How High-Tech can Help in Assisted Living Settings

While Clarke Infinity is perhaps best known for its groundbreaking installations at some of the UK’s most prestigious private properties, there are plenty of other projects the team gets involved with.

In fact, Clarke Infinity has a long history of working with care homes and retirement villages, most often designing cinema rooms for residents, families and staff to enjoy. One of the things that is most rewarding about these projects is that they prove to be such a valuable resource for these locations.

You’re never too old for a good movie, but these installations can also enable spaces to be used as sensory rooms, project games onto a large format screen or even create dimming, shading and music control to support circadian rhythms. All these activities play such a vital part in the mental and physical wellbeing of residents, and all can be provided in the same space if incorporated into a sophisticated entertainment system design.

Often care homes don’t offer a ‘blank canvas’ for system designs and therefore the installation of an off the shelf solution is not possible. At Clarke Infinity we are passionate about giving back independence to people living longer at home or in care, so we design bespoke solutions to deliver the best results.

With the constant developments in our industry and in the technology that we have at our disposal, there is always something new or different for us to implement, helping us find solutions to a problem.

Over the last 20 years, Clarke Infinity has worked with a number of care home chains, partnering in projects that provide for anything from Assisted Living to over 55s Independent Housing.

Our recent projects often include a Lutron Athena Lighting System which utilises circadian dimming and changes the colour temperature of the lights throughout the day. This can be paired with a music system that plays curated playlists to control the music’s BPM, genre and volume to be appropriate for the time of day.

These two systems along with automated shades make it possible to wake/engage people in the morning and help to wind down/relax people in the evening. Studies have shown that circadian rhythm has a very positive impact on health and wellbeing, and we are working with partners to develop these techniques further.

Within an assisted living scheme, we would have the system track the cycles to know what the current colour temperature of light should be, use daylight sensors to dim the light to the correct level and occupancy sensors and timeclocks to turn the lights on/off as is required. When a button does get pressed, the light comes on at the correct level and the correct colour temperature.

Using Lutron Lighting systems, with Daylight and Occupancy/Vacancy sensors to save energy and provide a suitable level of light at all times of the day, there are great opportunities for reducing energy bills while Control4 automation systems allows you to automate all your music, lighting and AV settings in both a simple and intuitive way.

To find out more about our commercial projects and how we can assist you, get in touch with the Clarke Infinity team on 01277 624444.