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By MIKE WEST
Courier Editor
Wouldn't be nice to control all the lighting in your home with your cell phone?
Or maybe you're out of town and want to check the security of your home?
What about a jaw-dropping home theater?
Impossible, you say. Actually, all of that is possible plus many more options by contacting Cobb Home Innovations in Woodbury.
Hugh and Joyce Cobb and their company, provide innovative electronic answers to customers from Tennessee to Florida. The Cobbs offer home theater design and installation, smart home solutions as well as specialty lighting to home and business owners for more than 20 years.
Hugh handles the technology while Joyce adds color and texture to homes via faux finishing. Her wall finishes help tie a room or home together by offering a dramatic touch.
Their home near Woodbury provides a perfect place to experience the couple's expertise.
"As of this date we have the only experience center in Middle Tennessee, including Nashville, where we can bring clients though. We bring in six to eight clients a week. It's by appointment only," Hugh said.
The beautiful home began as a little 750 square foot dwelling built about 30 years ago. The original plan was to "flip it" and renovate the little house for resale.
Somewhere along the way, that plan changed with the Cobbs making six additions to the little house. A seventh project is now in the planning stage.
Why Cannon County?
"I wanted to come back to a small town because when I went to work for Sony in 1988 I lived on an airplane constantly traveling. I would come to Tennessee twice a year to Nashville and Memphis. All the reps would come in from Best Buy and other electronics retailers and I would train them. I did that for a long time," Hugh said.
The Cobbs wanted to slow down and enjoy life. "We wanted to have horses," he added.
Today, their home looks inside and out like something you would see in a prestigious magazine.
Standing in the kitchen, Hugh demonstrated voice command using Alexa.
Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks and providing weather, traffic, and other real time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system.
"Alexa turn on Sonos play... Alexa turn on kitchen bar.... Alexa dining table on..."
To each of Hugh's requests Alexa answered "yes" and followed through.
Beautiful music, offered by the Sonos system, filled the house.
Sonos, a wireless system, plays anywhere inside or outside the home. Sonos plays all the most popular music services, internet radio, audiobooks, podcasts and music downloads
"We can choose any music in the world," Joyce explained.
"If you didn't want to use voice command, you could pull out your phone and control everything in the home. Or you can operate everything from thermostats to music to security cameras. So everything is automated," Hugh said.
Speaking of security cameras, the Cobbs have more than 20 hidden cameras on their property.
"We can bring up multiple cameras on the property and if I'm not in town, we can do it by the phone too. Live feeds from every camera. We've got cameras that move and rotate," he said.
The advantages to this type of security are obvious.
"Before voice activation came out, we were doing it from the phone or from the tablets. There is two way communication, so I can listen in or talk through the camera," Hugh continued.
"We've gotten lazier with voice control," he admitted.
"Everything is voice activated from the lights to the toilet...all voice activated. You don't have to walk over to a switch any more," he smiled.
But that doesn't mean the Hugh hasn't given up experimenting and inventing.
"This is a pretty unique gadget here. This is a baby grand which she brought from her other house and for her birthday present I will show you what I did for her. ... I can go into my music and play anything I want, any where in the world, right to the piano. Ever see the Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts?" Hugh laughed.
"Let's play a little Frank Sinatra," he said, giving the command to Alexa.
The piano started playing the keyboard part to Sinatra's "Fly me to the Moon" before Hugh requested Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock."
Amazing.
"What I'm doing is logging into the the house. The house has a computer. The computer runs the home. This technology has become so affordable now. Not only are we doing it for very high end clients but your average person can afford it. We can come in for $500 and really start a home automation system with lighting control controlled by either voice or phone," he explained.
The information ... music, movies ... is stored on "The Cloud."
The cloud is a network of servers, and each server has a different function. Some servers use computing power to run applications or "deliver a service." That means you don't have to have a computer with a huge amount of data storage.
Not everything in the Cobbs' home is computer powered.
For example, there's the "mysterious" lighted tiles in their bathroom. Cobb holds the patent for this particular item. The lighted tiles have no electronics or bulbs and are maintenance free.
Other patents are held for a surprise in the Cobb's bedroom.
"She didn't want a TV in the bedroom. Now I sell TVs and want to do as much technology as possible. Everything is hidden, even the speakers. You don't see any cable boxes or DVD players. Everything is stealth mode," Cobb said, pointing to a beautiful mirror over a chest in the bedroom.
"You can look at that mirror and can tell it is a mirror. It's the real deal," he said.
Suddenly a TV picture popped up from behind the mirror.
"Yes, we've got several patents," Hugh grinned.
"We spend a lot of time outside on the porch during this time of year. I wanted a TV outside so we came up with this design," he said.
In this case, a mirror covers the TV screen. It rolls down like a car window. Another stealth design, the window for the screen is smaller than the television, Hugh explained it is more secure from theft.
"So this is where we relax, especially in spring or fall. Outdoor entertainment areas are very popular right now. In fact, kitchens and bathrooms were No. 1 for remodeling. Outdoor entertaining areas are number one now," he said.
The Cobb's latest project is the IMAX home theater room.
It features a very large 4K screen. That's 4,000 lines of resolution. It also features a Dolby Atmos sound system over top-notch speakers.
Surround sound used to be 5.1 which means it had five speakers. Now it runs all the way to 11. "This room is 9.1" which means it has nine speakers, he said. Everything in this room is automated from the fireplace to the window shades.
"You can even take an older show, like Andy Griffith, and up convert it. The TV knows this older programming and can process it and allow it to even increase picture quality," Hugh said.
"More and more people are doing theater rooms. We do them with star roofs, shooting stars and we are doing one in Nashville that has a fireworks show in the sky. We're doing more in the way of family rooms instead of 'man cave' rooms," he said.
So what sets the Cobbs' business out from other technology firms?
"We really take the time to explain the technology and help them decide," he explained.
"Our business is built on service. Tech support and having someone to talk to is rare now. If you have a problem you can get in touch with me and not have to wait a week or press this button or that button and get someone off-shore.
"We still offer that close knit, family style service to our customers. That has taken us a long way. When the market went south in 2008 we were able to survive through it. I will say that when we get a client they remain our client.," Hugh concluded.
Http: Cobbhomeinovations.com
cobbhometheatre.com
