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"We&amp;#039;ve certainly come quite a long way from striving to keep up with those infamous Joneses. Smart home systems, the pricey built-in technologies considered playthings for the wealthy just a few years ago, are now becoming increasingly accessible. Companies understand that you, the consumer, are technologically savvy-you&amp;#039;ve seen and used &amp;quot;gee whiz&amp;quot; gadgetry, and you aren&amp;#039;t afraid to embrace it.  So now you can afford to build in or retrofit your home with state-of-the-art electronic gadgets and gizmos programmed to handle the controls for your lighting, heating, cooling, security, and audio-video systems. Then, you can sit back and host the perfect soiree at a moment&amp;#039;s notice, adjusting room temperature, mood lighting, and music selection with the simple touch of a button.  While you&amp;#039;re dreaming of your next big home electronics purchase, get a sneak peak at the innovative decadence that&amp;#039;s available now. To show you what&amp;#039;s actually possible, we are taking you to two of our luxurious show houses-one in Las Vegas, Nevada, (also featured on page 61 of this issue), the other in Daniel Island, South Carolina, (which will be featured in our March 2003 issue). Both houses are loaded with state-of-the-art bells and whistles guaranteed to tempt your inner-techie. Get Wired Installing high-quality wiring in your home is an excellent way to future-proof against unforeseen network problems. This type of forward thinking plays out to the fullest extent at the South Carolina community where the developers, The Daniel Island Group, established a modern wiring standard. Every home there has telephone and broadband Internet access via fiber-optic cabling. (If typical cabling can carry data at a force equal to a fire hose, compare this baby to Niagara Falls.) Further, Daniel Island dwellers can create and broadcast a housewide channel by connecting with a security camera or DVD player. The channel can then be viewed on every TV in the house.  You don&amp;#039;t have to be a resident of a similar development to have comparable high-tech capabilities. If you want to hook up your home to accommodate cable TV, multiple phone lines, Internet access, and a computer network, among other capabilities, check out the Custom Electronic Design &amp;amp;amp; Installation Association&amp;#039;s Web site (cedia.net) to locate a qualified installer near you. Lighten Up Lighting hasn&amp;#039;t changed very much since the days of Thomas Edison, but your options for controlling it have. The same lights that enable you to read your favorite book can easily be dimmed for a quiet, relaxing evening. With a home automated-lighting system, you can create an art tableau that highlights your Picasso by dimming the overheads to 25 percent and turning the spots to 100 percent. Want to call attention to your home in an emergency? Integrate the lighting and security systems and if the system is tripped, your interior lights illuminate as the exteriors flash. Completely retrofitable, Leviton&amp;#039;s Decora Home Controls (DHC) automated lighting system is unique in that it uses a home&amp;#039;s existing electrical wiring and can be up and running immediately. As performed in the Daniel Island home, replace your standard switches with a smart Leviton switch, add a few scene-dimming wall controllers, and voil\u00E0! Your lights are automated. For larger sanctuaries, like the Las Vegas home, Lutron Electronics&amp;#039; HomeWorks Interactive fits the bill. With this system, wiring needs to be installed during the construction phase, but it&amp;#039;s worth the effort since it offers virtually limitless control and complete integration with other automated home systems. You&amp;#039;ll love &amp;quot;vacation mode,&amp;quot; a feature that memorizes your home&amp;#039;s actual lighting usage patterns and replays them while you&amp;#039;re away, giving a realistic impression that someone&amp;#039;s inside. And a built-in astronomic time clock turns your exterior lights off minutes before sunrise.        Control is yours at our Las Vegas concept house, where the entire lighting system is managed with one finger via Lutron&amp;#039;s wireless Tabletop keypad. Photographed by J.S. Gibson     Control Yourself To keep track of all these high-tech goodies, treat yourself to a video monitoring system, like the one in the Las Vegas home. It has eight video cameras that can be viewed three ways: on any TV in the home, via Crestron&amp;#039;s 5-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, or even through the Internet if you happen to be away. And imagine being able to page the main entry gate or the front door with Panasonic&amp;#039;s Digital Super Hybrid telephone system or set up a room-to-room video intercom with touch panels for more personal communication. Think you heard a bump in the night? Monitor your home&amp;#039;s motion sensors over the same touch panels and view which parts of the home are active. Catering further to your inner desire for control, you can adjust the temperature in each room via a computer or touch panel. Fun House Though these super-serious home gadgets simplify everyday chores, we want our homes to be fun, too. If the lights are on, but you&amp;#039;re in a barely home state-of-mind, a combination of Crestron keypads and touch panels can interact with an automated system-handy if you&amp;#039;re running late the same night you&amp;#039;re playing hostess. Press the &amp;quot;party&amp;quot; button on the panel in the Las Vegas house and the exterior lights illuminate, the interiors dim to create a soft mood, the security system switches to standby mode, soft music flows from in-ceiling speakers, and the thermostat drops to 70 degrees. Not bad for one button! Want to play Hollywood hotshot? The Las Vegas home takes the term &amp;quot;home theater&amp;quot; up a notch with a Sharp DLP video projector that displays crisp images on a 92-inch Ultimate Access/Series V screen, manufactured by Draper. A Denon THX certified receiver and SpeakerCraft AIM series in-ceiling speakers provide the audio. When not in use, both the projector and screen disappear into the ceiling for ultimate clutter control.        Catch the news via Samsung&amp;#039;s 42-inch plasma TV located in the wellness center.     Hip to be Square Was the last time you got excited about a TV set during the color revolution in the 1950s? It&amp;#039;s time to get giddy again as TV manufacturers bring their flat-screen innovations to living rooms across America. Flat-panel TVs-touted for their wide-screen, movielike capabilities, eye-popping video, and energy efficiency-are available in either plasma, below right, or LCD form. Samsung has plasma models that are ultra-thin and hang right on your wall (great for saving space!). Luxe 42-inch and 50-inch models are available, while the 63-inch version is among the biggest and flattest on the market. Think of their LCD screens as computer monitors, as they use similar technology to spew crystal-clear images while providing an incredible Internet surfing experience. Their new DynaFlat HDTV, above, features a pancake-flat picture tube and comes in 27- and 32-inch sizes, as well as a 30-inch 16:9 model, with widescreen programming to allow more information onscreen. They&amp;#039;ve also upped their Digital Light Processing (DLP)-based DTVs with a new 61-inch model. See Also: Home Magazine&amp;#039;s 2003 Dream House in Las Vegas "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/home-remodeling-renovating/a1068/the-tech-savvy-home-17588/>