The Best Home Automation Innovation in the Country Right Here in the Capital Region!
Ambiance Systems Wins National Award!
Ambiance Systems winning project, was a customized fish feeding system for a client in the Adirondack region of New York. The client has an 800-gallon aquarium, modeled after the bottom of Lake George; the double-sided aquarium sits between the living and dining rooms and houses native bass. The bass eat live bait, feeding on smaller fish. The eight-foot high aquarium and its location in the house necessitated a feeding solution. Otherwise the client had to find a place to store the baitfish and a way to get them to his bass without lugging them through the house and climbing on a ladder to dump them in. The client proposed a feeding solution, in which the baitfish, housed in the basement, would be transported through a pipe directly to the aquarium above. Ambiance Systems collaborated with the contractors and created a program to operate the system
How It Works
An aquarium button was placed on the main navigation bar of all the 6” or larger home automation touch-screens in the house (35 total). When selected, the top buttons are for aquarium lights, which are also controlled via a time clock.
The middle portion of the screen is used to feed the fish from the 6th tank, which contains food pellets. There are two buttons. The pellet feeder can be selected manually or automatically, which will then feed the fish daily.
At the bottom of the screen are 5 buttons for each bait tank; an icon of a goldfish sits below the button if the corresponding tank has been stocked. When a “baited tank” is selected, the two-minute process begins. The fish go from the bait tank into an elevator tank, and then the elevator tank fills with water and is finally emptied through a pipe up into the aquarium.
A “progress bar” animation was created to let the client know things are in motion. The progress bar depicts a bass swimming across the screen in pursuit of its goldfish prey, culminating in the bass catching and consuming its quarry. It runs in a loop. When the process time is up, the gold fish icon disappears from below the button and the LED on the bait tank is extinguished. Finally a full-page video image from the tank camera pops onto the screen. Voila, the fish are fed
Marc Leidig, CEO and President of Ambiance Systems, is very excited but not greatly surprised about winning this prestigious award. “They had to give it to us. This system is so outrageous and unique and it really displays our ability to customize any home project.” Leidig continues, “We are all about giving the client what he or she wants or needs, this system solved a huge problem for them and it works beautifully.”
As well as winning the Innovation of the Year award. Ambiance Systems was named as a finalist in the Home of the Year category, which recognizes the best wholehouse automation Installation under $100,000.
Over the years, Ambiance Systems has gained a national reputation within the home theater and electronics integration industry. Ambiance's work has been featured in many publications including The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Home & Garden, Audio & Video Interiors, Home Theater Magazine, Robb Report, Custom Home Magazine, Custom Builder Magazine, Electronic House, and many more.
Ambiance Systems serves the Hudson Valley corridor of New York State as well as the Capital Region and the Adirondacks. Ambiance also routinely does projects in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Manhattan.
Founded in 1985 Ambiance Systems is the first company, of its type, to be established in Upstate New York. The company specializes in home theaters and media rooms, multi-room audio/video, lighting control, structured data networks, and systems integration. To read more about Ambiance Systems and the other services they provide, please visit the website, http://www.ambiancesystems.com.
