Each month, LuxeSF profiles a member of The Luxury Marketing Council. This month we talk with Alfredo Zaparolli, President and CEO of Techlinea, Inc. the Bay Area's leading player in the silent but emerging world of Smart House technology engineering, particular as it applies to the luxury home.

LUXESF: May we have some background on Techlinea?

ZAPAROLLI: Techlinea is a design firm that specializes in electrical design, lighting design and Smart House technology. We've been in business for 21 years.

LUXESF: What is a Smart House?

ZAPAROLLI: A Smart House is a house that integrates all of the existing systems: electrical, lighting, security, telecom-data and HVAC so that they communicate and function as one efficient system. People don't realize how much automation there already is in the average home.

LUXESF: Such as? What's automated in my house right now?

ZAPAROLLI: Virtually everything -- your garage door, faucets, toilets, lights, microwave, stereo system, security system. From the moment you wake up or enter your house you're relying on automation. You have everything that you need for a Smart House. What you don't have is integration, the interpreter that takes all these guys and says, "Hey, let's all work together." And when you do that you get a much more efficient lifestyle, convenience, and safety.

LUXESF: So what will comprise a Smart House in the future?

ZAPAROLLI: Much more energy management, computer based interfaces that provide the ability to control systems from anywhere; Wireless technology is also coming on strong. Distributed audio and video, and services on demand in any given room will be virtual mainstays of smart homes.

LUXESF: What else beyond energy conservation and media?

ZAPAROLLI: Security, surveillance, window treatments, telecom data ... Smart Houses have the ability to integrate all of these systems. If you're at home and you hear something outdoors, you press a button and it turns on the perimeter lights and allows you to monitor your property's surveillance system via television or a monitor vs. exposing yourself to a possible intruder. The property is protecting you instead of you protecting the property. In the event of an emergency; say somebody has an accident, you can press a button and it calls emergency services causes the entry lights to flash, gates to open, and allow emergency services quicker access. Arming a house -- when you're leaving, you enter your code and the security system talks to the lighting system and makes sure that all the lights are off. It looks at your windows, your skylights or anything electronic and makes sure that they get turned off because it knows that you're not home anymore.

LUXESF: Why is this taking off now? The technology is not all that new.

ZAPAROLLI: The technology has been around a long time. The reason it's taking off now is because it's becoming more affordable, people are beginning to understand it, and there are more things to integrate. With the advent of home computing, it's only natural. Much of home technology is linking to the computer, and the computer is becoming the control hub in our homes.

LUXESF: What else?

ZAPAROLLI: Resource management, heating cooling, water management. For example, if you have integration and it's raining, the system knows not to water. Sun sensors control lights and shades for temperature comfort. Telecom data are huge these days. Everyone wants to be connected to the internet. And, controls, virtually all day to day electronics can be controlled via infrared, radio frequency or computer based protocols, it just depends on what you need. Again the issue is convenience, almost everything comes with a remote control, wouldn't you prefer just one remote for everything?

LUXESF: And presumably lighting is interwoven throughout all of this.

ZAPAROLLI: Lighting for us at Techlinea is the core of our services. We are a lighting design and consultation firm; all of the other systems are ancillary to this core service. We integrate lighting with other systems because it makes sense. Our primary goal is to design lighting systems that not only accentuate the architecture, but provide a safe and comfortable environment. Lighting control systems are essential. They help create moods, control energy and are capable of communicating with many existing electronic devices in the home, for example: If you have a home theater, you can program it so that when you turn on your TV, the lights automatically dim, shades close, screen drops, and equipment operates all from one command to the lighting system.

LUXESF: How did you get into this business?

ZAPAROLLI: Initially I was a systems engineer for automated building controls -- fire and safety systems. Eventually I got tired of designing systems that I hoped nobody would have to use so I became an electrical contractor. In the course of doing that, I realized that there was a huge disconnect between what's designed on paper and what's real in the three-dimensional world. Lighting was a very new industry at the time. There wasn't a lot of technology and there weren't a lot of resources so there were a lot of mistakes being made on the design side. As an installer I saw a lot of those mistakes and decided there had to be a better way. I educated myself on the science and art of lighting design and became enamored with it. I started Techlinea in 1985 and ran it concurrently with my electrical contracting firm for about six years. We moved into the Smart House business in the early ‘90s. That's when I started realizing that it made sense to integrate audio, video, security, HVAC and lighting.

LUXESF: What separates Techlinea from the herd? How sophisticated is this industry right now?

ZAPAROLLI: I'm not aware of anybody else in Northern California who does precisely what we do. If you took our entire in-house skill-sets and broke them down, you would need 10 companies to do what we do. There isn't another firm that designs, integrates and manages the installations of all these systems. We're not installers, and we don't sell anything other than our designs.

LUXESF: An average design consultation would look like what and would cost how much?

ZAPAROLLI: Well, there is no average. That's a question that people ask all the time. There is no average because there is no average house ... there is no average client, remember this is a custom luxury market; everybody wants something unique. If pressed I'd say a rough estimate for a lighting system in a 15,000 square foot house would run $4 - $6 a square foot. If you add systems integration, it goes up. If you add home theater, it goes up more. Again, the service is unique to each project.

LUXESF: Let me rephrase the question. Give me the low, middle and high price point of installations that you've done.

ZAPAROLLI: There is no identifiable low, middle, and high price point, give me a budget and your requirements and I'll tell you what we can do with it. The largest project we've ever designed was installed for about $1.5 million. It included electrical engineering, sophisticated lighting & lighting control system, a specialized HVAC system, telecom data, audio-video three media rooms, Biometric security & surveillance, electronic widows, shades and skylights -- virtually everything was integrated.

LUXESF: That doesn't seem to be a lot when you consider media systems alone can run half a million dollars or more.

ZAPAROLLI: Sure. And we've designed theater systems that cost that much and more, and that's the point, when you consider that price for everything engineered, designed and installed, its not as expensive as people think.

LUXESF: The smallest job you've done?

ZAPAROLLI: That would probably be my house. It was a small project, but it has everything that I need In terms of convenience and it has some pretty nice automation features. But, the only thing that you would really notice when you walked in my house would be the 50" plasma. Other than that, all the technology is virtually invisible.

LUXESF: So, if I walked into your house, what would you have that I don't have?

ZAPAROLLI: Probably the most significant outstanding feature of my house would be the ability to create romantic ambiance at the touch of a button from anywhere in the house. But the key technical feature is the internet based security surveillance system. It's tied to the Internet so that from my office I can monitor my house, and from my house I can monitor the office. I also have a nice surround system, 6-zone audio-video distribution system that is controlled by keypads in every room and a radio frequency lighting control system. It's a small home, so all these things are neatly tucked away. Technology is for convenience, not to make a statement about the house.

LUXESF: Why is Smart House technology getting hot right now?

ZAPAROLLI: It' s incredibly hot because there is so much technology available for home these days and the major players like HP, Microsoft, and Apple know that it's just a matter of time before somebody creates the new "thing" for the home that everyone has to have, just look at the iPod. Any technology connected to the house and the internet is hot.

LUXESF: Where do you get your leads?

ZAPAROLLI: For the first 15 years of Techlinea's existence all of our work was by referral from clients. Now that we've grown we've started marketing to interior designers, builders, and architects. Architects are our primary marketing target right now. They're designing the types of homes that need our services.

LUXESF: Commercial versus residential -- how does your business balance out?

ZAPAROLLI: We are dedicated to luxury homes. That's virtually all we do. The only way that I get involved in a commercial project is if it's something that seems like it's going to be a lot of fun, like a restaurant or a hotel. We've done several hotels. But we don't seek out the commercial market.

LUXESF: The most unusual installation you've designed?

ZAPAROLLI: There are several. The one I enjoyed most was when we were hired by a client to design the sky in her children's rooms with fiber-optics to simulate the stars and the sky on the night they were born. That took a lot of work.

LUXESF: Y our current marketing strategy -- how are you getting your prospects?

ZAPAROLLI: Right now, our marketing strategy is education. Because there are so many systems out there, we've decided to educate architects, builders and designers as to what's available and how best to use them. Remember, most people are still afraid of home control technology. They fear the price and the complexity. Once they determine what they need and they learn about the convenience and energy savings that can get, they end up seeking us out.

LUXESF: What are you doing to generate leads?

ZAPAROLLI: Well, currently we're focused on our digital lounge, it's above our office where conduct regular seminars for our peers. We call on architects and network a lot via seminars and mixers. Real Estate agents are becoming an incredible resource. They're connected to everybody who is in the luxury home-buying market.

LUXESF: When a customer sits down with you, what tends to excite him/her the most?

ZAPAROLLI: Lighting, home entertainment and energy savings. Lighting is the ambient feature of the house; it's also an entertainment feature, a safety feature, and statement of lifestyle; next in demand is obviously music, followed by video and computer-data. Energy savings comes with integration and keen design.

LUXESF: Why did you join the Luxury Marketing Council?

ZAPAROLLI: I joined because I want to network with people who are successful and who do business with successful people. I feel that successful people exude an energy that is palpable. I'm also looking towards building relationships and friendships as a way of leveraging our marketing skills and techniques with those of other successful business people.

LUXESF: One final question. How do you gauge success with that customer?

ZAPAROLLI: Well, success for us is always a satisfied client. We do this for a living, but the real success of the business is in making dreams come true and creating relationships that go on for years.