“When you step off the elevator into the 8,000-square foot Savant Experience Center, it feels less like a showroom and more like a swanky Manhattan abode,” Morgan Brennan reports for Forbes. “‘We wanted to develop a space where technology blended in with the environment,’ says Robert Madonna, chief executive of Savant Systems, a Hyannis, Mass.-based home automation company. ‘We built a high-end New York City ‘apartment’ and…everything is automated.’”

“The Savant Experience Center, which took eight months to craft and opened in July, was designed by Thom Filicia of TV show ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ fame. It hosts a master bedroom with a walk-in closet, a loft-like living room, a Theo Kalomirakis-designed home theater, even a sports bar,” Brennan reports. “But the real draw isn’t the lavish layout (which also has a hotel room, an office and a classroom); it’s the technology that covertly operates the space. Every “room” in the center is automated by Savant Systems and easily controlled with Apple products like iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch-embedded remote controls.”

Brennan reports, “The technology works remotely from anywhere in the world. If you have an internet connection, you can control the home. Want the air conditioning running when you walk through the door on a hot summer day, flick it on using your iPhone.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Arline M." for the heads up.]