Stage 7: Fit, Finish, Testing, Learning

At long last, slightly over four months after I started this project, it was finished. It had a lot of frustrating elements, but in the end I'm ecstatic over the end result. The pictures say it all, so have a look.

Figure 22: The left-hand shelf.

Figure 23: The right-hand shelf.

Figure 24: Playing some music off the HP Slimline computer while the Windows Media Center visualizer is dancing along to the beat.

Figure 25: Another shot like the one before, just for fun.

Figure 26: My wall before the project started.

Figure 27: My wall after the project was finished.

So would I do anything differently? Besides hiring different people to do the actual work, my one and only regret is that I didn't put the plasma TV lower on the wall. In day to day use when we're sitting on the couch, it's about four inches too high. It's not hard to see by any means, but we've noticed that we have to angle our heads up slightly, which isn't ideal. My friend Matt and I are going to take the TV down and explore some options for moving the mounting bracket down, so we'll see if we can lower it without having to make too big of a mess.

I'm also completely baffled by the lack of Windows Media Center-compatible music visualization software that's compatible with 64-bit Windows Vista. My all-time favourite music visualization plug-in is G-Force, made by SoundSpectrum, but even with 64-bit Vista being on the market for over two years, they still haven't released a version of their software that I can use on my HP Slimline computer. The visualizations that Microsoft bundles are completely lame and outdated - they haven't been changed since Windows XP. If anyone is aware of a music visualizer I should try, please let me know.

And that wraps up this epic tale! There was a lot of learning involved for me because I'd never done anything like this before, but despite a few bumps along the way, I'm pleased with how the final result looks. It's a definite conversation piece when people see it for the first time, and it's highly functional for our day to day use. Over the coming years it will be easy enough for me to swap out and upgrade components if need be, all without impacting the overall design. I'm very happy indeed with my digital wall.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He hopes he doesn't have to move to a new house for many years, because he likes his digital wall a lot.

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