it'd be easy to argue that we're in the
golden age of entertainment never before
have we had so many options at our
fingertips but with all these
possibilities the modern home is faced
with a number of problems content spread
across multiple devices different apps
and various streaming services our home
of the future should be able to bring
all of these options together into one
simple and intuitive interface that
should be fun to use as well so how do I
turn the TV on Alexa
[Music]
look there's a lot of components that go
into modern entertainment systems
there's the TV speakers gaming consoles
streaming devices even virtual reality
headsets that's a lot of power
Ethernet and HDMI cables to wrangle the
challenge for our technology integrator
Pete Sanford and his team is to make all
of that disappear the goal when you have
a system like this is to masquerade as
much as possible and make it real clean
so we've got everything hidden all the
speakers are in ceiling we've got a Roku
in here of PlayStation for a Nintendo
switch our surround sound receiver
powering all of our speakers and
subwoofer and so knows for music
management all the wiring is connected
inside this credenza and runs straight
to the back of the TV when it's turned
off the TV doesn't have to be a
rectangular eyesore on the wall we can
program it to display a piece of art
seamlessly folding into our interior
design there is one thing that has
disappeared though which to be honest
threw me off the first time I sat down
to use of TV there's no remote it's not
just hidden it's gone at home I've got a
drawer you know in my Heat we all of
that drawer yeah it's got like six
remotes in there yeah and then you know
when you want to do something you have
to open up the drawer like a Kuwait this
look and then this mode and yeah we
remove all the stock remotes because
it'll force the clients to you know
adapt to their new system but it'll also
kind of prevent them from hitting a
button that might put them in the wrong
mode or cause them to lose audio or lose
video and things just get out of sync so
you're really making the system more
efficient and forcing the client to just
dive right in and you know learn how to
use it the right way
this iPad is running a system called RTI
and besides controlling our
entertainment system it's built to
control all the functions of our home so
here we are this is your remote okay so
we'll be able to do everything and
operate all of those individual pieces
of equipment just using this one
interface so since we're in the living
room we'd go ahead and choose that icon
and then we have our list
I choose Netflix and it'll go right into
Netflix and we can then go in and choose
the options that we have here for for
viewing there's a lot of button pushing
here and this is the home of the future
yeah I feel like I should be able to do
something like voice control oh yeah
can I interface that way yeah and
there's a lot of options for voice
control we built a page here under the
icon Amazon Alexa just to kind of give
you a few examples Alexa tell home
Butler to set the living room to Hulu
okay and now we're watching Hulu since
everything is connected through this one
system it does allow for what's known as
macro commands so I could say hey Alexa
tell the home butler to set the living
room to movie mode which will turn your
TV to Netflix while dimming your lights
and kicking your a/c on and in our
limited experience playing with it the
controls work well but currently the
Roku API doesn't allow you to simply say
play the next episode of your favorite
show you end up still needing to poke
through some sort of virtual remote
control on the iPad and to be honest
using the system for the first time
folks pretty clunky the iPad is just a
lot more cumbersome than traditional
remotes now it is possible to install
RTI on your phone but the much smaller
screen means you only have a few of the
buttons easily accessible for your
smartphone while it's important to bring
all these controls into one system I
think the next step for the future is
designing a more seamless experience
one thing our universal remote does
excel at is how we play music throughout
the house the best feature
knowing where the limits are we've
created a shortcut page here on our RTI
app so the left side we've got our
different areas we've got our bedroom
our Atmos surround sound system in the
living room our office play 1 and then
our Sonos connect which is feeding all
of our outdoor patio speakers I see it a
lot of what look like radio stations on
here but what if I have my own personal
playlist so this is really just your
shortcuts right so if you were our
client we would have that as a shortcut
on here your favorite playlists your
favorite stations but we're not going to
try and rebuild what Sonos has already
done so over here we put this little
Sonos button which if we press that it
pulls us right into the Sonos app and
it's nice because it's very intuitive
very easy to use and this is where you
would get all of that additional detail
that you're talking about specific
playlists music stored physically on a
device right on the network that's what
I do I download all my music I like to
keep it with me so nurse does for our
music what's still missing for our video
it brings all of our media and streaming
services into one intuitive and seamless
interface partly thanks to its open API
that's a big reason why we chose it over
other sound systems it even has solid
Alexa support so using voice control
feels like a complete experience and it
allows us to play different media in
different rooms all at the same time
including outside
here in our outdoor patio zone we have
music only so there's no AV out here to
worry about but this is probably gonna
be the area where people entertain a lot
okay so we did a real nice outdoor audio
system here full range speakers I think
you're really gonna like it all right
play some of that royalty-free music
sounds good right that sounds amazing
yeah so it's all full range so you're
getting a lot of bass whereas normally
you would not get this much bass look I
know it's hard to get a sense of this
from just watching the video but having
this bass sensation indoors is something
I'm used to having it outdoors in a
garden is a totally new experience that
full range bass is thanks to this weird
mushroom shaped device sticking out of
the landscape it's just the tip of
what's known as a subterranean subwoofer
so this subwoofer is buried underground
so pre-construction when we're still
working on the place we dug a real deep
hole a three feet wide 3 PP in order to
cover a decent amount of space and
really feel the bass outside you'll need
a pretty large speaker keeping the bulk
of this buried underground hides what
could be an eyesore cables run
daisy-chained underground to additional
speakers placed in the landscape and
positioning those speakers is an art
unto itself facing towards the house to
create the optimal experience for us and
for our neighbors we don't need as many
speakers and we're able to contain the
sound better in the yard you're creating
a zone of audio this little patio and
the further out that you get you just
hear the volume level drop can you give
me a demo yeah yeah I'll show you let's
try it out
this is kind of like where our line is
yeah yeah and it's all facing this way
oh yeah it actually does get noticeably
quieter it's like you know leaving a
dance club or whatever you still hear it
yeah you've walked out you've left the
room and it's not in your face and it's
not jamming out on you
now to be clear this definitely isn't
any kind of soundproofing and when we
were blasting music I'm sure some of our
neighbors weren't super pleased but for
me these speakers felt like a great
example of Technology working at its
best they actually feel a little like
magic blending into the landscape while
creating real sonic power beneath our
feet
and while the iPad control feels less
optimal for our visual setup using it to
play audio with just the sound of my
voice feels effortless which is what
home entertainment is at its best
effortless the ideal entertainment
experience of the present and the future
is one where the apparatus truly falls
away the tech is intuitive and
streamlined headache and hassle free all
that's left to focus on is the
experience itself the perfect end to a
long day thank you so much for watching
now while I'm living the dream here in
this home of the future how are you
bringing the future into your home let
us know in the comments below and we'll
see you next week with a brand new
episode