What do you do when you live in the middle of nowhere but want your home to have all the latest entertainment technology? That was the predicament facing Curtis Jameson as he started building his 1,400-square-foot home in undeniably scenic — but also undeniably far-flung — Nelson, British Columbia. Curtis wrote to us asking for advice on setting up a home theater and an audio system that would let him enjoy music throughout the house. He'd done his homework and come up with a decent overall strategy. But with the “connected” home becoming more common, and “future-proofing” a growing concern, many do-it-yourselfers reach a point where good intentions and diligent study still fall short.

That's where a consultation from a custom installer can be invaluable — even if you live so far from a city that there's no way for one to visit you. In this case, Nelson is tucked away in the Selkirk Mountains eight hours east of Vancouver and three hours north of Spokane, Washington. Instead of dispatching an installer to visit Curtis's home, we had S&V's resident custom installer John Sciacca work with him by e-mail to analyze the situation and make recommendations. For Curtis, the timing couldn't have been better. A construction delay meant he could take advantage of John's recommendations.

Curtis allotted about $5,000 (Canadian) for his home theater and $2,000 for multiroom sound. For the home theater, he was mainly concerned about speaker placement. The multiroom system is more complicated because he's installing it himself. He said the goal is to have “decent-sounding background music” in the kitchen, bedroom, living room, and master bathroom with the ability to adjust the volume and select music sources from each room.

First Stop: The Theater Room
The room for the home theater is a modest 11 1/2 x 10 1/4 feet, with a small closet on the front wall next to the room's entryway. Behind the front wall is an open stairway leading to the basement. Curtis plans to put a sofa along the rear wall.

He wants to keep his Definitive Technology speakers — two BP8 bipolar towers, a C1 center, two bipolar BP2 surrounds, and a PF15 subwoofer — but he'll have to buy some gear to round out the system. On his shopping list are Panasonic's SA-XR70 6.1-channel receiver and DVD-S97 DVD player. He's also looking for recommendations for a back surround speaker so he can enjoy Dolby Digital EX soundtracks, which add a separate back surround channel.

The biggest addition is a 53-inch Panasonic PT-53X54 rear-projection HDTV monitor. Curtis would have preferred a plasma set, but it would have broken the budget. “The cool thing about plasma is obviously the space-saving,” he said, “but I'm building the TV right into the wall so it will have a similar effect.”

Curtis plans to put the center speaker on a custom-built component rack above the TV. Since the speaker will be 7 feet from the floor, he'll angle it down toward the listening area. The side surrounds will go on custom glass shelves in the rear corners, but he wasn't sure how high to put them. He wants to have the back surround speaker behind the sofa facing up. And then there's the sub. “I was going to have it in the corner, but maybe I should put it in the closet to the left of the TV,” he said.

John Sciacca agreed that sticking with the Definitive speakers was a smart move (John owns the PF15 himself) but he didn't agree with Curtis's strategy for the side surrounds. “Glass shelves tend to vibrate and rattle,” he said. “Since you're doing 6.1 channels and you have bipolar surround speakers, I'd rather have the speakers on the side walls where they can provide a good side image instead of in the back of the room where they'll blend with the back surround speaker. And I'd put them about 6 feet above the floor.” Curtis wanted to know how far they should be from the listener. “Ideally, they'd be in line with the listener, or slightly behind,” John said.

Ultimately, though, Curtis decided to keep the surround speakers near the back corners. “Since the room is shallow, the couch wil l almost be against the wall to get the right distance from the TV,” he said. “The glass shelves are almost a half-inch thick and very rigid. They'll be in metal U-channels and treated with silicone to prevent vib ration. They're also deep enough to allow the BP2s to be placed forward from the rear wall.”

John also recommended putting the back surround speaker in the ceiling rather than on the floor. “It's going to be too localizable and distracting on the floor behind the couch,” he explained. “Even if it's right over your head, you can point the tweeter toward the back wall to direct the sound behind you.” Per John's suggestion, Curtis is running wire for a ceiling speaker above where the couch will be. He's checking out the Definitive Technology UIW BP/A and UIW65 models.

John suggested putting the subwoofer in the front left corner instead of in the closet. “When you put a sub in a closet, it tends to interacts with that acoustic space and sound boomy,” he said. No argument from Curtis here.