25 May Hide Audio Video Components
Sometimes we feel like marriage counselors here at PAC-NJ, northern New Jersey’s source for home theater equipment, service, and advice. Couples come in shopping for audio-video components, but often one spouse objects to the way the equipment looks, or worries that the high-tech gear clashes with the rest of the décor. In our last blog we talked about mirrored design solutions that can make flat screen HD TVs disappear, and home theater speakers designed for placement behind walls. Well, your stack of audio video components and other can also do a disappearing act, so you can enjoy your system without having to look at the gear that drives it.
It’s relatively easy to install the typical stack of three or more audio-video components completely out of view, thanks to the latest generation of universal remote controls. These remotes can send command signals though solid objects, enabling the components to be hidden out of sight. In fact, these remotes don’t even have to be aimed directly at the audio video components they control. Among the locations for hiding A/V components I recommend to our clients: inside cabinets with solid wood doors, in nearby closets, or in the basement mechanical room. Crestron, my favorite brand of universal remote controls, designed all of their remotes to broadcast RF signals thru any solid object. And the broadcast range of Crestron controls is impressive. So controlling any brand or any model of audio video or home theater system under the sun is possible, and there is no need to worry about perfect aiming of the remote.
Of course the final part of the formula to make home entertainment systems invisible is hiding the audio video cable and wires. That’s easy, too – just hire a professional residential home theater installer. They have the technical expertise and experience to conceal every audio video wire and cable, removing any objection to installing a home theater based, on the looks of the equipment. The result: Domestic harmony and great home entertainment are both within reach!