It's a wired and wonderful world; The intelligent home may still be a distant dream but, finds Darran Gardner, one young company is aiming to get ahead of the high-tech pack

A VAST high-tech plasma screen and speakers more powerful thanthose in your local cinema may seem more like a dream for boys wholike toys than a feature for the average home. But the home of thefuture is closer to reality than you might imagine.

Hometech's growth prospects highlight this fact only too well, ascommercial housebuilders look to technology as a way of boostingprofits by offering attractive extras for buyers.

The Glasgow-based company specialises in the design, installationand after-sales care of integrated home technology packages for UKhousebuilders, developers and private individuals, and, after onlytwo years in business, it's aiming to become a UK market leaderwithin the next three years.

"Home networking produces a disproportionate increase inprofitability because of the bolt-ons and the value added to adevelopment," explains co-founder and managing director ChrisStewart.

"This ability to boost profits comes from putting in as much asyou can as standard. The market in the States could be worth $3.3trillion and builders already put structured cabling into 50% of newhomes." What Hometech is successfully doing is opening up a marketpreviously dominated by wealthy individuals able to pay audio-visual(AV) specialists thousands of pounds to install state-of-the-artsound and vision systems in their homes. Rather than focusing onproviding bespoke systems for single clients, it is moving into alargely untapped market by offering pre-build services, includingcomputer-aided design consultancy, to architects and mechanical andelectrical engineers.

Already it can count some of the UK's most forward-thinkinghousebuilders among its clients, with Bett, Bryant, Applecross andGregor Shore relying on its services for properties between (pounds)150,000 and (pounds) 500,000 in value.

"Market acceptance is coming on leaps and bounds," says Stewart,"and a company such as Bett will now offer a cabling package to anybuyer nationally. We can plan, design and map infrastructure for thebuilders, and then the customer can buy the [audio and visual]package to suit their needs. Bryant Design, the housebuilder'soptions business, is worth (pounds) 15million." Hometech's ability toundertake consultancy, installation, testing and customer supportappeals to housebuilders more used to struggling with myriad smallsub-contractors specialising in lighting, cabling or sound systems.

Hometech itself is currently on target for a 2003 turnover of(pounds) 1.3m, but with the prospect of orders for 2000 properties,rapid growth seems certain. According to Stewart, the company isclose to securing long-term contracts which would provide access tothe same number of units again and extend its reach across the UK. Asa result of such prospects, turnover is projected to rise to (pounds)10m within three years.

Several partnerships are likely to play key roles in handling thisexpansion, including High Wickham-based cabling specialist Mitech,which is providing Hometech with access to its customer base in thesouth of England, and East Kilbride hi-fi company, Linn Products.

Hometech distributes and installs Linn's quality systems inproperties ranging from (pounds) 125,000 to (pounds) 2m. The hi-ficompany, run by Ivor Tiefenbrun, also undertakes AV research anddevelopment for the Glasgow business, says Stewart.

Once all the design and installation work is done in a newproperty, he adds, sound and vision systems can be adapted by ownersto suit their own tastes and budgets. With all the cabling built into the fabric of the house, speakers can be placed in walls andcontrol panels and additional equipment hidden out of sight. In a newhouse, costing on average (pounds) 350,000, the sale price of thesystem (including plasma screen, home cinema, DVD, amplifiers andcontrols, etc) is usually around (pounds) 15,000.

"But the products are integrated into the home," says Stewart, "soit's really an investment in the property. In the London market,property sales are dropping, so technology can add to the deal in thesame way that double-glazing, kitchens and flooring traditionallywould.

"AV and home networking is becoming a big issue. With the growthin IP telephony [phone calls made through the internet] andbroadband, it's vital that new-builds have the correct cablinginfrastructure. While putting this infrastructure in place mighteventually become compulsory [in England and Wales by legislationlinked to building regulations] homebuilders are also recognisingwhat sort of services customers want in their homes."

Hometech's early expansion since its formation two years ago hasbeen supported by funding from the company's three founding directorsChris Stewart, Douglas MacKenzie and Calum Stewart. While ChrisStewart previously worked as a property developer and has experiencehandling AV projects, MacKenzie is the former managing director ofSlater Estate Agents and Calum Stewart was a senior engineer for LinnProducts for 15 years.

The company also secured (pounds) 310,000 in business-angelfunding in May as well as the support of three non-executivedirectors. Among them are commercial director and investor KeithHutton, a finance director and a Scottish Enterprise mentor.Additional funding has been provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

"We have geared the business up to handle growth," says Stewart,"and we are ready to ramp up the company. The next round of expansionopportunities will come from down south as we have alreadydemonstrated the ability of the business to generate the sort ofrevenue that the London market has been doing for years."

The possibility of acquisitions is being looked at, but any deal,adds Stewart, would have to involve partnering with companies thatpossessed similar or complementary services.

There is no doubt, however, that Hometech's directors areambitious in their long-term objectives.

The young firm has already completed overseas projects in southernFrance and southern Spain, and these and similar markets are beingviewed as potential areas for growth. Tackling the enormous US marketremains a dream for Stewart, but clearly the current marketfragmentation and the faster adoption of home technology make it anenticing prospect for the Scottish company.

"The possibilities for us internationally are huge. We havealready visited the US and no other companies, that we are aware of,are using the same model."

In the coming 12 months, Hometech is also hoping to conclude dealswith some of the country's top housebuilders and it will continue tooffer traditional project services.

However, Stewart argues that the high-tech idea of an intelligenthome - where, for example, heating and light can be controlledremotely via the internet or a mobile phone - is no longer fantasy.The technology, largely derived from the commercial property sector,is there and ready to serve.

"The sort of technology we are talking about is in every newhospital or office block. It's just about management systemssimplified to a commercial level. But for the moment people wantentertainment, they don't, currently, want to fiddle with the heatingcontrols. They want to watch TV, listen to music and surf theinternet and enjoy a new kind of flexibility in their homes."