Nancy O’Dell, new celebrity co-host of Entertainment Tonight, had a dark boring man cave in the house she and her husband share, and she (or they) wanted to give it a complete overhaul.

Being in the entertainment business, the couple didn’t just ring up a local home theater installer, they brought in another TV show. The DIY Network’s program Hollywood Hi-Tech with Janna Robinson came on board to see what they could do to rescue the O’Dell basement from it’s uninspired look to something that would make it suitable for ET (the program, not the alien).

The room started out, well, pretty decent by a lot of standards. It included a couple of reclining theater chairs a pool table and two flat-panel TVs. But the host of a program that spotlights Hollywood’s elite really deserved a knock-out home theater system.

Aside from a big screen a projector, O’Dell wanted simplicity in the rooms controls. She complained that she couldn’t control the lights in the room and that to change the channel on the TV she had to hit 20 buttons. “I want it to be a lot easier, yet sophisticated,” she told Robinson. To help with that problem, the team installed a Crestron automation system with a wireless touchscreen and an iLux lighting system.

For the home theater, the couple went with a Runco LS-3 1080p projector matched to a 100-inch Stewart screen. Sound comes from a DTR-70.2 Integra receiver and Audes in-wall speakers.

By the way, this couple aren’t exactly novices when it comes to video technology. O’Dell’s husband Keith Zubchevich is a vice president at Conviva, a company that helps media brands optimize their high definition video streaming services,

Check the slide show for some before and after pictures of the project and more info on the products installed.

You can watch the program on DIYNetwork here:

Grant Clauser - Technology and Web Editor, Electronic House

Grant Clauser has been covering home electronics for more than 10 years with editorial roles in several consumer and trade magazines. He's done ISF-level damage to hundreds of reviewed products and has had audio training from Home Acoustics Alliance and Sencore. He's also the author of the book The Trouble with Rivers. Follow him on Twitter @geclauser.