Vintage charm

Custom Home, July-August, 2003 by Meghan Drueding

The process Electronics Design Group follows when designing a home theater is a simple one. "We meet with the client and determine what type of performance they want," says Joe McNeill, systems sales manager. "Then we put the specs on AutoCAD and give them to the architect and/or builder." The entire team knows from the very beginning what kind of equipment will go where, saving lots of headaches down the road.

In the case of this New Jersey home theater, which won Best Home Theater Level II in CEDIA's Electronic Lifestyles Awards 2002, the client envisioned a room that looked old-fashioned but acted up-to-the-minute. He and builder PMC Construction took care of the first part with elaborate molding and a red-and-gold-color scheme worthy of a 1930s movie palace. McNeill did the rest. He recommended a wireless touchpanel controller that allows the client to adjust everything from acoustics to lighting. The panel is programmed to dim the lights before a movie starts and to draw the motorized screen curtains when it ends. And it contains a function that projects the client's personal computer screen through a CRT projector onto the 8-foot-wide, 110-inch diagonal theater screen.

Other features include a karaoke machine and an active loudspeaker system embedded in the wall paneling. The 384-square-foot, eight-seat theater also holds a small wet bar. The room cost a total of about $146,000.

Builder: PMC Construction, Franklin Lakes, N.J.; System designer/installer: Electronics Design Group, Piscataway, N.J.; Photographer: Bill Psolka, www.psolka-photo.com.