SOLUTIONS: VILLA, PISTOIA,TUSCANY ITALY
House of a lifetime
A couple in their 60s wanted their first automated home, and they got it – thanks to a flexible KNX-based system that encompasses far more than just entertainment and lighting. Paddy Baker reports
IN JUNE 2011, integrator Giovanni Aiello of Italian company Triotech met a couple in their 60s who were planning to knock down their existing home and build a new three-storey villa in its place. They wanted ‘the house of a lifetime’, although they had limited experience of home technology, or even of using computers. Through meeting Aiello and visiting his house, they became interested in the idea of automating their new home. One important idea that he had to communicate to the client was the sheer scope of what was possible. “For example, an intelligent switch isn’t connected to the electrical system like a traditional light switch is – it can do whatever you want it to do,” he explains. “Putting in a home automation system would allow them to reconfigure the entire technological system in any way they wanted.” The scope of the project
was wide-ranging, taking in not only entertainment and lighting, but also security, energy management, HVAC control, calling the lift, and even systems for watering the garden and pumping groundwater from the cellar. It was immediately clear to Aiello that the project required the integration of different systems at different levels, and that it was important that the core management system was flexible. He decided to base the core solution on KNX. “The amount of software and hardware available from many
PROJECT COSTS
Alarm system...................€12K Home theatre, TVs, matrix, touchscreens, iPad .........€25K Cameras, entryphone.......€8K Networking – router, switches, cabling................€6K Software and licences......€5K UPS.........................................€3K Server.................................€2.5K Total...........................€61.5K
60 March 2014
manufacturers makes this standard very interesting, and there are always new products available to approach and solve a specific request,” he adds.
The next step was to select the management solution that would be the ‘brains’ of the system. Although the term is more frequently encountered in industrial automation, what is required is a SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system. There are several SCADA products on the market; Aiello shortlisted three products and finally chose a solution from NetX Automation. “I chose NetX Automation because I found that the cost is very reasonable for what the product can do – it is extremely powerful,” he explains. “And despite the fact that it can handle very big projects, such as Beijing Airport, the company has been very flexible with me, very supportive.” The KNX bus has an Ethernet interface that allows it to connect to an OPC (open platform communications) server. The server is where all the KNX functionality comes together, and 11 touchscreen ‘clients’ communicate over IP with the OPC server. All the KNX programming scripts to handle specific custom tasks are centralised on the OPC server – the touchscreens can be switched off if desired without affecting the functioning of the system. Let’s run through the
different system functions. On the security side, there are four external Mobotix CCTV cameras on the exterior of the property, and a Mobotix T24 entryphone – and IP camera with VoIP phone, which is integrated with the house telephone system. An
El.mo alarm system is interfaced to KNX for visualisation, but not for management. There is a total of 150 lighting points – internal and external – in the property. These are all controlled from
The 60in Panasonic TV that is at the heart of the home theatre system. The Integra Blu-ray player and receiver, and the Sky box, are housed in the cupboard to the left of the fireplace
[INSTALLED]
VIDEO n Panasonic Viera VT60 55in, 60in plasma TVs
n Panasonic Viera E6 32in LED TV
the various touchscreens around the house – along with the window blinds. There is a 15in TCI touchscreen on each floor, which manages “everything you can possibly manage in the house,” according to Aiello. In addition, there are numerous 10in TCI touchscreens around the house, mostly for managing aspects of the rooms in which they are located. The 15in screens are running Windows XP Embedded, while the 10in models are on Windows CE. Aiellos says that if he was designing a similar project today he would probably use an Android system.
The customer specifically
requested that the touchscreen graphics were simple to understand. “Other people – such as relatives – may visit the house, so you have to do things in such a way that even somebody who has never been there before knows at a glance how to switch a light on or watch TV,” he observes.
The home theatre system is based around an Integra Blu-
ray Disc player and a Sky TV box. The outputs go through an Integra receiver-amplifier and are distributed around the house on Cat6 cabling via a 4 x 4 HDMI matrix switch and four HDMI extenders. There are four Panasonic TVs in the house, the main one being a 60in plasma. The video source is selected via a 10in touchscreen, and there is also an iPad to manage the overall system. The infrastructure is in place
for a six-zone multi-room audio system. However, the chosen manufacturer (WHD) does not have representation in Italy, and “in the end the cost of the equipment was too high,” says Aiello. “We would have spent €10,000 – and the customer wasn’t willing to pay that just to listen to the radio in the bedroom.” Fortunately he was able to
suggest a compromise. Because the Integra receiver has a two-zone output, it is being used to distribute audio from an iPad, iPhone and other devices over WiFi. “Integra has apps for Apple. Through the
n Integra DTR-30.3 Blu-ray player
n Sky TV box n HDAnyware HKM44 4x4 HDMI matrix switch
n KeyDigital KD-HDDA1X2 distribution amplifiers
n PTN TPHD402 HDMI over Cat6 extenders
n Mobotix DualDome D15 and MonoDome D25 CCTV cameras
n Mobotix T24 entryphone
AUDIO n Integra DTR-30.4 receiver-amplifier
CONTROL n KNX bus n NetX Automation SCADA system
n TCI 10in and 15in touchscreens
n Crestron QM-RMC room media controller
n b+b EIB-MT-Gateway IP
iPad I can mix the KNX system, the TV (with Panasonic apps) and the Integra.” When it comes to
interfacing with the KNX system, the home
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