Home is where the heart is, your refuge from the big bad world, your sanctuary — the one place where you are the official and undisputed ruler. At the least, whoever holds the remote is crowned king or queen of the hour. With my unbreakable grip on that little contraption, it has been a constant fantasy of mine to imagine the levels I could go if the little machine controlled more than just my television.

Enter Archimedia, who are set to revamp and rejuvenate your couch-based life of command-and-control. You will never want to leave your house once these guys are done with your living room. Think of the previously unreachable perks of celebrity houses: flat-screen plasma televisions in front of your toilet, invisible speakers that play music when you sneeze too loud in your pantry — these are set to become necessities you simply cannot live without.

Archimedia specializes in high-end home automation systems, which basically means that with the push of a single button you can tune in to a specified channel, dim the lights and have your La-Z-Boy swivel into your preferred position. Gone are the days when the height of technology was merely clapping to turn your lights on; now with a little touch-screen remote you can control the light, music, the movie — heck, the media server with your entire collection of DVDs and CDs— the very viewing pleasure of your entire household. It is the ultimate in audio and visual technology, ensuring that each movie you watch and every song you listen to is of the best quality and delivered under the perfect setting.

Archimedia’s showroom offers a plethora of ideas to pimp out your crib and make sure you are the king (or queen) of your castle with style. The options are endless, but there are a few things no house should be without.

Omar Hikal, Archimedia’s managing director, is always ready to listen to what you want, claiming that he has entertained some of the weirdest requests in funkifying houses. “It depends on the person,” he says. “The options are endless, specified to each person’s tastes and needs.”

Hikal and CEO Karim Zaki hope to not just sell you a TV, but to sell you an entire lifestyle and in fact, says Zaki, “most of our clients become friends.”

Mohamed Allouba Archimedia’s Omar Hikal wants to “future-proof” your home.

Sounds great, right? It all looks wickedly cool, too. My tour of the showroom starts with an example of a sound system that looks both sleek and powerful. The sound comes out without a hitch, the bass isn’t too loud, the treble is in sync with everything else and I immediately imagine myself in the midst of a luxury party; all that is really missing is the champagne. The sound system comes from Bowers and Wilkins, and the quality of sound is serious. Music lovers everywhere would keel over for one of these speakers. The speaker itself looks good, with paneled wood and a funky twist at the top that, I am later told, also improves sound quality.

Buying a TV? Choose from among some of the most stylish models on the market — and, indeed, most of the brands on offer are new to Egypt courtesy of Archimedia. The array of televisions throws me into a loop, and as I gaze at a steely-looking mirror, the first thing that runs through my head is how much darker mirrors annoy me — until I am told that this is, in fact, the latest in LCD television screens. Two seconds later, the characters from The Incredibles are jumping out at me. The television was disguised effortlessly.

This is the defining factor of the Maadi showroom — nothing is obtrusive, nothing looks out of place, and it is obvious that style plays as big a role as technology does.

“We take our roots from high-end audiovisual effects, everything else is an added element,” explains Hikal.

The one problem most people have with technology is the sheer volume of wires, gizmos and gadgets — add-ons that gradually turn your living room wall into a mass of wires crawling all over the place and tied up by the power board. This isn’t the case here — the technology is turned into art, giving a slick, refined look to the entire show room. I can’t see any of the telltale black tape — everything is hidden effortlessly. “We make it a point to future-proof any home,” says Hikal. “We make sure that all elements that can be added later can be added with minimal labor and preparation.”

My personal favorite, as someone who hates the way technology looks, are the televisions hidden behind painted panels. In a room with two pop-art paintings of Audrey Hepburn, the television is hidden behind a painting of two violins, framed in a very art-deco gold frame. It is connected to two sleek speakers and a DVD player. The technology does not take over the room and isn’t hidden in a bulky chest — and the cherry on top? The quality is excellent. This might be part of Zaki’s plan “to focus on selling to women. We want them to like what we’re selling to their husbands.”

One thing is for sure: Husband, wife or child, you’ll want all the elements this has to offer.

If you’re not going for the whole shebang, there are still some essentials you can go home with immediately. Organization is an often-overlooked yet important perk of technology. Archimedia’s wireless speakers are fabulous. Operated through a remote control which gives you access to all your music, you can blast Beyoncé in your living room while forcing your little brother to listen to Pavarotti in the kitchen. The remote gives you control of what is coming out of speakers all over the house, with a simple little push on a touch screen. Think of it as an iPod with speakers in each room.

Then there’s the DVD player, a state-of-the-art contraption by Kaleidescape that not only stores your music, but also organizes all of your movies. Gone are the days of rifling through countless DVD cases trying to find a movie to watch. This is an iPod for all of your movies. The player copies the DVD onto a hard disk, then connects to the internet to find the movie poster and the synopsis, genre, time and the actors. Then, while you lounge in your chair, you can browse through all your movies, by genre, movie length, title, actor — you can even look through the posters to see what appeals to you.

This, of course, would be perfect if you had your own personal movie theater. Which isn’t such a strange request. The showroom also has a movie theater that you can apparently take home, complete with a curtain, vibrating chairs and automatic light control — all controlled (I’m starting to repeat myself), from a touch-pad remote built into the master chair.

“We are giving people a luxurious necessity,” said Zaki. “Something that you grow to depend on and get used to.” You won’t take long to convince me to get used to having my own personal movie theater. What is great though, is that no request seems too farfetched and you need only imagine it to turn it into a reality.

Archimedia, founded by Zaki, Hikal, Hassan Abdou and Halim Greiss, has been open in Dubai since 2004, and is currently going through an expansion throughout the Middle East, planning to open outlets in Jeddah, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait within the next 18 months.

So, make your way to the Cairo branch, call your interior designer to let them know about the makeover you’re planning for your home, and get ready to spend the rest of your time parked in a leather La-Z-Boy watching television and fiddling with your remote control. One piece of advice though: “Start early and know all your possibilities, and don’t do it all at once — do it bit by bit,” says Hikal. et

Archimedia 40 Rd.. 12 Maadi Tel: +2 (02) 2 359-3050 www.archimedia-me.com