Trends In Home Entertainment

From computers to cell phones, the capabilities of today’s technological products were just an engineer’s dream a few years ago. Home entertainments products have advanced tremendously in their capabilities as well. But what’s even greater is how inexpensive the technologies have become.

Take flat panel TV’s for example. What once was only affordable to the rich & famous is now available to most everyone. In the last five years, flat panel TV’s have come down about 80 percent — and the performance compared to years past is extraordinary.

Flat panels aren’t the only home entertainment products that have advanced at this level — whole-house music systems have enjoyed very similar trends.

Traditional whole house music systems today come down to two different designs. One includes a traditional volume control in the various rooms where the speakers are — this allows each room to have control over volume, but that’s all. If one wants to control anything else (like changing the radio station or skipping a track on the CD player), the user would have to go to where the main components are. Inconvenient at best.

The second popular type of whole-house music system uses a keypad or touch panel instead of only a volume control, allowing each room to have total control. This method, referred to as “multi-sourcing,” gives each room the capability of choosing any source, and controling it independently from any other room — a much more convenient system.

In the past, the multi-sourcing option was considered the ultimate in control, and some of the more sophisticated designs were extremely expensive. The products and touchpanels needed were all sold a la carte, and professional programmers would literally have to “build” a customized computer program around everything that would be fed into the main system’s “brain”. Some integrated and controlled other home systems like lighting or climate control, but these conveniences came with a hefty price tag, ranging anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 or more for a typical 6 zone system.

New audio sources, like the iPod & Satellite Radio (XM & Sirius) created a need for product manufacturers to re-engineer their products to simplify the whole process from the start, creating units that would be based upon today’s most popular music sources, but flexible enough to be considered “future proof.”

The next generation prototypes of these advanced whole house systems were first unveiled in September 2005, with the first products shipping in early 2006. These systems were designed with a few perameters in mind:
* Come up with a more cost-effective model
* Include the ability for in-room displays showing feedback
             (information, such as station, artist, and song)
* Be flexible enough to adapt to future technologies

Manufacturers dramatically reduced the costs associated with the older designs by creating factory-programmed “modules,” pre-configured for music sources, like XM or Sirius satellite radio, iPod, and AM/FM, for example. The modules are plugged into a special stereo multi-room receiver. This receiver includes all of the basic elements plus built-in six-room capability, and are pre-programmed from the factory for all of the music source modules.

In addition, the control keypads or touchpanels are pre-programmed as well, and are designed as “plug & play” connections. Once the system is designed, it takes much less time to set up. Other audio sources, such as CD players, can be integrated into the system as well, and available options, such as the incorporation of additional sources or zones are also included.

Now, one can create a pre-programmed system that includes most of today’s applications, is custom designed to include whatever combination of these popular audio sources and rooms you want — all at a fraction of the cost of the systems available just two or three years ago.

Several manufacturers of these innovative systems have additional features that set them apart from one another. Crestron, considered by many to be the leading electronic systems control company, has a system called Adagio. It can be expanded easily to include home control of cutting edge technologies like wireless lighting and temperature, just by replacing current switches & thermostats with the Crestron equivalent. Adagio’s touchpanels can control these additional functions to create the infrastructure of a real smart home network.

Niles Audio has enjoyed huge success with their IntelliControl ICS system, which offers four pre-programmed control options, including an “i-Remote”, a pre-programmed, wireless remote that shows the metadata right on the remote display. Typical four-to-six room systems with any one of these new designs are available for as low as $7500 - $10,000...incredibly cool! Stay tuned…the sky’s the limit for in-home entertainment systems.

Bob Krasne is the President of Westchester Audio Video Design Center. Westchester AV provides high-quality customized solutions for residential home entertainment systems, including flat panel TV, in-home cinemas & smart home control integration. Visit www.westchesterav.com or call 921-0099.

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