Talk of the Town of Allendale, New Jersey, recently celebrated the re-opening of one of its showrooms, a heavily redesigned space that features seven home theater and home automation rooms.

In addition to home cinema, the facility was rebuilt to highlight home automation technologies for families looking to improve their house while the economy go through this rough patch. It also serves as an environment to educate architects and interior designers.

The new showroom has three dedicated home theater spaces, but other spaces in the building have been modeled to look like other rooms in the home in order to demonstrate whole-house A/V distribution and home automation applications, such as shade and lighting control.

There is even an outdoor vignette that shows how a patio space can be included. One of the big messages the company is trying to convey is that while the consumers may be reducing travel and nightlife excursions, investments in home entertainment can add value — in some cases maybe even save some money.

"We can automate climate, lighting and shade/drape control to minimize unnecessary energy usage, even when you're not home and forgot to turn something on or off before you left," said Robert Seaman, project manager for Talk of the Town. "We can automatically have a group of shades close when the hot sun is beating on your house during the summer, or open automatically in the winter to help warm your home."

The Allendale location is the one of two Talk of the Town facilities. The dealer’s other location in Hoboken was renovated last year.

CONTACT: talkofthetownvideo.com