Southwell Gardens, SW7
Court Lane case study
The Hornby family moved into their 6,000 sq ft, four storey Dulwich home
six years ago, having fallen in love with the full-size, antique snooker
table – which has its own, dedicated room at the top of the house
– and 200ft garden, among numerous other beautiful and distinctive
characteristics.
Not everything was perfect when they first arrived, however. The room that
is now a study, for example, had a rotten floor; the marble floor in the
hallway had become dull and lifeless with age; and many of the property’s
doors harboured bundles of unsightly cables around the frames.
Such undesirables prompted Jane Hornby - who has worked and trained as an
interior designer – to start developing plans to renovate and refurbish
certain areas of the house, while also considering the family’s home
technology needs, such as shared music and wide-screen TV.
The small details were equally as important as more significant changes.
Matching of the original stained glass windows in the living room and hallway,
for example, made the style consistent throughout, to beautiful effect,
as did the reversal of the alcove arch from the living room to the kitchen.
The kitchen was opened up by knocking down a 20ft wall, while the mezzanine
terrace was converted into a conservatory by removing the patio doors and
enclosing the area with glass. It is now a lovely spot to sit and relax
on the sofas, while feeling the warmth of the sun.
Before significant refurbishment began, Jane knew, from her interior design
experience, that the time was right to start planning and implementing her
family’s home technology requirements. She sourced Kensington Home
Technology (KHT) via a Google search for “media solutions”,
with additional providers not responding as quickly or comprehensively to
her request for a quote. Jane was impressed with KHT from the outset, due
to their extensive home technology knowledge, the attention to detail shown
in their project outline and their strong communication skills when dealing
with the numerous other contractors on site.
The basis of KHT’s solution was a combination of CAT 5 and coaxial
cabling star-wired back to a network patch panel located in the Central
Distribution Point (CDP) in the cellar. The CDP allows for the management
of the wiring and any necessary connections. The CDP also houses a broadband
router, allowing for internet access from any of the CAT 5 sockets.
Due to the nature of this refurbishment, which is focused on the ground
floor, KHT ran cables for the network throughout the ground floor. On the
first floor, the network ran up to the study and master bedroom suite. In
the games room KHT ran category 5 data cable outside the house down to the
CDP, to provide a hard-wired solution in case the wireless solution lost
performance.
As with all KHT installations, the solution at Court Lane is futureproofed,
allowing for straightforward implementation of new technology at a later
date.
Specific technology installed by KHT at Court Lane included:
5 x Sonos multi-room hi-fi base units and controllers, for the drawing room; kitchen; study; living room; master bedroom; snooker room.
The music for the Sonos system is stored on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) box, which doubles up as a backup drive for data files
2 x ceiling speakers in the kitchen and a single stereo speaker in the study; 2 x high level wall mounted Anthony Gallo Adiva speakers in the drawing room, dining room and master bedroom; 6 x Polk atrium 45s external speakers for the terrace and bathroom
For the living room surround sound system: 5.1 plus woofer Anthony Gallo Micro speakers
AV – In the kitchen a Toshiba 20WLT56 LCD Digital Television (20”); in the living room a Pioneer PDP 436 SXE Plasma Television (43”), Yamaha RXV357 surround sound amplifier and Toshiba SD360 DVD player
1 x universal remote control for the living room
Jane Hornby commented on KHT’s installation:
“From the beginning, KHT provided us with an impressive and comprehensive
quote, addressing all our home technology needs and always mindful of the
interior design of our home.”
“Having music in each room is a real pleasure, particularly having
the radio on in the bathroom each morning. Also, KHT’s provision of
hard-wired solutions for every room in case wireless fails, which obviously
does happen on occasion, means we have access to our home technology 99.9%
of the time.”
“All the family benefit, including the children, who regularly use
laptops to research and compile homework – teaching me and my husband
a thing or two on a regular basis! – and to look at favourite websites,
such as Cbeebies. We all enjoy the wide-screen televisions and multi-room
hi-fi - the Sonos controllers are a delight to use.”
“Above all, KHT are extremely good at what they do, and are such nice
people to work with,” Jane concluded.
For more information on Kensington Home Technology, please visit www.KensingtonHomeTechnology.com
or call 020 7731 4272.
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About Kensington Home Technology
Kensington Home Technology (KHT) was co-founded by Iain Brown, Malcolm Stewart
and Jason Vaughan in 2005 to provide bespoke, future proof electronics solutions
for the high end residential property market. The three founders have merged
their individual talents and specialisations from their respective industries
of building, electronics and IT, to create a business that is truly capable
of providing a total technology solution within the home, at an affordable
cost.
Due to its high success rate of being awarded contracts after an initial
meeting with clients, KHT will happily meet on site and produce a report
with an outline scope of works and budget guidelines within 48 hours at
no charge. All the company asks for is a set of plans and a room by room
wish list ready on site at the beginning of the meeting.
For further press information contact:
Sally Bratton of Bratton PR on T: 020 8582 1961 or 07930 301601, sally.bratton@brattonpr.com
17 May 2007
