Homeowners Celebrate March Madness in Basketball-Theme Entertainment Rooms

March Madness is in full swing, so in between adjusting your brackets and arguing with your neighbor over your top pick, we thought we’d offer up some hoop-themed distraction with our favorite and most over-the-top basketball-inspired home theater and A/V systems.

Related: Check out these amazing theme theaters

What does a big basketball fan want in a home A/V system? For some people it’s as simple as a dedicated media room with a big screen (or two or three…) for watching games with friends. For others it’s a private court where they can practice their own moves, then press a button to turn the gym into a TV room. Should a sports-themed room have reclining custom theater seats for easy relaxing or sofa-style seating so it’s easy to jump up when there’s a score–or punch the arm of the person next to you as they gloat over a score? Check out these extreme homes below to see what makes a great basketball fan’s home system:

Basketball and A/V Unite

Four Samsung 58-inch plasma TVs were placed behind Plexiglass for protection from stray balls. Each TV has an independent feed from the house A/V distribution system, so that each TV can display either the same game or a different game simultaneously. The owners also have the ability to view shots from surveillance cameras on the displays. Audio from the main equipment rack in the house or an iPod docking station at the basketball court can be streamed to the gym’s built-in CAT speakers. System design and installation by HomeTronics, Dallas, Texas.

 

Division 1 Design

Staff from a Division I college consulted on the design and implementation of this home’s basketball court and training facility, which also features multiple screens, distributed music and automation.
The basketball court features three video cameras to record the games and workouts for remote viewing. The live pan/tilt/zoom cameras enable coaches to instruct from remote locations, and clips from the recordings can be emailed for repeat viewings and coaches’ scrutiny.

Take Your Best Shot … At Halftime

The media-room (which includes an 85-inch Panasonic plasma and a copious A/V gaming rig) seating area edges up to a net, which catches errant basketballs from the adjacent personal gymnasium should things get heated during a game. The space’s open layout at the back of the room makes for a unique environment, but presented challenges for the installers atBekins, who were given the task of creating a gaming-centric A/V system with impressive surround sound and big, beautiful video.

Video Wall Brings Multiple Games to One Screen

Here, the main goal was to have a jaw-dropping fun room that would put even the plushest of sports bars to shame. Aside from the sporty ambiance, the main attraction here is the five-display video wall. Colorado Media Systems installed four 46-inch Samsung LCD TVs to flank a 55-inch Samsung LCD on a motorized mount. These TVs are fed by five high-def Comcast cable boxes via a Video Storm component video A/V matrix. A Control4 system manages the video wall, allowing the homeowner to watch all five TVs at once, with room-wide audio corresponding to the main, 55-inch TV.

• This article was originally published on March 18, 2013