Homes on the hillside.
We've been running projects in Los Angeles since the studio's second year. Most of our LA work sits west of the 405 — hillside modernists, Beverly Hills traditionals, Palisades new construction, and the occasional Hancock Park restoration where the wiring is older than the studio.
The Westside is its own market.
Los Angeles is not one integration market. It's several — Beverly Hills and Bel Air are one, the Palisades and Malibu are another, Hancock Park and the historic districts are a third, and the Hills (Bird Streets, Trousdale, above Sunset) are a fourth. Each has its own conventions about wiring, aesthetics, and what the finished system is expected to look like from the room.
What all of them share is a preference for systems that disappear. Homeowners on the Westside almost universally reject visible speakers, exposed conduit, and touch panels in decorative rooms. Every LA project we take on starts with a walk-through where we identify the surfaces the design has to protect, then build the low-voltage plan backwards from there.
Selected neighborhoods.
We take LA projects across the Westside and into a few pockets east. These are the neighborhoods where we've worked enough to know the HOA rules, the permit desks, and the neighbors.
Beverly Hills
Flats, Post Office, and the hills above Sunset.
Bel Air
East and West gates, hillside estates with detached staff quarters.
Holmby Hills
Traditional estates with distributed audio and cinema retrofits.
Brentwood
Modern remodels and complete tear-down replacements.
Pacific Palisades
Rebuilds along Sunset and post-fire reconstruction projects.
Malibu
PCH and Serra Retreat oceanfront and hillside properties.
Santa Monica
North of Montana and Santa Monica Canyon.
Hancock Park
Historic-district restorations and low-visibility integration.
Bird Streets
Modernist hillside homes with expansive glass and view-preserving speaker placement.
Trousdale Estates
Mid-century originals and contemporary rebuilds.
Bird Streets modernist.
A hillside modernist home on the Bird Streets with a whole-home Crestron platform, distributed Kaleidescape video, and a fully hidden audio system — Stealth in-wall speakers throughout the primary living spaces, Sonance Invisible Series in the primary bedroom, and Coastal Source landscape audio for the outdoor deck.
The project required coordination with the interior designer on every visible surface. No exposed grilles, no visible speaker cutouts, no touch panels in the main living room — everything routes to keypads and voice.
See more projectsWhat's different about an LA install.
The first constraint on any LA project is design review. Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, and every hillside overlay zone have their own permitting quirks — we've learned to submit our low-voltage plans in parallel with the architect's structural drawings rather than after, which shaves months off the schedule.
The second is HVAC and cable management. LA hillside homes almost always have ceiling and wall cavities that were never designed to carry the wire counts a modern integrated home needs. Our best LA projects start with a wire pull budget that assumes twice the drop count of the initial spec — architects and GCs who have worked with us before know to leave those pathways open.
The third is aesthetics. LA clients are relentlessly design-forward. We default to Basalte and Black Nova keypad finishes matched to metal hardware elsewhere in the room, Wall-Smart flush-mount trims on every touch panel, and Sonance/Stealth invisible speaker placement in any space with a designer's fingerprints on it.
Frequently asked.
Do you handle LA hillside permitting?
We coordinate with the architect and GC on low-voltage and integration scope for the permit package. We're licensed in California (CSLB #1143345) and familiar with Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, and city of LA hillside overlay requirements.
Can you match integration hardware to a designer's finish palette?
Yes. We regularly spec Basalte, Black Nova, and Wall-Smart trims in custom finishes to match a designer's hardware selections. Send us the finish schedule during design development and we'll build the keypad and touch panel palette around it.
Do you take on post-fire rebuilds?
Yes. We've worked on Palisades and Malibu rebuilds where the original system was destroyed and the owner wants to restore functionality without rebuilding the exact original configuration. Contact us to discuss.
Six disciplines. One integrated system.
Every Los Angeles project involves multiple subsystems. Explore the specific disciplines below to see how we design each one for Los Angeles, or engage us on the whole scope.
Planning a project in Los Angeles?
Most of our projects begin with a short call, then a walk-through of the house or the blueprints. We'd like to hear about it.