Northshore Magazine

ne Smart House Savvy System Behind a simple façade is a hightech solution. tech trends Seven Up One company offers creative solutions to combine high-tech and high style at home. By Nigel F. Maynard ten years ago, the high-tech feature du jour among affluent homeowners was the home theater, a dedicated movieviewing great room that was tricked out to look as good as (in some cases even better than) your local multiplex. Theo Kalomirakis made a name for himself designing such theaters, rooms that would make even Walt Disney jealous. These days, consumers are opting for multiuse media rooms that can morph into something else. It's all about flexibility, control, and mobility. People want to stream music in the shower, control 50 nshoremag.com March 2014 KJ NS Mar14 SmartHouse.indd 50 blinds from their tablet, watch a movie on the porch, and maybe even unlock the door with a phone. When you're looking to add these features to your home, you're looking for an outfit like Bostonbased System 7. "We are a systems integrator, so it's not a product," says Gerard Lynch, president of the 10-year-old company. "We design, install, and support various home electronic systems." System 7 specializes in openstandards-based systems, which means anything that connects to a network. "These days it's the way all technology is going, whether it's streaming movies to a television, streaming music to your kitchen, or having the ability to control your lights, thermostats, and shades," Lynch explains. "With extensive knowledge of openstandards-based technologies and emerging technology trends, we help eliminate concerns about overspending on proprietary systems while ensuring that you are investing in the right digital infrastructure for now and for the future," he says. The company's bread-and-butter work is with high-end custom homes. "One of the things that makes us different from other integrators is we have actual architects on staff, and we do a lot of design work," Lynch says. "So people come to us in the early stages of a project and say 'How do I design all of the technology for my home?' Architects are beginning to realize just how important that is." Having architects on staff allows the company to seamlessly integrate all the technologies into the home design. That's important, because consumers want all the whiz-bang gadgetry the technology provides, but they don't want to see the wires, equipment, and keypads. "Our main goal is to make things as simple, reliable, and aesthetically goodlooking as possible," Lynch says. In a typical installation, the company hides the "brains"—consoles, routers, modems, boxes—in the mechanical room but makes everything else seemingly disappear. As a result, Smartphones and tablets control lights or music; speakers are practically invisible; and thermostats are hidden behind paintings. Other hot home electronics features now trending? For System 7, believe it or not, a couple of primary drivers are lighting controls and motorized shades. If you haven't got $250,000 lying around, System 7 works with different budgets. "There are Hyundais and there are Bentleys," Lynch says—solutions for every budget. The company also does a fair amount of work for retrofit situations. It's not ideal, but it can accommodate such situations. "There are only a few percentage points of the housing market that are new each year, so we get a lot of calls for retrofits," Lynch says. "We leverage more wireless technologies. It's never as easy as a green-field construction site, but there are plenty of strategies." systemseven.com photograph by katlyn o'hara 1/15/14 2:37 PM

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