But for the owners, the best piece of electronics in this powerful entertainment engine may be the Panasonic video camera mounted to the roof, which allows them to see various views of the race track on their plasma screens. Ten presets focus on certain turns and command the camera to pan or zoom to certain locations on the track. An RS-232 connection on the camera allows it to be controlled by the Crestron system, so the owners just have to select one of the presets via a Crestron control.

“At first we thought the camera was for security reasons, but we finally realized it was for watching the track,” says John Baumeister of Baumeister Electronic Architects. The video from the camera is put through a Key Digital video router, upgrading it from composite to component video. “It’s not an HD camcorder, but it shows some phenomenal resolution,” Baumeister adds.

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Steven Castle - Contributing Writer

Steven Castle is Electronic House's managing editor. he has been writing about consumer electronics, homes and energy efficiency topics for two decades. He is also the co-founder of GreenTech Advocates.