Christmas in 3D HD!

For the past 12 years, the Calandros have thrown a Christmas party, we've mentioned it here before and even posted an animoto video of last year's party. As we have said, we save all year for it to get snow on our front lawn, Santa comes, and we have tons of people here (overcompensation for year one of the party when we only had two guests show up out of the 40 that we invited). Our guests bring canned goods and new, unwrapped gifts to donate to a local charity and we provide everything else.

This year, just before Thanksgiving, we got an email from Greg Harper- the Living in HD Answerman and all around amazing person- asking if we would be interested in having a Panasonic 3D HD truck come to our party...or would it be too much?

By now, you probably have realized when it comes to the Calandro family, we haven't figured out what "too much" is.

Of course, we said we would totally be willing to do it! We weren't sure how big it would be, we weren't sure whether or not it would be pulled off (though we have come to learn that with Greg Harper and Panasonic working together, anything can happen). Heck, at that point, we weren't even sure who was coming to our party.

At noon on Saturday, Glacier Ice Company showed up to blow 5 tons of snow onto our lawn and house (they donated it to our party this year. They are wonderful people and if you are ever on the Central Coast of California and need ice, you need to look no further.). Moments after they drove away, up drove Greg, followed very shortly by the Panasonic 3D HD truck. The drivers/operators of the truck, Dan and Ryan (and their lovely significant others Anna and Rhonda) were friendly, knowledgeable and personable- just like every other Panasonic employee we have ever met. They got the truck set up in short order and were ready to go well before our first guest arrived.




Sarah, the camera person for Panasonic, showed up and Phil, an AP photographer was there to document the event for us and for the Panasonic executives in Japan. Everyone was ready to go. We hadn't told any of our guests what to expect at our party, only that this year would be bigger and better than ever!

Our guests were floored as they got to be among the few who would experience the next wave in HD Television: 3D! The truck has a capacity of about 25 people at a time and shows about a 10 minute montage of 3D clips- there is race car driving, skiing, soccer, the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing (my personal favorite) and scenes from Disney's A Christmas Carol and a action-packed trailer for James Cameron's new movie Avatar (which looked incredible in 3D!).



What is it like? Well, it is hard to describe without sounding like a commercial. The 3D is amazing- realistic and crystal clear. The colors are sharp and the depth combined with the 1080P HD picture makes everything look as real as it can get without actually being there. I know that people will think that 3D HD is a gimmick, but that's only because they haven't seen it. Just like the jump from Standard Definition to HD, the switch to 3D just makes the viewing more real. Sports in particular will never be the same again. I am not a sports fanatic, but I would watch just about anything in 3D HD. It's not about things jumping out at you, it's about being immersed in the experience.

Our friends and family members were interviewed, we all got pictures taken in and out of the truck, and the whole Panasonic crew got to experience a Calandro Christmas Crazy party (now they're family and we're expecting them all back next year- even without the truck!).

Needless to say, the party was awesome! we ended up with 165 guests (63 of them kids) and almost $2,000 worth of donations in toys and food donated to a local organization that helps families who are struggling to get by.

We have been so fortunate this year. Panasonic has been so generous to us, and our family and friends have been so generous to our charities. We use our Christmas party as a way of saying thank you to our friends. This year, Panasonic helped to make that thank you extra special and very memorable. Thank you Panasonic, for contributing another once-in-a-lifetime memory for the Calandros and allowing us to share it with our friends and family.

And to Greg Harper, a special thank you for remembering that we do this craziness every year, and for making the journey out to be a part of it. We are honored that you were our guest and you know you are welcome any time!

Happy Panaversary!!!

An open Thank You letter to Panasonic,

Dear Panasonic,

One year ago today, our family was at home watching the installers put in our new Panasonic equipment that we were chosen to receive through the Living in HD program. I’ll admit that my primary motivation was to get some really cool equipment, and that I knew our family would enjoy it, but I really didn’t think that “living in HD” would be any different from living in Standard Definition. We were already an active family. We already used technology.

I was so wrong.

When we were selected to go to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to represent the LiHD families, we had the good fortune of hearing both Yoshi Yamada, Chairman of Panasonic North America, and Bob Greenberg, Vice President of Corporate Brand Marketing, speak about why they started this program. They wanted to know how real families used your products. They wanted to know what was working and what wasn’t. Most of all, however, they wanted the technology to enhance and improve the lives of families.

Guess what? It worked! One year later, our lives are drastically different than they were one year ago. We have connected with our family and friends by sharing pictures and videos via email, the LiHD website, and social media sites. We always have a camera with us, shoot more video than we ever did in all of our years with our old video camera, and we actually watch the video we shoot because it is ridiculously easy to do. Our friends love to watch YouTube via the VieraCast and we love to play video games on a TV large enough for everyone to see.

We have gotten to travel to tell others how much we love your products. We have met so many wonderful and genuine people in, and connected to, the Panasonic Company: Greg Harper, Tom Murano, Carol DiStaulo, Naomi Pagidas, Joe Jaffe, Greg Verdino, Jane Quigley, and Adam Broitman. When we went to Las Vegas we got to meet Steve Garfield, Chris Brogan, and Stacy Debroff of MomCentral.

We have connected with other LiHD families- The Neilsons, the Pelletiers, the Richardsons, the Seamans, and the Korys. We have welcomed new LiHD families TimnEvan, and A Cowboy’s Wife. When we find out someone new has won, we are as excited as they are because we know how different and amazing their lives will be. We have gotten to know Kate Dickman and our kids got to run around with the Pollak kids while we were all in Las Vegas.

My wife, who never spent much time with technology other than a camera, made the decision to jump in to the technological world with both feet. This was both because we now had great equipment and because all of this equipment is so easy to use. She started to connect with others via Twitter (taught to us by Adam Broitman, thanks to Panasonic), made videos via Animoto to inspire others to donate to charity, and began to develop friendships with people near and far. She now has a job with MomCentral, working to connect moms with each other online. If it weren’t for Panasonic, we never would have had the opportunity to meet Stacy DeBroff in person, much less be a part of her amazing company! One year ago, my wife had no cell phone, was not that into technology, and certainly wasn’t interested in blogging. Now she has her own website (http://calandroclan.com), a job in social media, and we are, today, at a Momblogger’s retreat hosted by Activision to launch Tony Hawk’s new video game, Tony Hawk’s Ride. Our boys got to meet Tony Hawk and play with him at his offices. We have met moms and kids from all over the country and get to spend time with them. Thanks to Living in HD, our kids are having experiences we didn’t even know existed a year ago.

We can definitively say that everything that has happened to us in the past year is because of Panasonic and the Living in HD program. We are so happy to be a part of this. We have embraced the opportunities this technology has brought to our lives and we have found that when we do this, we just find more opportunities.

As a Living in HD family, our lives have become richer, more interesting, easier, and more amazing than ever before. Our products from Panasonic have done so much more than just make our Friday Night Pizza Nights spectacular. Every day we find that if we embrace the technology we have and use it to create and inspire, we open ourselves up to meeting new people and having new and fantastic adventures.

Thank you, Panasonic for choosing us. Thank you for creating products that are outstanding and easy to use. Thank you for knowing long before we did that Living in HD isn’t about having a really cool TV. It’s about using what you have to the fullest and enhancing your life by connecting to others. It has been an outstanding year- and we realize we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what it means to Live in HD. We can’t wait to see what new and amazing adventures this year brings to us!

With endless gratitude,

The Calandro Family
LiHD family #39

Catch Us If You Can

First of all - thanks to those of you who have posted comments and second of all - we apologize to those of you who have tried to post a comment but have been unable to. We're trying to figure out why some of you aren't being allowed here. It certainly isn't us, so keep trying!!

We've mentioned in this blog about how "crazy" we are and here's our chance to prove it. Here is a list of all the adventures, parties, dinners, friends and family we have hosted since September. Another title for this entry which was rejected: Try To Keep Up. And, of course, we did most of these things in HD - Thanks Panasonic. As they say - it's all about connections!

This high speed adventure began before this date, of course, because when you are a Calandro the fun never ends; but just as a reference point, we will begin with the date Panasonic (or anything Panasonic related) officially walked through our front door. Hold on to your hats and glasses folks, 'cause here we go!

Saturday, September 13:

Create With Context interview

Saturday, September 20:

Miles' third birthday; Firefighter theme, 60 guests, 26 were children

Thanks SLO Firefighters for showing up with a huge fire engine!!!

Saturday, September 27:

Travel to Huntington Lake for Neil and Tina Wood's wedding

What a beautiful day to celebrate a wonderful couple!!

Wednesday, October 8:

Panasonic equipment delivered and Greg Harper arrives in SLO. Dinner at Applebee's - sorry!!!

Thursday, October 9:

Panasonic Equipment is installed

Greg Harper is a Rock Star!!!!

Sunday, October 12:

Eileen runs the local City to Sea Half Marathon and betters her time by a full eight minutes and is a "top finisher" - I'm just a tiny bit proud :)!!

Friday, October 17

Max enters a local Lego contest at Whiz Kids with four of his friends. They worked on their entries for weeks and coordinated their huge Hoth battle entry. So impressive, if I can brag a bit!

Saturday, October 18

Travel to Santa Barbara for Papa John's 70th birthday bash at Harry's Bar and Grill

A terrific night for an amazing man - John created an HD slide show to honor John and I was proud to do the flowers for the night

Sunday, October 19 - 2:30 AM

Clean up vomit for an hour and a half at our friend's house - thanks for letting us stay!!

Too many Shirley Temples don't agree with Matthew's tummy!!!

Sunday, October 19 - 10:30 AM:

Show up late to Papa's birthday brunch at the Calandro home in Goleta - SORRY!!! (see vomit entry above) - We couldn't get ourselves out of bed on time.

Monday, October 20:

Welcome Barbara Krahn to our home to view the beautiful mobile sculpture she funded for our living room by local artist, Jim Jacobson. What a treasured, beautiful piece of art.

Wednesday, October 22:

Lego Contest winners announced: Max and his friends won the group entry category! WAHOO!

Saturday, October 25

Neighborhood garage sale - anyone want a couch that didn't sell?

Friday, October 31 - Halloween

Co-hosted neighborhood party for all the kids in our 'hood - so much fun!!!

Trick-or-treating single-parent style because John was at a school dance - more fun than being thrown into a barrel of leeches, but not by much - God Bless the single parents out there!!

Saturday, November 1

John and I drive to Santa Barbara for a private 40th birthday party with our dear friends Tara and Sam at John's favorite restaurant: The Palace Grill. What a great night!

Wednesday, November 5

John turns the big 4-0!! Celebrate in traditional Calandro style at the Madonna Inn with dinner and dessert delivered to our table all at the same time

Saturday, November 15

Johnnie's birthday bash! 58 friends and family helped John welcome in his new decade - thanks to my sister for her food prep help and Bill for tending bar. Eileen created an interactive true/false HD slide show with photographic evidence for answers. Lost more than one party guest upstairs due to the impromptu Wii golf tourney that occurred. Good times! Surprise guests from Wisconsin! WOW! What a night!!!

Sunday, November 16

Family birthday brunch for out-of town guests in town for the party. Thanks for rescuing the eggs, Papa John! You are the egg man.

Wednesday, November 26

Travel to Pleasanton to celebrate Thanksgiving at Eileen's sister and brother-in-law's

Wednesday, November 26 about 9:00 PM after the kids are in bed

Lori and Bill announce they are awaiting the birth of a baby due Christmas Day for them to adopt - Is this going to be the one that makes them parents, finally? High-speed, non-stop praying begins

Thursday, November 27

Thanksgiving Day -what a feast!!! So many things to be thankful for it's amazing - the thankfulness runs in to Friday because the list is so long.

Friday, November 28

Travel back to SLO and start decorating for the legend that has become the Calandro Christmas Crazy Party - this is it's eleventh year

Saturday, November 29

Greg Harper asks us if we would be interested in travelling to Las Vegas for CES in January - we debate for all of thirty seconds - HECK YEAH!! See you in Vegas, Baby!!! (We are SO crazy!!!)

Friday December 5

Downtown SLO Christmas parade - more goats and tractors than should be allowed

Saturday, December 6

Snow is delivered to our front lawn and three hours later we welcome family and friends to our home to celebrate the season. We ask everyone to bring unwrapped toys and non-perishable food items for a local charity. Total number of guests: 137 which includes 58 kids. The donations were incredible this year!! Our friends give until it hurts!! You all rock!!!

Saturday December 13

Tara and her two boys here at the Calandro B&B because they are in town for a wedding.

Greg Harper and Owen here from 11:00AM until 11:30PM filming footage to be used in Vegas for CES. Day also includes a basketball game for Max, photo swapping with a friend, and the creation of a slide show for another friend's wedding reception. Pasta feed for twelve!! Phew!

Friday, December 19

Adam Broitman and Jody Gnant here to train us in all things social media. They join us for the infamous Calandro Pizza Night on our beautiful big screen TV. They are informative and fun!

Saturday, December 20

John drives kids to Goleta so they can go to a show with Grandma C and Papa and their cousins. He drives home again. Eileen stays home to try to get Christmas under control. AAAAAAA!!!!!

Sunday, December 21

Pick up kids in Goleta and drive to LAX to pick up Luke who is visiting from Australia for a month. Keep in mind all entries from here on involve one more family member that is fed, driven around and coordinated into the Crazy Calandro mix.

Tuesday, December 23

Grandma Frog and Grandpa Richard arrive from the Bay Area to spend Christmas with us - are they nuts?!?!?!? Light neighborhood luminaries at 5:30 and stroll the 'hood. Love living here!!!

Wednesday, December 24 - Christmas Eve, 2008

Head to Pismo Beach to watch the sunset. Prayers for no rain are answered and the tradition lives on for another year. Home for crab cakes with our neighbors, put cookies out for Santa and sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn. Kids go to bed and the adults prepare for the next day.

Thursday, December 25 - Christmas, 2008

Our kids managed to be good enough for Santa to come to our house for one more year! He brought Legos galore and we gave our kids Rock Band for Wii - Watch out Jonas brothers!! Auntie Lisa, Auntie Jo, Grandma C and Papa arrive for the traditional Christmas Brunch and we eat ourselves silly. Grandma C takes on Matthew in a Wii bowling match and then braves Wii boxing. Nothing creates Christmas memories like seeing your son beating up his Grandma! (WHAT?!?)

Friday, December 26:

Inhospitably kick out our house guests (except Luke, of course) because Eileen starts working on Becky and Bob's wedding reception flowers. Side note: No baby news yet for Lori and Bill - the baby is now overdue - we are still praying for the miracle of adoption for our family

Saturday, December 27:

Finish flower arrangements, load them in the minivan, and drive to Nipomo for the reception. The event goes off without a hitch at the beautiful Monarch Club at Trilogy. John created a fabulous HD slide show for all to see and burned extra copies for family members of the bride and groom. All five of us dance ourselves silly to relieve some stress and have a great time. (Luke stayed at home for a little quiet time - smart boy!!)

Sunday, December 28:

Day of rest so we go on a four mile hike up one of our favorite peaks in SLO: San Luis Mountain. There for the tree lighting. Have we mentioned we love living here??!?!?!?

Monday, December 29:

Dear, close friend Vince arrives for a visit and to celebrate New Year's Eve with us. Watch The Dark Knight in HD on our big TV. Did you know the Joker's string is purple in the bank robbery scene? Unless you're living in HD, I didn't think so.

Tuesday, December 30:

Another day of rest so we travel thirty miles up the coast to explore Hearst Castle with Vince and Luke. Spectacular day!!! (Someday we will swim in that pool - mark our words - any inside tracks out there? - you know it's all about connections....)

Wednesday, December 31 - New Year's Eve

See earlier blog entry

Other news not in that entry: The baby Lori and Bill have been waiting for is born at 5:30 EST. At 11:45 PM PST, John and Eileen are frantically looking into booking a flight to Maryland for Eileen and almost cause everyone to miss the Ball Drop!

Thursday, January 1, 2009, 1:00 AM

Back home from ball drop and John books a flight online for Eileen to go to Maryland that same day. Eileen can't think straight enough to do anything. Drink champagne and mourn the end of an incredibly amazing Living in HD year. The fun has just begun!!

Thursday, January 1 5:40 AM

John drives me to SLO airport for 6:20AM flight to Maryland. This little niece is closer than she's ever been, but nothing is final until papers are signed. Eileen wonders if the butterflies in her stomach could fly her to Maryland instead of an airplane. She goes for the sure thing and gets on her flight, abandoning five house guests, Luke and her family for the hope ahead.

Thursday, January 1

Back in SLO our guests leave after John makes them a killer New Year's Day brunch

Thursday, January 1, 5:00PM

Eileen crosses the Potomac river and wonders about how crazy life can get. Puts the thought aside and drives to the future of her family. God bless GPS and Visa!!

Thursday, January 1, 5:30 PM

Arrive at hospital, am greeted by the Birth Mom and my sister (the Future Mom) in the lobby. Baby Grace is beautiful!!!! Lori, Bill and I go out to dinner later to celebrate.

Friday, January 2:

Bright and early we all go to the hospital to sign the papers for the adoption. As Lori and Bill sign the documents, I get private time with Grace who officially becomes our niece in the middle of our special time alone. Grace leaves the hospital with her Mommy and Daddy. What a journey!

Saturday, January 3:

Home in SLO John prepares for the final interview with Create With Context - sorry to miss that, but I'm sure you understand the circumstances!

In Maryland, I pry myself away from my sister and brother-in-law (who are awesome) and baby Grace to head home on a flight to SLO. I have to sprint three-quarters of a mile in the Phoenix airport to make my connecting flight. I am so motivated to get home I am only passed up by a six foot-two college student. If I didn't have on a twenty pound back-pack I could have taken him! Arrive in SLO in time for dinner with the fam.

Tuesday, January 6, 4:30 PM:

Celebrate Matthew's 6th birthday a day early at the Madonna Inn - you know by now, dinner and dessert all at the same time!! YUMMY!! I certainly wasn't doing that six years ago!

Tuesday, January 6, 8:20 PM:

We get on our plane for Vegas. This is the first flight for Matthew and Miles. Hooray and thanks, again, Panasonic!

Wednesday, January 7 - January 11:

CES in Vegas - you can see the other entries

Monday, January 12:

Max and Matthew go to school, but I end up taking Matthew home. He is officially the casualty of Vegas. He has a fever and a cough, poor kid. He stays home Tuesday and Wednesday as well.

Wednesday, January 14:

Luke's last day in SLO is a full one. He watches the kids so Eileen can attend a funeral. RIP Phil Nolan - you will be missed. Luke takes us out to dinner downtown at Mo's, then we go to Arroyo Grande to Doc Burnstein's for dessert. Back home to pack and then Luke and Eileen head downtown SLO to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. Three bars and beers and shots later we head home to prepare for tomorrow....

Thursday, January 15:

Travel to Disney's California Adventure to celebrate Matthew's sixth birthday. This is the traditional birthday treat in lieu of a party (thank goodness!!!) What a great day! Meet up with Grandma Frog and Grandpa Richard who have flown in to celebrate with us. They ROCK!!

Friday, January 16:

Celebrate at the Big D. Matthew is so tired by the end of the day he almost falls asleep in his ice cream. Are we attentive parents, or what?!?!? We all had a terrific day together.

Saturday, January 17:

Up bright and early to get Luke to LAX. Said goodbye and were on the road to SLO by 9:04 AM. Max changed his clothes in the car and we drove him straight to his basketball game. Had make-up pizza night that night.

Sunday, January 18

John's brother David and his wife Donna and their two sweet kiddos, Nicolas and Ava, arrive for lunch and to hang out. They live in San Diego so we don't get to see them nearly enough. They are in town for business that could move them closer. We are crossing our fingers! They leave around 3:00 and later that night we have dinner just the five of us, at our dinner table, for the first time in over a month. Whew! John and I have been saying, "Closer than we've ever been," for months as we faced the journeys ahead. We drank champagne and said, "We've arrived!"

Monday, January 19 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

I am sick with a cough and a runny nose. I held it off for as long as I could and my body just can't take any more. We have put a shield around the house for the day: unless you are bringing us food or a massage table to use on me, we are shut down. Only the five of us are allowed at our house today. Thanks for understanding.

So there you have it. I think the last time John and I had this much going on was when we got married. At least then we got to go on a honeymoon!! We know we brought most of this on ourselves, if not all of it, and we wouldn't change a thing. Thanks, again, to all of you who came along for this craziness. According to our calculations, we hosted 286 people, in some form or another, at our home in the last four months. I'm sure we have missed a few guests along the way, and we apologize for leaving you out of our count. We also traveled countless miles - we could count them, but we're too tired to do it!

During all of this, John managed to do his job as an Assistant Principal at Templeton High, Eileen managed to manage the kids and all that entails, we decorated our house for Christmas and tore it all down, we coordinated all of the logistics and paper work on our end for CES, sent out Christmas cards, bought, made, wrapped and mailed gifts for people, and basically we lived our lives during our busiest time of year. No wonder I'm sick and we're all exhausted. We aren't sure what our next adventure is, we rarely are, but there's a baby up in Pleasanton that hasn't met her Uncle John or her Calandro cousins yet....ONWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What it means to Live in HD

Living in HD has been a fantastic experience. First of all, we have a ton of phenomenal equipment. Our family is very busy and used the technology we had prior to having the "right"equipment. Since we have gotten our Panasonic suite of products, everything we do is just better, easier, and faster. We have burned videos of parties and events for friends and families, we have created awesome slideshows to share with each other and as gifts for friends, we have learned how to post photos, video, and content to the web, and we have taken our laptop to places we never thought we would (more on that in another post...).

Our family has had a long standing "Pizza Night". Every Friday we make a pizza and watch a movie. We have been doing this for 9 years now. It is the only night of the week that we eat in front of the tv. Having a Blu-Ray player and a 1080p incredible 50" Viera Plasma tv has pumped that up to a whole new experience. One of our friends commented that the quality on our tv was better than we'd get in any theater! He's right, and with the price of taking a family to the theater these days (over $50 just to get our family in the door-before concessions!), the tv would pay for itself in just a few movies!

The greatest thing about being a LiHD family is the new community of people we now have in our lives. The families that we have heard from in the LiHD project have all been wonderfully welcoming and friendly people. I think it's because Panasonic is looking for the everyday person to be a part of ths project and, contrary to what the news may have us believe, everyday people are generally kind, welcoming, and helpful. You can see this in the videos on Panasonic's Living in HD website- livinginhd.com , and in the other blogs developed by families.

The people at the Panasonic corporation and the people that they have sent to us to train us on how to use our equipment have been phenomenal. Greg Harper is a genius and has more energy than 10 people. You'll see him pop up on the videos on the Panasonic site. He's met all of the families in the project and is a driving force behind this whole thing. He has the ability to fit in anywhere and talk to anyone. He tells great stories and always seems to be available to us no matter what the issue.

Naomi at Panasonic has been so patient with all of our requests, questions, and random ideas. She is incredible and we appreciate her tremendously.

Adam Broitman came to us to help us out with posting content to the internet. He has a great sense of humor and is a natural teacher. He is also a powerhouse in his industry (you can check him out at www.crayonville.com). He became family quickly in our household and joined us for Pizza Night!

Jody Gnant came with Adam. They made a great team! She helped me to Twitter and has more hands-on web information than we had time to share. She also joined us for Pizza night and all three boys were enamored of her! You can check her out at jodygnant.com. (Oh, did I mention she's got a great voice?)

Our friends and family are enjoying our new LiHD life, too. In addition to receiving way more pictures, videos, and information than they ever have from us (because it is sooo much easier now), they have gotten to enjoy our equipment. The highlight of Christmas was watching my mother and my 5-year-old do boxing on the Wii. It was truly hysterical and my mother was better at it than any of us expected!

Living in HD is awesome. I can't wait to meet more of the families and continuing the Panasonic adventure.

Our next adventure is at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. If you're in the area or at the show, come on by and see us in the Panasonic booth. We'd love to meet you and make you part of our LiHD life!

The Equipment

On October 9th we had our installation date. After having a friend run an outlet to behind where the television would be, our installers came in and put everything together- that's a story for another time...While the installers were assemlinb everything upstairs in our family room, Greg Harper (our Panasonic rep), was downstairs showing us how to use the computer, the cameras, and the HD camcorder. The boys got their hands on the equipment and had a great time. Miles, the 3 year old, calls the wireless camera his "special camera" and has taken to picking it up at odd times and taking pictures.

Greg told the installers not to connect anything until he told them to. This, of course, led to much grumbling once he was out of earshot...They were complaining that they had been doing this for 20 years and knew what they were doing. Greg explained to them how the Viera link worked and connected all of the components.

Then he turned on the Blu-Ray player...and the television and receiver automatically turned on with it. The installers were impressed! The Viera link makes using all of the equipment so easy because every piece of equipment automatically turns on any other piece that it needs to function properly.

We fired up the television and were blown away by the picture and sound! It finally felt like our family room was complete!

Next post, a review of the equipment!