Sitting down and watching a movie or listening to a CD in your main media room is ideal, but what about when you don’t have that hour or two set aside for that?

What about listening to tunes or watching Food Network while you’re preparing dinner in the kitchen? Or hearing the morning traffic and weather reports as you step out of the shower? Or picking up the last 45 minutes of a movie you started in your media room at the same spot back in the bedroom without having to physically remove the DVD?

Yep, those are just some of the reasons multiroom audio and video technologies come in handy and make everyday life just a tad more convenient. Here we took a look at some innovations in the category that we felt worthy of recognition as Products of the Year.

With iPods all the rage, chances are your family has more than one, and the ability to stream music from them throughout the house is in demand. Klipsch’s RoomGroove Music Center and NuVo Technologies’ NuVo Dock for iPod can help you make this a reality, while Russound’s KLK-E5 Click Wheel incorporates a similar-looking interface for its multiroom audio systems to help steer you in a familiar direction.

ADA’s SWAN (Structured Wiring Audio Network) and Crestron’s AMS (Adagio Media System) serve up killer tunes throughout your home, while NetStreams’ DigiLinx Multi-room Video System takes good care of distributing images. Harman Kardon’s DMC 1000 Digital Media Center and HP’s Media Smart Server also excel in making your A/V readily available from just about anywhere in your home.

Check out other Product of the Year Award winners.