Home media goes integrated

The Crites’ east Springfield home includes a centralized system for audio – with Sirius satellite radio, iPod stations and AM/FM radio – and video – with a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player, DirecTV with a digital video recorder, and a 400-disc DVD “jukebox.”

“The system is completely automated,” Crites said of the touchpad and remote control system installed by Southwest Audio-Visual. “I can also control the heating and air for the house, the home alarm, the intercom, a camera at the gate, and lighting for the house.”

While Crites’ home system is top-of-the-line, it’s not as unique as it once was in the Ozarks. Homeowners are adding dedicated spaces for the multimedia experience – and the level of sophistication is limited only by the designer’s imagination or the owner’s checkbook.

Homeowners should be prepared to spend at least $6,000 for the most minimal theater system, though “that can go up to a couple hundred thousand (dollars) if you want to get crazy with it,” according to SCS Home Entertainment salesman Mike Elsberry.

Industry impact

Recent and upcoming changes in the home entertainment industry are finding their way into homes.

One major change is Blu-ray’s victory in the so-called “high-definition disc wars.”

Blu-ray Disc technology, led by Sony, had been competing with HD-DVD discs made by Toshiba for market supremacy, but HD-DVD lost out in February when companies announced they would no longer manufacture the players.

According to Richard Zane, a member of the residential sales team at Southwest Audio-Visual in Springfield, Blu-ray systems are popping up in area homes.

“The war has been won, so to speak, so people are more comfortable integrating Blu-ray into their theaters,” Zane said, noting that Blu-ray also is compatible with the more complex 1080-pixel video system, leading more customers to choose 1080 screens for their theaters.

The federal mandate requiring all TV signals to be sent digitally by February 2009 also will change the way homeowners watch TV; but SCS’ Elsberry said that change won’t affect people installing home theaters.

“That change had already kind of happened for our customers,” Elsberry said. “Usually, if they’re going to do a home theater, they usually already have digital cable or satellite, which already has the digital tuner built into it.”

Sound and fury

Zane said proper design for audio equipment is an important part of any home-media experience.

“Sound is always a consideration on a new build,” Zane said. “(Homeowners) don’t want to see a whole bunch of stereo players or components all over the house. They’d rather have a centralized system that will distribute the sound throughout.”

Elsberry said this centralized sound concept, called zoned audio, is most popular in master bedrooms and bathrooms, in order to create a more pleasant experience waking up in the morning.

“When you wake up and get ready in the morning, you want to listen to the radio while taking a shower,” he said. “People can have independent control in each room of whatever source they want, whether it’s an iPod dock, CD player, AM/FM tuner, or whatever they want to listen to. They can just go to a keypad on their wall and control the volume from right there.”

Homeowner Crites said his family thoroughly enjoys the zoned audio in his home.

“I can be in the study and listen to ESPN Radio on Sirius, or my wife can be in the exercise room listening to the iPod, or the kids can be listening to the radio upstairs individually,” he said.

Gaming is another home theater consideration; Zane said gaming consoles – such as Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 – are being integrated into the theater experience.

Customers are also incorporating projection screens, computerized lighting control and theater-style seating into their homes.