Townhomes in New York City are known for their desirable locations, prestigious charm, and heritage design. That’s why renovations and retrofits must be undertaken with the greatest of consideration and care in order to preserve the residences’ unique characteristics. For a six-floor townhouse in Manhattan, a homeowner was looking to integrate a comprehensive whole-house audio, video, and closed-circuit television (CCTV) security system that could be easily accessed from anywhere inside the house. This created the need for a control system that could match the large location’s unique design features as well as the need for extremely intuitive operation. To satisfy these requirements, RTI’s forward-thinking home automation solutions were selected by Mattera Design Inc. to create a unique solution that brings powerful control to every area of the house.

“Because of the location’s upscale design, the components we selected needed to be friendly to the unique fixtures built into the residence while remaining extremely easy to use, since the home is also a high-traffic area with a constant stream of guests at any given time,” said Joseph August Mattera, owner of Mattera Design Inc. “Therefore, the system we implemented needed to be simple and intuitive enough for any first-time user to pick up and operate without any intervention from the homeowners. That’s why we turned to RTI. Their control interfaces are not only beautiful, but also fully customizable, allowing us to create something that is visually appealing and incredibly simple to use.”

Running across a total of six stories, the all-inclusive residential installation required powerful control processing that could be scaled to cover the entire residence. Using RTI’s innovative XP8s control processor as a main unit paired with an XP3 slave processor in each of six local rooms, the distributed solution effectively provided enough processing power to handle whole-house audio and a CCTV security system in addition to all sources running within the media rooms — including Samsung LED TVs and Blu-ray™ players, Apple TV^® digital media extenders, and Marantz^® receivers. Designed to automate the operation of electronic setups such as A/V, lighting, security, and HVAC systems in homes and office buildings, RTI’s high-end XP8s is specifically made to meet the need for performance-based processing and real-time multitasking while seamlessly facilitating any expandability requirements.

Distributed audio throughout the home is enabled by RTI’s AD-8x audio distribution system. Created to be the centerpiece of all-encompassing sound setups, the powerful audio distribution matrix switcher features the ability to route eight analog audio sources to eight different zones for full flexibility of movement and audio selection throughout different areas of the house. As a result, users can listen to different music sources anywhere in the home originating from components including the installation’s Sonos^® Connect streaming system and RTiDock iPod^® docking station.  

Using RTI’s award-winning RTiPanel app, users can operate audio/video and security systems directly from any of six iPad mini™ devices located throughout the residence. With the capability to track control status and functions of any other RTiPanel within the system, the user is able to maintain seamless control, even while moving from room to room. For enhanced security capabilities, guests can also view and control CCTV cameras straight from the RTiPanel app or via RTI’s KX7 in-wall touchpanel. Installed in the foyer of the house, the KX7 features a dazzling seven-inch LCD touchscreen that allows guests and residents to control the whole-house audio and view CCTV cameras — making all-inclusive home automation possible for anyone by simply tapping a screen. 

“The townhome is a perfect example of how RTI interfaces and control processors come together to create automation environments where users can totally immerse themselves in content and system control,” added Mattera. “Using tools such as two-way drivers and drag-and-drop programming software, any system or third-party component can be easily added to the control mix, unleashing power and functionality without increasing complexity for the user. Feedback from the installation has been extremely positive, both the homeowners and their guests love the system’s practicality and ease of use.”