Custom Installation How-To

My wife and I own a Queen Ann Victorian home built in 1886 in the Silk Stocking district of Mankato, Minnesota. It’s a large home with each room decorated in period furnishings which isn’t conducive to a large screen TV and visible speakers. This made it hard to watch movies and Monday Night Football, so Doug convinced Candy to build a media room in the basement.

Integration and contemporary styling is what everyone is looking for so Samsung's new Blu-ray players certainly embrace both these concepts. The BD-P4600 is a wall-mountable Blu-ray player and the HT-BD8200 is a Home Theater Sound Bar with an integrated Blu-ray Player. According to Samsung they are heralding a new direction for the Blu-ray industry and moving away from the traditional square (and boring) black boxes.

If you are looking for an unusual speaker that will fit anywhere, including unconventional spaces, and still be decorative, you should check out the JBL Control NOW indoor and outdoor loudspeakers. The quarter-round shape allows for the uniquely versatile speaker to be installed in a wide variety of places including areas where other speakers can no be installed. Priced between $249 and $279, these guys won't break the bank either.

Walking into this penthouse condominium in an affluent area of Los Angeles Mark Schafer and Mark Stewart of CustomLA knew it would require just the right control system for this ambitious AV design to meet the homeowner's expectations. They wanted whole house audio and video, yet, they had little interest in learning a complex system that would require more technical savvy than they possessed or desired. It was also critical that the technology blend into the fashionable, yet comfortable, interior created by Threshold Design.

These days, home theaters serve many purposes. They can be dedicated cinemas, game rooms, or entertaining environments. This homeowner from Long Island, New York, is a music lover and admitted audiophile, so his theater had to be a place where he could relax and enjoy his music.

In the past, creating a movie experience at home meant setting up a big screen in the basement and putting in a few recliners. These days, many homeowners are transforming living rooms on the main floor of their homes into home theaters. Some homeowners may even convert a room that’s right beside their kitchen.

Many home entertainment projects are called retrofits, which for all intents and purposes translates as a remodel. An installer needs to have the same skills that new construction projects require. But when a project combines both new construction and remodeling, the challenges intensify.