Gold Winner: Lelch AV is EHome of the Year Winner
Smart Home Traditional Style Less Than $150,000
CAREFULLY PLANNED CLUTTER BUSTER
Technology and design blend together to create a renovated smart home environment that looks as good as it performs.
In the world of smart homes, there’s often a disconnect that happens between a home’s design and its technology. Sometimes, the technology can overpower the architecture, and then there are times when a home’s design dictates the performance of the electronics gear. A pleasing middle ground where both design and technology can coexist together without conflict is the aspiration of most systems integrators and their clients.
The team at Lelch Audio Video, of St. Louis Park, Minn., achieved this pinnacle of planning in a spectacular smart home that fuses eye-catching cosmetic details and high-performance gear. In the recreation room, for example, compact VP40 Sonance speakers share space with recessed lights in a custom-built, decorative, suspended ceiling. Tucked inconspicuously into the structure, the speakers spread audio over a center island in the room.
To ensure harmony between design and tech, even the 11 speakers comprising a Dolby Atmos setup in the media room were given top consideration during construction. “To fit the clients’ stylistic requirements, we worked with the builder to modify the curvature of the media room walls so the Paradigm Signature Series speakers could be angled to create a more engaging soundfield,” explains Lelch A/V founder Alex Lelchuk. The team topped off the media room with two Paradigm subwoofers, an Anthem receiver, and a Sony 75-inch TV.
Remarkably, all of this integration was part of a remodel. “It was a super-substantial renovation that involved our firm, an architect, and a builder,” Lelchuk says. “And given that the homeowners were extremely tech savvy, all the key people were heavily involved in and in constant communication during every phase of the project.”