Other Tech

With HDTV, 6.1-channel digital audio, and streaming audio and video files now theoretically at our fingertips, we truly have a bonanza of entertainment options! But let's face it - more often than not it's the fingertip part that becomes a system's Achilles' heel.

Vampire Weekend (above), the buzziest of current buzz bands, was one of the hot acts I caught at the South by Southwest Music & Media Conference. For 4 nights in 80 venues, the Texas town of Austin - the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World - hosted the biggest music festival in the world.

This is the most hard-driving Consumer Electronics Show in history. Once limited to computers, hard-disk drives, or simply hard drives, now inhabit a wide array of audio and video components.

Most of us would have our hands full just getting a whole-house audio/video system installed. Imagine taking on that task while starring in a Broadway play, directing your first feature film, and supervising the renovation of a 3,000-square-foot apartment.

Jeff Hoover is the president of Audio Advisors in West Palm Beach, Florida (audioadvisors.com; 561-478-3100) - and everyone thought he was, well, a little crazy when he built the Design Center, a $2 million showcase of rooms outfitted with the latest gear. But Hoover knew better.