OTHER TECH

Q. For a home theater in my basement, I have a room that measures 16 feet wide by 27 feet long. I'd prefer to keep the space as a multipurpose room with the theater integrated in a way to keep the space open.

Q. I watched a special on Discovery Channel called "Home Theater Revolution," and the theater expert built a room for a family to watch movies. He put the surround speakers on the back wall, as opposed to on the side walls facing in.

Ten years ago, when home theater was just becoming the hot trend in new-home construction, I came up with an inexpensive, ready-to-assemble theater design for a large corporation in the housing-supplies business. Our target was the builder of homes for the average American family.

Before I get to my first critique of reader's home theater, let's make sure we're all on the same page. This column is not going to be about electronics. There's plenty of that going on elsewhere on this site. Here I will be talking about the effort to integrate electronics into the look of a room dedicated to watching DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, or HDTV.

In terms of means and level of accomplishment, the two theaters featured this month couldn't be more different. One is the work of a professional custom installer for an apparently well-off client, and it actually involved the services of an architect.

Fortunately, the saying "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" doesn't apply to CES. The technology introduced there quickly spreads to the rest of the world. This year, audio companies were especially anxious to have the show's magic rub off on their wares.

Revel IC15 $749 each Revel Speakers