Room-to-room intercom also figures into the Russound system. Homeowners can call from one room to another, issue a whole-house page, and put a red flag on a room that’s being monitored to maintain privacy. “With Collage, you can offer the same multiroom audio and intercom and have no up-front investment in the house,” Stein says. Builders can also put Collage on their feature lists and even put a demo system into a model home to let customers see it in action. “If a customer says, ‘I’d like it in these three rooms,’ at that point you have an electrician put the system in,” he adds. “The builder has a feature he can sell without any up-front expense.”
A hard-wired system will always be the preferred solution when running wires is viable. But a no-new-wires approach allows flexibility in cost and ease of installation. In the past, power-line technologies such as X10 were associated with hit-or-miss transmissions, due to interference on the power line. Then several well-known technology companies formed the HomePlug Alliance to develop reliable standards for communicating over power lines using a higher frequency that’s immune to interference. “People think of X10 and Clapper products when they think of power-line communications,” NuVo’s Rodarte says. “It’s one thing to command a light bulb, but to send down high-fidelity music is totally different. The ear is unforgiving to a skip or a miss; HomePlug overcomes those issues.”
Costs for a power-line whole-house music network are expected to price out less than hard-wired systems. According to Rodarte, equipment costs will be higher than traditional multiroom equipment, but the total installation should be less because installers won’t be running wires and then repairing walls. Stein says Collage could cost half as much as a wired system, depending on the features. The real advantage, he adds, is in the installation. “If you can go in and not disrupt people’s lives and get systems in, then you can sell it on Monday and get your final check [by] Wednesday. There’s a whole new business opportunity for installers and builders to exploit.”
—Rebecca Day specializes in writing about home electronics.
She can be reached at this address: customhomerd@aol.com.
