Scott Jones, who made a fortune from voice-mail technology, will show off his Carmel house's digital and electronic playthings on a television special, "Top 10 Most Amazing Homes."
The program airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on cable's HGTV (Home and Garden Television).
There, you'll see a 27,000-square-foot house that mingles old world, English country decor with such highltech amenities as lighting, air conditioning and music controlled with the touch of a button.
When you're a high-tech tycoon, you can afford things like that.
Built in 1939, the house formerly known as Whitehaven was constructed by Indiana National Bank President Russell White. Jones bought it in 1994 and expanded it from its original 9,300 square feet. Rather than take advice from others, he designed the expansion and the cutting-edge technology perks.
"I've always been that way," Jones, the owner of tech company Escient, said in an interview. "When I was a kid, I used to build little houses with card. board boxes. Sometimes not so little."
The highlight of the 50-acre estate isa touch panel map of the house where light, music and what's playing on television can be controlled in any room.
"The kids enjoy tormenting each other by changing the TV channel when someone's watching," Jones said.
There's also a 28-foot, specially commissioned mahogany slide inside the house, a home theater with a 16-foot-by-9-foot movie screen, a two-story indoor treehouse and a waterfall in the master bedroom, where drapes open when the alarm clock goes off.
A fingerprint-recognition system controls access to sensitive rooms such as the wine cellar, where a computer tracks which wines Jones likes and dislikes and re-orders his favorites when they're running low.
Jones won't say how much all this cost, but allowed that it was "in the seven digits."
"Obviously, he wanted to create the most high-tech home in the world, and I think he's achieved that," said Nancy Glass, executive producer of the television special. "But what's cool is he's combined all this stuff that looks like it's out of George Jetson or something with the look of a country manor."
Jones' house is one of l0 to be featured on the show. The others are in Charlottesville, Va.; Charlotte, N.Y.; Los Angeles (two); Bel Air, Calif.; Sarasota, Fla.; Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; New York City; and Martha's Vineyard, Mass.