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3D Video Tour of the Smart Home Experience Center

Click here to enjoy a fully interactive 3D video tour of our Control4 Smart Home Experience Center.

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About the cyberManor New Home Technology Experience Center

In 2021 cyberManor completed our national award winning Control4 Certified Showcase home.  This new home features all of the high end smart home features that our clients request to have installed in their new and remodeled homes.  These smart home features are no longer a luxury, they have become a necessity.  Designed, engineered, built, and supported by cyberManor, a custom home technology integrator headquartered in Los Gatos for over 20 years, this showcase smart home represents the best of breed technology solutions for today’s modern home living environments.

The cyberManor New Home Technology Experience Center was built to emulate the Sunset Idea Homes concept. Sunset Idea homes promote the most innovative building design, interior decorator and exterior landscaping ideas. We built our New Home Technology Center to showcase best of breed innovative home technology ideas that enrich the entertainment, comfort, and security of the homes in which we live. When all the electronic systems are intelligent, connected, and integrated the home can become personalized for the needs of every family member. They are simply controlled by the sound of one’s voice or the touch of a keypad, phone or tablet. Perhaps best of all, as the following sign says hanging outside the master bathroom, you wake up every morning as if something wonderful is about to happen - because (almost) each evening the manufacturer of a smart home product installed in the home released and downloaded software to upgrade and improve the home's entertainment, comfort, or security at no extra charge!

Our New Home Technology Experience Center is located directly behind our main office in Los Gatos on our Home Technology Campus as shown in the graphic below. To book an appointment to tour the cyberManor Smart Home Experience Center, please fill out this Contact Us form.

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#Vimeo

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One of the First Smart Home Integrators in the United States

cyberManor was one of the first smart home integrators in the United States. Over 25 years ago the company retrofitted the founder’s home with many of the very first smart home technologies - many of which now have become mainstream solutions for the customers that we serve.  

cyberManor’s work was recognized by Cisco when they produced the following video for the Consumer Electronics Show in 1999.

Dream World

Our custom electronics home integration industry has come a long way in the last 25 years - and the smart home has made the dream of "life lived best at home" a reality for clients around the world. To celebrate the best of our industry's custom home technology installations the Guild Integrators Alliance recently produced the following spectacular video.

cyberManor Speaking Engagements

As a result of our decades of expertise in networking the home with the latest home technologies we have been asked to speak at a number of industry trade shows over the years on the solutions that we provide for our clients.

#Youtube

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5 Levels of the Smart Home

Charlie Kindel, a former executive at Amazon and Control4, delivered a keynote where he described the following 5 levels of smart home integration:

Level 1: Traditional Home - 0 network devices, nothing in the home is smart

Level 2: Piecemeal Accessories - 1 -3 network devices, promised as DIY solutions but difficult to integrate

Level 3: Integrated Accessories - 1-25 network devices, multiple apps, professional integration needed to simplify overall control of the home

Level 4: Built In - 40 - 1000 network devices, devices integrate well across the entire home, strong network backbone infrastructure

Level 5: Ambient and Invisible - 40 - 1000 network devices, the use of technology is personalized and seamless

Our new cyberManor Smart Home is currently rated between Level 4 and Level 5.  Our goal over the next several years is to update the home to be a Level 5 showcase home, where the installation and integration of smart home technology will accomplish the following goals:

It knows exactly what each member in the family likes and when and where they like it. The technology enhances the entertainment, comfort, safety, and control of their homes.

Learns and understands the time of day and needs of the home’s occupants and responds with the appropriate lighting, music selections, room and water temperatures.

It maximizes the use of renewable energy solutions and runs the home at the lowest possible cost without any perceptible inconvenience to the home’s guests.

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Why We Built the Smart Home Experience Center

cyberManor wanted to build a showroom home - not just a showroom. We built our experience center home where we could showcase all the technology solutions that we provide our clients and builder partners. Potential customers want to see and experience the latest technology solutions for their front door/gate, kitchen, living room, media room, bedrooms, bathrooms, and the outdoors. Building a showroom home allowed us to best showcase all of these integrated solutions in one location. We also wanted to demonstrate how all of these technologies can easily be controlled by one total home control system (Control4), touchscreens, keypads, mobile apps, and voice.

Additionally, we wanted to use this new home as an educational facility for our residential builder trade partners. The installation of solar panels, batteries, and home control systems require that we work closely with solar contractors. Intelligent showering system installations require that we work closely with plumbers (see photo below). Sophisticated, tunable lighting systems and shades require that we work closely with electricians and lighting designers. This home allows us to to clearly show our partner trades how these solutions are installed and how we can best work together to provide a complete home technology solution for our clients.

We also use the smart home an R&D Center to vet and test new technologies for our clients. It even serves a housing from time to time for staff and key vendors that come to stay at cyberManor.

Last but not least, an overarching objective was to make the home look as beautiful as the homes of our clients - and to make the technology implementation appear to be seamless and aesthetic. To accomplish that objective we increased our home improvement budget to include top of the line cabinetry, quartz countertops, hardwood ceilings and floors, and high end tiling for the floors and walls in the master bathroom. We also hired Celia Boutell, a local interior designer, to design the beautiful interior spaces of the smart home.

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Technology Solutions You Can Experience

Here are just a few of the many technology solutions that you can see, touch, control and experience in our cyberManor New Home Technology Center:

- Intelligent, secure front door access and control station - High definition security cameras around the perimeter of the home - Living/Family room high definition streaming audio and video entertainment - from cable, internet and over the air antenna sources - WiFi connected kitchen and laundry room appliances - Lighting that dims and tunes to the correct color to match activities and time of day - Comfort control with motorized fans, skylights and window shades - Hydrotherapy showering system that turns on with voice and a TV that disappears from view behind a bathroom mirror - High technology bed that learns and improves your daily sleep experience - Digital photo frames that hang on the wall and change personalized photos and fine art on a daily scheduled basis - Indoor Air Quality monitoring system that automatically turns on home exhaust fans when unhealthy air quality is detected. - Touch screens that show a live dashboard of the home’s energy consumption, solar photovoltaic panel KWH production, distribution and battery storage. - A water flow meter that alerts you when water is leaking inside the home and automatically closes the main water valve in the event of a large, unexpected water usage.

You can view many of these smart home experiences in this short 2 minute video clip.

#Vimeo

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Pre-Wiring for the Engineered Smart Home

Before we installed the insulation and sheet rock in the cyberManor Smart Home we used the home to visually demonstrate the benefits of a well engineered, pre-wired home for our builder, architect, and interior design partners.  The home includes fiber and open conduit runs (for any future low-voltage wiring runs); wiring for multi-zone whole-house audio; structured Cat-6 wiring for data ports throughout the home; power over Ethernet (PoE) wiring to exterior cameras, in-wall control tablets, wireless access points, and future PoE based lighting; centralized whole-house lighting and lighting control keypad wiring; and power and control wiring to motorized window treatments, among many other things.  

All of these solutions for our clients’ new or remodeled homes are best implemented when this pre-wire infrastructure is installed prior to insulation, sheet rocking, or the pouring of cement patio and driveways. 

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Control4 Home Technology Experiences

When you visit the Smart Home Experience Center you will experience and control all of the following home technology systems with the Control4 Operating System and their Connected Partners:

Audio/Video

Lighting Control/Motorized Window Treatments

Security and Cameras

Comfort

Networking Technology

Control Systems

Smart Kitchen and Bath Solutions

#Vimeo

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cyberManor Smart Home Experience Center

Photos of the front of the smart home, master bathroom, kitchen, master bedroom, and roof top vegetable garden.

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Connected Home Ecosystem

The cyberManor Control4 Smart Home Experience Center has all of the home’s electronic systems integrated and connected on the home network and the internet, as shown in the above diagram.

Today, total home technology support means that our clients turn to cyberManor for general expertise on all of the home’s smart home solutions (which is one of the main reasons that we built our New Home Technology showroom home behind our office). Clearly our clients need us for audio/video expertise, lighting, comfort, communications, and security expertise — but now irrigation, skylights, appliances, water fixtures, picture frames, door locks, floor heaters, pianos, are all smart! Our residential clients will expect all of these networked, intelligent systems to be seamlessly connected to the home’s control system — one that that is easy and reliable to use.

With the Control4 Composer software serving as the controlling operating system of our home - control is as easy as touching an in-wall screen, keypad, phone, or even voice. Shown below is a snapshot of the home's software configuration and programming for an "under the hood" look at what Control4 is controlling in our smart home.

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Front Yard and Entry

Front Door Station

The Control4 Front Door Station allows residents to here and see who is at the front door and to provide a unique key code they can use to code into the home. The video of the guest standing at the door is visible on all the Control4 touchscreens inside the home and on any Control4 enabled mobile phone.

Front Door Light

The front door porch light that you see in the photo above is part of a Control4 centralized panelized lighting system and is programmed to turn on at sunset and off at 11PM. This ensures that guests to the home always have a front door light to make entry easier and safer.

Intelligent Door Lock

The elegant, single body construction Baldwin eVolve door lock is wirelessly connected to the Control4 system in the home so that it can open and close its deadbolt in response to the keypad code being entered on the Control4 Door station. It can also be automatically locked when leaving the home by programming the door lock command when the home’s away mode has been triggered by voice, keypad, or touchscreen control.

High Definition Front Door Camera

The Lilan High Definition camera overlooking the front door and entry bath provides additional visual home security protection. It’s high resolution can identify license plates and personal facial features that can be recorded to a local hard drive for later review.

Irrigation System

The Rach.io smart irrigation system provides intelligent watering to the front yard landscaping. It is wirelessly connected to the home’s network and the internet cloud and can be controlled and programmed from Control4 or the Rach.io mobile application.

Outdoor Heating Systems

The Infratech outdoor heating system provides warm infrared heating for the front balcony seating of our home. Flush mounted into the balcony ceiling this electric heater provides warm heat in the evening or morning hours thereby extending the time it is comfortable to remain outdoors. Whenever we are on the front porch this Infratech heater can easily be controlled by the Control4 app on our mobile phones.

The Galanter and Jones radiant heating outdoor chair (shown above) on our backyard deck provides a great way to stay warm outside on cool spring and fall evenings. The temperature of these sleek, contemporary chairs can be varied from 80 to 120 degrees and set by a Control4 outlet timer to turn on at sunset and off by midnight.

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Living Room

Surround Sound System

In the living room we have installed a Sony 4K 65” TV supported by a 3.1 surround sound system with a center speaker bar from Triad and a left and right stealth speakers from Amina Technologies. Discreetly located inside the home’s front wall is an embedded subwoofer from SpeakerCraft.   The surround sound amplification and source control is provided by a Sony receiver located in a hidden AV rack below the stairwell.   The Sony receiver sources between Apple TV, Roku, and BluRay content.   The system is completely controlled by the new, sleek Control4 Halo universal remote controller shown below.

We also use The Dakboard digital signage platform to create the customized digital welcome screen that you see below for our AirBnB guests.

When viewing the living room TV from the kitchen bar or kitchen it can electronically rotate on a Future Automation motorized arm by 45 and 90 degrees to achieve the optimal viewing angle from these 2 angles.   In addition, once the TV is rotated from the wall it provides easy access to a recessed in-wall box that houses the Apple TV, Roku and Smart SnapOne power strip.

Whole House Controller and Music Amplifier

Mounted inside the Mid Atlantic AV rack below the stairwell sits the Control4 central processor that manages all of the home’s connected, intelligent systems.   At the bottom of this rack is the Control4 8 Zone Control4 Music Amplifier.  This amplifier provides independent music listening zones for the living room, kitchen, master bedroom, master bathroom, and backyard locations.   The Mid Atlantic Rack is mounted on drawer railings that allow it to be easily extended from below the stairwell for maintenance and upgrades.

Control4 Inwall Touchscreen and Keypads

As you walk inside the front door you will notice a Control4 10” touchscreen controller mounted on the stairwell wall.   From this controller you can control the whole house music, temperature, skylights, ceiling fan, TV, motorized shades, lighting, cameras, and much more.   The touch screen provides for complete control of the home’s entertainment, comfort, and security systems.   Below the touchscreen controller is a 6 button Control4 keypad that provides many of the same controls as the touchscreen in a push button keypad form factor.

Intelligent Ceiling Fan

Mounted on the high cedar lined ceiling is the Haiku intelligent fan.   The speed of this fan can be controlled by touchscreen, keypad, or voice.   It can also be programmed to turn on whenever the room temperature climbs above a threshold temperature to delay turning on the more electricity demanding air conditioner.

Intelligent Skylights

The 4 Velux solar motorized skylights in the ceiling provide fresh, cool air into the home.  These skylights also have embedded shades for privacy and lighting control.  The skylights and shades can also can operated by touchscreen, keypad, or voice control.

Motorized Window Shade

The Lutron motorized window shade on the living room and kitchen windows can be opened by voice control, the Josh AI puck on the wall, the nearby inwall touchscreen or the Control4 NEEO remote controller for the living room TV.   When an AirB&B guest walks into the showroom and says “OK, Josh I’m home” the shades are programmed to open, the lights turn on, the music softly turns on and the heating or AC turn automatically turn on to welcome the new guest.

Voice Control

On the wall next to the guest bathroom is the Josh puck microphone.   This intelligent voice assistant provides for voice control of almost all of the home’s electronic systems, including the TV, motorized shades, lighting, music, skylights, fan, and heating system.   In addition, it can serve as a rotating, physical control to precisely adjust the music volume, shade height, or light dimming level in the room.

Intelligent Thermostat Control

The Ecobee intelligent thermostat on the wall outside the guest bathroom provides full control of the heating, air conditioning, and fan inside the home.   With the remote smart sensors it can automatically adjust the heating and air conditioning output to balance the temperature between the first and second floors of the home.   It can also be controlled by the Control4 touchscreens or by voice.

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Kitchen and Guest Bath

Smart Kitchen Appliances

The Bosch and Thermador HomeConnect smart refrigerator, induction top stove, oven, exhaust fan, coffee maker, and dishwasher can all be controlled by a mobile app.  These intelligent Wi-Fi connected appliances enable a number of unique features, such as:   The oven can be remotely turn on to provide pre-heating, the exhaust fan automatically turn on when it detects smoke, the refrigerator can alert the homeowner if the door is left open, and the coffee machine can make custom coffee recipes that can be downloaded from a cloud based server.

We consider the Thermador HomeConnect Coffee Maker the “Sonos” of intelligent coffee makers. Thermador delivers unique coffee recipes to the kitchen from it’s built-in coffee recipes as well as dozens of additional recipes from CoffeeWorld, a cloud-based free service that delivers custom coffee recipes from around the world. Just as Sonos lets you create music playlists of your favorite songs, the Thermador coffee maker lets you create a coffee playlist of your favorite coffees so they can automatically be made one after the other at your next party. We use the new, sleek AVA universal remote in Kiosk mode for one touch control of the Thermador coffee machine (see photo below).

Smart Kitchen Faucet

The Kohler hands free smart faucet can turn of by hand gesture below the faucet spout or by voice. This faucet can automatically respond to a voice request to turn on or off, or to fill a container with a specified amount of water.

Air Purification System

The Broan Overture™ Air monitoring system in the kitchen, the first fully-automated fresh air system, uses sophisticated sensor technology to monitor the home's indoor air quality. When it detects a rise in indoor air pollution caused by increased humidity, VOCs, smoke, carbon dioxide and small particles (sometimes referred to as PM2.5), the system will automatically turn on the home’s guest bathroom ventilation fan to eliminate the pollutant.

Centralized Lighting Keypads

Throughout the Control4 Certified Smart home are 3 to 6 button Control4 keypads.   Each of these beautiful keypads are custom engraved to give precise and easy to use control of lighting, music, shades, and even the motorized skylights.   These engravings are back lit for ease of use during the evening hours.

Smart Toilet

The Kohler Veil toilets in each of the bathrooms are heated and provide a bidet like cleaning experience.   They are controlled by a wall mounted controller that can adjust seat temperature and spray levels for a personalized hygenic experience.   These toilets have become one of the most popular features for our AirB&B guests.

Smart Mirror

The Kohler Verdera Smart Mirror in the guest bath is Alexa voice enabled. Guests in the home can turn on or off the embedded mirror lighting or the light's intensity with simple voice commands.

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Master Bedroom and Stairwell

Bryte Smart Mattress Intelligent Bed

The California King Size Bryte Balance Smart Mattress helps you fall asleep faster and wake less often, unlocking restorative sleep. Simply scan the QR code on the nightstand, set your comfort, and relax with these amazing features!

Personalize your Comfort: From soft to firm, Bryte’s Dual Comfort Tailoring allows you to personalize your comfort on each side of the bed. 

Fall Asleep Faster: Somnify, Bryte’s library of sleep content, syncs gentle motion in the mattress with curated audio tracks to help you relax, unwind, and gently transition to sleep. 

Wake Less Often: Powered with Restorative Intelligence™, Bryte Balance Technology automatically senses and removes pressure imbalances before they disrupt your sleep. 

Wake Naturally: Silent motion in the mattress gradually wakes you from your sleep without disturbing your partner.

Sleep Insights: Use valuable insights on sleep duration, sleep stages, and sleep efficiency to help you better understand your sleep.

As shown below, the bed mattress's firmness and Somnify features can easily be adjusted using the touchscreen mobile keypad located on the bedside nightstand.

Home Theater

At the foot of the king size master bed sits a hidden 90” home theater system.   At the push of the Watch button on the Control4 universal controller on the bed nightstand brings down a motorized 90” Screen Innovations projection screen stowed in the cedar lined ceiling.   The LQ Ultra Short Throw laser projector turns on to display a beautiful 4K image.   With the touch of another remote control button the homeowner can easily select between movie, sports, or general TV watching content.   And when the OFF button is pushed on the remote the screen retracts into the ceiling and LG projector automatically turns off.

Smart Desk

The Realspace Smart Electric 48"W Height-Adjustable Desk in the Master Bedroom loft enhances work productivity and optimizes personal health and wellness needs. This smart electric desk actively works to enable anyone to sit and stand at the desired heights throughout a workday. The advanced technology lets one set movement goals, receive reminders from a compatible electronic device, and track fitness progress.

Screenshot (shown above) of the Smart Desk app showing how easy it is to adjust the desk levels. Alexa's voice assistant can also be used to easily change the height of the desk at anytime.

Push Button and Voice Control

Next to the bed is a Fibaro push button that is programmed to turn on the Kohler shower in the master bathroom, warm the towel bar, raise the motorized master bathroom shade, and slowly turn on the bathroom music whenever it is pushed. This customized scene allows the homeowner to wake up to a completely personalized master bathroom spa experience.   It can also be invoked by the Josh voice control microphone sitting on the bed nightstand.

Digital Picture Frames

The Netgear Meural 25” wood framed digital frames continuously display high resolution digital images that are stored in the internet cloud and downloaded to the picture frame.  These images can be high resolution digital art, personal photos, and even short video clips.   They can be controlled by a phone mobile app or even by hand gesture swiping up and down, or side to side, in front of the picture frame screen.  These frames have been mounted on the wall with the low voltage electric power lines hidden between the wall studs to give the appearance that these are a typical wall mounted pictures.

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Master Bathroom

Smart Electric Mirror

The smart TV/computer hidden behind the master bathroom mirror is provided by Electric Mirror.   When turned on this Android computer can display movies, sports, or the latest news.  It also can display a personal calendar, email, or morning traffic reports.   And with the touch of a button it turns off, completely hidden behind the mirror’s reflective surface.

Touchscreen and Keypad Control

As the homeowner enters the master bathroom they will notice the aesthetic 7” wall mounted Control4 touchscreen and keypad controller.   In a room with very limited wall space for control of lights, shades, music, floor temperature, and shades, these small wall footprint controls provide an easy to use interface to customize and personalize the master bathroom experience.

Hydrotherapy Shower

The Kohler DTV+ hydrotherapy shower is a computer controlled shower that allows the homeowners to experience a spa like shower experience at home.   Wall and overhead based shower heads can massage the homeowner with a warm shower spray most appropriate for the time of day and activity level - all controlled by an easy to use touchscreen control both inside and outside of the shower.

Heated Floor and Towel Rack

The NuHeat under floor electric heater and the Kohler Towel warmer provide warm, thermal comfort in the morning and evening.  These can be programmed to turn on and off at a specified temperature and time of day from a wall based touch screen controllers or a mobile phone controller app.

Pura Smart Aromatic Diffuser

The Pura aromatic diffuser in the master bathroom releases a variety of different pleasing scents, such as lavender and pine, on a predetermined schedule that can be easily programmed with the Pura phone application.

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Laundry Room

Smart Washer and Dryer

The smart Bosch washer and dryer can easily be controlled by a mobile phone application.   The homeowner can be notified when the wash or dry cycles are completed - or remotely turn on and off the washer and/or dryer.  They also can receive the optimal cleaning and drying instructions for a given washer or dryer load.

TV and Photo Frame

The amazing new Samsung Frame TV (in the background of the laundry room photo above) doubles as a beautiful digital photo picture frame as well as a great TV set - shown above in digital camouflage mode. The AirB&B guests can easily switch back and forth between the 2 modes from the Samsung solar powered remote controller.

Counter Top Projection

Samsung's new Freestyle Projector is used to project high resolution streaming video sites onto the desktop in the laundry room. Now while our guests are washing and drying their clothes they can catch the latest news, follow instructor led exercise, and even get clothes cleaning tips from YouTube!