Home theaters garner bells, whistles

Industry offering glittering options to the well-heeled

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, September 7, 2007

The Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association trade show features home theaters that make you feel as though you're living the movie.

But the Denver expo also illustrates how far the fledgling, multibillion-dollar industry has come in providing accoutrements.

For example, there are motorized canvas art screens that hide a wall-mounted television when it's not in use ($2,800-$8,000, Vutec Corp.).

Or customized acoustic wall and ceiling panels and seating to make a home theater sound good and look pretty. (Cinema Design Group International, $40,000 to $480,000).

Or automated control systems that not only can manage entertainment systems, appliances, lighting, thermostats and security systems, but also provide local weather data and trends (Convergent Living, around $7,000).

The latter, by the way, is sold by a young Golden outfit, one of a number of Colorado companies at the 600-exhibitor show.

"I hate doing this on the road," said Craig Slawson, Convergent Living's CEO, as he demonstrated the company's home-control systems. "But it's fun (here) to see the pride in the town."

The expo runs through Sunday at the Colorado Convention Center. But it's for association members - professional designers, installers, manufacturers - and is not open to the public.

Douglas County-based EchoStar, which operates Dish satellite TV network, is in attendance as well, displaying its digital video recorder technology to dealers. Ben Allmond, a program manager from EchoStar's Europe division, talked about a receiver being turned into a DVR, with a launch date next year.

Attendees had their favorites.

Roger Wilson of Mid-State Distributors in Nebraska was impressed by the variety of products that hide speakers in walls. "It's a very viable product for a lot of people who don't like holes cut out in their walls," he said.

Paul Bonn, chief executive officer of PV Bonn & Associates of Phoenix, a custom installer, was wowed by a new Samsung video projection system and a 46-inch Toshiba touted as the "world's thinnest LCD TV." The Toshiba goes on sale next month for a suggested retail price of $2,499.

Clearly, the show isn't for the faint of financial resources.

Joe Galea was manning Cinema Design Group International's booth Thursday afternoon. In his real job, Galea is chief financial officer of the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, which designs and engineers home theaters, providing everything from acoustic wall panels and columns to leather seats. Customers are as far away as Greece and Dubai.

Galea described how one customer ordered faux brick walls, plus the Chicago skyline and vintage Hollywood posters printed on fabric wall panels.

Another wanted the look of a casino. Still another ordered a fiber-optic ceiling replicating a starry night, programmable to change constellations.

"If people spend all this money (on a home theater), they want it to sound good, look good," Galea said.

Pretty and practical

What it is: Motorized canvas art screens that hide a wall-mounted television when it's not in use.

Cost: $2,800-$8,000

The company: Vutec Corp.

What it is: Acoustic wall and ceiling panels to make a home theater look and sound good.

Cost: $40,000-$480,000

The company: Cinema Design Group International

smithje@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5155