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Star Trek Home Theater

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the money-to-burn dept.

Critical Facilities writes "Someone thought it would be a good idea to model their home theater after the Enterprise NCC-1701D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The result is super geeky, but actually rather cool. Named the best theme theater installation at CEDIA 2007, this Palm Beach County, FL home features motion-activated air-lock doors with series sound effects, and a "Red Alert" button on the Crestron TPMC-10 controller to turn all of the LEDs bright red and flashing."

15 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Not realistic by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thank god this is only a simulation.
    When they finally put this stuff into real space ships, just make sure they don't copy the motion-activated air-lock doors.
    I kinda like breathing, keep the motion activation swooshing to internal doors only please.

    Other than that it looks really really cool and well worth the money they spent on it.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. Just shoot me... by djupedal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The guy has been trying to sell this house for the last year. I mean, come on - I don't slight the guy for building such a 'tribute' - it had to be fun. But then putting the house on the market and expecting someone to welcome such an addition? That just doesn't make sense.

    1. Re:Just shoot me... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is a different build - the one you are thinking of was a guy from England who went bankrupt trying to sell his 24th century flat.

      http://www.24thcid.com/
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4695188.stm

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:Just shoot me... by morari · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Most people with a sense of humor would welcome it, I suspect. Selling a house is difficult work to begin with, and the real estate market in general has been horrid this year. The real problem usually lies within the buyer. You have a bunch of ignorant people house shopping, though they have no idea what they want or how much they're willing to pay for it. When they see something they like they try to hold up the entire process while they dick around with a bank to get a loan which usually falls through anyway unless it's a generic ranch house or a stuffy condo.

      Yay for our debt-based society!

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    3. Re:Just shoot me... by morari · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It would depend on the rest of the house really. I like watching movies in bed or on a comfortable couch much more than I do sitting in a theater seat... even if it is the Captain's seat. Besides, "top dollar" is really an overblown and inflated idea in the real estate world. Anyway, the place resides in Florida and there's now way in heck I'd ever want to live there. Ohio is humid enough in the summer!

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    4. Re:Just shoot me... by karnal · · Score: 4, Informative
      Actually, it doesn't look like he went bankrupt trying to sell it - he actually likes the 24th century interiors; it's just that he set up a business doing the same interior remodelling. With credit cards. And it didn't take off.

      Tony Alleyne, 52, spent nine years and £30,000 transforming his flat and used another £100,000 to launch a company which offered similar makeovers. But the schemes were funded by loans and credit cards and he has filed for bankruptcy with debts of £166,000. To speak to the actual article here though, building a home theater is a fun experience - especially enjoying it afterwards. I would have to wonder what the pricetag is on the star-trek based theater; however against true Slashdot fashion I did read the article and there was not even a ballpark estimate given.
      --
      Karnal
    5. Re:Just shoot me... by billcopc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If it weren't for debt, you wouldn't need 30 years worth of money to buy a home.

      The debt environment artificially inflates real estate pricing because people can "afford" more. They don't end up with a bigger home, they just pay more for the same old pile of dirt. How many people would own homes if it weren't for mortages ? More than you think, because everyone needs a home. What ? You think the land owners and banks would sit idly, waiting for that one wealthy buyer per thousand ? No, they would adapt, or else we would mob them!

      Seriously, it's a low-tech box made of concrete and wood, supposed to protect people from the elements and from other people. How such a basic device could come to be worth half a million or more is beyond logic.

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      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    6. Re:Just shoot me... by Mistshadow2k4 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "The real problem lies within the buyer"? On what planet at this time would that be? Have you watched any of these home-selling shows on HGTV lately? (I'm a care-giver and it's very popular where I do volunteer work.) A great deal of the problem -- and thus, the "hold up" you mention -- is all too often the sellers trying to get two or three times the amount of money they've invested in the house. That's no exaggeration; I saw a show once in which the seller had bought the house for $95,000, invested about $40,000 in remodeling and was trying to sell it for $375,000. He only got $300,000 and bitched about for the last 5 minutes of the show. Jesus, $165,000 wasn't enough of a profit? That was a rather extreme case, but I've seen a lot of others on that show. On pretty much every episode, the sellers inflate the price to at least double what they've spent on the property. It's pure greed that has inflated the cost of a home to absolutely ridiculous levels, and folks like you wonder why it takes so long to sell a house? Duh, not only do your potential buyers have to get a loan for a humongous amount of money, and most likely these "ignorant" people are looking at other houses too -- why the hell shouldn't they? More than anything, artificially inflating prices like this -- not just on homes but on many, many things like cars -- is why we have a debt-based society. So what the hell are you griping about? They have to go through a hell of a lot more trouble to than you do. You sound just like the greedy jerks on that show, bitching that people just don't fall head over heels in love with your house the moment they see it and immediately puke a few hundred grand all over you, no matter how much the house is actually worth.

      --
      I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
  3. Haha. by Gigiya · · Score: 5, Funny

    I like the comment left on TFA: "now, the only thing left is to actually convince a human woman to go in there with you..."

    1. Re:Haha. by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Informative

      The girl I was living with at the time Star Trek: The Next Generation first came out was one of those people (an English major, as it happens) for whom Star Trek, indeed science-fiction in general, held no appeal. Science either, for that matter. Just didn't see the point ("What good is that Space Shuttle? Bring it down to Earth and spend that money on social programs.")

      But the show was on at 5:00 PM every Saturday, and it didn't matter what social plans she might have made for the evening, I wasn't leaving until I'd received my Star Trek fix. I could have taped it, but that wasn't the point: this is my show and you will work around it. Now at first, this irritated her to no end, but as I watched each episode she would hang around in the background, feigning disinterest but with her curiosity obviously piqued. After a couple months of this, she sat down next to me and asked, "so ... who's the guy with the greenish skin that talks so oddly?" I explained to her that Lt. Commander Data was actually an android, who was trying hard to understand us better so as to be more human. A couple of months more, and she would answer the phone with, "Sorry, Debby, we can't come over now ... Star Trek's on. I'll call you later. Bye!" Turned her into a Trekkie just from secondhand exposure, and as a consequence she began to think about the relevance of science and technology to any modern culture, that in fact they make our lifestyle possible. She'd never really thought about that before. Most Americans don't, when you get right down to it: everything might as well be powered by magic.

      So it is possible. Trekkiedom is not solely the province of male geeks and nerds, much as some of us might like to believe that. I remember reading in the book "The Making of Star Trek" (original series) that the female test audiences were just completely in love with Mr. Spock, and oddly enough resented Uhura ("Who does she think she is, anyway, doing man's work on the bridge and wearing an outfit like that!") Things were a bit different back in the sixties.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  4. pretty, but the screen is too small by jollyreaper · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The view from the back would be about as poor as watching a normal-sized screen. But I do like the table element they have going with the worf arc (whatever you called that thing he stood behind.) If you're doing dinnner and a movie, it's nice to have that stuff right in front of you. Of course, with comfy chairs that lay back, you'll end up dropping food all over yourself. The last thing you want to do in a Star Trek-themed room is look like Jabba -- mixing shows is considered very gauche these days.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  5. Re:Telepathic doors by module0000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...."There goes another one of those self-satisfied doors", said Marvin.

    --
    Trackball users will be first against the wall.
  6. Link to original article by Mononoke · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://www.electronichouse.com/article/next_generation_star_trek_home_theater/C154

    I hate getting sent to articles that are simple summaries of the original.

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    NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
  7. does the MPAA know... by advocate_one · · Score: 4, Interesting

    about those 3,816 DVDs he's admitted to copying???

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  8. It's not that hard with the right tools. by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The ceiling wouldn't be that hard to do. Use a CNC router to mill a clay mould, then vacuum-form plastic sheet over it. TechShop in Silicon Valley has all the gear for that, and there are shops that do large-area vacuum forming. Up to 6' x 11' vacuum forming of single pieces is commercially available.

    Much of the "future" that comes from Hollywood is made by vacuum forming. It's cheap.