBM Aptiva hidden in the kitchen uses a high-definition LCD screen on an arm above the worktop and enables children to do their homework or to browse the Internet under parental supervision. A radio mouse and keyboard avoid trailing wires and can be put away when not required.
In the home office, an Aptiva equipped with scanner, printer and camera for videoconferencing provides facilities to work at home, and additional data sockets allow a ThinkPad notebook computer to access the network when at home.
The older child's bedroom includes a multimedia Aptiva with a range of educational software and a few games to challenge even the adults.
Whole-house audio
Sound fills our lives - whether music, speech, or unwelcome noise. Sited next to a busy section of the M1, the house uses sound-attenuating glass in external windows and utilises the sheltering effect of the conservatory together with acoustic battens in the floors to reduce external and internal noise. This provides a suitable setting for the whole-house audio system.
Controlled from discrete wall panels, or from a hand-held remote control, the B+W Casa system provides a choice of listening and occupiers can select from radio, a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) player and two CD players – one with 101-disc capacity.
Power amplifiers integrated into ceiling speakers in the lounge, kitchen, master bedroom and study transfer audio and data signals, as well as power, over screened data cables, eliminating long runs of conventional speaker cabling. Surface-mounted loudspeakers on the patio, and conservatory, and flush-mounted wall speakers in the solar space enable the right ambience to be created for any occasion.
The CD players, radio tuner and amplifier for the external loudspeakers are located in the first-floor cupboard at the hub of the networks while the DVD player, which also plays films on the television, is located in the lounge.
Intellikey
Intellikey provides the Integer house's solution to that perennial missing-key problem – everyone has just one key, opening any door they are entitled to use. Powered by batteries or from a network, smart lock barrels fit conventional locking hardware and provide power for the almost indestructible keys whenever they are used. All keys are physically alike but electronically unique; each with its own time and place access rights. Adults' keys open all doors but children's keys won't allow them in to the garage or the "hi-tech cupboard" where the main computer and audio system live. A workman's key only works for the doors he needs to unlock when he is supposed to be in the house and the key for Sainsbury's home shopping service opens only the storage cupboard.
Keys get lost and we have to change locks in case someone finds those keys. With Intellikey, losing a key is no longer a problem. Programming a replacement key with the same privileges as the lost key locks the lost key out of the system.
Security
However strong we make a house and however well we lock it, there are those who want our possessions almost as much as we do. In the Integer house, vibration detectors on the windows and contacts on the doors provide perimeter protection while passive infrared sensors in rooms and corridors give internal protection.
But a smart system can do more than protect. With this array of sensors, extending like nerves through the house, the security system is in a unique position to tell the other systems in the house what is going on and to co-ordinate their actions. Outputs on the Ademco Microtech Galaxy security system can be programmed to indicate the presence of a person in a room to the lighting system.
Setting the system on leaving the house signals the lighting system to turn the internal lights off and to arm the external floodlights, tells the heating system to reduce the house's internal temperature and the automatic doors on the conservatory to close and lock. Similarly, setting the alarm at night from inside turns off some lights, arms floodlights and locks the automatic door. Unsetting the alarm on waking up or returning home triggers "morning" or "welcome home" lighting sequences. Using the same network, and relying on the same monitored power supplies, the system also provides round the clock fire and smoke detection.
Lighting
Having a diversity of lighting scenes can help to dramatically alter the feel of a room. In the Integer house, Siemens' Instabus system provides four different lighting scenes in the lounge and dining room. Selected by a single button and easily changed, each scene provides different intensities from the light fittings. An infrared remote control means you don't even have to leave the sofa.
The ability to control many lights from one place, or one light from many places, is another benefit. Leave the lounge, dining room or master bedroom and one button turns all the lights off. Touch a switch by any of the main windows and the appropriate security lights are turned on.
Finally, there is a link to the security system. Leave home knowing with absolute certainty that you've not left on anything that you shouldn't have and that the house will look after itself until you return, and will wake up just the way you want it.
Impossible to beat
The Integer house shows that pre-wiring a house for intelligent services is not just practical; it's practically impossible to provide the performance and future-proofing that home buyers require any other way. Some day, very soon, all houses will be built this way.
Source
Building Homes
