Wireless Networking in Home Theater Control

**mikaztro** · June 3rd, 2007 01:10 AM

[SIZE="4"]Wireless Networking in Home Theater Control[/SIZE]
By David Powell
Contributing editor

Only a few years ago home theaters and home controls were out of reach for all but the rich and famous. The market is changing rapidly and costs are coming down. In my local area alone there are at least four new custom installers targeting the typical homeowner.

A recent study performed by Parks Associates shows the average high-end home theater cost being between $25,000 and $30,000. An estimated 72,000 homes had theaters installed in 2005 and installs are projected to reach 103,000 in 2007. These statistics are for high-end theater installs. Today, many companies are starting to "market to the masses instead of the classes" and members of the Z-Wave alliance are no exception. So it's possible to get the home theater you want without the hefty price tag.

Media servers are a hot topic in modern home theaters. Most homeowners don't want to flip through CD and DVD cases trying to find their favorite movies only to find that half way through a movie that the disc has a scratch on it. A media server can store your music and videos on a hard drive and provide you with a method to select your media through an on-screen menu.

Canadian company Embedded Automation has developed mTheater, a PC-based media server that includes Microsoft's Windows Media Center and Embedded Automation's mControl software. The PC has been engineered specifically with home theaters in mind. mTheater includes features such as 7.1 digital surround sound, built in Dual TV turner, 19-in-1 Flash media card reader, expandable storage capabilities and much more. The media server is shipped with a Z-Wave starter kit that includes a Z-Wave USB controller. Using the mControl software you can quickly create macros that can be triggered by a number of events. For example you could create a macro which dims the lights and draws back the curtains immediately after you push the play button and another macro to close the curtains and raise the lights when you push the stop button.

Another media server system - which is not yet on the market - is Monster Cable's Einstein. The Einstein is much more than a media server. It's an entire home theater system that comprises multiple components. One of those components is the high performance 960Gbyte media vault also called the neutron, which has a capacity upgradeable to 7.5 terabytes. Also available is a 200 disc DVD changer capable of playing 2 DVDs simultaneously. The brains of the system is called the nucleus and it contains a built in Z-Wave controller. Adding Monster's IlluminEssence lighting devices and the Monster AVL 300 universal remote control really makes this the ultimate home theater system. At the Spring EHX 2007 I was told the Einstein will be sold in most electronics retail stores. Monster Cable licensed this technology from Miami Beach company Pluto. Pluto is written for a Linux operating system and the software is freely available for download from their site for the more advanced DIYers. Pluto is currently in beta testing.

Superna's ControlBox is also a Z-Wave enabled media server. The ControlBox does not have a large media storage disk, but it does contain Media Center and it will let you stream media from any of your networked PCs to your video display. It has S-Video, Composite, Component, and VGA outputs as well as S-Video and Composite inputs. Superna's ControlBox supports Z-Wave and other home control protocols and is a fully functional home control system with four dry contact relays, six general purpose analog inputs, and eight infrared transmitter jacks. Also included are multiple RS232/422/485 and USB 2.0 Ports. You can check out the rest of the specs in their (PDF) Technical Specification manual.

You may not want a dedicated theater room with expensive media servers. But if you'd like to be able to control your home through on-screen menus and schedule events to happen automatically, the BuLogics' BaseCamp could the solution. BaseCamp plugs directly into your television allowing you to navigate through the setup menu with its remote known as the Lantern. You may notice that the Lantern remote control resembles the Sirius Conductor remote. They are pretty much the same remote with different firmware. The BaseCamp supports adding multiple Sirius remotes and/or multiple Sirius Radios. "When this is done it is possible to stream the Sirius metadata from any radio through the BaseCamp to any remote by using the same menu that allows access to home automation functions" says Ryan Buchert of BuLogics. BaseCamp also allows the control of lighting, appliances, HVAC, window blinds, and garage doors. The BaseCamp as well as many other great Z-Wave products are available for purchase now through www.zwaveproducts.com.

So how can these products greatly enhance your home theater experience? Well, most of the magic comes from the ability to setup macros. Using macros you can trigger events when you push certain buttons on your remote control. For example, pushing the power button would lower the lights to 50 percent while turning on your display, drawing back the Z-Wave enabled curtains which protect the screen and power up other components of your system. Setting the lights to 50 percent provides enough lighting for the rest of the family to walk through the theater room and take their seats. Then you push play and the lights turn off, the DVD starts to spin and the HVAC system's fan is set to low to reduce background noise during the movie. Pausing the movie for a bathroom break would only turn the lights up to 30 percent, allowing you just enough light to see where you are going but not so much that you are blinded. You could have the movie pause automatically when an event happens such as a fire alarm going off or the telephone ringing. You're only limited by your imagination.

If you have any questions about the above products or any other Z-Wave enable devices please ask join the ongoing discussion in our forums. We would also like to hear your creative ideas. Let us know how you are using or how you would like to use Z-Wave to enhance your home theater experience. Write to me at david*zwaveworld.com.

Ref: http://zwaveworld.com/zwaveliving/04...h-zwliving.php