The annual Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) awards were created to honour innovation, creativity and technical skill, to illustrate the numerous ways technology can enhance the home. As Zach Broadhurst reports, there is one New Zealand company making big waves in the home and but bigger waves on open water.

Based in the city of Auckland, NZ, Liquid Automation is a small integration outfit that isn’t afraid to take on some of the biggest challenges in the industry. From living rooms and offices, to casinos and yachts, it is quite familiar with tailoring and installing its systems to a large range of projects.

Previous winners of a number of CEDIA Asia Pacific awards, Liquid Automation has taken a massive step forward this year to become the first company from the region to take out not one but two CEDIA global awards, wining both the Best Special Project and Best Design and Documentation awards for its work on the super yacht Mondango III.

Liquid Automation director Stephan Goodhue sees these awards as a positive for both his company and the region as a whole.

“It’s great, because it puts us on the world stage,” he says.

“There are a lot of international people coming down to New Zealand, and it’s good to know that when they arrive there are integrators here that are capable enough to do the work they require. This way they don’t need to bring their own people down, which is what they’ve done in the past.”

Over the past 10 years, Liquid Automation has largely become synonymous with marine installations. In fact, very few companies have been as successful in this space.

Integrated systems designer Sam Ashton explains just how much equipment was used during the project, highlighting how efficiently and at times creatively all available space must be utilised.

“There were AV systems, Crestron DigitalMedia for our video distribution, Lutron lighting and a fully managed network with Ruckus WiFi,” he says.

“We integrated everything from lighting to audio, to video and navigation control. On the bridge, we had a separate DigitalMedia switch so they could connect all their different nav sources.

“The boats are big, but space is still an absolute premium and you always have to fight for any space that you can get. Quite often we are using any space we can find to install smaller racks around the boat and there are definitely some creative rack building techniques used to get into some of those spaces.”

Sam explains that one of the few issues the team at Liquid Automation had to face during the completion of this project was with the speed at which technology is changing. A project as big and intricate as the Mondango III can often take two to three years to complete from original concept to design, to finished product. This is of course enough time for things to become outdated in the current technology landscape.

“This project started with Crestron iPod docks being specified into every cabin as well as dedicated Crestron controls,” says Sam.

“Then Apple changed its connectors and the Crestron docks didn’t quite keep up with that, so all of those got removed and we ended up going with auxiliary inputs everywhere.

“We used centralised streaming for AirPlay instead as that became more popular, so all of the remotes got ditched and we ended up with iPads. We installed iPad minis and Launch Port induction chargers in every area for control.

“The owner really wanted to keep up with the technology as it evolved, so from our original design to final product there was quite a pronounced change.”

With so much equipment on board it’s important to use the right products for the job – a philosophy shared by both the installer and the client – as repairing equipment in the middle of the ocean can be costly.

“When you work on a boat the client generally knows what they want and they are very focused on finding the best available products. Reliability is key,” says Sam.

“The owners understand the fact that if you don’t use the right products at the right price, you’re never going to get that reliability.”

Despite this diligent approach, even the best quality products on the market can be temperamental from time to time, but Liquid Automation has a system for dealing with these hiccups.

“Once a boat is finished, we’ve honed our services so we can remotely support it,” explains Sam.

“Everything is fed back to a screen in our office, so within a couple of minutes of any device going offline we get an email.”

As sophisticated as these installations must be, they must also be equally as user friendly, Sam says. Often yachts like the Mondango III will be used by a number of different guests, each with their own level of technological comprehension, meaning it must be discrete and simple to use while still not compromising any functionality.

“The Mondango III is used by the owners a lot, but it will also be a charter vessel,” says Sam.

“We had to create an interface that can be picked up by anybody, such as an overnight guest, and they don’t need to be shown how to use the system. If they need to be shown how to use the system then we have failed.

“We use a very intuitive interface that is designed to guide someone through; we bring up banners that reassure them to wait while the TV turns on, so that people know what is happening and they don’t get scared by the technology – it’s designed to comfort them and hold their hand all the way through.”