From the light channel to the speakers: what a Watt Integration installation includes

A wall of dark wood slats, lines of light set into its grooves, and a pair of floor-standing speakers in front of it: the photographs above come from a Scottsdale installation the Watt Integration team published on its own Instagram in March. The finished frame is the one most people see. This guide is about the three that came before it, and what an installation includes when the firm doing the design is also the firm on the ladder.

What does professional installation include?

At Watt Integration, installation is carried out by the firm’s own field team and covers placement tested against the room, cables routed where they will not be seen, software updated, sources and the network connected, and one remote programmed to run everything. Floors are covered while the work is done, the packaging leaves with the team, and the visit ends with a demonstration of something the household already loves.

The same steps apply to a single speaker from the showroom and to a whole-home system. Placement is tested in the room rather than taken from the manual, because a corner, a window and a rug all change what a speaker does. The network is checked, sources are connected, and the software and firmware updates are applied before the first demonstration, so the system is current from its first evening. Then the team plays something the household already loves and adjusts until it is right.

How is lighting built into a feature wall without visible wiring?

The light source is a slim channel seated in a groove of the wall itself, with its wiring fed behind the panel before the finished face closes, so the wall shows a line of light and nothing else. On a lighting-control project Watt Integration carries that portion of the electrical work itself, so the fixture, the driver, the circuit and the tuned result are one party’s responsibility.

In the second and third frames the wall is open work: a white lead hangs from the top of the panel, a ladder stands against it, and a team member presses the channel into the groove with a thumb. Architectural lighting of this kind, cove details, edge-lit millwork, a line of light in a slat wall, asks more of the electrical work than a standard fit-out does. The drivers have to stay reachable, the circuits have to be grouped the way the scenes expect, the fixtures trimmed and aimed after the finishes land, and the walls patched better than the team found them. The fourth frame is the reason for the first three. The lead is gone, the ladder is gone, and the wall reads as a single surface with light in it.

From lighting to sound, we handle every detail.

Watt Integration, on Instagram

Who installs a Bang & Olufsen system purchased in Scottsdale?

Every purchase from Bang & Olufsen Scottsdale powered by Watt Integration can arrive installed. Installation is arranged at the counter on the day of purchase, and the same team that designs whole-home systems places, connects and tunes the speakers in the room, by ear and by meter.

Watt Integration has operated the Bang & Olufsen dealership in Scottsdale since 2015. A speaker chosen in the showroom can be placed, connected and demonstrated in the home by the same people who would design the lighting and the network around it, which is why one project can move from a light channel to a pair of speakers with one team responsible for both. The film below, from the Bang & Olufsen Scottsdale channel, follows a Beolab 28 installation in a client’s home.

After the installation

An installed system is looked after through WattAssure, which covers software and firmware updates in three tiers, Basic, Enhanced and Premium, and the in-person system optimization visit when one is needed. A home with an existing Watt system can be extended to additional rooms without replacing what is already installed, and the work suits new builds, remodels and long-finished homes alike.

Where Watt Integration installs

Watt Integration is a residential technology engineering and integration firm, founded in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2004, serving Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, Rio Verde and Phoenix. The speakers, lighting and shading it installs are running in the Scottsdale showroom, open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 5 pm and on Saturday by appointment. If a wall in your own home is waiting for its line of light, the conversation starts below.