ListenUp Wins Four Major Industry Awards

In 2014-15, ListenUp won four major awards for the Colorado Mountain Home project:

• TechHome Ultimate Home of the Year over $300K from the Consumer Electronics Association
• Crestron Integration Award for Ultimate Connected Home Over $750K
• Lutron Excellence Award for Best Engineered System
• CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles® Award for Best Dressed System (the advanced home system with the best organized rack and wiring system).

The definition of “state of the art”

Featuring cutting-edge design, engineering and installation craftsmanship, this mountain home incorporates advanced home automation, security, and networking alongside a sommelier system, an acoustically isolated bowling alley, a geothermal ice and snow-melt system, and an audio/video lounge that’s acoustically optimized and isolated from the rest of the structure. The entire automation system, which includes 15 major home subsystems, can be controlled with the client’s iPad or by a wall-mounted touchpanel located in each room.

“The acoustic treatments and noise-isolation systems are truly state of the art,” says Ben Larkin, ListenUp’s technical services manager. “For example, the entire basement ceiling is a large floating mass that is completely isolated from the floor above, which keeps the sound from the bowling alley isolated from the kitchen. This part of the project was a massive undertaking and required months of detailed coordination between all of the contractors.”

The Lutron lighting and shading system features a rustic Ahwahnee lodge design using modern lighting control and bulb selections. The home network, whose design required several weeks of planning and coordination with Cisco Systems, is an enterprise-level system. Every inch of usable space in the home has reliable signal strength, ensuring solid performance for all mobile devices and laptop computers.

“These technologies are way beyond what anyone has ever seen up here,” says builder Arnie Surdyk of Double Diamond Property & Construction Services. “The whole geothermal ice and snow melt system is an amazing feature in a mountain home, and the home automation capabilities just take everything to a whole new level. It’s truly a showcase.”

“There were a lot of design, engineering, and project management challenges,” says ListenUp’s Ben Larkin. “Not only our guys, but all of the other trades, including Arnie’s crew, acousticians, a wine sommelier, electricians and many more combined to make this project a major success.”

We congratulate Denver store salesman Jeremy Gage, tech services manager Ben Larkin, and the entire installation and engineering crew on all the recognition of their notable achievement.