Integrated Concepts was founded in the mid-1990s, serving the audio/ video, security and connected home needs of discerning clients throughout Fairfield County, Connecticut. Owner Rich Babcock offers precisely tailored solutions that address the unique needs of each customer. By creating a demonstration environment within a local home, Babcock is able to expose prospective clients to the newest technologies in an environment that is not at all intimidating.

From a video projector-based home theater to window treatments, advanced use of security cameras, home automation and whole-house entertainment, the Integrated Concepts show home is an ideal environment to highlight the ever evolving world of the connected home.

Having an appointment-only environment like a show home is very different from walking a customer through a retail store. Babcock first endeavors to understand some of the client’s specific needs so that when he arrives for their appointment, he is prepared to demo the proper technologies. The wholehouse entertainment platform in the home is based upon an Autonomic MMS-5A controlled within the Crestron environment. Babcock can demonstrate everything from a 20-inch, in-wall touchpanel, a 15-inch tabletop touchpanel as well as both iOS and Android portable devices using the Crestron Smart Graphics™ interface. Functionality is the same across all platforms, which Babcock indicated is important to his customers. There are architectural speakers throughout the home and an audiophile listening area adjacent to the upstairs master bedroom. Streaming services offered are Pandora, Spotify, TIDAL (premium versions) and TuneIn.


The upstairs listening space at the Integrated Concepts Show Home featuring an Autonomic MMS-5A and high-performance entertainment system.

This gives the customer an opportunity to explore the functionality of each service and the superb sound quality of TIDAL, especially in the upstairs listening system. Babcock feels strongly that demonstrating all of the services through a single intuitive interface helps entice his clients. “In order to deliver the desired streaming services, we used to employ multiple devices such as Apple TV and others. Now with Autonomic and their exceptional native integration with Crestron, everything has been aggregated into a single experience, including local content such as iTunes and/or large collections stored on external drives,” said Babcock.

Though he also cautions, “The key to success here is a robust home network—ideally, Autonomic operates on a separate sub-net to maximize reliability even when the kids are streaming video or taxing the network in so many ways.”

In the upstairs listening space, the Autonomic MMS-5A is connected via S/PDIF output to an exotic DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) preamplifier from AURALiC. This gives Babcock the ability to demo high-resolution digital playback and 192 kHz/24-bit files, as well as TIDAL lossless streaming, all in a single location. TIDAL is also available throughout the home on the architectural speakers. “You can make quite an impact on a customer by playing them better quality formats—much more effectively than talking about it in conversation. With Autonomic, everything is centralized so the demo is easy to grasp, full of colorful metadata, and the client can envision how this will fall into place in their home and in their daily lifestyle.”

Another innovation from Autonomic that Babcock leverages is the TuneBridge® feature, which enables users to map content by genre, artist or song type when they hear something they like at the touch of a button. “TuneBridge is brilliant; however, I typically bring my customers along slowly, and let them get The Autonomic MMS-5A with iPad interface at Integrated Concepts. “Autonomic is the best blend of entertainment and sophisticated home integration available. Something this good changes our world as integrators; it really makes a difference in how we present technology to consumers.” comfortable with Autonomic gradually before introducing the power of TuneBridge.” When it comes to wholehouse entertainment and justifying the purchase of an Autonomic MMS, I often tell my customers,“You are getting one of these; you will thank me for it later.”


The Autonomic MMS-5A with iPad interface at Integrated Concepts.

The interface is great, the firmware updates keep things operating smoothly—this is the solution that works no matter what size the system and regardless of which streaming services you choose. The Integrated Concepts show home offers a basement theater experience featuring 4K video and 4K video switching along with the latest HDCP 2.2 support. Autonomic streaming content is also available to be enjoyed in the theater.

 

About Autonomic 
Autonomic Controls, Inc. is recognized as a leading manufacturer of complete whole-house music systems. As innovators with a core competency for audio and control, Autonomic offers the ultimate standalone entertainment solution that is feature complete and compatible with popular control and home automation platforms. With an award-winning lineup of media servers, multi-room amplifiers, an intuitive app for Apple and Android devices as well as elegant, designer friendly in-wall keypads, Autonomic products have become the standard for merging local music collections and the most popular online streaming services such as Pandora®, Rhapsody®, SiriusXM, TuneIn Radio, Slacker Radio, Napster, Spotify, TIDAL, Murfie, and Deezer to be enjoyed throughout the home.