After producing customized media control centers for the past two years, Jason Austin is ready to market a version for $2,000 — a fraction of what people have had to pay in the past.

"The product is sort of the brain for the home," says Tor Winetrout, residential manager at Pacific Electrical Contractors, one of Austin's clients.

"You can spend over a quar

"You can spend over a quarter of a million dollars for the capability to do something like this and the cost for the brain alone is $60,000 or so. Since Jason has come out with this, the comparable models have come down to $10,000 to $20,000," Winetrout said.

Austin has sold more than 50 customized units during the two-year development period.

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"For something like this, you want to know it's going to work," Winetrout says. "Everything needs an incubation period before you're comfortable putting it there. He knows it's proven now."

Development of electronics with Internet protocol addresses — allowing computers to talk to the devices — has hastened advancements.

The Falcon Development media center looks much like a VCR player or stereo tuner. Users can control virtually any electrical operation within wired or wireless range. While the media center duplicates many smart home functions, says Tonya Austin, Jason's wife, "There are other aspects you can't do with a smart home system; it takes full-blown PC so that it is all right there on the TV."

Jason Austin says his early media center devices were made for upscale users with expensive homes.

"They're not designed to sit there and be showcased every once in a while," he says. "I've tailored them over time to make them more user-friendly.

"When you get to 4,000 or 5,000 media files, how do you intelligently know how to get to the picture or video you're looking for?" he says. "There had to be a search feature at the client's disposal so they could get to the file they are looking for out of a mess of files."

A touch panel was added recently, Austin says, so users wouldn't have to boot up their high-definition TVs when they simply wanted to listen to music. The media center also responds to voice commands.

He builds units from off-the-shelf components in an anteroom next to his office.

The media center can be a plus for home builders wanting to entice folks with a few more bells and whistles. Austin says builders can set up a plasma screen, hook it up to a media center and run video, slide shows or PowerPoint.

"When they're through, they can take down the plasma TV and move on to the next job," he says.

The media centers are not plug-and-play devices; it takes a couple of hours to set up.

Once units are up and running, Austin offers a different type of support than most computer users see.

"We'll take over their TV remotely," he says. "People don't want to fumble through menus. We'll simply take over and fix it remotely."

-- Greg Stiles