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Kensington Home Technology has been featured in The Sunday Times, as their Tech Consultant under the banner 'Ask the Experts':
I'm about to refurbish my home and want to set up a hi-fi system in the bathroom as well as other rooms (including the kitchen and main bedroom). Is there a system that has waterproof control buttons? Firstly, when installing electrical equipment in wet areas it is important to seek advice from a NICEIC (niceic.org.uk 0870 013 0382) approved electrician. There are not many companies that manufacture waterproof and splash-proof infra-red remote controls. You can use your existing remote but it will break if it gets wet. Also it will only allow you to control your hi-fi from the bathroom if you have line of sight from the remote to your hardware, which is not always possible. You can get round this by installing an IR extender, prices start at about £99 (www.russound.com 01242 539100). The best solution, if you want a waterproof remote and do not have line of sight to the hi-fi, is to use a radio frequency (RF) based controller. RTI have a simple but powerful waterproof control www.rticorp.com which will transmit up to 100ft and doesn’t require line of sight to work. RTI products are distributed in the UK by Aventure (www.aventure-europe.com 01347 812310), priced from £250. This control is programmable so could also be used to control a bathroom TV, lighting, etc. depending on which systems you have installed. There are a wide range of products which will allow multi-room audio, but you need to make sure that the hardware and speakers that you use are appropriate for installing in a bathroom. Speakercraft has a range of products which would be suitable, so you could speak to their UK distributor CSE solutions (www.csesolutions.co.uk 01423 359054) about a reseller in your area. Prices start from about £1500. For general advice about multi-room audio and remote control speak to CEDIA (www.cedia.co.uk 01480 213 744) who will recommend a custom installer in your area who, in turn, will be able to suggest appropriate products. Malcolm Stewart is co-founder of Kensington Home Technology, a custom installation company e-mail your questions to propertyexperts@sunday-times.co.uk |