OTHER TECH

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But looking at the stack tells you only half the story of what's in the closet. Mounted on the back wall, on a hinged wooden panel that Jim built using the carpentry skills he's developed maintaining his 34-foot cabin cruiser, is a series of Elan interface plates. And on a shelf above the rolling Middle Atlantic rack rest a Yamaha RX-V559 A/V receiver, a Sherbourn TST 2/200 power amplifier, and two high-def and two standard-def DirecTV satellite receivers. When you walk into the family room, you see a neatly put together and nicely maintained rack of gear. Only the installer need ever know that behind it lie switches, amps, receivers, and a few hundred feet of wire.

"Since the system is so complicated, we relied on Jim and Wayne to assess our needs and plan accordingly," says Michael Smeriglio. "What they came up with incorporates our TVs, DVDs, satellite-TV music channels, iPods, and security cameras. They recommended the best equipment we could afford, and we're very excited by the results."

Although they do their causal viewing in the family room, Michael, Geri, and the kids - Christina, 17, Maria, 16, and Mickey, 13 - head down to the basement when they want to get caught up in a home theater experience. The theater is a modest 16½ x 24 feet, but a number of features make it both impressive and inviting - beginning outside the room with two pro-grade Bass Industries Black Starlite poster displays ($1,809 each) with flashing marquee lights.

Step through the large double doors, and the first thing you notice is the custom ruby-red Model Hollywood chairs from United Leather (prices begin at $2,500 a chair and vary greatly, depending on the options selected). The floor (including the low, semicircular stage beneath the screen) is covered with "burgundy dusk" carpet by Kane Carpet, while both the ceiling and the columns bracketing the screen are finished in Venetian plaster - an unusual touch that livens up what would otherwise be a monotonous black ceiling. (Though they left the ceiling work to professional plasterers, "I did the pillars myself," brags Wayne.) Similarly, the dark-red-and-gray textured fabric lining the walls, from Guilford of Maine, is subdued enough to not be distracting when the room is darkened but gives the space color and interest when the lights are up.