CE Pro Magazine Award Best Rack 2015

sponsored by:

CE FEATURE BEST RACK INSTALLATIONS

CE PRO

constructing A

MEDITERRANEAN RACKS GREAT LOOKING

2015 MARVEL

Standing out among many standout Great Looking Racks entries, Cyprus-based Elytronic’s equipment room epitomizes this 4-year project’s effort.

BY ARLEN SCHWEIGER

W

E SEARCHED FAR

and wide for the best submission into this year’s Great Looking Racks contest, sponsored again by Middle Atlantic Products. In fact, this year’s awe-inspiring winner comes to us from the Mediterranean (as you’ll see, we also received a submission all the way

42

from Australia), where Nicosia, Cyprusbased Elytronic cooked up and hooked up a multiple rack system for a project that integrated 25-plus subsystems with more than 12 kilometers of cabling. It’s the result of intrepid design savvy and technical implementation for a job that began in 2011, with designs that included multiple revisions until the end of 2013 and proj-

ect delivery finally this year, according to Elytronic managing director Harris Epaminondas.

“These long and huge projects require very analytic systems design, which will help simplify the installation steps and make easier the integration with other external subsystems like heating, air conditioning, ventilation, mechanical systems, generator, etc. Our design package with the various add-on documents was well over 100 pages,” Epaminondas says.

Among the subsystems addressed in the project scope were: automation and more than 35 control devices; lighting and shades; distributed video; distributed audio, including outdoor audio, more than 90 speakers and multiple multichannel media rooms; security including fire/burglar alarm, surveillance and door/gate control; 50-plus HVAC zones; intercom; oil and water tank readings and hot water boiler control; managed networking and a dozen access points; mechanical systems (ventilation fans, water recycle pump); irrigation; and indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

As for the rack setup, there’s a 500-square-foot dedicated equipment room that houses four Middle Atlantic racks, with another two installed in other areas of the property. The equipment room also includes two of the 12 intelligent light-

CE Pro NOVEMBER 2015 www.cepro.com

Elytronic devoted a mechanical room to four of the residence’s six equipment racks, and included a temperature-sensing air conditioning unit controlled by the automation system to ensure the racks don’t overheat.

ing panels, and features a raised floor that understands technology and all of its benallows all the cabling to be routed and enter efits for simplifying his home and family’s below the racks. “This allows the installation daily lives. to be really clean and allow easy changes if Count the architect among those requested,” notes Epaminondas. Additionimpressed by Elytronic’s work, too. “The ally, a dedicated air conditioning unit resides architect jokingly admitted that the first in the room, controlled by the Crestron thing he shows potential new customautomation system and scheders is [this home’s] equipment uled to turn if the temperature FIND MORE ONLINE room,” says Epaminondas.

Go to cepro.com/ goes above a set threshold.

“He also shows this to explain racks2016 to view “I think the original design to new customers what kind of more photos from is now in its 30th revision,” system they should really add these Great Looking Racks as well as says Epaminondas, who adds, to their new home, and also detailed equipment however, that for such a big to explain what kind of equipinformation. project it helped that the client ment room is required.” www.cepro.com

NOVEMBER 2015 CE Pro

43

CE FEATURE BEST RACK INSTALLATIONS

MORE GREAT LOOKING RACKS

CE Pro received excellent submissions from a number of custom installation firms.

Here’s a look at the runners-up.

Boutique AV Solutions, Melbourne, Australia — “Proving to all that technology can be a work of art, we at Boutique AV set out to develop an elegantly designed A/V racking system that is aesthetically stunning either side you view it,” says Boutique’s Reuben Rego. The rack was custom designed and created by Boutique AV to incorporate a Dolby Atmos theater, distributed A/V, Cisco networking, NAS media management with A/V source components and active thermal management. The system has been completely integrated into an automation system to control the A/V, lighting and shading, and all audio wiring and interconnects were custom managed and crimped using AudioQuest cabling and termination.

“We continually pride ourselves in creating seamless perfection in quality and finishes that any client can appreciate, be it a novice or true audio visual enthusiast. All this has been achievable through Middle Atlantic’s custom racking system solutions,” says Rego. “They have allowed for us to custom build this rack with the front aesthetic appearance, rear professional cable management and serviceable functionality as we intended.”

Multi-Systems Inc., Vienna, Va. — This rack was designed with multiple goals, according to Multi-Systems’ Chris Caras.

First and foremost, he says, to house the property wide A/V, network and control system components for the best end-user experience possible. “We believe racks that look good inside and out make the systems they house perform better, last longer, and have greater reliability,” Caras says. “The symmetry of the rack is not just for good looks up front. This layout provides the most direct path for interconnect cables and plays into the power management, VLAN and ventilation scheme as well.”

All wires were placed strategically during the prewire for entry to the rack at the proper location based on what they would eventually connect to. Everything is labeled 44

properly, so all wires would be easy to trace and identify, which is especially important here with a large system encompassing 42 audio zones, 27 video zones with distributed video tiling, 16 audio sources, 20 video sources, 64 1080p surveillance cameras with five DVRs, and two remotely located auto-switching video DJ jacks.

Automated Lifestyles, Bettendorf, Iowa — This A/V system features an elevated audio rack that is grounded with 3.5-inch thick solid maple plinths floating on three brass spikes coupled to a sub-chassis of hard maple coupled through the legs with brass points and rods, according to Automated Lifestyles’ Duane Randelman. The setup utilizes an ionic grounding system that only has a 0.5-ohm load on the ground, lowering floor noise by 40dB, and can sustain a 10 million amp lightning hit, adds Randelman. Equipment highlights include a Pro-ject Debut III turntable, Exemplar T105 Universal vacuum tube player, Musical Design Chameleon Elite preamp and Essence Jasper III monoblock amps.

CE Pro NOVEMBER 2015 www.cepro.com

Telstar Integrated Solutions, Glen Cove, N.Y. — This rack was designed for a residence showroom put together from start to finish on a 30-day deadline, explains Telstar’s Kurt Cornelis. This equipment rack runs a series of eight sources viewable on eight HD displays, giving the ability for customers to view room layouts integrated

on iPads, sales DVDs on loop or view live progress of the site from four IP cameras integrated to the system. The entire system is run on a Control4 platform from touchpanels and keypads to give ease of use to the salespeople every day. The rack houses all networking for the entire building as well as controlling 25 lighting loads and six zones of HVAC. Sound & Vision, Columbus, Ohio — The three-rack system here, according to Sound & Vision’s Reise Wiggins, maintains everything for a project comprising 26 zones of distributed video, 29 zones of distributed audio (including Paradigm speakers and three zones of Sonance landscape speakers); a main home theater with a Screen Innovations 175-inch motorized Slate screen and

www.cepro.com

84-inch LG UHD TV, plus Dolby Atmos system of 11 Triad speakers and two JL Audio subwoofers; as well as two more 5.1-channel theater rooms with Paradigm speaker systems and Marantz audio gear. CE Pro

NOVEMBER 2015 CE Pro

45