Who says you can’t get quality work completed in less than a week? Talk to David Frangioni, CEO of Audio One Sound & Video in North Miami Beach and he’ll tell you anything is possible. He knows because he’s installed a world-class home theater with high performance AV in only three days.

“This was a retrofit installation and we were required to install all the specified AV gear with little or no additional construction,” says Frangioni. “The client was technically savvy and a connoisseur of high-end components, which included Mark Levinson amps, a Lexicon 7-channel surround preamp, a Kaleidescape media player, a Runco projector and processor, Genelec powered speakers, Velodyne subs, and topped off by the best way to view films, a Stewart 2.35 CineCurve screen.”

According to Frangioni, the biggest challenge was installing this caliber of equipment within the confines of the existing space, which already had a smaller home theater installed. Prior to Audio One’s arrival, Jim Pratt, a master woodworker had the front of the room complete, making it possible to perfectly fit the new 2.35 screen, replacing an existing 16 x 9 screen in the same place. Moreover, the current room height allowed for the Runco digital projector to be placed at the far end of the room, for a more simplified installation.

Frangioni acoustically tuned the room himself with a Sencore SP-495 and TEF Room Analyzer. These tools, combined with the equalization built into the Lexicon, Velodyne, and Genelec equipment, resulted in a smooth accurate bass response with precise imaging for an audience of twelve. Pat Bradley calibrated the video and Dan McCabe, Audio One’s Installation Manager kept the half a million dollar project on track.

There was already a security system in place and Audio One did a major upgrade during this new installation to make it more functional. Prior to the upgrade, the homeowner could only see one camera at a time. Audio One used the theater’s picture-in-picture (PIP) functionality to create a whole new level of integration with the security system.

There are a number of motion-activated cameras on the property. A “security mode” button was placed on the Creston controller and when enabled, if any motion activates one of the cameras, the on-screen movie will automatically pause. Simultaneously, the house’s floor plan comes up on the PIP screen, flashing an icon in the part of the house that has been triggered. The camera view at this position is also showed in another window. From the Crestron, the homeowner can quickly dial 911 with a single button press in case of an emergency. The security mode can be bypassed on the screen so if the homeowner is having a party or when the security personnel is onsite, the cameras do not pop up on screen or interrupt the movie.

Quality installation doesn’t mean you have to put your life on hold for months at a time, not when you have a professional team like Audio One, with years of field experience, handling your home theater integration. Of course, not all installations go this fast, much is dependant on the specifications, the space, and the equipment being integrated. Still, a pro installer can certainly make a retrofit such as this one a pleasurable, rather than an agonizing, experience.

SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR CONTACT INFO
Audio One Sound & Video Inc.
David Frangioni
305-945-1230
email david@audio-one.com

Source: hometheaterdesignmag.com & audio-one.com

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I have to be honest with you. I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a home theater system because I just don’t have the time to sit around and watch TV for the evening.

However, I can easily see myself in this bathtub, watching this tiny LCD TV. Especially since the tub has 5 adjustable body massage jets, 14 whirlpool bubble path jets, 6 small water jets, underwater mood lamp, plus 15mm teak boad and handheld shower. All for about $2999. Not bad.

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Home theaters are getting to be extremely popular among American homes. This modern technology is slowly giving movie theaters a run for their money. Basic knowledge of home theater system and its basic components may be best for people who want to bring home relaxation and entertainment.

The most important consideration in the design and complete set up of your home theater is the size of the room. The home theater speakers and the other components of your home theater may need to consider the size of the room. Too small rooms for your home theater may not require so many speakers. Only three speakers may be good if the room is quite small. Do not overload your small room; you may not be able to get the entertainment and relation you want if you feel overloaded with so many home theater speakers. Because you only need three home theater speakers in your small room, you may need to acquire the high-end brand of home theater speakers to compliment the size of the room and the other equipments for your home theater.

If you have a bigger room however, the basic three home theater speakers may not be enough. You may need to put up to six speakers around the room, you may also consider complimenting your home theater speakers with subwoofer to complete the surround sound like in movie theaters. In addition to the speakers, you may also need to purchase a high-end television set which should not be smaller than 27 inches. It may not be reasonable if you buy a smaller television set because it may drown in the fineness of your home theater speakers. Additionally, the DVD player needs to be of high quality, having progressive scan your DVD Player may help provide sharp images and flicker-free pictures for your home theater system. The home theater speakers, television and DVD player are the basic components of a home theater system especially if the room is quite small. However, for bigger room, adding home theater furniture and home theater projectors may be necessary to complete the package. Again, it may be worth it, if your home theater speakers are of high quality. This is because of the need to provide a surround sound for the home theater set up. The DVD player and the television set may answer for the requirement of sight in a movie theater setup. Your home theater speaker needs to answer for the sound requirement, and if your home theater speaker is not of high quality brand, it may not be able to do the job for you.

In order for you to avoid making mistakes in your choice of home theater equipments including home theater speakers, and home theater furniture, you may require the services of a home theater designer. They will be able to provide the best recommendation that will ensure you will get the most out of your home theater system including topnotch home theater speakers. Additional home theater furniture may be necessary to complete the package and to dress up the whole room. Since they are the designers, they will be able to recommend the best for your home theater system set up. If you have a properly designed home theater, you will be the best entertainment possible.

Your home theater designer may take on the huge responsibility of choosing the most suitable home theater speaker to attain the best design for your home theater.

Bring home relaxation and entertainment right in your own living room, home theater system can provide this to you and your family.

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In a few years, you could be watching 3D laser TV. This week, a Los Gatos startup unveiled the world’s first 100-inch 3D home theater powered by lasers.

There is a tree that looks so real you could touch it. It’s being displayed on the first 3D home theater powered by lasers — from HDI of Los Gatos.

The new 3D is all the rage in entertainment around the world. Most videogames come in 3D versions. A new 3D movie will be released every month in the coming year. It’s all being driven by new technology that has replaced the old red-blue glasses with stylish models designed for digital.

Now comes the next step, in this 100-inch screen. The colors are richer than anything else, because they come from lasers. The lasers are cheap. They’re low power, consuming just 1W each. Try that with your plasma. And it’s true HD. Not just 1080p, but 1080 Hertz.

“This device is unique in the fact that it’s extremely fast,” says Chief Technical Officer Edmund Sandberg. “It will do over a thousand frames a second. That allows you to integrate all the color and everything into one device.”

It also means the picture no longer needs to flash from one eye to other. You know that we can’t show you how good the 3D is, because you watch a 2D television set. But, take it from me. We’ve seen RealD, Dolby, film, all kinds of 3D. And this is the smoothest yet. And smoothness means no headaches.”

Ed Sandberg has been designing 3D displays for 20 years. He and his partners at HDI developed their new system practically from scratch. They have their own lasers, their own glasses, ginormous screen, and high-speed liquid crystal on silicon.

“1920 by 1080 lines all the time to your eye, and in parallel,” Sandberg assures us.

The company faces many challenges. Others are experimenting with lasers, and 3D capable televisions already exist. But no one has quite managed to combine everything in a package with 3D flash without all the flashing.

Source: abclocal.go.com

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It’s the perfect situation – a dedicated home theater and a completely separate room for critical music listening. Yes, it is a home theater and music room. One homeowner in Massachusetts was able to realize his dream of the ‘perfect’ audio system, and still provide the rest of the family with their own home theater.

The advantage of new construction is you can design your home any way you like, including dedicated spaces for each of your passions. Each room required its own designers, one an acoustical engineer with a background in no-compromise projects, and the other a highly skilled, yet, budget-conscious systems integrator.

Alan Goodwin of Goodwin’s High End created a room within a room to isolate the listening room from the rest of the home. For instance, there is space between the ceiling and the floor above and the rear wall has 12″ of space behind it with a built-in baffle and edge bands to tune base resonance. The room has perfect acoustical dimensions– 24′ 8 3/8″ long, 17′ 10 5/6″ wide, and 9′ 6″ high – due to the special foundation that was excavated from solid granite to achieve the appropriate height.

For the acoustical treatments, Goodwin recommended Performance Acoustic Lab’s (PAL) Danish-built diffuser modules and bass traps, augmented by Acoustic Sciences’ acoustic wall panels. The 300 lb. PAL modules took 4 movers to get into the basement music room, and Tom Fredericks of PAL flew in from Denver with a special carpenter to spend an entire week installing the modules.

Every aspect of the room was considered with great care and effort, including the electrical supply where only hospital grade outlets with isolated grounds were installed to ensure low electric noise and eliminate any motor interference. Since the room is sound proof, a fire strobe was installed to alert the homeowner if a fire should break out elsewhere in the home.

The homeowner already had the gear – Spectral Electronics and custom colored Wilson WATT Puppy speakers – he just needed the perfect room, which cost almost as much as the equipment. The lesson learned is that the acoustic qualities of the room are at least as important – if not more – than the quality of the audio system.

Separated from the music room by acoustic doors and 8″ walls filled with acoustic insulation, the basic acoustic properties and dimensions of the home theater were identical to the music room. The architect recommended Larry Shulman of Huntington TV, who helped balance cost with quality. He suggested a system that included a JVC 1080p projector, Triad in-wall speakers, a Velodyne 15″ subwoofer, B&K separates, a Sony Blu-ray Player, and Crestron control. The front speakers were set into cavities constructed by the builder and covered by acoustic wall panels. The center channel was placed behind a 100″ Stewart microperf screen.

The homeowner was very much involved in every phase of the dual rooms, from researching each and every component, designing the equipment closet and all lighting details, including the special LED stair lights in the theater.

While the house construction took 16 months, the construction of the two special rooms took less than two months, even with the almost catastrophic flooding due to torrential rain that seeped into an open electrical conduit..

The home theater is a social magnet, providing an opportunity to bring together friends and neighbors, for events such as watching the presidential debates or just having quality time with the family to watch a movie, football game, or some TV.

The best part of all for the homeowner is when life gets hectic and he needs time to relax and slow down, he escapes inside the enchanting sounds of Monteverdi, Bartok, or Mahler, in the music room of his dreams.

Source: hometheaterdesignmag.com

Sytem integrator: goodwinshighend.com

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Remote controlshave become a staple device for many of us these days, and more often than not there will be a tussle among family members for essential remotes in the living room at prime time for obvious reasons. Logitech themselves have delved into the world of remote controls in the past, and they show no signs of slowing down in that department. Recently, the Swiss company has rolled out the Logitech Harmony 900 remote that boasts redesigned RF technology, a full colors touchscreen display alongside intuitive button layout to help even newbies get used to it as soon as possible. The Logitech Harmony 900 universal remote relies on rechargeable batteries to keep it going, allowing you to enjoy a whole range of entertainment from movies to games and music even when the respective components are located safely behind cabinet doors.

The Logitech Harmony 900 remote’s redesigned RF system turns you into a mini living room deity, capable of controlling an entire cabinet’s worth of devices and appliances as long as they remains within a 100 foot radius. This remote also allows you to wield such powers without getting bogged down by hassles and problems that are normally associated with RF setups. All you need to do is place the IR blaster that comes with each purchase alongside one or two of the mini blasters on the cabinet shelves near the devices that you want to gain control and you’re good to go. The color touchscreen devices allows you to choose your device of choice with but a gentle touch of the finger, and when the setup process is complete, you’re able to control everything programmed inside even with the cabinet doors closed.

Expect the Logitech Harmony 900 remote to arrive in the US and Europe later next month for $399.99 a pop, where it will be accompanied by a recharging cradle, rechargeable battery, power supply, IR blaster and two mini blasters. Logitech has plans to roll out more blasters and mini blasters online in selected regions.

Source: logitech.com

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Sometimes it takes the combined talents of two professional organizations to come up with a striking, one-of-a-kind home theater. Such was the case with this Florida home. Cinema Design Group is a leading designer, manufacturer, and installer of home theater seating, acoustic panels, and custom home theater environments. Along with Boca Theater and Automation, a premier provider of turn-key, custom-built integration systems and home theaters, these two specialists created a home theater that bears the resemblance of the familiar geometric Art Deco designs of the early 20’s, yet, it reveals a distinctive 21st century edge.

The futureristic home theater was part of a major remodel that lasted about 6 months, however, the theater took only three weeks for installation of the interior and AV equipment. It incorporates several unique interior elements including intricate latticework overlays for the Art Deco look, selectable color LED backlighting for the main wall elements, a fiber-optic star ceiling, plus a custom desk and cabinetry located in the rear of the room.

The customer presented Cinema Design Group and Boca Theater with a few challenges. While the room appears to be a dedicated theater, it also functions as the homeowner’s office. He also wanted a set of glass entry doors that would allow light into the room, in addition to maintaining the rear window. It was also the homeowner’s vision to have the monochromatic, Art Deco inspired interior, complimented by bold and dramatic design elements and rich textures. It is these strong lines and stark black and white contrasts that also evoke a sense of being on a starship or in some futuristic world.

“It’s never a good idea to have light entering a theater,” said Carey Schafer, V.P. of engineering for Cinema Design Group. “However, since the client wanted light to enter due to the room’s dual purpose, we suggested a type of door that would become opaque when electrically energized.” Additionally, Boca Theater recommended a Planar Viper 3-Chip DLP projector rated at 2000 lumens, which would maintain an optimum image contrast under all lighting conditions.

The fixed placement of the door also caused a hard acoustical reflection on the right at the “first reflection” point. To achieve a good acoustic balance it took a combination of absorptive and diffusive elements on the opposite wall and around the door.

To retain the rear window, while staying consistent with the interior’s design, the window was covered by a split panel that opens, yet, it perfectly matches the main decorative elements throughout the room. Moreover, the overall space was relatively small considering the multi-use nature of the room, so it was necessary to work with every available inch to accommodate the complete electronics packaging, two rows of seats along with the work desk and cabinets.

The 16:9 Stewart screen, at the front of the theater, is 90-inches wide (diagonal) and is complimented by Revel Concerta speakers on all channels. The equipment rack holds all the electronics, which includes a Sony ES A/V receiver, a Blu-ray player, a DirectTV HD receiver, a Nintento Wii game console, and the VUDU movie server. An RTI system was used to control all the devices, whether the homeowner is seated in the theater or the office. Cinema Design Group supplied all the theater seating.

The office area was configured as an independent audio and video zone, allowing the homeowner to watch HDTV via a 24” widescreen computer monitor without turning on the main projection and sound system.

SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR CONTACT INFO
website: www.bocatheater.com

HOME THEATER DESIGNER CONTACT INFO
website: www.cinemadesigngroup.com

Source: hometheaterdesignmag.com

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Home theater designer Donny Hackett has always wanted to visit Paris but had never gone. So he decided to bring Paris here. More specifically, to Tennessee and the attic of Jason Crist’s suburban Nashville home. A walk upstairs brings Crist to the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre Dame cathedral—and a screen that could take up a wall in the Louvre.

All of the attractions, including the whopping 154-inch screen, were custom built by Hackett, whose previous themed theaters have included nods to Titanic and Mann’s Chinese Theater. Crist already had a screen, surround-sound system and seating riser in his attic but wanted a more elaborate theater room. Hackett began the reconstruction project by deciding the screen would have greater impact on the opposite wall.

“I walked into the theater room, and there was nothing technically wrong with it, but it was backwards,” Hackett says. “You had to go into the room and around a corner before you saw the screen.”

He built the steel Eiffel Tower portion as a separation between the theater space and a snack area, which would later include a cobblestone floor and mural to invoke the feel of a Paris bistro.

The ceiling structure was modeled after a rose window of the Notre Dame cathedral, and the rear wall has a mural of the Arc de Triomphe. Hackett also incorporated the Paris motif in his clever concealment of the equipment rack. It’s located behind a motorized framed poster of the Eiffel Tower; a removable piece of wainscoting below the poster provides access to the rack.

Hackett, a consummate DIYer, always constructs his theaters’ screens. In the case of this Paris-themed theater, he used acoustically transparent woven material with a 1.0 gain and a curved shape to maximize the superwide CinemaScope projection (without those black bars showing on the screen).

He first sets up the projector and then builds the screen so it measures almost uniformly from the lens at all points—about 18 feet in this room. And at 154 diagonal inches, this curved screen is almost as enveloping as those in IMAX theaters.

“The curve allows the image to stay in focus, even on the far corners of the screen, and I noticed from the first one that I built that brightness and contrast are hugely amplified,” Hackett says. “Because of the parabolic nature of the screen, the light doesn’t bounce back in all directions but comes back toward our eyes instead.”

A Panasonic AE2000U projector and Panamorph UV200 vertical compression lens combine to produce the CinemaScope 2.35:1 aspect ratio images that stretch across the screen. Behind the screen, three Polk Audio RTi10 tower speakers serve as front left, center and right channels in a 7.1 system (Crist’s original Polks remained, but he replaced the center speaker with the more powerful tower model). Dipole surround speakers disperse sound from the sides of the room, and in-wall models are located along the rear wall.

Seven channels of X-10 controlled lighting control fill the attic, including fleur-de-lis sconces that flank the two rows of seating, LED rope lights on the Eiffel Tower, and hundreds of fiber-optic stars across the Notre Dame ceiling. Isn’t Paris romantic?

The rear view features a peek at the Arc de Triomphe, and riser seating so everyone has clear sight lines to the big screen. Plush fabric on top of the seats help aid acoustics aside from adding to the aesthetics.

Paris wouldn’t be complete without a quaint bistro setting, with views of the buildings, the bottom of the Eiffel Tower and nice stonework on the street.

Hackett loves to add motorized tricks to his theater designs. In this case, he hid the equipment rack behind a wall cutout, with a hatch door to get access to the gear. Then he covered the enclosure with framed artwork that can scroll up to reveal the gear.

Source: electronichouse.com

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There’s a new top pick in Epson’s already-crowded 3LCD projector line.

The Epson PowerLite Pro Cinema 7500UB utilizes the company’s most advanced imaging technologies and has its most thorough assortment of features, yet it carries a price tag of just $4,199.

This 1080p projector uses Epson’s D7 C2Fine TFT LCD chipset with UltraBlack technology, two high-end video processing chips (the Silicon Optix Reon VX and Pixelworks 390) and a new auto iris. It also adds an Anamorphic Wide aspect ratio, for use with an optional anamorphic lens attachment, and a 120Hz mode that employs frame interpolation to produce smoother motion with 24p film sources.

Physical setup takes just seconds, thanks to a host of convenient features: 2.1x manual zoom, 100 percent vertical and 50 percent horizontal lens shift (via manual dials), adjustable feet and an onscreen test pattern to aid with sizing and focus. The remote is fully backlit and sports dedicated input buttons and direct access to the most commonly used picture controls.

Speaking of which, this model has the full complement of image adjustments we’ve come to expect from Epson, with a few new perks. The custom installer will find just about every control he or she needs to calibrate the image, including RGB offset and gain, advanced gamma and precise color management of all six color points. New this year are a contrast enhancement feature; a faster, quieter auto iris with normal, high speed and off modes (previous models had just on/off settings); and color isolation options (green, red, and blue) to aid in color and tint setup.

The 7500UB introduces some new picture modes for Epson, including Cinema Day and Night, an HD mode that’s “close to professional-use broadcast monitors” and a Silver Screen mode that “emphasizes rich colors, like those seen in movies at the theater.” I went with the HD mode for TV viewing and the Silver Screen mode for Blu-ray/DVD playback. In both cases, with only minor adjustments to the picture controls, the results were quite impressive.

Epson has accomplished the difficult task of simultaneously improving light output and black level, compared with previous models. The result is an image with excellent contrast. The numbers may not be quite as good as those of the best higher-end projectors, but the 7500UB’s performance is certainly competitive. Blacks look black, and the image has excellent depth and dimension in a dark room. On my 75-inch-diagonal screen, the 7500UB had ample light output to breathe life into bright scenes, even in a room with some ambient light.

Blu-ray demo scenes from Kingdom of Heaven, Casino Royale and The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl looked excellent. Colors were rich but natural, and the overall color temperature stayed fairly even across the board, producing neutral whites, blacks and skintones. With some fine-tuning of the gamma control, the projector did a good job rendering fine black details in Blu-ray and DVD scenes.

I was particularly impressed with the 7500UB’s detail, especially with 1080p Blu-ray content. Previous Epson projectors struggled with edge enhancement, which forced you to sacrifice fine detail by lowering the sharpness control to lessen the ringing and extraneous noise around edges. Thankfully, edge enhancement has been minimized here, while overall detail is improved.

The Silicon Optix and Pixelworks chips score high marks in the processing department. Good scaling results in nicely detailed DVD images, and the projector passed my deinterlacing tests with both 480i and 1080i content.

To reduce judder in 24p film sources, the 7500UB has two options: Film purists will appreciate the inclusion of a 4:4 pulldown mode that quadruples each frame (24 x 4 = 96Hz), which makes for slightly smoother motion than the traditional 3:2 process. The 120Hz FineFrame technology, meanwhile, pulls information from existing frames to create new ones, and the setup menu includes low, normal, high and off settings.

The smoothing effects of frame interpolation draw mixed reactions. Some people love it; others…not so much. With this projector, the high mode’s motion is so unnaturally smooth with Blu-ray and DVD movies, I found it incredibly distracting. The normal and high modes also created some processing errors in faster-moving scenes. The low mode performs more reliably and strikes a better balance, reducing judder without looking too artificial. For what it’s worth, Epson only recommends the normal and high modes for video-game playback and doesn’t recommend using the 120Hz feature with broadcast TV content; indeed, it performed poorly with my DirecTV signal, introducing a ton of processing errors.

For the most part, the 7500UB’s 12-bit panel creates a clean image, with minimal noise in backgrounds and light-to-dark transitions. Blu-ray content looked especially clean. However, the projector occasionally struggled with dimly lit DVD and HDTV scenes; in cases where there was a lot of grain in the film (or the HD cam was set for higher sensitivity), the 7500UB called more attention to the low-level noise in black backgrounds than other displays I’ve tested.

Epson claims a fan-noise level of 22 decibels. Upon initial power-up, the 7500UB’s darker picture modes seemed a little quieter than those of the Home Cinema 1080. However, I live at 5,000 feet, and this is the first projector I’ve encountered (including several other Epson models) in which I had to use the high-altitude mode to prevent overheating. This adds a fair amount of fan noise.

The Pro Cinema 7500UB is sold exclusively through custom channels, and its $4,199 price tag also gets you an additional lamp, ceiling-mount hardware and a rear-panel cable cover. All in all, the 7500UB is an excellent value, offering performance and features that are more than competitive with some of the higher-end players on the market.

Source: epson.com

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“If you will it, Dude, it is no dream.”

Those are the words that pop into my brain the first time I fire up Universal Remote Control’s MX-6000 to test out the better part of a week’s worth of tinkering and programming. And it’s not just because The Big Lebowski happens to be in my DVD player at the time. (It is. It always is.) I hear those words in my head because I realize that, for the first time, I’m not making excuses for a remote control.

I’m not left wishing for subtle nuances and setting such nitpicks aside, telling myself that no control system could possibly read my twisted little mind. For the first time, I’m using a remote control system that works exactly the way I think it should.

To be fair, this one can’t read my mind, either. I just spent a few hard days learning the ins, the outs, and the what-have-yous of URC’s Complete Control Program: a labyrinthine piece of freeform software that allows for all sorts of nifty routines, such as IF/ELSE variables, nested macros, delays, jumps, punch throughs and all manner of protocols that probably make no sense to you if you’ve never programmed one of Universal Remote Control’s remotes.

The point is, by the time I finally figure out what all of these toys work, I quickly come to the realization that the control interface I’m going to end up with is limited only by my imagination. And that can be a little scary.

And I’m not talking about merely pressing one button to fire up all of the gear I need and switch to all of the appropriate inputs required to watch a DVD. Any of the remotes I’ve reviewed in this class can do that with aplomb. Even my $400 Harmony could do that without batting an eye — before it bit the dust and started gathering the same. No, I’m talking about contingencies peculiar to the way I use my system, which no software designer could reasonably be expected to prepare for in advance.

I’d rather not have the Crowson Tactile Motion System in my Elite HTS recliner turn on every time I watch a DVD or play the PS3, for example. Not a problem; I simply leave it out of the macros and put on/off buttons on the screens for those activities. But when I hit the System Off button to initiate the shutdown macro I’ve crafted for my media room, I’d like for the MX-6000 to remember what condition the Crowson’s condition is in, turn it off if it needs turning off and let it be if not.

The beauty of it is, unlike other remotes in this class that I’ve used, I can make the interface for the MX-6000 exceedingly simple, and it still does everything I need it to do. Of course, it goes without saying that more advanced—read, more expensive—home automation and control systems can jump through similar hoops, assuming your custom installer is savvy enough to do the programming. But the MX-6000 does it all without the benefit of complex external system controllers, without power sensing, without RS-232 control.

Mind you, all of the above can be added in the form of Universal Remote’s MSC-400 Master System Controller, but that would be overkill in a sort of mid-level media room like my own.

In my case, the only extra goodies I need are an MRF-350 RF Base Station to send IR signals to the front or back of the gear in my out-of-the-way rack, and URC’s new PSX-2 iPod dock.

An RF Base Station like the MRF-350 would hardly be worth mentioning in most cases.

It captures incoming RF signals from the MX-6000, converts them to IR and sends the signals to the front or back of my gear via IR repeaters or 3.5-millimeter mini cables.

The beauty of the MRF-350, though, is that I can tweak the strength of its outgoing IR signals individually, so that my cable box—which has always sputtered, lagged and hiccupped due to the overly powerful signals from most IR repeaters—now responds like a puppy’s foot to a belly scratch.

The PSX-2, on the other hand, bears plenty of mentioning. An upgrade to last year’s PSX-1 (which was designed to work solely with the MX-6000), the PSX-2 is now compatible with all of URC’s remotes.

You’ll still need an MX-6000 to get the most out of it. Thanks to the fact that the PSX-2 and MX-6000 both connect to my home network (the former via Cat-6 and the latter via WiFi), I’m able to not only control my iPod, but also to see and manipulate a very sophisticated iPod interface on the remote itself, complete with album artwork, track, and artist info, as well as some advanced features not accessible on the iPod alone (e.g., shuffle by genre or artist).

This same two-way communication functionality allows for similar control of Media Center and iTunes for Home Theater PC users, as well as access to weather, news and sports RSS feeds on the touchscreen itself.

Speaking of the touchscreen, I admit that I found it a bit small at first, compared to the size of the remote as a whole. This worry subsided as soon as I started actually using it. The placement of the hard buttons is spot on, and the seemingly abandoned real estate to the south of the screen actually makes for a nice handhold. The only thing I would change is the material of the scroll-wheel/thumbpad, which feels a teensy bit flimsy compared to the rest of the remote.

Otherwise, I’m hard-pressed to come up with a single complaint. In every way conceivable, the MX-6000 simply rocks, in the parlance of our times. It’s an incredibly flexible, sophisticated remote that scales beautifully to just about any home entertainment setting, from a one-room media room to a whole private residence’s worth of audio, video and automation. And that’s not just, like, my opinion, man.

DESCRIPTION
MX-6000: Wireless touchscreen remote control for home theater, multiroom A/V and automation
PSX-2: Advanced iPod dock for URC control systems
MRF-350: RF Base Station for URC remotes

Source: universalremote.com

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