Whether you’re a Patriots fan on the east coast or a Dodgers fan out west, you need a place to watch the game. Here’s a look at two home theaters that provide the functionality of a sports bar, on an as-needed basis.

This fourth-floor formal living room in a five-story Boston home was the last place Keith Bartholomew expected to install a full-blown home theater. Bartholomew, director of operations for Advanced Communication Technologies in Hingham, MA, had originally planned for a 50-inch plasma to hang above the fireplace. Then the homeowners got the home theater bug.

“The room started out much simpler,” Bartholomew says, “but after we installed several surround-sound systems elsewhere in the house, the clients started getting more excited about the possibilities. They’re big football fans, and they wanted a central place where they could entertain and watch football on Sunday and Monday.”

A Da-Lite 106-inch Tensioned Advantage Deluxe Electrol screen rolls up into a nook carved out near the molding above the fireplace. A Sharp XVZ12000 Mark2 DLP projector motors up into the ceiling on a Draper Micro Lift. The compact Draper/Sharp combination fits into the snug space carved out in the thick terra-cotta floor of the master bedroom above.  Motorized Draper window treatments block out natural light when it’s time for a game.

They got their own 50-yard-line view and more: an invisible surround-sound system and access to the home’s multiroom music server, DirecTV satellite receivers and video surveillance system.

That’s a lot of technology for a highbrow room. “It changes from a formal living room to a theater room and back,” Bartholomew says. “It’s the first time we’ve been asked to do that in a classic living room.”

In southern California, a 35-by-22 cabana serves up the day’s three hottest sporting events and then tucks away the evdience for a quiet evening next to the pool. Think of it as part sports bar and part game lodge. Thanks to motorized lifts and shades, the TVs only make an appearance when requested and then disappear from view when the electronics power down.

The centerpiece of the room is the 61-inch Runco PL-61cx plasma HDTV framed behind a VisionArt custom art canvas. A press of a button on the Crestron touchscreen controller sets in motion a series of TV acrobatics when it’s time for the video displays to go into hiding: The VisionArt art print scrolls down to cover the 61-inch plasma TV, and motorized lifts holding the two Runco 43-inch TVs sink the sets into cavities behind the cabinet doors.

The cabana is topped off by a curved ceiling, which installers at Genesis Audio in Irvine, CA, covered with acoustics-friendly fabric that helps smooth out the sound.

Source equipment—including LG satellite receivers, a Lexicon DVD player, a Mitsubishi S-VHS VCR and AudioRequest music servers—are stored neatly in a custom rack inside the cabinet at the far side of the room.