How Custom is Custom? Secret Bat Cave, Anyone?

OK, integrators, you’ve given us a lot of flak over the years for suggesting that cookie-cutter systems can be profitable.

You want custom? It’s our first name.

To remind the world just what the “C” means in CE Pro, we’re holding a “We Mean Custom” contest in conjunction with Leon Speakers.

We don’t want to hear about the motorized lift you planted in an old chest. That’s nice, but we’d rather to hear about a solution you engineered to drop a 103-inch flat TV from the ceiling.

Automated door locks are cool, but secret motorized doors are even cooler.

We’ve seen some great multi-screen media rooms, but we’d love to see more custom-engineered jumbotrons.


Outdoor speakers are great, but what will really wow is an outdoor theater that rises up from the lawn.

In most circles, one-touch automation is quite a feat, but a no-touch system for observing the Sabbath is even more awesome.

We want to hear about your most challenging requests from customers, and your grandest efforts to customize a solution that goes above and beyond.

Something like this residential telepresence system, perhaps:

Desert Sound & Security had to deal with a host of lighting and audio/video issues to pull this off. A 65-inch plasma screen was originally planned for the conference room space, but a Cisco TV was required to properly integrate with the telepresence system. Only Cisco didn’t have a screen that size—until the company made this one.

Miller’s company had to dismantle the pedestal system the TV came on to mount the display above the fireplace, where homeowner wanted it. Small speakers that fire from the bottom bezel were swapped for better-quality custom-made speakers. Desert Sound also disassembled the side panels and rebuilt them so they shine light from slots, and the crew worked with a lighting designer to get just the right amount of light on the subject.

Proper lighting levels and fixture locations are crucial to having a quality telepresence experience, because without proper illumination the subject can appear washed out or with dark shadows covering portions of his face, or the background can look poor. For additional lighting, Desert Sound added some fixtures to a leg of the chandelier and pointed them down. Lights in the ceiling also adjust to different levels, depending on what is being done in the room.

Although Leon is sponsoring this contest, your submissions do not have to revolve around speakers or audio. Leon, makers of customized speakers for finicky clients, just wants to recognize the creativity and care that custom integrators put into their work.

We’ve seen CE pros do some crazy things with user interfaces, tight spaces, small budgets, motorization, furniture, décor, lighting, energy management, hidden technology, themed spaces, gaming … and eccentric clients.

Do you mean custom? Show us what you got … even if you’ve shown us before. Submit your uber-custom work by June 7.

Check out the details here.


That's what we mean by custom: Leon's 5.4 channel "speaker dragon." Let's see if you can beat that. Check out video on the making of the dragon below.

The Making of The Dragon from Leon Speakers on Vimeo.