Unless you live on a pirate ship, where one simply cannot communicate without frequent use of “aye” and “arrr,” the term IR is likely unfamiliar to you. But IR is part of what makes elaborate home theaters possible. IR stands for infrared, and it refers to the light-based commands emitted by your remote controls.

In most custom theaters, the gear is hidden away in a cabinet. How does one control the gear when the infrared light from your remotes cannot strike it? By picking up that light with a tiny sensor in the theater, and relaying it through a distribution system to an emitter placed in front of the component, you can control the gear in a closet from the comfort of your recliner.

Useful as IR distribution systems are, they’re awkward: a complicated assemblage of a little box, a separate power supply, and lots of wired emitters and sensors. And while you can pick them up through some Internet outlets, they’re not readily available to consumers—they’re more the sort of thing that custom installers buy in quantity and stock in their storerooms.

Monster Cable has recently come up with an elegant way to add IR distribution to your system—and to get your gear out of sight and into a closet or cabinet. It’s called the Empowered PowerCenter. Fortunately, the product is as elegant as its name is graceless. It builds IR distribution into a power conditioner, which turns out to be a handy place to have it. No extra boxes or power supplies are needed, just the tiny wired IR sensor and some IR emitter cables.

Two models are available: the larger EP 3650 with 10 AC outlets, and the smaller EP 2450 with seven AC outlets. The EP 3650 controls as many as 12 components, while the EP 2450 controls up to five. For a media room, which typically includes only an A/V receiver and a few source components, the EP 2450 is a better choice.

I try the EP 2450 in my friend Al’s media room, which I installed a few years ago. The component rack resides in an under-stairs closet directly adjacent to the media room. I didn’t have an IR distribution system on hand when I put the gear in, so I jury-rigged something with a few wired flashers and an old radio-frequency-based IR relay system I had sitting around. I never got around to changing it because while it didn’t work well, it did at least work. I hoped the EP 2450 could streamline the system and make it more reliable.

I place the IR sensor atop Al’s projection screen, where he barely notices it’s there. Then I run the sensor’s wire through the wall, into the closet, and into the back of the EP 2450. I stick IR emitters on the fronts of Al’s receiver, cable box, and Blu-ray player. (You can tell exactly where to stick the IR emitter head on these components if you shine a flashlight into the tinted plastic on their fronts—the flashlight makes it easy to see the IR window on the front of the component.) I then plug the AC cords from all of his components into the EP 2450, and run the cable for his TV through it, too.

To my joy and Al’s, the system now responds crisply and reliably. Hit the volume button on his Philips Pronto remote, and his Sunfire receiver responds immediately, without the slight but annoying delay my kludged system caused, and without the repeated button pushes that the old system sometimes demanded.

His equipment rack also looks nicer because the IR system is built into the power conditioner instead of hanging off the back of the rack. And the fewer wires, the easier it is for me to service the system. Sleek industrial design and a bright blue LED voltage meter give the EP 2450 a cool look in the rack—a nice touch for guys like Al who enjoy showing off their system.

The unit offers substantial surge protection, which is of course a valuable and necessary element of any good A/V system. It also offers Monster’s proprietary Clean Power technology to filter radio waves and other forms of electromagnetic interference out of the power lines. That’s supposed to improve audio and video performance, but frankly, I rarely notice a dramatic improvement in sound or video quality with power conditioners. Al’s picture and sound are basically the same as before; the system just works and looks a lot better.

I’d love to see Monster add a couple more options for IR sensors—specifically one that mounts in a wall and a slender one that attaches to the side of a projection screen or flat-panel TV. The sensor included with the EP 2450 is fine for many applications but too bulky for some.

I think this product is going to be popular with installers because of the annoying little components it eliminates, and with do-it-yourselfers because it makes it easy for them to hide their gear away. Revolutionary it isn’t, but handy it is.

DESCRIPTION
Seven-outlet power conditioner with built-in IR distribution and protection for phone, Ethernet, and cable/satellite/antenna lines

CONNECTIONS
Seven AC outlets, 3.5mm IR sensor input, four 3.5mm IR emitter outputs, RJ-11 phone input, two RJ-11 phone outputs, RJ-45 Ethernet input and output, two F-connectors each for RF input and output

DIMENSIONS
2.13 x 17.13 x 10.3 inches (hwd)

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $499
CONTACT: 415.840.2000, Monstercable.com