A former pro athlete creates the perfect field for his growing family’s dreams.

In the world of baseball, shortstop is considered one of the most difficult and demanding infield positions—requiring equal measures of agility, range and strength.

So it comes as no surprise that former Red Sox shortstop Royce Clayton would apply similar skills to any post-sports endeavors.

When Royce began making plans to build his dream home in Arizona’s scenic Paradise Valley, he did just that.

Creative collaboration produces a home theater that’s truly life-enhancing.

Can home-theater technology help alleviate the chaos of modern life?

It’s not the typical path-to-enlightenment story, to be sure. But it’s one that rings true to Stephen and Kelli Brown of Austin, Texas.

A custom installer brings new meaning to the concept of custom installation.

Custom installer Michael K. Leader of Leader D-Cinema Systems Inc. in Beverly Hills likes to apply haute couture-level craftsmanship to his custom-designed-and-fabricated audiovisual systems. “I like to apply bespoke tailoring to my work,” says the man who won an audio Emmy for his work on the XXIV Olympics for NBC.

Leader’s appreciation for the most minute details of a handmade suit, for example, is directly reflected in every A/V system he designs and builds.

Building a home theater out of thin air requires both adaptation and flexibility.

When a hip, young Los Angeles real estate developer/entrepreneur decided to add a home theater to his Los Angeles-area home, he knew exactly what he wanted—right down to the color scheme and seating configuration.

How to incorporate the theater into his existing home, however, was another question.

Contest Winner cyberManor shows what's possible with this award winning Sunnyvale, CA home.

Microsoft, seeing the potential of their Media Center in a custom install environment, started a contest for the best install that was based around one of their Media Center PC (or, as the case may be, PCs).

As you can imagine, each entry was based on how well they integrated the Media Center, along with the gymnastics sounding "technical merit" and creativity/originality.

A Chicago high-rise retreat

This pied-a-terre in Chicago’s River North neighborhood gives new meaning to the phrase “date night.” “We raise our four kids in the west suburbs of Chicago,” says Jon Butcher. In describing his 3,500-square-foot, Japanese-inspired condominium, he explains, “This is where we come to get away from our kids. We use this as our date place.”

Noted home theater designer Theo Kalomirakis has learned that a snooty attitude can sometimes accompany the celebrities who hire him.

“They think everybody else is below them,” he says, with a chuckle. So he was surprised, not to mention flattered, when on a first meeting a Hollywood movie star client asked him to autograph a copy of his book, Great Escapes: New Designs for Home Theaters by Theo Kalomirakis.

Affectionately called "the bunker," this multipurpose basement space, owned by a former hedge fund executive, is the scene for serious music listening and film watching. The downstairs space also doubles as a recording studio.