I'm still looking for controllable valve that won't cost $300!
1" sprinkler valve is $10
Why is 1" water shutoff valve $300 ?

One, a good shut off valve will be a ball valve with an external motor. They seal much better and more reliably than the sprinkler valve/solenoid. Two, materials. I don't want my family's drinking and bathing water being influenced by anything. Most shut off valves will have a stainless ball valve in a brass housing. In other words, they are much better built.

Last year we did a project for a long-time customer. It was his 4th home with us, a penthouse appartement on 26th floor. Not a huge project but a huge cool factor:

The 52in led is installed over the fireplace on a motorized arm (omnimount), we installed in the same room 4 TIME Five motorized speakers from Speakercraft, everything controlled by his beloved Nevo S70.

We also integrated in the Nevo all the lights control for all the appartement (Centralite Jetstream), and all the motorized shades, sold and installed by another company.

For the lights and the shades, we have independant and scene control on the S70. We got the "Best Nevo S70 job" award for this project at last year's CEDIA UEI party.

The guy also control his Speakercraft MODE jukebox using the Imerge plug-in for Nevo with 2-way feedback.

We've been published in 2 magazines for this project.

You can see pictures if you want on our website (the 3 last pictures)

[Link: onyxaudio.com]

I did a couple of Lexicon remotes, years and years ago, for a couple in the Hollywood Hills. One room was clearly the Media Room, the other had a huge overstuffed chair in it. I labeled that second remote "Comfy Chair" as a joke. When I got there one day, the wife asked how the HELL I knew that they called that room "Comfy Chair!"

Another one -- Named a Media Room for a comedy writer "Let's Mediate" during the writers' strike. He loved it.

Whenever I do moving art to hide a TV, it's always one of the clients favorite things and something they always show off to guests.  People seem to be facinated with things that move like art lifts, projector lifts, TV lifts, motorized speakers, TV mounts, window covering.

People are wowed any time you can press a button and make things move or make a sequence of events happen.

Thanks for all of the great responses!

I love hearing what "geeks" everybody out. I like the simplicity of naming stuff fun things like "Old School" or "Comfy Chair". Sometimes the little things make you smile. The HVAC and automation stuff is great too as there definitely is something cool about pushing a button and watching the magic happen in front of you or behind the scenes.

Charris- The budget is $200K all towards a Savant System and any and all bells and whistles that could be included. There's another $25K in there if need be though. The media room has a bunch of light and is going to have a new 70" Sharp Elite in it should the reviews hold up in the vein of the 1st Kevin Miller one and it plays in person.

CPChillin- There's potential for a GestureTek Interactive Wall in the kids playroom but we haven't demoed it yet but we wired for a projector just in case. Snibbe Interactive is an option too but its over the top expensive unless we could work something out with them.

I'd be interested to hear any fun macro type ideas too. ie When the door bell is pushed it calls a file that plays throughout the house of a butler saying someone is at the door or something like that.

Keep all the great ideas coming...it's been great to hear everyone's creativity.

Doesn't really matter if the sprinkler valve fails and it's not rated for potable water.

This is the model that I've used several times:

[Link: pexsupply.com]

I've purchased before on eBay for WAY under list price and brand new.

Most of them cost more than $300!

You might want to look at the KZValve which is an HAI Connectivity Partner.

This type of valve is great for connecting to water leak sensors and freeze sensors. Have your clients check into the possibility of homeowner's insurance discounts.

everytime I have tried something cool the client doesnt like it . I was programing home works system in this huge house with hall way that were 60 ft long so i programed the lights to fade in like in star trek or the bat cave . I even program different macros so if you were on one side of the hall way those light would come on first and then 2nd far away then 3rd 2 seconds apart it was so cool . and an all off button at garage the turned garage light for 5 mins and the every light in the house to go off . My boss called me next day and said client hit all off button put in everybody in house in dark and was doing something in garage longer that 5 mins and they were in dark. and asked why wouldnt the lights come on all at once in hallway .

I wish i had clients like u guys cuz my cool featues always back fire.

Yeap, that's the one. R U getting them for much less than $300?
My disty has them for about that and quick google search showed about the same price: www.google.com/products/catalog

Not really an integration, but wiring areas of lights with a number of switch legs so that lighting scenes can call for paths, or areas has always been really cool.

For example, a gym and ensuite connected to the master bedroom with grids of recessed lights, wired so that the night path is just the walkway to the water closet, but the rest of the scenes are area based.

If the clients knew how much extra is was costing them to do this I'm sure it would get nixed in a hurry.

Also, cool conditional programming with the Lutron occ sensors tends to get people pretty excited. We trigger lighting and HRV in bathrooms based on time/light levels with soft indirect lighting at night and scenes with varying brightness levels throughout the day. The clients go crazy over this, especially the wives but you sure gotta be careful not to over automate.

We have done a few motion based systems with triggers and extensive programming. For example, we did an unmanned Wells Fargo "experience" center/museum. Basically when someone walked in the room it triggers a power macro and a looping video that continues to play for 2 minutes after motion is no longer sensed. This ensured the entire video was seen if just one visitor entered and gave them time to exit without triggering an off and on sequence, as well as continue to play for additional visitors if present. Yet still ensured power off when not in use.

It was very easy and the client was very happy.

I have a lot of tats and I'm not a sailor!

Scumbag.