Jason Unger
03-22-07, 03:47 PM
8 Innovative Home Theater Controls
Controlling a massive home theater with a drop-down screen, complicated projector, and a huge collection of movies -- been there, done that. A home with 20 audio zones and a dozen sources? Yawn.
In this business, dealers are used to seeing such systems and the elegant interfaces that make them work.
We asked CE Pro readers to send us some of the designs that we haven't seen before. The response was overwhelming. Several integrators sent us some of the most beautiful touchscreen graphics we've ever seen. But that really wasn't the point of this story. We were going for fresh solutions to unusual problems.
http://www.cepro.com/asset/7153.jpg (http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/17569.html)
We celebrate the quirky and the clever.
Virtual Geiger Counter
Some touchscreen designs simply need no explanation. This one comes from New York City-based EPI Systems Integration, which had a client that lives near a nuclear reactor. "He wanted a way to monitor radiation near his home," explains principal Michael Curtin.
Who wouldn't?
EPI found an appropriate RS-232-communicating sensor and designed this intuitive interface.
The Easy Button
Like most programmers, Casey Collins of AS Outsourcing, Inc., Orlando, Fla., aims to provide customers with an "attractive, yet intuitive, interface that puts the power of controlling the most complex equipment back into their hands."
Unlike most integrators, however, Collins believes, "This should include the ability to troubleshoot some of the most common issues that arise in normal day-to-day operation."
For more on the touchscreen designs, check out
http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/17569.html
Controlling a massive home theater with a drop-down screen, complicated projector, and a huge collection of movies -- been there, done that. A home with 20 audio zones and a dozen sources? Yawn.
In this business, dealers are used to seeing such systems and the elegant interfaces that make them work.
We asked CE Pro readers to send us some of the designs that we haven't seen before. The response was overwhelming. Several integrators sent us some of the most beautiful touchscreen graphics we've ever seen. But that really wasn't the point of this story. We were going for fresh solutions to unusual problems.
http://www.cepro.com/asset/7153.jpg (http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/17569.html)
We celebrate the quirky and the clever.
Virtual Geiger Counter
Some touchscreen designs simply need no explanation. This one comes from New York City-based EPI Systems Integration, which had a client that lives near a nuclear reactor. "He wanted a way to monitor radiation near his home," explains principal Michael Curtin.
Who wouldn't?
EPI found an appropriate RS-232-communicating sensor and designed this intuitive interface.
The Easy Button
Like most programmers, Casey Collins of AS Outsourcing, Inc., Orlando, Fla., aims to provide customers with an "attractive, yet intuitive, interface that puts the power of controlling the most complex equipment back into their hands."
Unlike most integrators, however, Collins believes, "This should include the ability to troubleshoot some of the most common issues that arise in normal day-to-day operation."
For more on the touchscreen designs, check out
http://www.cepro.com/magazine/article/17569.html