Monaco Enterprises Valley Firm Installs Home Theaters Combining Big Screens, Wrap-Around Sound

Home theater is available everywhere - the hi-fi shop, the department store, even the discount vendor.

But even before the big commercial audio-for-video wave hit in the early ‘90s, a Spokane Valley company saw it heading toward shore.

A growing division of Monaco Enterprises, located at 14820 E. Sprague, installs automated home theaters that dim the lights, close the shades and fire up movies all at the touch of button. The company’s integrated systems division, managed by Vin Monaco, installs about one theater per week. The systems sell for $5,000 to $100,000 and beyond.

And now, what was once considered an exotic gimmick is becoming a standard feature for some high-end homes.

“The technology was there. It was more a matter of consumer acceptance,” said Jim Thompson, owner of Thompson Homes. Thompson won a Home Show award in 1994 for one of his homes featuring a Monaco-designed media room.

These days, Thompson has Monaco prewire every home he builds for home theater, fire alarm and security systems. They can all be controlled together by touch-screen.

“We felt it was a new trend in housing and it wasn’t going to go away,” Thompson said.

Clarence Monaco founded the company as Fire Detection Service in 1957. His son, Gene Monaco, took over in 1970 and changed the name. It started as a maker and installer of wireless fire-detection and security equipment for military and commercial use.

Clarence’s other son, Vin Monaco, has managed the integrated systems division since it was founded in 1979. It began installing custom audio and video setups as well as communication and automated lighting systems into new homes. Then in the mid-‘80s, home theater came along.

The concept takes stereo technology, adds several room-filling surround-sound speakers and weds it to a big-screen display. The effect is realism surpassing most commercial movie houses.

In Monaco’s appointment-only showroom, Vin pointed at what looks like a pretty snazzy system featuring a 32-inch TV and a collection of black boxes with glowing displays. “This is what most people call a home theater,” he said.

But that’s just the beginning. The company builds systems as elaborate as a customer wants. It is the only Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association member in the area. Four of the company’s installers were trained at Skywalker Ranch, part of director George Lucas’ THX theater quality-control program.

In Monaco’s high-end demo room, the seats are just like those in a commercial theater. The place has that theater hush. No echo. The projection screen is about 10 feet across. Films like “Days of Thunder” literally shake the floor.

Monaco, of course, isn’t the only place selling the equipment. The hard part is installing the stuff.

Store-bought gear comes with instructions, “but no decibel meters or scopes,” Vin said. He uses them to determine equalizer settings and speaker placement.

Joe Jacobs, a systems specialist with Monaco, likens listening to a novice-installed system to driving a Mercedes-Benz with an untuned engine.

Monaco is the oldest home-theater installer in the area, but the company is not without competition. Some hi-fi retailers also work with installers.

Jim Klentschy, a salesman at Huppin’s Hi-Fi, Photo & Video downtown, installs home theater equipment as an independent contractor for people who buy at Huppin’s. Klentschy’s business is called Audio Connections. He said the advantage of going that route is greater product selection, while Monaco’s advantage is it can add things like alarms systems and automated lighting controls.

Monaco now has some competition on that front, too. About a year ago, Bellevue-based Wire Ways opened a showroom on the North Side. Wire Ways also does home automation.

“(Monaco) didn’t really have any competition until now,” said Scott Moser, general manager of Spokane’s Wire Ways. He said the custom-installation market is in its early stages here, and there is still room for a new face.

And the stiffer the competition, Moser said, the better job everyone will do.

“I really couldn’t ask for a better competitor,” Moser said.

The theory must work.

“I tell you, I’m very satisfied,” said Victor Vera, who had a Monaco system installed in his new home last summer.

The lights automatically turn off and on as he walks from room to room. The alarm system dials police or fire department numbers automatically. Vera has two entertainment systems - one for movies, one for music - each with speaker placement and other settings determined by computer. Workers even waited until Vera’s furniture was placed so they could measure reflection correctly.

“I thought, ‘Well, music is music,”’ Vera said. “Now I know better.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo