What’s cutting edge today is passé tomorrow — and that’s a problem when it’s built into your house:
The problem comes when it’s time to upgrade all that technology—and all the plaster and drywall used to conceal it. This can be particularly painful when it comes to big audio-visual systems and “smart” home automation systems that control everything from radiant floors and humidity to light dimmers and pool temperatures.
When interior designer James Magni looked at renovating a client’s Los Angeles home, he quickly ran into obstacles.
The 1980s legacy AV system had hundreds of feet of expensive wiring hidden behind Venetian-plastered walls. “All the wiring went to the custom keypads, rather than being wired individually to the brain of the system, and all of it was outdated,” says Mr. Magni, who had to gently break this news to his client. “We had to rip everything out—at a huge cost—and start from scratch.”
John Myer, chief executive of MyerConnex installation in Washington, D.C., recalls putting three-gun projectors into media rooms for $15,000 and lighting systems with remote controls that had 100 buttons. Now he is installing iPads and off-the-shelf flat-screen TVs that perform better—and cost a tenth the price.
“The ’80s were the worst era,” says Mr. Myer. “All these manufacturers were developing proprietary systems that couldn’t talk to one another,” he says. “Those clunky pieces of hardware—intercoms, projectors—all ended up in the dumpster.”