Custom Installation How-To

This is one of those times when the pictures just don't do justice to the project. The winner of the 2009 Windows Media Center Ultimate Install is Vision Audio from Lubbock, Texas. The Media Center Integrator Alliance (MCIA), together with Microsoft, announced the winner of the 2009 Windows Media Center Ultimate Install Contest during CEDIA in Atlanta, Georgia on September 13. This impressive system uses Windows Media Center at the core of the home's entertainment experience in an extensive whole-home installation.

For the price of other stand-alone Blu-ray players, it only makes sense to invest in Samsung's BD-P3600, which integrates streaming technology providing you a lot more bang for the buck. Streaming movies, TV, music and other content is without question the wave of the future,,,and the wave is only gathering up more water as a variety of new AV products are partnering with content providers.

What do you spec as a projector in this beautiful Greenwich, CT. home when you have 18 video sources as diverse as X-box and Blu-ray? Well, Opus AVC of North Haven, Connecticut discovered that just one is not enough.

A cost-effective alternative to touch screen controllers are universal remotes. The Harmony Remote 900 by Logitech uses advanced RF technology to operate all your AV devices up to 100 feet away without the need for RF emitters attached to each device. Instead, the Harmony 900 uses a single IR blaster and one or two mini blasters on the cabinet shelves of your entertainment center.

As flat panel TV's get even thinner, speaker manufacturers are working overtime to supply soundbars, the latest speaker craze, that will unobtrusively sit underneath these newer sets, The latest entry is Leon Speakers with their Horizon 212, designed expressly for the newest ultra-thin TVs. Available in an enclosure that is only 1.5" deep and 3.25" high, the L/C/R speaker features dual 2" Peerless woofers surrounding a 1" Morel cloth dome tweeter for each channel. The Left and Right channels are rated at 60-watts RMS (@8 ohms) while the center channel is rated at 90 watts RMS (@6 ohms). The Horizon can be flush mounted directly to the wall or with the use of the Leon Under Mount bracket, the speaker can be mounted to any articulating wall bracket.

Runco. always know for their premier video displays. has added multiple new 1080p plasma monitors to its line of high-end video display solutions. The five new CinemaWall and PlasmaWall displays are the world's first to feature Runco's exclusive OPAL (Optical Path ALignment) technology. While other manufacturer's seem to be abandoning plasma TV, Runco is enhancing its performance to exceed anything currently available.

When constructing a home theater, the first thing I recommend is cooperation from your spouse. She had (and still does) complete veto power over every single decision that went into the development of this theater. I first had to convince her to turn a spare bedroom in our brand new townhouse into a dedicated home theater. However, what probably took more persuasion was convincing her of the importance to paint the room an unusually dark color such as charcoal grey with black trim. Or painting the connecting hallway Hollywood red, or the third bathroom metallic gold. Of course, the idea of having "exit" signs all about and life size busts of pretty ugly Hollywood characters took some hard selling, too.