OTHER TECH

Carl's GearDesigning Carl's system was easy since he knew what he wanted. One of his goals was to use as much of his existing gear as possible, so that infl uenced some of our decisions. Given the system's complexity, we needed a topnotch receiver, and the Denon AVR-5800 fit perfectly. Its three-zone capability gave us the flexibility to power the home theater as Zone 1, send Zone 2 signals to Carl's old McIntosh receiver, which drives the speakers in the multiroom music system, and route one 3 to the Elan commcontroller for music when the phone is on hold. Channel modulators offer an inexpensive and reliable way to distribute video to every TV in the house. Usually, we use them to connect a video camera or DVD player for house-wide viewing, but Carl wanted to be able to see all of his sources, so we created channels for his DVD player, laserdisc player, satellite-TV receiver, and VCR. Since Carl loves to stay current, his installation is never done - just done "for now."

- John Sciacca

? Pioneer Elite Pro-710HD 64-inch HDTV ? Denon AVR-5800 digital surround receiver ?B&W home theater speaker system (Nautilus 805 left/right bookshelf speakers, an HTM2 center speaker, two CDM SNT surrounds, and an ASW 4000 subwoofer) ? Channel Plus 5415 single-channel digital video modulator ? 2 DirecTV high-def satellite receivers (one with TiVo) ? Elan MOD3000 three-channel digital video modulator ? Elan Z600 communications controller ? 3 Elan IR-Tube in-wall infrared targets ? 8 Elan VSO stereo volume controls ? Escient DVDM-100 DVD/CD manager ? McIntosh MAC-4100 stereo receiver ? Monster Cable MP-HTS2500 surge protector ? Panasonic PV-S7670 S-VHS VCR ? Pioneer CLD-D604 laserdisc player ? Sonance AF8 speaker distribution hub (eight-pair) ? 7 pair of Sonance GR8 ceiling speakers ? 10 Sonance Mariner Jr. outdoor speakers ? Sony DVP-CX777ES 400-disc DVD/CD changer