Giving awards and receiving recognition
ELAN a CEDIA finalist in two categories; company announces Home Design Award winners

INDIANAPOLIS - While receiving laurels at the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) EXPO 2001, ELAN Home Systems was handing out some awards of its own.

Two products from the Lexington, Ky.-based custom electronics maker were named finalists in CEDIA's Manufacturers' Excellence awards. ELAN's VIA! SC-4 System Controller was a finalist for Best Home Networking Product, and the VIA!Music CD Manager was a finalist for Best User Interface.

The original VIA! product, the VIA! Touch Panel, won last year for Best Electronic Product.

"We are not surprised that VIA! continues to get attention," said Paul Starkey, ELAN's executive vice president. "It is a 6.4" color LCD touch screen with fun, easy-to-use graphical 'buttons' that lets the homeowner control the home's systems. It is also a full-motion video monitor.

"With VIA!Music, homeowners can use VIA!s in the home to access and play their CDs. And with the VIA! SC-4 System Controller, the VIA! now controls it all-lighting, HVAC, security, you name it."

Meanwhile, ELAN announced the winners of its first Home Design Awards for outstanding design and installation of products in showcase homes. Dealers were selected in eight categories.

"We're proud of these dealers," Starkey said. "ELAN is at the top of its field, and these dealers are, too. High-quality installations like these show how innovative these installers-and ELAN's products-are.

Installation of the Year: Artistic Video & Sound, Coopersburg, Penn.
When Larry Scott met with homeowners to design a system in Bucks County, he was already dealing with satisfied ELAN customers. Building a 3,500-square-foot colonial addition over the original 3,300-square-foot home, they decided to update the existing HD Series system. The result was an impressive 24-zone (indoor and outdoor) HD system. The homeowner was so thrilled with the VIA! Touch Panels that seven were eventually added to the system. Other highlights of the system include VIA!Music Management and the system control software. (The children enjoy changing the door chimes for the seasons.) Congratulations to Scott and the installation team for a challenging and magnificent project.

Best AV/EC Installation: The Greater Alarm Company, Inc., Irvine, Calif.
This 3,000-square-foot home in Orange County is typical of Greater Alarm's outstanding work. The home takes structured wiring to an "active" living environment for its homeowner: Music is distributed in stereo to the living room and master bedroom, with mono distribution to the kitchen, upstairs hall and master bathroom. The home also features rear surround speakers in the family room, with full phone intercom features and front door camera integration of home theater interrupt for door chimes and paging. Exceptional wiring detail and superb speaker placement make this job truly professional. Congratulations to Jim De Marco and the installation team for a job well done.

Best Z·Series System: Audio Buys, Manassas, Va.
This 10,000-square-foot home located in Clifton, Va., captures the real essence of the Z·Series. The house's six zones use Z·PADs and VIA! Touch Panels, including a VIA!VALET stained to match furniture in the master bedroom. A large assortment of source equipment is used from all locations in the house, thanks to a full complement of Z·Series rack-mounted components. Outstanding attention to detail ties the keypads, touch panels and speakers to the very décor of the home. Congratulations to Barry, Brian and Sheldon Wittenberg, and the Audio Buys install team for a picture-perfect installation.

Best HD Series System: Structured Technologies, Tampa, Fla.
When a Tampa customer wanted the latest technology and an easy-to-use system for his 6,500-square-foot Spanish-style house on the bay, designer Jason Bellanti and installer Mike Ceglady turned to the HD Series. The house includes VIA!Music Management, eight VIA! Touch Panels, five Z·PADs and two 42" plasma displays. Congratulations to Structured Technologies for this beautiful installation.

Best Elite Speakers Installation: Audio East, Fort Lee, N.J.
A last-minute change by an interior decorator had Dennis Fotiu's installers looking for a replacement for bookshelf speakers in a 36' by 24' great room. ELAN's ELITE Series speakers fit the bill. The installation team stained unfinished 925 models to match the room's custom bookshelf. They dyed the 925s' cloth fascia grilles to match the wallpaper. But the speakers didn't just look nice-installers reported that the ELITEs sounded like an enclosed speaker, easily handling 65 watts of power. The speakers were also easy to install. Congratulations to Fotiu and Audio East for a clever solution to a tricky problem.

Best VIA! Home Theater Integration: TRI-Phase Custom Audio & Video, Indianapolis
A celebrity customer wanted his Bloomington, Ind., home theater system to be extremely easy to use and dependable. He had experienced other systems that seemed to work only when the dealer was there. Robert Haecker and his installation team used a VIA! Touch Panel-enclosed in a TRI-Phase custom-made console-to make sure the customer's worries were taken care of. The beautiful home theater is an example of exceeding the customer's expectations. Hats off to TRI-Phase.

Best Integrated VIA! Installation: A/V Concepts, Broken Arrow, Okla.
Maybe you can't fit a Wurlitzer on a motor home-but you can fake it with VIA!. Brian Hester's installation team installed a four-zone HD System on a $1.2 million "bus" for the Super Bus company. The cockpit of the bus has a VIA! panel to control the HD System or view the bus's rear camera. The basement of the bus features a VIA! panel above a plasma screen-set up to look like a Wurlitzer-to control the CD collection with VIA!Music Management. The bus GPS system is also active on the VIA!, so riders always know where they are. Congratulations to Audio Video Concepts on this innovative installation.

Best ELAN Essentials Integration: CS Security & Sound, Palm Springs, Calif.
Craig Snair's firm emphasizes clean, sharp installations. The 3,800-square-foot dwelling at The Reserve, a posh country club in Indian Wells, Calif., is a perfect example. Installing a six-zone Z· system with Z·PADs in each zone, Director of Operations Gary Hall was able to meet the customer's desire to control music with a complete array of ELAN products. Z·FAN, Z·POWER, PZ6 and ELAN speakers accompanied this Z·630, Z·660 and Z·600 installation. Hats off to the installation team for this clean and effective use of all basic ELAN components.

ELAN Home Systems is a manufacturer of high-end distributed audio/video and home automation systems based in Lexington, Ky. VIA!, VIA!Music, SC-4, ELITE Series, AV/EC, HD and ZoSeries are trademarks of ELAN Home Systems, LLC, Lexington, Ky. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.