Entrants were challenged by the Crutchfield team to submit the most unique idea for using the world-class A/V gear currently available for purchase at www.crutchfield.com. Robert Vega, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, captured top honors with his submission for a custom wheelchair audio system for his brother-in-law. Finalist Chris Merrill of Spanish Fork, Utah, won for his design for his kids' playhouse.

Dave Graveline, host of the popular weekly consumer electronics radio show "Into Tomorrow", selected the two finalists from over 750 qualified entries, and then chose the grand prize winner. Each of the finalists received up to $2,000 in free gear from Crutchfield, and the grand prize winner took home an additional $ 1,000 Crutchfield gift card.

The winning entry perfectly embodied the spirit of creativity, innovation, and caring, and also demonstrated how consumer electronics can serve to improve everyday life. Robert Vega entered the contest for one clear purpose: to figure out a way to create a little more fun for his brother-in-law Eric, who uses an electric wheelchair. Knowing Eric's love for music, Robert wanted to turn his wheelchair into a real "on-the-go" showpiece audio system that Eric would love and be proud of. The contest inspired Robert to draw up the plans and turn that dream into a reality. See Robert's entry.

We also loved Chris Merrill's design for a "tricked up" family-friendly backyard children's playhouse. Chris used products to build a jazzed-up children's playhouse in his backyard, ensuring that all the kids in the neighborhood have a safe and fun place to enjoy great electronic equipment while also getting outdoors and socializing. See Chris' entry.

Our winner — Robert Vega's wheelchair sound system

Robert V. describes building the wheelchair sound system:
"The basic component of the wheelchair system is an Alpine IDA-X100 digital media receiver which works in conjunction with an Apple 160gb classic iPod as the music source. The Alpine unit is really the heart of the system – it also drives the JL Audio 4" coaxial speakers and sends the signal to the Kenwood KSC-SW10 compact powered subwoofer. The KSC-SW10 houses two 5"x7" subwoofers and a 30-watt amplifier.

Another cool feature of the system is the Streetglow LED lights which are connected to the Streetglow music interface that makes the lights go on and off with the music. All of this equipment is wired up with a StreetWires 8-gauge wiring kit and StreetWires Zero Noise interconnects.

OK, so now that you know what the system consists of, I'll tell you how I did it.

The first hurdle I had to overcome was the issue of voltage. My brother-in-law Eric's wheelchair is wired up with two marine batteries for everyday operation. They are 12 volts each, and are wired up in series to give him a total of 24 volts. This wouldn't work for car audio, so I only hooked up the wires to the first battery in the series so I could get my 12 volts.

The next step was to figure out where to put the equipment and also make it removable.

This was the hardest thing to do because I needed to make the system solid so it could take the abuse of everyday wear and tear, but also it had to be removable so that the chair could be worked on if it needed. My solution was to mount most of the equipment to a metal bar on the back of Eric's chair in a medium-density fiberboard enclosure that I fabricated. The enclosure is made out of 1/2" MDF and it houses the head unit, the coaxial speakers, and the power and ground distribution blocks. This enclosure is mounted to the the chair with bolts through a hole that I drilled through the metal bar. The bolts are capped with wing nuts for easy removal. OK, now the for the subwoofer, and this was a quite a challenge. I wanted to mount the woofer with metal plates, but this would make it almost impossible to remove. After several days of brainstorming, I decided to use ATV strapdowns to mount the subwoofer to the two bars that rest below the enclosure. This was the only compromise I feel I had to make in this installation. Although the straps hold the subwoofer very securely and are easily adjusted or removed, they were a bit of an eyesore to me at first. But now I'm used to them and am happy with the way they work.

OK, now for the StreetGlow lights. This was something I wanted to add just to make this chair stand out. The lights were easily installed and mounted under the enclosure I made. Also, I hid the strips along the sides of chair so that only the glow would be seen. All the lights are wired into the interface which controls them.

That's pretty much the entire walkthrough. Hope you guys enjoy checking it out. I had a blast working on it."
— Robert Vega

What he wins: As the grand prize winner, Robert wins a $1,000 Crutchfield gift card. He also gets to keep the products he selected in his entry for being a finalist.

Runner-up: Chris Merrill puts first-class sound in his kids' playhouse

Chris turned his patio — and his children's playhouse — into a dual-zone entertainment haven.

"It really proved to be quite a challenge to get this set up. The challenge was not a result of the equipment, nor the documentation or resources of the Crutchfield staff. The weather this year has been completely different than in years past. As a result many weekends have gone by where Saturday was filled with rain or snow. That's right, snow in Utah in May and June. Complete craziness.

We finally were able to get started on the installation. Prior to installation, a quick evaluation was made as to the location of the speakers. Our install location was decided to allow for optimum sound area for all users of the patio. We have two main areas: The eating area and the sitting area. I decided to put a speaker in each of the four corners. This later proved to be a perfect layout decision.

The first task was to place the speakers. This was quite simple. I removed the mounting brackets from the Boston Acoustics outdoor speakers. I ventured up on the ladder with my drill, pencil, level and tape measure. With this very small collection of tools, I was able to get my speakers hung straight, and with uniform placement.

Next was the decision on location for the speakers for the children. At the playhouse, there are two main activity areas — the swings and the playhouse — so it was a very easy decision to make for the location of these speakers. One to accommodate each area. Again, with some very simple tools, a quick installation was performed.

Now, on to the challenge of running cable. We faced a few challenges. One was aesthetics. As any husband will attest, it has to look good. I was tasked with making it invisible. This was challenging because I was working on a concrete slab and all wires had to come down. Luckily for me, the Monster Cable was white to match the speakers. The pergola is also white. This made for a very unobtrusive cable run. You really do not see it unless you are looking for it.

I decided on a meeting point for all of my cables. All of the 4 wires were terminated in the corner of the house that's near the power outlet. Now for the challenge of running the wires to the playhouse.

First item of business: Dig a trench. This did not require a huge trench. The total length was about 25 feet. I dug down about 6 inches and only about 3 inches wide. Not much but enough to get the job done. One nice thing that helped it keep a polished look is the fact that the playground and flower bed both have concrete curbing. This kept it looking very finished.

We used standard sprinkler pipe to enclose the wire underground. The ends of the pipe were sealed with some silicone sealer. This will keep dirt and moisture away from the wire. Once the wire is buried, it was joined up with the other cable ends.

Once at this point, all cables are run. All of the Monster Cable connectors are installed and it is time to hook everything up. I made great use of the Crutchfield Cable Labels – what a lifesaver with so many cables to keep track up. It is now set up and we have audio and video. I used the Yamaha calibration microphone and self test feature to set the levels for the speakers. This works very, very well.

Now that everything electronic is set up and working, it's time to finish it up. For me, this means a trip to IKEA for a cabinet. They had this great-looking cabinet that had some modular doors. There were some initial problems with the provided hinges. However, this is nothing that my contractor father-in-law, Craig Miller, and I can't handle. A couple of piano hinges and magnetic catches later and we had the cabinet set up perfectly.

Woohoo, it is done!!!

In an effort to celebrate we had a family rock band barbecue. We had some family over and hooked up the XBOX 360 to the new system. While the adults played with their band, the children were able to enjoy some Radio Disney from XM radio over at the playground. It worked out perfectly. It really could not have been better.

In conclusion, I have a few comments: 1- Very simple to set up. 2- The end result was amazing. It can be intimidating to configure a receiver for a particular speaker arrangement. The Yamaha receiver takes away that intimidation with its calibration microphone. 3- If I did it again, I would not change a thing. For $2000, a very nice outdoor home theater can be built. And the kids can enjoy it too.

What he wins: As a finalist and contest runner up, Chris wins the products he selected in his entry.