Founded in 2003 by Krystian Zajac as a business specialising in IT services, Andrew Lucas London has long since moved into focusing on home technology for ultra high-end residences, along the way receiving a number of accolades for its work from CEDIA, Lutron and ITSA.
This year sees another service launched in the form of an online design tool that allows homeowners to quickly scope out their smart home project and receive an instant, accurate estimation as to how much their dream smart property will cost.
The online quotation tool covers Andrew Lucas’ three main services: home cinemas, smart homes and virtual reality, with the idea being that users will be able to see how the sum could be split along a monthly payment scheme, allowing them to pay for their home over a period of time rather than having to purchase everything up front.
Those looking to add home technology to their next building project will be able to access the quotation platform directly from the Andrew Lucas site, where they can instantly generate a customised estimate for their home cinema, VR room or smart home for free.
“One of the main frustrations a typical smart home customer has is in understanding the ‘hidden’ costs that occur in a smart home project,” explains Krystian Zajac, chairman and founder of Andrew Lucas London. “Our new quotation tool brings complete transparency to the quotation process, letting our customers understand exactly what costs are incurred by certain areas of the smart home and allowing them to tailor their property to suit their needs – and their budget.”
Home Cinema
An Andrew Lucas home cinema is designed to meet any client’s entertainment needs, whether they be a film aficionado seeking perfect quality, or a parent looking for a space to relax in and watch the latest Disney films with their kids.
Although the specific products cannot be disclosed, the company’s fully furnished home cinema offering includes a professional projection system and screen (including 4K Ultra-HD projection system with HDR support options), acoustic treatment and 5.1, 7.1 or 3D audio speaker systems, (including hidden speakers), AV receiver, universal remote and climate and lighting control.
The cinema designs are created using virtual reality, giving the customer the opportunity to experience how it will look and feel and suggest any changes they might require.
“We will offer products from multiple manufacturers to suit the needs of the property owner,” Krystian tells CE Pro Europe, who also confirmed that once someone picks a package and gets the pricing, they can go ahead and purchase it.
“They will be able to pay a deposit and secure the order; in due course, we will also allow clients to pay for their smart home, home cinema or VR room with regular monthly payments over an agreed period,” he adds. “For home cinema we have three options on a sliding scale, based on price and functionality. All of these can be personalised with optional extras.”
All of the company’s smart homes, home cinemas and VR rooms are designed and installed by the Andrew Lucas team.
“For certain projects, we will also offer a virtual reality design service which lets our clients fully explore their project in VR and understand exactly what their smart home, home cinema or VR room will look like before installation begins,” Krystian clarifies.
The company works with design professionals and property developers on many of its smart home projects, including a number of smart home experts that can provide dedicated advice and support for design-focused enterprises wanting to incorporate smart home technology or virtual and augmented reality into their projects. Andrew Lucas London also offers RIBA-, BIID- and CEDIA-accredited CPDs for companies in Greater London.
Smart Home
For a smart home project, prospective homeowners can input the basic details of their property and select up to three packages: security, comfort and entertainment. These can then be personalised with several technology upgrades, finishes and additional control interfaces, with a price estimate adjusting in real-time to show the price of equipment and projected extra costs such as labour, cabling and aftercare.
“We offer both wired or wireless options for smart home packages, each containing a number of ‘essential’ products,” Krystian clarifies. “These are calculated to match the layout of the home.”
Included in this offering are intruder alarms, smoke and leak detection, indoor/outdoor cameras, video doorbells, heating control, smart lighting, motorised shades, voice control integration, unified control, as well as multiroom audio/surround-sound audio, video distribution and streaming a outdoor speakers.
Each of the solutions is modular, so the customer can start with a single-feature system (e.g. smart heating control) or choose a whole-house set-up. Meanwhile, the company’s dedicated App allows users to manage their entire property from their phone, from lighting and shades to home entertainment and security systems.
Virtual Reality
The company also offers a VR room service, which are dedicated spaces for VR entertainment (think a home cinema room, but for VR); these are fitted and installed by Andrew Lucas London. Meanwhile, Andrew Lucas Studios is the company’s VR and AR design consultancy service, which creates VR visualisations for design professionals and homeowners.
“This is also something we offer to other smart home installers that wish to provide visualisations of this sort to their own clients,” says Krystian.
The company’s VR room offering is described as a ‘wireless, backpack-based experience’ that includes high-end VR platforms and gaming PCs, as well as room-scale tracking technology, acoustic treatment, 3D audio speakers, plus, the virtual reality room can be fitted with extra technology to double up as a panic room. This includes blast-proof doors, hidden cameras, a reserve power supply, a separate phone line and a biohazard protection system that monitors air quality and filters out hazardous substances via the ventilation system.
This new tool will be showcased to the general public for the first time at Ideal Home Show this week, which takes place from March 24-April 9 in London.
Visitors will be able to try the smart home tool on the stand and design their own projects from scratch, as well as being able to try a number of systems that Andrew Lucas regularly integrates into its smart home projects. Andrew Lucas will run two virtual reality demonstration areas.
“Virtual reality can be an incredibly useful tool for clarifying in the customer’s mind exactly what an architect or smart home specialist is hoping to achieve,” comments Hamza Abbas, sales director at Andrew Lucas Studios. “A video flythrough or 3D render can offer a certain level of insight, but a VR experience is a much more realistic experience – with the added bonus of letting the prospective homeowner explore their property at a pace that suits them.”