The short history of the custom electronics industry has yielded an impressive migration of music and video throughout the house. We’ve gone from listening to music where the stereo was stored to expecting our tunes to greet us as we move from room to room. And in many upscale homes, the family room TV is now just one of many, joined by the bedroom TV, the kitchen LCD, and the home theater.
Now home entertainment is on the move again, and it’s going places we never envisioned. Thanks to the placement opportunities offered by flat-panel technology, TVs are entering the great outdoors. Some are lightweight enough to stow away when not in use and others are being built to withstand harsh environments such as heat and moisture. Extreme electronics have arrived.
“We’ve seen an uptick in demand for rock, planter, and traditional outdoor speakers,” says Frank Stearns, president of Niles Audio, which sells speakers and specially designed devices for the indoor and outdoor custom residential market. “There’s clearly a trend toward people building outdoor kitchens and entertainment spaces with LCD TVs.”
The “rock” speaker was born out of this trend, and companies including Niles Audio, Rockustics, StereoStone, and others offer a variety of speakers built into enclosures molded to look like rocks in coral, sandstone, granite, and other designs. The camouflage allows installers to place the speakers amid the landscaping so that music plays freely into the yard. Hiding speakers behind plants or actual rocks, on the other hand, can block or compromise the sound.
Niles’ most recent innovation is an outdoor planter that doubles as a loudspeaker. Designed for decks and patios, the weatherproof planter/speaker measures roughly 20 inches in height, width, and depth and swallows a 6-inch stereo speaker at the bottom of the enclosure. The top section can accommodate live plants, which sit on a false bottom separating the two compartments.
The trend toward outdoor entertainment has kept installers busy coming up with clever solutions for outdoor theater. “Every system we do has outdoor speakers and touchpanels around pools, cabanas, and hot tubs,” says Josh Colletta, systems designer at DSI Entertainment in Studio City, Calif. “Lately we’ve upped the ante with outdoor theater,” he says. “For people with big budgets, it’s one more thing to show off to their friends.”
All equipment for outdoor use must come weatherproofed to handle the elements. DSI uses on-wall and rock speakers from Sonance, an in-wall touchpanel from Crestron for control of music and TV, and Crestron’s waterproof handheld remote control for the pool. “We go to great extremes to keep the electronics safe from the elements since 99 percent of our outdoor systems are permanent,” says Colletta. “If they don’t come weather-proofed, we engineer them to be in-house.”
DSI fits touchpanels on outside walls inside custom-made stainless steel enclosures that are trimmed out with weather-stripping and silicone around the hinged door. Flat-panel TVs are mounted inside weatherproof enclosures made by Premier Mounts to keep moisture away from the TV.
One of the most important aspects of outdoor entertainment begins at the home’s wiring stage. Colletta tells home builders that conduit for power and control cables should be laid during the wiring stage to ensure all outdoor electronics can be accommodated. “Pending the landscaping design and other outdoor designs, we can help the contractor prepare a plan for running conduits through the outdoor space,” he says. “And the conduits provide access and protection for our wires.”
The outdoor trend is also spawning new offerings from electronics suppliers.
