OTHER TECH

Editor's note: When Sound & Vision needed a family to test HomePlug - the new technology that sends A/V signals through your house's electrical wiring (see Power Play) - reader Kevin Post, a home theater enthusiast and a regular on the S&V Online Forums, filled the bill nicely. Not only was Kevin (not to mention his wife, Denise, and 2-year-old twins, Sean and Rachel) good enough to turn his 54-year-old four-bedroom colonial in Wyckoff, New Jersey, into a test lab; he even agreed to keep a blog about it to accompany the article Home Sweet HomePlug in our June issue. Take it away, Kevin:

When I saw the rules of the S&V "Needs a Family" contest, I thought I had a pretty good chance to win. I mean, let's face it: How many projection-club nerds out there actually got married and had kids? Here are my qualifications in detail:

1. "Audio/Video enthusiast": In the last five years, I've really started to get into this stuff, especially home theater. My system has slowly evolved from a two-speaker system in my family room to a dedicated theater in my basement with an LCD rear-projection TV and 7.1-channel surround sound. I like to refer to my home theater as my "5-year plan" (with all apologies to Stalin). Every year I add something new, supplementing my equipment with existing stuff until I could afford to upgrade. The problem with the 5-year plan, as most of you know, is that you never really reach the end; you just keep changing things. This is a concept that my wife, like the oppressed people of the USSR, has trouble understanding.

2. "A young family": Well, I guess I'm young (33). And I have a wife and two kids, so I met those requirements.

3. "Live in an older house, outside of New York": My home was built in 1952 by my father's uncle. Three years ago, when we found out that twins were in our future, we did a major renovation, adding a second floor that includes four bedrooms and two baths. And since we live in northern New Jersey, I was good to go.