Tools: Wired homes offer glimpse of digital future

Wireless connectivity controls the "smart" home's many wired features.

By Christian Cascone
CNNdotCOM

(CNN) -- Lights, camera -- automation? Not the usual things you think of when you are planning for a new home. For wired-home builders, however, these are some of the first things installed right after the walls go up.

Home lighting that can be turned on and off from your office, security cameras that can be viewed from your Palm Pilot, and temperature controls that adjust while you're off on vacation are all part of new construction for the Internet-wired house.

But at what price?

George Ide, vice president of Digital Interiors in Atlanta, says the cost can vary.

ALSO Interactive games put you in the action     QUICKVOTE What wired home feature would you most like to have in your house? Remote lighting, climate and appliance controls Security equipment, including viewing from your wireless device Designated Home Theater room I'll leave the gadgets to Mr. Spock View Results

"For the basic wiring systems, the cost is anywhere from $1,000 and up. Then we have systems starting as low as $2,000 to put in the lighting, heating, air-conditioning and security controls. And it can go up from there."

Wiring a home for digital technology is getting easier and more accessible to the general public, but what does a family in the market for a new home need to get started?

"Well, probably the first thing you want to do is assess what kinds of needs that you have both for today and tomorrow," says Ide. "What kind of entertainment systems do you want to have, what kinds of communications, then you need to access your security needs, what level of security system you want."

From home theater to heating

From home theater systems with acoustically treated rooms, to lighting, climate, and security controls accessible from any Internet-enabled device, wired-home installations can do everything from ordering groceries online to warming up the hot tub while you're driving home from work.

"These kinds of things that are coming along are a little more futuristic, but the things we have here today -- the heating, the lighting, the security -- can be done now at a very reasonable cost," Ide says.

For some people, all this gadgetry might be just a bunch of gizmos and noisemakers. But others could end up wondering how they got along without it.

"You could use it to see the cameras over the Internet, as well as keep track of the nanny. And if you were letting in a contractor to do some work, you could watch them as well. You disarm and unlock the door for them with this system, all right from a portable PC, or from any PC connected to the Internet. And if you go on vacation, you can press the vacation mode -- it will turn off the lights and arm the security system," Ide says.

These are tools that are as unusual today as televisions and air conditioners were in the middle of the last century. But they are powered by technology that may some day be as common in the home as those other now seemingly indispensable gadgets.

CNN Correspondent Natalie Pawelski contributed to this report.

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Digital Interiors
Home Director, Inc
iHOME - A Cisco Systems Initiative

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