The Design Perspective

No, not the action movie.  I’m talking about Matrix Switches.  This handy device allows any TV to view any source.  Why does this cause techno-shy women to say “cool”? Let me describe an example system.

Let’s say you have a home theater in the basement, a sleek flat screen in the hearth room, another in the master bedroom, and an under-cabinet TV in the kitchen. All except the kitchen TV are high-definition displays.

For sources, you have two high definition Cable TV boxes with DVR features, a 400-disc DVD player through a media manager, a “convenience DVD player” in the hearth room for rental DVDs, one HD/BluRay player, a door camera, and an Xbox 360.

If the 400-disc DVD changer was connected to your home theater then you could only watch your collection in that room.  If the Xbox was connected to the bedroom TV then you could only play it in there.  You’ve been stuck in this briar patch before.

Enter the Matrix Switch

Now every TV can watch every source.  Imagine: watch any DVD in your collection from any TV.  Pause the movie and click over to see what your kids are playing on the Xbox then click back to your movie (I even put this in a “one-touch” macro button on custom remotes). Same goes for the doorbell camera.

Heavy into watching a DVR recorded game in the theater room when you’re called to dinner? Pause it and pull it up on the kitchen TV. 

Having a party to celebrate the end of your child’s soccer season? Click to the Xbox and play a slide show of digital photos stored on your PC right over the xbox.  Even select your music for the evening at the same time—in seconds.  The control pads are wireless so they work anywhere in the house.

Plus, now you can put the matrix switch and most of the sources down in the theater room so they don’t clutter your house with heat-producing, ugly electronics (sorry guys—electronics are ugly no matter how hard you try to convince your spouse otherwise.  You can put them in a nice equipment rack for aesthetics, cooling, and proper power protection.  Just don’t try to convince her it’s “for looks”—she’s not going to buy that argument.)
 
A Word on Wiring

Existing homes can often be re-wired to add these capabilities but it’s much less expensive to have it done while the home is being built.  Many builders use electricians who don’t have experience with the special wiring required.  Be sure to contact a low-voltage specialist BEFORE you start building a home. You can always pay for an integrated, low-voltage engineering package if your builder is inflexible with who he wants to pull the wires.