At the beginning of March, Wave AV won the ‘Best Single Room’ award at the 2019 Control4 New Zealand awards at a swanky dinner in Aucklands Four Point Sheraton Hotel.

The winning room was a North Shore lounge-come-theatre which leveraged Control4s ability to simplify everyday tasks and bring the couple closer to their environment.

John, an Aeronautical Engineer and Heather, a retired Nurse are a couple with a few challenging needs. John is all but deaf, and Heather has a degenerative eye condition meaning her world is getting ever darker. They wanted a simple and easy to use room. “Big Sound” for John, “Big Screen” for Heather.

This lounge is a typical kiwi living space. It has to be able to perform multiple roles and perform them all very well.

During the daytime it is a space where Heather can relax with a book, the radio and the cats. In the evening it has to be bright enough for Heather to be able to see well without feeling cut off and when the couple want to entertain the grandchildren then it has to turn into a theatre at the push of a button.

Wave AV used Control4 to allow simple control of the room from an ever-familiar interface but it’s the autonomy that John and Heather love. Visual clues help John feel connected to the room and the rest of the house: no more missed guests at the door or leaving the doors unlocked at night and control of 9 circuits of lights with the push of a button.

They had never thought of having the TV and Projector in the same room but Wave AV showed them how to have the very best of both worlds.

In addition to the room functioning as a living space / theatre, John and Heather regularly host study groups for their local church. Allowing the room to function as a presentation space was tricky as we still needed it to be a lounge and be bright enough for Heather to navigate freely. We installed a local HDMI wall plate for John’s laptop and created a lighting scene that still allowed the screen to be seen easily but also allowed Heather to fetch cups of tea without tripping over unseen obstacles.

Heather:   “We wanted something easy but that did it all. Easy to use lighting with lots of options minimises the impact of my disability, currently my vision is ok during the day, but low light makes living a little treacherous”

John: “Especially for those in close range”

Heather: “but now the all the lighting is so easy and quick to use. Wave AV gave us everything we asked for and so  much more and Luke was such an ideas factory, we just love it”