Sound & Video Contractor presents features & columns on residential AV technology

Home Theater Star Field

For over seven years, our customer kept a folder with ideas and notes of what he wanted in his theater, and with the help of our company and the builder, we made his dream a reality. ...

HDMI 1.3 Cables – A Look Under the Hood

By Steven Barlow

HDMI Licensing issued a major extension of its HDMI standard, known popularly as HDMI v1.3. Few times in the history of the consumer-electronics industry has the introduction of a display standard created more interest and confusion among consumers...

Media Room Access to Whole-House Video Distribution

Our client was looking for a media room for the children to hang out in, relax, play pool, and watch TV or DVDs—but mostly they wanted to play video games. The media room is located on the basement level of a single-story house and the formal theater is located on the main floor....

High-End Companies Up Ante on Luxury Loudspeakers

These same companies—MartinLogan, KEF and others—may be bending to market trends elsewhere in their product lines, but they’re making brash-style statements at the high end, hoping to tap into the tastes of the luxury crowd....

The Buzz: Installation Spotlight: Appliance World, Denver

By Dan Daley

There's an irony in having a home theater integrator install a home theater in a place that sells home theaters — a kind of picture-in-picture tableau where more than the usual considerations have to be kept in mind...

Expert Column: Universal Mounts

By Eric Mancini

Has this ever happened to you? A friend or a client needs a mount for a flatpanel display or projector. The type of display or projector is inconsequential — it could be a new model or a warehouse special that has been pieced together from three different SKUs and sold as a complete unit...

Creating Elegant Home Theater Design

We created the ultimate environment in this room employing techniques to maximize the elegance, performance, and value. ...

Digital TV Changeover Has Some in Industry Nervous

The long-awaited transition from analog to digital TV is just over a year away, and the consumer electronics industry, and government officials, are anxiously anticipating what will happen when TVs go dark for the 13 million households that get their TV service exclusively over the air....