Tech Talk:
THE SPORTS BAR
Controlling five TVs could have been five times as complicated as controlling one, were it not for the talent of the system designers at Spire Intergrated Systems LLC, the Detroit-based firm that specified and installed the audio, video, and automation in this home.

According to Navot Shoresh, the principal/owner, the five of the TVs are controlled by a single AMX Modero 8.4-inch touchscreen, which sits in an in-wall docking station at the bar but can also be removed for use elsewhere in the room. The touchscreen includes a TV control menu that shows the five screens. “It’s an exact replica of the wall with the TVs,” Shoresh says.

Each representation of the small screens on the touchscreen is split into two buttons: control and swap. The control button lets the user select the Integra DVD, the Escient media server, a security camera, or any of the home’s seven cable boxes. The swap button moves whatever is playing on that screen over to the center 70-inch Sony rear-projection TV, and what was playing on the large screen moves to the small screen. (The smaller screens are all Samsung 32-inch LCD panels.) The Modero also controls and shows the status of the security system, the lighting, and the multiroom audio system—not only for the sports bar, but also for every other room of the home.

Only audio corresponding to the video program playing on the 70-inch Sony TV can be heard through the room’s surround-sound system, which uses three SpeakerCraft AIM8 Three ceiling speakers in the front, two KEF Ci80 ceiling speakers in the back, and a KEF PSW2500 subwoofer installed in the cabinetry below the Sony TV.

The room’s rich woodwork and hard stone floor presented a daunting acoustical challenge. “The room is all hard surfaces, so sound reflects off of everything,” Shoresh explains. “We incorporated some acoustical panels from Acoustic Innovations into the ceiling to quiet things down. You can spend so much money on equipment but you can screw it up so bad if you don’t treat the room.”—Brent Butterworth