Recently Filed in Enhancements

You’ve probably seen them twinkling away on the ceilings of restaurants and amusement parks attractions, but fiber-optic starfields are gaining popularity as a decorative element in homes, too. “We seem them being used in nurseries, living rooms and dining rooms, but primarily in home theaters,” says Cyr Ryan, owner and president of Fiber Optic Systems Inc. (FOSI) Star Ceilings. Star ceilings can be installed onto almost any type of ceiling, but are usually more economical to install if there is open attic space above them.… View this story
Home Theater Accessories • Home Theater • Enhancements • Product News

When you think about it, there’s a ton of technology that can go onto the ceiling. Recessed lights, built-in speakers, video projectors and wiring are often mounted overhead. All of this can make your ceiling look like a block of Swiss cheese. And, depending on the room design—like if there’s no attic space above, or the ceiling height is lower than 8 feet—the ceiling may not even be able to accommodate some of the products. Here’s where a soffit can really help, and possibly even… View this story
Furniture • Home Theater Accessories • Home Theater • Enhancements • Info and Answers

We’re still looking for your ultimate home control wish list. Entries for the Electronic House and Control4 “What Do You Want to Control?” contest are ongoing, and you can register by entering your little essay of what you want for your own home. Each week we’ve been highlighting some of your entries to give you a good idea of what people are looking for, and to show off some of your creative thinking. Click here to enter the contest. Here are 10 more entries for… View this story
Home Control Systems • Enhancements • Info and Answers

The owners of this New Jersey home are downsizing their lifestyles and investing in green building techniques and clean energy sources like geothermal (heat and cooling from ground sources). But that doesn’t mean they’re not going to enjoy the conveniences of home electronics. In fact, home technology will help them be even greener. “We’re doing it for ourselves,” says this homeowner. “We want a healthy house to live in and raise our kids in. The second driving force is that energy is not going to… View this story
Miscellaneous • Green Technology • Enhancements • Info and Answers

Even the wealthiest homeowners want to save. In this case, a resident of New York’s Trump Towers was ready to overhaul his three-year-old automation and audio/video system. He hired local integration firm IVCi Home for the task. The condo, though elegant, is a typical cramped New York City space, measuring 1,100 square feet. The living room was devoured by two half-sized racks, hidden in a giant bureau beneath the flat-screen TV. IVCi replaced them with a single rack hidden in an office closet. “By doing… View this story
Enhancements • Cool Homes

There are myriad reasons to add a central vacuum system to your home. Benefits include cleaning convenience, improved indoor air quality, durability, reliability, not having to lug an upright vacuum up or down the stairs (for more benefits, also check out MD Manufacturing’s 7 Reasons Why). What you might not know is that many of the same people who work on your home theater projects are just as proficient at installing central vac systems in your home, as many custom electronics pros include the service… View this story
Central Vacuum • Central Vacuum Systems • Central Vacuum Accessories • Enhancements • Info and Answers

It happens to many enthusiasts: You need a place to store the audio and video gear or other cool systems, and the best way to do it may be with some woodworking—custom woodworking. Which leads many to go Gulp, Gulp, Ka-ching! And naturally so. Custom woodworking costs money. And really good custom woodworking costs lots of money. The thing is, you don’t have to do custom woodworking throughout a whole room like this one. You can have one home entertainment cabinet built for a few… View this story
Cabinets • Home Theater Accessories • Home Theater • Enhancements • Cool Homes

According to the U.S. Census Data, the median size of a home dipped in 2008. This is the first decline in 13 years, and home sizes are expected to drop in 2009. In this economy, it’s not surprising. Although people are opting for less square footage, there’s still plenty of room for electronics. “You just need to know how to maximize the space,” says Rich Conklin, a custom electronics (CE) professional at Grand Home Automation, Grand Rapids, Mich. “We’ve put $1 million worth of electronics… View this story
Furniture • Cabinets • Equipment Racks • TV Mounts • Enhancements • Info and Answers

A few weeks ago, someone suggested that I write a piece about what our industry refers to as the “wife acceptance factor,” or WAF. What WAF means, basically, is that a husband will get the technology he wants for his home only if his wife agrees. While it’s easy to place the blame the wife for the absence of a 100-inch TV in the living room, it turns out that women aren’t the main roadblocks to high-tech living. In fact, they’re often the driving force,… View this story
Flat Panel • Multiroom Audio • Multiroom Video • Enhancements • Product News

Guess what? Motorized window treatments can be green. Shades and drapes that open or close at the press of a button can save you energy by helping to keep a room cool in the summer months, warm it with sunshine in the winter or illuminate it with natural light. This is nothing new. The motorized window treatment crowd has been touting the energy efficiency of its products for decades. Only no one cared until now. How times change. Now saving energy is fashionable. And that… View this story
Home Control • Lighting Control • Shades and Blinds • Green Technology • Enhancements • Info and Answers

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. It’s an old cliche, but it still holds true today, especially if you’re thinking of having an automation system installed into your home. Automation systems, by nature, are able to perform some pretty amazing (and unusual) feats. They can regulate the temperature of fish tanks and hot tubs, snap on the lights when you step through the door and open the window shades precisely at 9 a.m. It’s this kind of magic that makes automation… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Touchpanels and Keypads • Home Control • Enhancements • Info and Answers • Optimize

When this home overlooking historic Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., was originally purchased, it was already equipped with a distributed audio system, volume controls in various rooms, a multidisc DVD/CD player and a multitude of remote controls. But over the course of a decade, those technologies became outdated, and the homeowners grew disgruntled with their system’s inability to keep pace with new entertainment options. Wires were strung about the house for Internet access. TVs had poor and intermittent reception. The in-coming satellite antenna cabling was… View this story
Family Room • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Home Theater • Enhancements • Cool Homes • Slideshows