OTHER TECH

Comfort Zone The room features three black-leather Berkline home theater loungers for those who like to sit close to the onscreen action, and a large couch for those who prefer to maintain a comfortable distance.

Sound for the left and right front channels comes from B&W Signature 805 speakers ($1,750 each) on stands placed on the stage on either side of the screen. The Stewart screen's perforated material allows the Sonance Silhouette II center speaker ($2,400) to be placed out of view behind it.

Two rows of three Sonance 623TR ceiling speakers ($399 a pair), with one set over each seating area, handle the surround channels. "The perfect setup is when you're sitting down and the sound for the surrounds is coming from just behind you," says Weiner. "By using two sets of speakers, you hear the optimum surround sound and get exactly the same effect no matter where you sit. It's a true theater."

On the other side of the wall from the bar area is the equipment closet, which holds the A/V gear for the entire house, not just the home theater. Here the dual component-video outputs on a Yamaha RX-Z9 digital surround receiver ($4,499) feed the same signal to both the Yamaha projector and the NEC XM3 plasma HDTV ($2,799) by the poker table.

The homeowner decided not to have the option of feeding different signals to the front projector and the plasma TV. "I didn't want the sound to be confusing, and I didn't want to deal with two inputs - and I don't regret that decision. When I have friends over, there's not a bad seat in the room. If we're playing cards, even if somebody is sitting with his back to the big screen, he's got a great view of the plasma TV. Nobody ever has to miss a play when we're watching a football game because you can look at the big screen, the plasma, or both."