By Bob Gatton
September is one of my favorite months of the year. College football starts, and in early September, there is the CEDIA (Custom Electronics Dealers and Installers Association) convention. More than 29,000 people attended this year's show in Denver to see the latest in home theater and home automation products. Of course, there were tons of new LCD and plasma displays, projectors, speakers, receivers and lighting controls. But I spent some time looking for innovative products that might be on interest to builders. Here are my findings.
One of the most common questions that I get from builders is how to reduce the sound from one room migrating to rest of house, or keeping sound from outside from entering the home. I am a fan of Acousticblok's products, but another great option is Green Glue. You simply apply Green Glue between two layers of drywall. This will result in about 10 dB (decibels) of sound reduction.You have cut volume in half.
Anigmo touchless dimmer switches were another of my favorites. Wave your hand in from of the wall switch to turn the light on or off; hold your hand in front of the switch to dim the light. Anigmo offers a wide variety of stone, ceramic and wood wall plates. For more information, go to the company's website and check out the demo.
Want whole-house surge protection and battery backup? Richard Gray's Power Company has a solution for you. The RGPC PowerVault has state-of-the-art surge protection and as much as 92 amps of battery backup. During a power outage, it could supply electricity to a house for a couple of days, depending on the load. The PowerVault can be connected to solar panels or a generator to have continuous power for longer periods of time. Very cool — and it should be for an MSRP of $29,500. I can't wait to get my review sample. (Right!)
A few years ago, a couple of companies started to offer loudspeaker systems that contained the left, right, center and surround loudspeakers in one box, which is usually mounted below the display. As the result of some really clever engineering, our ears perceive the surround sound coming from behind us, even though the speaker is in front of us. Do they sound as good as five or more separate speakers? Not to me, but they do sound surprisingly good, and on some installs one of these systems might be the answer. At this year's show, more companies are selling this type of speaker. Check out the following links for more information: Philips, Polk, SoundMatters and Yamaha. Marantz will have information on its website soon. Artison and Triad combine the left, center and right loudspeakers in one cabinet. For the theater sound experience, though, separate surround speakers will be needed.
If you have used HDMI cables, chances are you have had some problems. Particularly on longer runs, HDMI connections can have some issues that can result in a degraded picture or no picture at all. Honeywell introduced a line of cables that can diagnose and fix a corrupted HDMI signal. For more information on Honeywell cables and their other HDMI problem solvers, go to the company's website.
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