Paul Colton knew what he wanted. Lugging a dog-eared copy of an old magazine with a picture of a stunning home theater, Colton walked into Genesis Audio & Video, which built the theater, and said, “This is what I want. Can you build this?”

As Bill Anderson, the boss at Genesis, and Tom Liebich, who ultimately took over day-to-day supervision of the project, talked to the man, they were worried that he had no concept of the cost of such a system. When they informed him of the half-million-dollar price of the pictured theater, he blandly responded that maybe they could do two. Still skeptical, Genesis agreed look at the house and then produce an estimate. As it turned out, Colton, well-funded after selling his software company to one of the computer-industry giants, had more than enough cash to get the job done. He also knew exactly what he wanted, both in terms of his theater, and ultimately his entire home.

Rear view of the Colton home theater showing the Runco projector and Revel surround speakers. (Click image to enlarge)

That started a two-year-plus odyssey, culminating in what may be the single most integrated home outside of the metro Seattle area (rumor has it Bill Gates’ house is now managing Microsoft’s .NET business). What followed included the near demolition of every interior wall in Colton’s home in the hills northeast of San Diego (and the amazing patience of his wife, Shannon), and the unprecedented situation of having a consumer—Colton himself—attend Phast programming classes in Texas, along with Genesis programmers Frank Montezuma and Kevin Dry. The duo then proceeded to spend six months writing software code to make nearly $750,000 worth of electronic gear work properly together.

The final piece of the puzzle was to bring in interior designer Lezlie Trujillo, whom Colton wanted to design the look of the main theater along the lines of The Matrix. The greenish colors of the theater, as well as the submarine door (aping Morpheus’ sub) to the gear room, come straight from the movie. The original idea for the gear room entry, Trujillo says, was a phone booth, but she says she was worried that the look would become dated quickly. The theater features a Runco DTV-1101 CRT projector, although early on Colton said he wanted a DLP. Liebich was able to convince him that the older technology was able to produce a far better picture (especially two years ago when the decisions were made). The audio is handled by a Lexicon MC-1 preamp/processor matched to Linn amps and Revel speakers hidden in the walls.

Designer Lezlie Trujillo created the submarine-style door to recall the look of Morpheus's ship in The Matrix. (Click image to enlarge)

While the theater was an artistic accomplishment, Colton wanted to take things further, fully integrating every system in the house. A second giant rack of gear sits upstairs, next to Colton’s office, which also features a Runco DLP projector (model VX-1c), more amps, a music/video distribution system, a music storage system designed by Colton himself that holds the equivalent of 7,000 CDs, and three PCs set up as servers.

Despite the difficulty of the setup, everything works, and all sources are available everywhere. As I toured the house, I was able to watch the HD Net feed, starting in the theater, moving up to the office, and even on the plasma TV in the outside cabana, 200 feet away from the main house.

While this may be the best example of full-home system integration, Colton is already considering ideas on how to make it work better. The software magnate envisions a future using Java and Flash to create an entirely new way for people to interact with their homes. Could a magazine article lead to a home control revolution?