Home Entertainment Interiors

Technology at its Finest17 Must-Have Theaters8 Spectacular Homes

P R E M I E R E I S S U E

FIRST IMPRESSIONS THEME THEATRES: SOUTH FLORIDA’S PREMIERE THEATER DESIGN FIRM

FUTURE HOME MEDIA: CEDIA AWARD WINNER AND LA’S CUSTOM INSTALLER TO THE STARS

BLISS HOME THEATERS AND AUTOMATION: TURN-KEY SMARTHOMES AND INVISIBLE A/V MAGIC

H O M E T H E AT E R S . M E D I A R O O M S . H I G H - T E C H H O M E S .




Digital Cinema Architecture and Interior Design Development

Acoustical, HVAC, noise and vibration control specifications

Full construction documentation – sealed plans

Special effect lighting design and fixturing callouts

In-house millwork and upholstering manufacturing

Construction management and on-site trade coordination

Audio-video-systems design, integration, installation, calibration

U.S. Patented CineLounger® full motion theatre seating collection

NCARB Certified Architects – Licensed Interior Designers

Global installation capabilities

Digital Cinema Architecture and Interior Design Development

Acoustical, HVAC, noise and vibration control specifications

Full construction documentation – sealed plans

Special effect lighting design and fixturing callouts

In-house millwork and upholstering manufacturing

Construction management and on-site trade coordination

Audio-video-systems design, integration, installation, calibration

U.S. Patented CineLounger® full motion theatre seating collection

NCARB Certified Architects – Licensed Interior Designers

Global installation capabilities

4 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dennis Burger, Louise Farr, B.A. Hoffman, Brooke Lange, Jean Penn, Valerie Rockwell, Jack Roth, “De” Schofield, Hope Winsborugh

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Back when we were launching Home Entertainment in 2002, we knew we had to do something different from the competition.

We knew we had to “wow” our readers—whether they were homeowners, interior designers, architects, builders or custom installers—with something unique.

That “something” turned out to be luxu-rious, in-depth coverage of the nation’s most upscale residences, media rooms and private home cinemas—all of which were decked out with elite audiovisual and automa-tion systems. The idea was to make Home Entertainment “the Architectural Digest” of the consumer-electronics lifestyle magazine category. Our goal was simple: To showcase the most beautiful, technologically savvy projects, and to give more coverage to these stunning projects than our competitors.

To tour some of these amazing instal-lations, visit our website at hemagazine.com; they’re located under our “theaters/installa-tions” tab. These projects are categorized by style for your convenience—from themed to traditional, transitional, contemporary, Art Deco, rustic and Old-World movie palace. If you need ideas for your media room or home theater, this is a great place to start.

This is our first issue of Home Entertain-ment Interiors—a special compilation of many of these installations. Knowing that you may not have time to browse every project on our website, we’ve packaged more than 20 projects in HEI for ease of reference. We’ve created this new digital magazine with you our readers, in mind.

We take pride in every project we publish, no matter how small it may be. We receive dozens of submissions each week, and we submit each of these proj-ects through a rigorous approval process. Each project is evaluated for the way it looks—its interior design and architectural features—and for the technology. Even though much of the gear is working behind the scenes and is invisible, it’s there and it’s working hard. And it’s working like magic, as stellar technology does.

We celebrate that tech-nology in each story with in-depth technology writeups. With each “Tech Talk,” we tip our hats to all the custom installers out there who have worked hard to design and install these projects. The technology is the reason for being in both Home Enter-tainment and HEI.

This is only the begin-ning. Each year, we’ll pub-lish a new version of Home Entertainment Interiors. We look forward to that. We hope you do, too.

Mark Mendelsohn

Publisher

[email protected]

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 5

something unique

We knew we had to do something different from the competition. And we knew

we had to “wow” our readers with something unique.

L E T T E R F R O M T H E P U B L I S H E R

8 | Swept Away A Chicago couple weaves elite technology throughout their elaborate home—and it’s all cleverly tucked away and as simple to use as an iPod. By Louise Farr

18 | Game On For the thrill of watching year-round sporting events, a Michigan entrepreneur builds the sports bar of his dreams—complete with five TV screens, a stellar surround-sound system and a bar to boot. By B.A. Hoffman

22 | Ranch Dressing This Western-influenced, rustic home theater in Jupiter, Fla., gives new meaning to the term “cowboy chic.” By “De” Schofield

26 | Date-Night Getaway In this Asian-inspired high-rise weekend getaway designed for a husband and wife’s quiet time away from the kids, the bonsai-filled rooftop garden is only one of its many wonders. By B.A. Hoffman

32 | Subtle and Stunning At first blush, the design of this Miami home theater may appear subtle … but dig a little deeper and you’ll discover that there’s nothing simple about the theater’s look or inner workings. By Jack Roth

38 | Light Fantastique For one A-List Hollywood movie star, a technicolor screening room in the privacy of his own home provides all the drama he needs. By Louise Farr

44 | Mountain Masterpiece A businessman heads for the mountains when he wants to get away from it all. Did we mention that his little retreat—a 27,000-square-foot luxury lodge—is tricked out with all the technological trappings of a big-city high-tech home? By Brooke Lange

52 | Light and Simple A minimalist, light-infused home in New York’s Westchester County touts the benefits of minimalist-looking technology. By B.A. Hoffman

58 | Call of the Wild Home-theater design luminary Jeff Smith collaborates with a style-savvy client to create a glamorous private screening room for a South Florida vacation home. By “De” Schofield

64 | Hidden Beauty In this award-winning house, what’s new is meant to look old. Translation: This residence is designed to resemble a finely restored Georgian home. And that means every ounce of technology is hidden and out of the way. By Brooke Lange

72 | Masculine to the Max A homeowner who’s not a big movie fan builds a home theater for his family to enjoy. Unexpectedly, he falls in love with it himself. By B.A. Hoffman

Photos from top: William Butler, Barry Grossman Photography, Nathan Kirman, Barry Grossman Photography.

p r e m i e r e i s s u e{ }contents

HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS is published once a year by Mendelsohn Media, LLC; 21730 MaryLee Street, #37, Woodland Hills, CA 91367. All correspondence should be sent to Mendelsohn Media, LLC; 22287 Mulholland Highway, #349, Calabasas, CA 92302. To purchase a single-copy digital subscription for $4.95, please go to www.nextnewsstand.com. Copyright © 2010 by HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS, a Mendelsohn Media, LLC, publication.

78 | Stylish & Streamlined A Kentucky client is so impressed by First Impressions Theme Theatre Inc.’s showroom theater that he hires FITT on the spot. He then tweaks the theater’s design with the help of Jeff Smith. By Jean Penn

82 | Beachy Keen A long-time Malibu resident who isn’t a big TV person turns his beach home into a flat-screen showcase with countless TVs and audio treats. By Louise Farr 90 | A Theater of the Senses In the custom home of a high-end custom builder, technology and texture unite to foster one growing family’s togetherness. By Hope Winsborough

98 | Roman Holiday Every time the owners step into their golden home theater, they feel as if they’ve traveled back in time to their Italian honeymoon. By Brooke Lange

102 | Miami Light An interior designer and a custom installer put their heads together to make a complex audiovisual installation look simple and seamless. By Valerie Rockwell

110 | A Theater for all Reasons In downtown Chicago, one family’s private home cinema gives new meaning to the term “mixed media.” By Hope Winsborough

114 | Out of Thin Air Incorporating a theater into the vaulted ceiling area of a two-story-tall living room is an extreme exercise in adaptation and flexibility. By Hope Winsborough

118 | Comfort Zone MLB baseball player Royce Clayton and his Olympic sprinter wife design the perfect home field for their growing family of six. By Hope Winsborough

126 | Balancing Act The creative collaboration among a design team results in a home theater that’s life-enhancing for a busy Dallas physician. By Hope Winsborough

130 | Bespoke Beauty A custom installer—who likes to see his wife in Manolo Blahniks and has four separate fittings for every handmade suit he orders—brings new meaning to the concept of custom installation. By Brooke Lange

Photos from top: Anthony D’Elia, Terry Scott White, Barry Grossman Photography, Ron Carell.

About the Cover:Master theater designer and architect Jeffrey Smith, owner of South Florida’s First Impressions Theme Theatres, put a spin on his own showroom theater for a Kentucky client’s home theater. Photography by Barry Grossman Photography.

p R E M I E R E I S S u E{ }contents

AA few years ago, Sheila and Jim Clary

decided that they needed a home upon

which they could impart their own

touches. But they are a busy working

couple—she as owner of a Chicago en-

tertainment marketing agency and he as

president of an executive benefits com-

pany. With their lives filled with work,

travel, and entertaining, they didn’t have

the time to build from the ground up.

Instead, they house-hunted in the Chi-

cago neighborhood where they already

lived, Old Town, which is known for its

tree-canopied streets lined with cafes,

boutiques, and antique shops.

Eventually they stumbled across a

spec house, still in the framing stage,

which would allow them to incorporate

the elements they wanted. “In the city,

your space is limited,” Jim says. “Clearly

there are trade-offs for living there.

You don’t have a yard. You have to go

through an alley to park your car. But

we wanted a sense of space.”

What the Clarys got is four floors

of airy comfort and sophistication, from

the top-floor master bedroom and the

his-and-hers offices to the lower-level

media area, with guest rooms and other

living spaces in between. A key fea-

ture that sold the Clarys on the 7,700-

square-foot home was its high ceilings.

“A lot of houses we looked at had a

good sense of space on the first floor,

but the other floors had normal-height

ceilings,” says Jim, who also chose the

home because of its builder, Jay Metzler

of Metzler/Hull Development in Chica-

go. “Jay had designed a house where the

ceilings were the same height through-

out,” Jim says. “It’s built for entertaining,

so it’s set up to be welcoming. It’s big,

but it doesn’t feel empty. It had the kind

of living that we wanted.”

Swept AwAysuccessful Young Homeowners weave tecHnologY tHrougHout tHeir old town cHicago residence—and it’s all as easY to use as an iPod. > BY louise farr

> PHotograPHY BY natHan KirKman

I N T E R I O R S



Adds Shelia Clary, “I like all of the natural light in the home. You sort of feel like you’re swept away.”

For John Cannon, founding partner of interior design firm Cannon Frank, the challenge was to meld the owners’ contemporary tastes with the traditional house they were buying. “I like to follow the aesthetics of the building,” says Can-non, who brought the exterior’s Celtic influences inside through details that in-clude a Celtic-style arched fireplace in the living room, various furnishings, and the staircase’s ironwork.

Cannon also admired Sheila’s personal style. “She dresses impeccably,” he says. “The woman’s shoes are to die for—she’s phenomenal with her textiles.” So the in-terior designer felt free, on occasion, to make design suggestions that other clients might have thought outrageous. “I think he was excited when I said I wanted col-or,” says Sheila, who designed the couple’s second home in Scottsdale, Ariz. “He just had a good sense of how far he could push me. John is confident, and it really helped me gain confidence.” Says Can-non, laughing, “Not many people are go-ing to let you do chartreuse.”

The color in question applies to the Donghia and Pollack fabrics used to up-holster the Art Deco-style club chairs by Interior Crafts that take up residence in the couple’s formal living room.

The lower-level media room and bar, conceived primarily as a space in which to entertain (although the Clarys do watch TV and movies in the space), share the floor with the wine cellar. The rooms have emerged as a hub. The Clarys host wine tastings for their friends and make

The media room boasts a 60-inch Zenith plasma

TV. Vertical pillars within the custom cherry

cabinetry hide the tall Sonance speakers; cen-

ter speakers are tucked below the screen, and

subwoofers are hidden behind cabinet doors.

“A lot of clients don’t want to see technology,”

says the interior designer. Previous page: In the

office, custom cherry cordova cabinetry encases

a 32-inch Sony LCD TV.

I N T E R I O R S


“I’m a gadget guy,” says homeowner Jim Clary.

“Technology has always been fun, but now it’s

more just, ‘This is how I live.’ Is it necessary?

Absolutely not, but it certainly is a convenience

that we get a great deal of value from. And with

a project as complex and as expensive as this, I

wanted to be sure I had someone who was going

to go the extra mile. That was John Baumeister.”

In the media room, the Asian-style lacquered

coffee table is by Baker Knapp & Tubbs. “If I’m

going to have people putting their feet on a table

and spilling pizza, it needs to be practical,”

Cannon says. The couple’s Escient system dis-

tributes music, satellite TV, and video to every

room in the house, and it’s all controlled by the

Crestron control system. Below: The master

bath’s wall-mounted Crestron touchscreen.

spontaneous selections via CellarTracker, a software system that keeps tabs on incoming and outgoing bottles. (Favorites include Cal-ifornia’s Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Sine Qua Non, and Clos des Papes.) An Escient music and video management system controls the homeowners’ eclectic entertainment tastes, which range from comedies and action mov-ies to Fox’s 24, and from jazz to Rod Stewart oldies, The Fray, and Coldplay, with a smidgen of hip-hop thrown in to please Sheila.

This the couple’s first media room. “They’re getting a lot of use out of it, which they weren’t sure they would,” Cannon says. To accommodate Jim’s 6-foot-3-inch frame when he’s watching the 60-inch Zenith plas-ma, Cannon designed a high-backed 12-by-10-foot L-shaped sectional sofa that’s 4 feet deep for Jim to sink into. “You don’t want to start fidgeting, you want to relax,” Cannon says. “When I watch TV, I really like to put my feet up and have my beverage nearby—just crash and relax and not wake up an hour-and-a-half later stiff.” The sofa is bathed in a Rodolph woven wool flannel; oval Donghia ottomans roll out on casters from under a nearby Asian-style table. To aid acoustics and ward off the slightest basement chill, walls are covered in a woven red cloth by Donghia.

‘‘John’s first question is, ‘How do you live?’” says Sheila. “That makes ev-erything make sense, because you’re

not going in only from a design aesthetic.”

I N T E R I O R S

12 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS

It was Cannon’s idea to reconfigure the L-shaped kitchen/family room into a great room that would comprise the kitchen and a secondary media room. “I knew that if one was in the kitchen prepping dinner, the other wouldn’t want to be far away,” says Cannon, who also knew that the couple used video-tape in their respective professions and might want to watch video on their 42-inch Fujitsu plasma TV while dinner was in the oven. To the Clarys’ delight, that room has become the most used in the house. “I don’t think anybody can assume how they are going to use their house,” says Cannon, who considers it his job to take on that task for his clients ahead of the game.

Jim, an ardent technology fan, brought in custom installer and audio/video systems designer John Baumeister of Baumeister Electronic Architects in Niles, Ill., to create a whole-home automation system that includes Crestron lighting and iPod interfaces in every room. “What I wanted was a home that was not just a so-called ‘smart house’ with a fairly elaborate electronic setup, but something that would lend itself to expansion in the future,” Jim explains. To that end, homebuilder Met-zler ran electrical conduit to every room so that the house could be adapted to future electronic innovations without retrofitting. “I think I drive John [Baumeister] a little nuts because I read a lot of the electronics magazines,” Jim says. “Any time there’s a new idea, I tend to want to put it in the house. You know the old saying, ‘You can always tell the pioneers because they’re the ones with all

Homeowner Jim Clary manages the couple’s

wine collection, left, with CellarTracker soft-

ware. He keeps abreast of all of incoming and

outgoing bottles from his office computer. The

cedar storage units can house 4,500 bottles.

For the kitchen, below, interior designer John

Cannon selected quilted, triple-tone diamond-

pattern Ann Sacks tile, set against putty-colored

cabinetry that is slightly glazed and distressed.

“We tend to spend most of our time in that

area,” says Sheila. The trio of khaki Dupioni

silk shades above the cherry wood island,

designed by Cannon, are from Lightology, while

the L’Origine chairs are from deAurora, and are

upholstered in Retano fabric from Donghia.

HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 13

The kitchen overlooks the al-

der-wrapped great room, which

overlooks the rooftop deck

and garden area. The interior

designer added the leather

daybed by Interior Crafts to en-

courage casual lounging while

Sheila or Jim is cooking.

I N T E R I O R S

The living room, which revolves

around the Celtic-arched fire-

place, can be used as an over-

flow space for the dining room.

The table fronting the window

opens up to accommodate eight

guests. The chandelier is by

Formations, and is available

through Holly Hunt, while the

two antique Parisian Art Deco

vases that reside on the mantle

are from Elements in Chicago.

the arrows in their backs’? I probably need to be a little less quick to jump on things and let other people work out the bugs.

“John is not afraid to experiment,” Jim continues, “but he’ll be the first to tell me why I do not want to do something—and he always has a good reason to back it up.”

Baumeister, who relishes in receiving e-mails from the homeowner whenever he discovers new and enticing gadgets, designed the lower-level media room as the heart of the home’s technology. “It’s an awesome home, but there’s a lot of Midwest sensibility in it,” he says. “It’s not like the West Coast. It’s not like Florida. It’s not something frivolous that’s just going in there as a show-off piece. If we’re putting in technology, the Clarys are going to use it every day.”

Sheila is particularly fond of her bedside Crestron touchscreen. “My favorite thing is the Good Night button,” she says. “Push one button and every light goes out in the house.” The Good Morning button illu-minates the path to the bathroom and the

stairs. “This is definitely the smartest house we’ve ever had,” she says.

Tech Talk: The clary homeIf you need confirmation that in-wall speak-ers have come a long way from their humble and much-maligned beginnings, look no further than this home’s main media room. Despite the fact that Baumeister had plenty of room to install box speakers in the media room’s large entertainment cabinet (which also houses two full racks of gear and a Ze-nith P60W26 plasma TV), he opted for in-walls: Sonance Silhouette I and II in-walls, to be exact.

Baumeister explains his attachment to the line: “In the days before the advent of the plasma speaker—before Artisons and the like hit the scene—Silhouettes were really a go-to for me because they sounded great and they could match a plasma, and even though they’re in-walls, that long, thin outline gives you a really cool look.” A look, by the way,


RESOURCESBuilder:Metzler Hull Development of Chicago, Ill. (773.871.2258, metzlerhull.com)

Custom Installer:Baumeister Electronic Archi-tects of Niles, Ill. (no longer in business)

Interior Designer:Cannon Frank of Chicago, Ill. (312.595.1550, cannonfrank.com)

“Preplanning creates a project where people aren’t

stepping on toes. The needs of the client are met and problems don’t arise

because decisions are made up front.”

—John Baumeister, custom installer

“What made this projectso much fun was

combining function with aesthetics and

the homeowners’ senseof high style.”

—John Cannon,interior designer

that the clients also wanted.But why use Silhouettes in this room?

Why not rely on a more traditional speaker, given that the speaker is going to be hid-den in the cabinet behind acoustical fabric? “Designers like that elongated, linear look,” he says. “By the time everything else was put into the cabinet, space was tight. We needed a long, thin speaker, and the Silhouettes fi t there perfectly and give us a great sound.”

The Silhouettes maintain their trim form by using the same sort of oblong 6-by-9-inch drivers you expect to fi nd in a car audio sys-tem; in a home cinema speaker, they’re defi -nitely out of the norm.

Beneath the Silhouette II center speaker, the custom cabinetry also houses a Sonance Cinema Sub System, which consists of two passive subwoofer units, each of which holds a pair of 8-inch drivers, as well as a Sonamp Cinema 260 amplifi er. Rounding out the speaker system is a pair of Sonance Virtuoso V831DR in-ceiling speakers.

“Unfortunately, there was no place to put surround speakers except for the ceil-ing,” Baumeister says, “but those matched

the timbre of the fronts beautifully, and the sound-shaping controls on the Crestron C2N-DAP8 [7.1 Surround-Sound Proces-sor] really allowed the programmer to con-tour the sound to fi t the room. They give you so many controls on that thing it’s almost kind of ridiculous.”

Speaking of Crestron, Baumeister says that one of his fi rm’s biggest challenges on this project was simplifying the control system: “We as industry folk think a lot of this equip-ment that comes out is cool, but I tell you —a lot of end users look at it and they’re fright-ened by it. Jim and Sheila weren’t frightened, mind you, but they kept asking us to make things simpler and easier.” He says that the interface for the Escient E2-100 Music Man-ager, for example, was challenging for the couple. “They wanted a user interface that was as intuitive as the one of the iPod, and we couldn’t fi nd one, so eventually we had to cook one up ourselves.”—Dennis Burger

To see a full equipment list for this

project, please visit hemagazine.com. >

For the top-fl oor master suite, the interior designer’s muse was homeowner Sheila Clary. “She’s a beau-

tiful blonde woman,” Cannon says. “I wanted it to be romantic, sexy, and very luxurious for her.” The

custom cabinetry of fi gured anigre wraps the 42-inch Fujitsu plasma TV. The chairs and the fabric for

the duvet are from Holly Hunt, while the draperies are from Donghia.


I N T E R I O R S

Savant’s breakthrough On-Screen Display (OSD) technology provides the most advanced and visually engaging way to navigate, browse and select diverse home control services and multimedia content. Savant’s On-Screen Display enables complete navigation and control of all home systems without the need to leave your comfortable sofa or interrupt your audio or video programming.

While watching your favorite movie, use a Savant remote to easily adjust the temperature, dim the lights, check the security cameras, play music, obtain the weather and sports scores, and more… Savant has revolutionized your high definition displays into “living room control portals.”

www.savantav.com

Savant’s On-Screen Display (OSD)

Use any of Savant’s remotes or your iPhone™

Y o u r L i v i n g r o o m C o n t r o L P o r t a L

Sav-OSDAd.v1-HEntertain.indd 1 4/7/10 11:10 AM


Game On

I N T E R I O R S


The owner is a longtime season

ticket-holder with the Detroit

Pistons, and a fan of the Univer-

sity of Michigan, Michigan State,

and other college and pro sports

teams as evidenced by the glazed

logos above the TV wall. The

coffered ceiling is covered with

sound-absorbing panels and puck

lighting; speakers are tucked into

the ceiling. The TVs are floated

into the wall of cabinetry instead

of being installed directly. Each

set is mounted on a retractable

arm so the installer can remove

the cabinet’s front panel to access

the TV for maintenance.

> what to do if your son takes beer brewing very seriously, and Dad loves to knock back son’s brew with the guys while playing

poker or taking in every Saturday or Sunday afternoon football game that’s on, whether it’s collegiate or professional? The answer is easy if you’re the wife of the owner of this private sports bar. You either walk away from the marriage or you succumb to your hus-band’s crazy fantasy—of being able to watch several sporting events on several TVs in one room—with, of course, his buddies and plen-ty of beer by his side. So the wife stayed in the relationship and allowed her hubbie to build what he wanted ... knowing that she would have a very happy partner and that she would get to use the sports bar for her girl-friend get-togethers.

“I knew I wanted five TVs so I could watch five different games if I wanted to,” says the homeowner of his private sports bar. “You know how many sports games they put on at a time?”

In addition to being a sports junkie, the homeowner is also wild about technology. “I read that the homes of the future would be computerized, so when I first started building the house I decided to wire for everything,” he says. “I wasn’t sure what I’d put in there, but at least it would be there for the future. All the technology was so interesting, so as I got more involved I kept adding more.”

This sophisticated 1,200-square-foot sports bar shares the lower floor with a wine cellar and a tasting room. Double doors open onto a large grass area with a cabana that boasts, of course, a 30-inch flat-screen TV that’s tied into the home’s A/V and automa-tion system. “walking into the sports bar is like walking into a movie theater with lots of screens,” says the homeowner. “It’s really exciting.”

“Exciting” in that the homeowner and his friends can easily go back and forth be-tween sporting events with ease. “One of his requests was to make the system very simple,” says custom installer Navot Shoresh, princi-pal/owner of Spire Integrated Systems LLC in Detroit, Mich. “Not only can you watch five different games simultaneously, but if you want to move a sporting evnt from one of the smaller TVs to a bigger TV, you can.” The touchpanel interface mimics the layout of the TV wall for ease of use.

Set within the custom stained cherry cabinetry is a 70-inch Sony SBR, and four 32-inch Samsung LCDs. “when we started the project, plasma couldn’t give us this size,” Shoresh says. “It’s the best screen for the money without going into rear projection.” He selected the Samsungs before the Sony Bra-via hit the market. “It was the best LCD you could find,” Shoresh says. The sound system is just as superior with 10 pairs of speakers and two subwoofers, which are concealed in the cabinet, below the TV cabinet and in

An entrepreneur in michigAn builds the sports bAr of his dreAms, complete with numerous tVs for wAtching round-the-clock sport-ing eVents.

> by b.A. hoffmAn

> photogrAphy by

williAm butler

resourcesBuilder:the homeowner

Custom installer:Spire Integrated Systems LLC of Detroit, Mich. (spireintegrated.com, 248.544.0072)

Interior Designer:Kimberly Designs of Bingham Farms, Mich. (248.594.7555)

The pool table, hand-carved in cherry, is often the center of attention during the many parties thrown by the homeowners. The

wrought-iron chandelier above, by Fine Art, has etched mica lamp shades, which are unbreakable. The coffered ceiling treatment

adds further dimension to the space, and echoes the ceiling treatment in the TV area. Players waiting for their turn can place

their drink on the area’s bar ledge, which lines the perimeter of the room.

the back wall. Even the nearby bar is tied into the AMX control system, which feeds from the 500-CD Escient Fireball music server and the Escient Fireball movie man-agement system, which stores 400 films.

“The key to the whole thing is the [MVP 8400] AMX controller,” Shoresh says, and the customized touchpanels. The main wireless touchpanel, which can be used anywhere, docks into the bar’s wall. Since the homeowner is a big Pistons fan, Shoresh customized the cable TV inter-face to look just like a basketball court; the numbers on the basketballs reference vari-ous cable TV channels. “When you select a channel, a reference picture comes up on the screen to illustrate what you have se-lected,” says the custom installer.

WhILE ThE SPorTS BAr’S AuDIo and video systems aren’t a departure from the rest of the home’s elite technology —which includes seven other TVs and

a home theater—the interior design is a very big departure. “They wanted to have an informal, casual, and laid-back space,” says interior designer Kimberly Corera, adding that balance of the house is ex-tremely formal. In the sports bar, the mate-rials had to be easy to care for. The main-tenance-free floor is slate with glass inserts instead of marble or mahogany wood, so spilled drinks don’t damage—an amenity that comes in handy when the family in-vites 200 people for a Christmas party. The open layout accommodates large groups, and it makes the bar as accessible to the card table as it is to the area that doubles as a dance floor. The warmth of the cin-namon-glazed cabinetry, which wraps the Venetian plaster walls, keeps the space from feeling too cold or capacious.

Corera gives the homeowner full cred-it for much of the sports bar’s look. “he picked the size of the TVs and came up with the design to fit them,” she says. While


The cherry card table has a removable top to ac-

commodate poker and bridge players; the chairs

are have a maroon and beige stripe leather that

coordinates with the pool table’s bar stools.

“There’s a lot of technology, but it’s very simple to use.”

—Navot Shoresh, custom installer

“They wanted the space to be intimate

but very open for large functions.”

—Kimberly Corera, interior designer

I N T E R I O R S


the homeowner can discuss his extensive wine collection with friends as they sit and sip in front of the double-sided stone fireplace—which divides the floor’s two recreation areas—he can also gather with friends for a game of Texas Hold ’Em in the sports bar. “They love to host card par-ties,” says the interior designer. “They’re very down-to-earth people.”

“All of the ‘toys’ are great,” says Shoresh, “but if the owner comes home at and wants to turn on the TV and can’t, that’s an issue. The key is the AMX touchpanel. There’s a lot of technology, but it’s simple to use.”

“I would recommend [automation] to everyone,” says the homeowner. “My wife is the perfect example—she gets flustered when using technology, but she can handle any of the technology in the house. It’s so user-friendly. People who have not expe-rienced [automation] should learn about it—they’ll want to have it in their home. It’s the way of the future.”

Controlling five TVs could have been five times as complicated as controlling one, were it not for the talent of the system designers at Spire Intergrated Systems LLC, the Detroit-based firm that specified and installed the au-dio, video, and automation in this home. According to Navot Shoresh, the princi-pal/owner, the five of the TVs are controlled by a single AMX Modero 8.4-inch touch-screen, which sits in an in-wall docking sta-tion at the bar but can also be removed for use elsewhere in the room. The touchscreen includes a TV control menu that shows the five screens. “It’s an exact replica of the wall with the TVs,” Shoresh says. Each representation of the small screens on the touchscreen is split into two buttons: con-trol and swap. The control button lets the user select the Integra DVD, the Escient media server, a security camera, or any of the home’s seven cable boxes. The swap button moves whatever is playing on that screen over to the center 70-inch Sony rear-projection TV, and what was playing on the large screen moves to the small screen. (The smaller screens are all Samsung 32-inch LCD panels.) The Modero also controls and shows the status of the secu-rity system, the lighting, and the multiroom audio system—not only for the sports bar, but also for every other room of the home. Only audio corresponding to the video program playing on the 70-inch Sony TV can be heard through the room’s surround-sound system, which uses three SpeakerCraft AIM8 Three ceiling speakers in the front, two KEF Ci80 ceiling speakers in the back, and a KEF PSW2500 subwoofer installed in the cabin-etry below the Sony TV. The room’s rich woodwork and hard stone floor presented a daunting acousti-cal challenge. “The room is all hard surfaces, so sound reflects off of everything,” Shoresh explains. “We incorporated some acoustical panels from Acoustic Innovations into the ceiling to quiet things down. You can spend so much money on equipment but you can screw it up so bad if you don’t treat the room.” —Brent Butterworth

> To see a full equipment list for this project, please visit hemagazine.com.

Tech Talk: The SPORTS BaR


Ranch DRessing

Once upon a time, “ranch

living” conjured up im-

ages of barnlike structures

in a dusty, remote locale.

Fast-forward to 2008,

where a spectacular 20,000-square-foot

home sited in Ranch Colony Estates dis-

pels all preconceived notions of what a

home on the range should be.

One of the many highlights of this

home on the range—complete with

lakefront views and elaborate man-made

water features—is the luxurious custom

home theater. “The owner wanted this

to be a gift for his family,” says Don

Dixon of Definitive Electronic Solutions

in Jupiter, Fla. The firm also integrated

the home’s lighting and security sys-

tems, and landscape lighting and music

features. But unlike most home theaters

that are designed while the rest of the

house is under construction, the own-

ers waited to start building their private

cinema. “They did not want their home

theater to distract from or delay from

building the home,” says the custom in-

staller. About six weeks after the home

was completed, Dixon started the build-

ing process for the theater.

Dixon called upon Jeff Smith, presi-

dent and owner of North Miami’s First

Impressions Theme Theatres, an archi-

tectural and design company for private

home cinemas, to provide interior de-

sign services. “We worked together on

other projects in the past, and I knew

Jeff could deliver unparalleled quality

and state-of-the-art design,” Dixon says,

adding that they only had 120 days to

complete the theater.

“Our objective was to create a seam-

less display of big picture, big sound, and

a Wild West thematic statement within

the home’s existing architectural style,”

Smith says, adding that he also had to

temper a masculine hunting-outdoorsy

theme with a laid-back, casual feel.

This screening room is one of the

largest theaters Smith and Dixon have

designed, at 27 feet in length and 28

feet wide with dual-height 12- to 22-

foot ceilings. It’s almost double the size

of most theaters, Smith says. For the rear

upper ceiling, First Impressions used the

aft portion of the ceiling for the Sky

Dome, which features a dusk-to-dawn

fiber-optic lighting scene, shooting-star

constellations and a color fade system

that morphs from sunrise to sunset. The

centerpiece of the ceiling, however, is an

elliptical, wagon wheel-like soffit outfit-

ted with special lighting effects that cre-

ate realistic sunrises and sunsets.

The ample space provides ample seat-

ing for at least 14 adults via two rows

of theater chairs that include a pair of

day bed-configured CineLoungers that

bookend the back row of theater seating.

I N T E R I O R S


A pAlAtiAl estAte in Jupiter, FlA., gives new meAning to the term “Cowboy ChiC” with its rustiC-looking home theAter. > by “De” sChoFielD > photogrAphy by grossmAn photogrAphy

The woodworking is rusticated

knotty pine; belt-buckle-look

trim lines the series of ovals in

the ceiling treatment. Previous

page: The fire screen and stage

overdrape/cornice are fully

automated. The draperies are

a high-nap, high-quality fire-

rated commercial velvet; each

is accented with gold boullion

fringe. Smith chose to show-

case the owners’ collection of

custom-framed, Western movie

posters along the walls.

All are clad in full-hide Nubuck Suede inan antelope hue, and are outfitted with hand-hewn beverage holders. “Using full hides gives a real ranch-like feel,” Smith says. “It really worked with the whole genre of what we’re trying to create.”

Enter the theater through vestibules on either side of the Stewart Firehawk 123-inch diagonal projection screen, which works in tandem with the Digital Projec-tion three-chip DLP projector. “The own-er wanted a really large screen, but we were somewhat confined by the room’s configu-ration and the location of entry doors on each side of the screen,” Dixon says. When the lights go black, a motorized projector lift drops down from the ceiling.

“One of the biggest challenges was the projector placement on a lift that falls be-tween the lower-level and the upper-level ceiling,” Smith says, adding that the resolu-tion was presented in the perimeter soffit, which defines the differing ceiling heights and conveniently keeps the projector and the lift out of sight.

The Krell free-standing left and right tower speakers are built into the architec-tural elements that flank the screen, and are capped with a deer head mount instead of a traditional capital. The Krell center speaker is angled upward for optimum listening; subwoofers are tucked below the screen.

To meet the owners’ request for full sound-system concealment, Smith veiled

I N T E R I O R S


“As the project progressed, the client

said it was like opening a

Christmas present every day.”

—Jeffrey Smith,theater designer

“The client always wanted a Krell audio system and couldn’t wait to fire it up.”

—Don Dixon,custom installer

resourcesCustom Installer: Definitive Electronics of Jupiter, Fla. (561.748. 3564, definitiveelectronics.com)

Theater Designer and Ar-chitect: First Impressions Theme Theatres Inc. of North Miami, Fla. (800.305.7545, cineloungers.com)

the speakers behind acoustically transpar-ent grill panels. Strategically placed LEDs spotlight the subwoofers and amplifiers when the sound system is being used. The result: The equipment “appears” when the house lights go down, giving the high-end gear a stage of its own.

A retracting fire screen that bears a turn-of-the-century cowboy photograph lends a touch of authenticity. First Impressions purchased the rights to the photograph of Billy Cramer, a professional bronco rider, from the Wyoming State Archives, and added sepia tones. “It’s a nod to the days of Vaudeville when theaters had fire screens that protected the actors in case of fire,” Smith explains. “When the husband saw this image, he liked it so much he asked if we could purchase it for use in his home.”

“This is one theater that really sets the stage for entertainment,” Dixon says, add-ing that the owner can activate the theater from any touchpanel in the house. “You be-gin to hear the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly at low volume, then the fire screen comes down and the uplighting comes on and the ceiling goes from day to dusk. It’s quite an experience.”

Tech Talk: The cowboy TheaTerThe owner’s criteria for the was straightfor-ward: He wanted uncompromising perfor-mance at extremely high volumes, and he wanted the equipment to carry the Krell brand. Thankfully for installer Don Dixon, CEO of Definitive Electronic Solutions, the latter practically guaranteed the former.

Dixon selected Krell’s flagship LAT-1 and LAT-C loudspeakers for the front right, left, and center channels. Constructed of extrud-ed aluminum up to 1.5 inches in thickness rather than the traditional wood or MDF, the LATs are incredibly inert, and resistant to the resonance problems that color the sound of most speakers. To power these mas-sive speakers—the LAT-1s are more than 4.5 feet tall and weight 250 pounds each—the custom installer employed three Krell Full Power Balanced 450Mcx monaural ampli-fiers. “Those are rated at 450 watts into 8 ohms, but the LAT-series speakers have a

4-ohm impedance,” he says. The impedance rating is a measure of the average load a component presents to a source of electrical current; halving the impedance draws twice the current. In other words, “that enables the amplifiers to deliver a whopping 900 watts to each front speaker.” However, one gains the extra power only if the amplifier is capable of delivering it. Happily, this is not a worry with Krell amplifiers.

In the rear, Dixon didn’t have space for freestanding tower speakers. “We had to build the surrounds and rears into the col-umns, and most of Krell’s speakers—even the bookshelf speakers—were too deep. They would have really made the columns protrude into the room.” Luckily, the slim profile of Krell’s Resolution 4 on-wall loud-speaker fit perfectly within the design of the room. “Those speakers are also rated at 4 ohms,” Dixon says, “so when combined with a pair of Krell KAV-2250 two-channel amplifiers, which are rated at 250 watts per channel into 8 ohms, they’re running at 500 watts apiece.” That brings the power of the theater up to 4,700 watts—and that’s before subwoofers are added to the equation.

The system’s main subs, a pair of Krell Resolution Subwoofers, combined add another 1,400 watts of power. And if you know where to look—beneath two hid-den access panels beneath the sofas in the back of the room—you’ll find another 2,000 watts worth of bass in the form of two James Loudspeaker Cinema 12 Sub-woofers. By coupling these to the internal structure of the riser itself, Dixon created, for all intents and purposes, a big bass shak-er. So why not rely on a purpose-built bass shaker, like a tactile transducer? “I’ve always had the sense of these tactile transducers as being fake,” Dixon says. “I think they’re gimmicky. There’s simply no replacement for the impact of a true subwoofer, and impact is what this theater is all about. It’s so powerful, so dynamic, with such fidel-ity that it will literally scare you.” —Dennis Burger


A wireless Crestron touchpanel

control system allows the cli-

ent to access all the bells and

whistles in the theater—in-

cluding the audio and video,

draperies, fire screen, lighting,

and HVAC—from any room in

the house.

> To see a full equipment list for this project, please visit hemagazine.com.


Date-Night getaway

A ChiCAgo high-rise retreAt provides A host of teChnologiCAlly sAvvy surprises.

> By B.A. HoffmAn > PHotogrAPHy By Don KresKi

this pied-a-terre in Chicago’s River North neighborhood gives new meaning to the phrase Date Night. “We raise our four kids in the west suburbs of Chi-

cago,” says homeowner Jon Butcher of his 3,500-square-foot Japanese-inspired high-rise condominium. “This is where we come to get away from our kids. We use this as our date place.”

This is the Butchers’ second in-town Love Shack, which boasts a 360-degree view of the city and 3,000 square feet of outdoor liv-ing space. “When I walked into this condo, it was the most dramatic space I had seen in Chicago,” says Butcher. “It feels like the city is wrapped around you. And as soon as I saw this garden in my head, it was all over.”

Imagine arriving in this modern, mini-malist masterpiece after a long week at work. You drop your overnight bag in the bamboo-wrapped foyer and press the “romance” but-ton on the wall-mounted AMX touchscreen. The living room sheers close magically (and silently), allowing you to enjoy the glowing Chicago sunset and the intricately designed Japanese garden comprised of bonsai-trained Scotch pines and peaceful pools of water that ripple amidst the boulders—all while main-taining your sense of privacy at the same time. As meditative Japanese-inspired music oozes through the home’s distributed audio system,

your stress melts away. You exhale. A specially selected cent named Damascus washes over you as it seeps through the home’s air vents, setting the mood.

After you grab a bottle of champagne and two chilled glasses from the refrigerator, you mosey onto your private city deck—a soaring 50-foot-tall space that’s equipped with a cozy, 20-foot U-shaped sectional sofa upholstered in Sunbrella and Perennials fabric. “This is the most dramatic place to have a cocktail in all of Chicago,” Butcher says as he relishes the thought of watching the city come alive at night. After dinner, he changes the setting to “cocktail,” which includes a play list of sexy, hip lounge music; the lighting dims and the room’s aroma changes to Silk Roads, what Butcher describes as an exotic, sensual scent. The waterfalls flow, and the shades remain in an up position. The outside living areas are activated for outdoor enjoyment.

Scent is an integral design element of every living space that Butcher designs. “When I start a living environment, my whole deal is what kind of experience do I want to create—not architecture or interior design, but how do I want to feel, and how do I want other people to feel?

“Whether the experience is tranquil, relaxing or sensual—or playful or fun—I take a look at what I have to work with,” he says. This can range from music to lighting,

i n t e r i o r s


The suede-covered walls envelope the master suite in tranquili-ty. The platform bed, custom designed by Richar and fabricated by Christian Liaigre, floats in the room. J. Robert Scott fabric bathes the linens, while a striped carpet anchors the space. The designer created the low dresser of bookmatched walnut, which supports a 42-inch high-def NEC plasma monitor.


plant life and water, which can invoke a sense of peace and relaxation into any room. Fire and fabrics, he says, can add sensuality and sexiness. And then there’s aromatherapy—Butcher’s secret design weapon.

“When I put together an environment, my key focus is sensuality in the true sense of the word—the senses,” he says. “For a truly exceptional environment, you can’t leave any of the senses to chance.”

In ancient times, people from every major civilization infused their public spaces—Roman baths, Asian temples, Renaissance courtyards—with flower, spice or aromatic wood fragrances. Butcher believes that add-ing a special aroma to a room environment creates mood and memories. To that end, he infuses his scents of choice throughout the condo with the help of AromaSys, an automated scent-delivery system designed by Mark Peltier in Minneapolis (Peltier has installed his systems in many Las Vegas hotels, but this is his first residential project).

The system disperses scented oils in a fine mist that’s distributed through the home’s air vents every 30 to 40 seconds. “There’s such a connection between smell and memory,”

I N T E R I O R S

The living room is lined with custom oak cabinetry in a

natural color. The three stools fronting the custom 8-foot-

long, walnut-topped cocktail table are bronze-finished

metal. “They love a very simple clean look, so a Japanese look

is them,” says the interior designer. “It’s all very sensual—

the scents, the furniture, their taste in music.”

says Butcher, who has been with his wife for 18 years. “The aromas [used in the house] are strongly associated with my love for my wife and the experiences that we have had together through the years. When we walk in, we know we’re back [to us].”

To not distract from the stunning garden and city views, the owner decided to incor-porate minimal technology in the home—a few flat-screen TVs, and an invisible audio and automation system. “Our St. Charles house has it all,” says the homeowner. “It was the smartest house in the world at the time, but the city house is much more simple.”

“They didn’t want to see anything,” says Dan Daker, co-owner of MediaTech LLC in St. Charles, who also upgraded the technolo-gy in their primary residence. “There are only a few visible keypads in the whole place.”

The main audiovisual components are tucked into a built-in cabinet to the right of the living room’s 61-inch high-def NEC plasma monitor; 20 Boston Acoustics speak-ers, most of which are concealed in the ceil-ing, deliver sound; and 10 Rockustic speakers fuel the outdoor audio system. The home’s HVAC system, lighting, audio and video,

“The aromatherapy really changes the whole feel of the

whole house.”

—Dan Daker, custom installer

“I sell mood, and furniture happens to be part of

that mood.”

—Richar, interior designer


In the living room, top, the 25-foot-tall motorized draperies of woven wool sheers close automatically to protect the furniture. The designer selected Christian Liaigre seating for the space. Walnut end tables flank the sofas; the lamps are fabricated of camel leather. Since windows occupy most of the home’s wall space, the designer placed Neil Goodan’s untitled sculpture of bronze tools on the ceiling soffit.

The kitchen’s counters, above, are topped with a chocolate brown granite. The flagstone and rift-cut oak flooring, with a coffee-bean stain that contrasts with the home’s light millwork, make an appearance here as they do in the other living spaces. Miele and Sub-Zero appliances nestle into the wraparound cabinetry. The Miele cooktop takes up residence in the island.

Left: From the master suite touchscreen, top left, the homeowners can change the music, lighting and aroma with the touch of a button.

waterfalls, fountains, window treatments and aromatherapy system can all be controlled via the wireless or in-wall touchscreens.

“We customized the AMX software—it’s called ‘capture and play’ technology,” says Daker. This technology allows the owner to record a specific event—lighting levels, audio and video volumes, play lists and tem-perature—to a specific lifestyle mode but-ton. These lifestyle modes range from away to arrival, romance, late night, theater, daytime, cocktails, wakeup and asleep. The owners can even pre-set the mood before their arrival via the telephone interface system.

“They can call in to activate the lifestyle modes—and there are 12 of them,” Daker says. The window blinds can be programmed to open and close with the movement of the sun to protect the woodwork and the furni-ture. And in keeping with the space’s mini-malist, no-clutter-allowed approach, all music is stored on the main home’s Audio Request

THE TECHNOLOGY OF SMELL


Z1.500 Zone Music Server, which is synced into the city condo system via ARQLink.

While the overall technology may seem basic, there is one tiny piece of over-top-technology in the house: Each of the 12 carefully manicured Scotch pines are kept warm via underground heating pads. “Putting a garden on top of a Chicago high rise is a very ambitious project,” Butcher says. “I was glad to pull it off because you never really know until you pull the trigger.”

To ensure the longevity of the master gardening of Hoichi Kurisu—who essentially “trained” each Scotch pine for 30 years to look like a bonsai—each root ball is heated to 55 degrees to stave off freezing temperatures. The automation system can also turn off the pond’s water systems, the waterfalls and outdoor lighting. “They’re so happy up there,” Butcher says of the Scotch pines, adding that he’s worked with Kurisu on every home he’s developed. “To get a garden to drain properly and function the way it should—150 feet above ground—is a real feat.

“After having this place for almost three years, I never get over how shockingly beauti-ful it is,” Butcher continues. “It knocks you over sideways. It’s surreal to see a formal Japa-nese garden on a terrace with a modern city behind it. After that initial experience of the garden, the city and the aromatherapy, I just sigh and know that we’re back.”

For more images of this project and a full equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.

>

When Dan Daker, co-owner of Media Tech LLC in St. Charles, Ill., begins to discuss this project, it sounds no different from your typical high-end condo installation—that is if you’re not listening closely. “The client really was looking for complete control over every-thing in the house,” he says. And to be quite honest, it’s a setup we’ve heard oh so many times before. “Via the AMX system, we’re control-ling the ambient light, and the electric light. We’re controlling the audio system and the HVAC. We’re controlling security and aromas.” Wait—aromas? That’s a new one.

“Yeah, you guys probably don’t talk too much about AromaSys,” Daker continues. “It’s a system mainly used in high-end retail spaces, and in Las Vegas hotels. It infuses a highly concentrated scent into the ductwork. It really does complete the effect of complete envi-ronmental control, since scent has such a powerful chemical effect on us, on our emotions.”

Even the notion of “complete control”—a phrase we’ve become quite accustomed to hearing—is taken to the next level with this installation. “We used AMX’s DTMF Interface to create a menu-driven phone automation system for this project, with the owner’s wife providing the voice.

“Say he has guests coming over and he’s not home yet, or he simply wants to make sure that the unit is in a certain lifestyle mode when he gets there,” Daker continues. “He can dial into the system and have everything up and running before he walks in the door.”

In addition to the customized lighting settings and the afore-mentioned aromatherapy system, the home’s lifestyle modes incor-porate numerous music playlists, all of which were compiled by the homeowner. Daker and his teamed assisted in loading the playlists and removing gaps, and also saved their client from a prolonged re-enactment of Groundhog Day: “The only complaint he had with his AudioReQuest Z1.500 Zone Music Server was that each playlist would always start with the f irst song on the list, even in shuff le mode. So when his ‘wakeup’ playlist would kick in, his day would always begin with the same song.” But Daker’s team found a workaround: They recorded one second of dead air and saved that as the f irst track of every playlist. “The result is that when you press the button, you don’t hear anything for a second, but when the music starts, it’s not with the same song every time. It’s a little thing, but it made a big difference for him.”—Dennis Burger

I N T E R I O R S

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: Media Tech LLC of St. Charles, Ill. (630.444.0011, mediatechliving.com)

Interior Designer: Richar Interiors of Chicago, Ill.(312.455. 0924, richarinteriors.com)

Landscape Designer: Kurisu International(888.441.5137, kurisu.com)

“Voted #1 Overall Loudspeaker Brand, Inside Track™ 2010 dealer survey.”

Introducing Bowers & Wilkins CI 600 Series.

These custom installation speakers set

new standards for performance and aesthetic

appeal. The sound is simply outstanding - no surprise,

really. The CI 600 models are based upon technology proven

in our legendary free-standing speakers, like those used in Abbey

Road Studios and other prestigious professional applications, not

to mention by countless audiophiles around the globe. Even at low

levels, music sounds rich and detailed. Turn them up to really get

the party started! Plus, the extremely thin bezel and flatter profile

makes them virtually disappear into their surroundings. There is

even a square grille option as an appealing alternative look.

Audition the new CI 600 Series at your authorized Bowers & Wilkins

dealer soon. Your ears and your eyes will thank you.

Sonically Superior. Visually discreet.

Off axis EQ switch

sQuarE Grill adaptEr

thin BEzEl dEsiGn hElps spEakEr disappEar

prEmium matErials includinG kEvlar and mEtal dOmE twEEtErs.

www.bowers-wilkins.com

CI600 Consumer_AD-1_HEntertain.indd 1 4/7/10 10:24 AM

“Voted #1 Overall Loudspeaker Brand, Inside Track™ 2010 dealer survey.”

Introducing Bowers & Wilkins CI 600 Series.

These custom installation speakers set

new standards for performance and aesthetic

appeal. The sound is simply outstanding - no surprise,

really. The CI 600 models are based upon technology proven

in our legendary free-standing speakers, like those used in Abbey

Road Studios and other prestigious professional applications, not

to mention by countless audiophiles around the globe. Even at low

levels, music sounds rich and detailed. Turn them up to really get

the party started! Plus, the extremely thin bezel and flatter profile

makes them virtually disappear into their surroundings. There is

even a square grille option as an appealing alternative look.

Audition the new CI 600 Series at your authorized Bowers & Wilkins

dealer soon. Your ears and your eyes will thank you.

Sonically Superior. Visually discreet.

Off axis EQ switch

sQuarE Grill adaptEr

thin BEzEl dEsiGn hElps spEakEr disappEar

prEmium matErials includinG kEvlar and mEtal dOmE twEEtErs.

www.bowers-wilkins.com

CI600 Consumer_AD-1_HEntertain.indd 1 4/7/10 10:24 AM


I N T E R I O R S

SUBTLE& STUnning

A request for simple elegAnce in A businessmAn’s privAte screening room brings creAtive flAir And the

ultimAte in function. > by JAck roth

> photogrAphy by bArry grossmAn photogrAphy

Theater designer and architect Jeffrey Smith worked closely with Diane Sepler, the interior

designer, to ensure that the design of the home theater complemented the home’s overall look.

The CineLounger Rodeo theater chairs boast drink holders; the armrest of the “command

chair” contains a phone and a computer DSL line, so the client can work in the theater.

systems for the entire home. From that experience, Vitrofsky learned just how selective the client could be.

That was February 2006. By August, the design team had delivered a home theater package that produced rave reviews on behalf of the homeowner, a 57-year-old retired real-estate pro-fessional. His comments ranged from “I’m more than pleased” to “the tech-nology is beyond belief.”

At the outset, the Toccins’ directive to Smith was all about understated sub-tlety, but his design plan for the tech-

IIf Jeffrey Smith hasn’t seen it all in his 33 years in the theater design business, he’s pretty close. But when the president of First Impressions Theme Theatres in North Miami took a look at the last unfurnished room in this two-story, 12,000-square-foot Miami home, he was blown away by the space’s marble f loors and intricate crown molding.

After Smith regained his composure from having to cover up the marble in order to build an acoustically sound space, he set about the task of design-ing and building a room-within-a-room foundation for Danny and Ferne Toccin’s private home cinema.

For custom installer Jan Vitrof-sky, the 24-by-26 ground-f loor space wasn’t much of a surprise. His f irm, HED South in nearby Hollywood, previously had installed the lighting control system, and the audiovisual


The “money seat” of the theater is command cen-

tral and is equipped with touchscreen controls. All

decorative lighting elements can be controlled via

the touchscreen. Each light was custom-designed

with crackled acrylic to resemble rice paper, and

is housed in an antique brass metal frame. “[The

room] was plug-and-play,” says Smith. “Build it,

stand it up, check it and take it apart, and bring

it to site. We built a room that goes inside a room.

And you can’t hear a thing outside of the room.

When you walk in the room, it’s perfectly quiet.”


nology was far from simple. The design of the 2-year-old home is elegant and tra-ditional with modern touches. So Smith masterminded a home theater design that would remain true to the home’s overall design scheme. “I was told to make the room special and different,” he recalls, “but not gaudy.”

Smith went for what he calls “a nearly monochromatic, ultra-functional classy” theater, which was fully constructed in First Impressions’ North Miami facility and then reassembled in the Toccin home. For starters, the space’s original double doors were replaced with a massive, single-hung Noise-Loc door that leads directly into a single-door entry. “Peo-ple have a hard time entering a theater through double doors,” Smith says. “A single door creates a better sound swell.”

A f loating-f loor system now rests on top of that beautiful marble. When the subwoofers reach relatively moderate levels, the room-within-a-room struc-ture literally vibrates as a “natural butt kicker,” Smith says.

Similarly, a plywood substrate cov-ers the walls so that the room-within-a-room structure fastens properly to the foundation (multi layered plywood is suspended off the marble with the help of high-density neoprene pucks, which are dispersed throughout the room). The plywood panels—which contain a 1-inch f iberglass core, along with sound diffus-ers and ref lectors—also help to minimize sound vibration.

Four existing windows are covered to maintain proper acoustics. When stand-ing outside the home, the theater’s “drap-eries” look like window shades in the “down” position.

Creative ingenuity marks two of the room’s corners, as well. A walk-in cus-tom cabinet doubles as storage unit for the audio/video equipment rack; the cabinet also includes a rotating DVD storage wall that provides easy access to the fully con-cealed HVAC system.

Smith likes to say that First Impres-sions is a “ying-and-yang” kind of com-pany. Thus, an almost mirror image of that corner is replicated diagonally across the room in the form of a door that leads to the CineBar, First Impres-sion’s trademarked, full-service refresh-ment area that includes illuminated candy displays, an ice machine and a refrigera-tor for drinks, as well as a black-and-gold popcorn machine, which was a theater-warming gift from Ferne’s mother.

“I spend every day in there,” Danny concedes, adding that he’s even camped out overnight in the space. He’s also prone to wander into his screening room in mid-afternoon to take in the starry night sky above, and the dawn-to-dusk lighting system. The f iber-optic lighting system creates a blue sky with f luffy clouds on the ceiling, which can transform into a setting sun. There’s also a shooting star and a ful l galaxy up there, including Pisces, Ferne’s zodiac sign.

The color palette for the space is a soft, soothing hue of green that’s set off with rich millwork—all of which is anchored by a wool-blend Greek key-patterned rug in sage green. With the exception of accents of honey-colored pear wood, everything else bears the same strain of green—from the wall paneling to the 11 fully motorized French mohair theater seats—trademarked as CineLoungers—that First Impressions custom-built.

“It’s a stunning, r ich, sophisticated

I N T E R I O R S

“When you go to the movies, the screen is so big your eyes go from side to side to watch

the content. One of the things in doing a home theater the

right way is to offer that kind of visual experience. They should totally get immersed in the pic-

ture and get involved.”

—Jan Vitrofsky, custom installer

“All of a sudden, the ceiling actually comes alive.

And all you have to do is push a button.”

—Jeffrey Smith, theater architect and designer



look,” says Smith, adding that he navigat-ed through the challenges of building this home theater without a hitch. His biggest lesson learned was how to keep an inquisi-tive client informed, yet somewhat at bay. “He wanted to know how everything worked,” Smith laughs, remembering that the client even climbed up a ladder to inspect the joinery conditions.

Vitrofsky’s view is much the same: The Toccins wanted the best. “The chal-lenge was educating them about the f in-est things, and having them understand what it’s all about so they could appreci-ate it,” he says.

A Crestron touch screen serves as the heart of the theater’s electronics, deliv-ering function control and connectiv-ity. Additional Crestron interfaces in the master suite and living room mean that the owners don’t have to f inish watch-ing a movie’s last scene in the theater. A Kaleidescape audio/visual server was selected for its ease of use, and its com-patibility with the Crestron control sys-tem. The Kaleidescape allows the user to digitally store DVDs and organize them according to preference (from movie genre to actor names or movie titles).

A 12-foot Stewart Film screen works in tandem with a Sony Qualia Q004R1 projector, which is hailed for its image quality and technology. A Lexicon audio package and Genelec speakers bring the home theater’s audio system to l i fe. For the Toccins, the $390,000 pack-age—$250,000 for the room design/const ruct ion and $140,000 for the equipment—is money well spent.

From the command center, smack dab in the middle of the second row, Danny maneuvers audio and video con-trols with ease. He has his home theater at his f ingertips, and the world at his feet. “This is nothing I ever dreamed of,” he says.


>

Jan Vitrofsky, founder and president of HED South in Hollywood, Fla., believes far too many home theaters are built for the wrong reasons: “A lot of people do these rooms to show off how much money they have to spend on these sorts of things. And that’s a B.S. reason to do anything. The goal should be, and was in this case, to provide people with pleasure and happiness and enjoyment—it’s not a status symbol.”

Key to the pleasurability of this system is the Kaleidescape System DVD and music server, Vitrofsky says, as well as the balanced package of sound, control, video and content. “Kaleidescape is currently the coolest gee-whiz product in all of the consumer electronics industry. But more importantly, I’ve found that clients who have Kaleidescape watch more movies—and listen to more music. And isn’t that what this is all about?

“We’re in the electronic entertainment business, you know? We sell fun,” Vitrofsky continues. “But so much technology today is much more difficult to operate. Kaleidescape goes to the exact opposite extreme, making its incredibly sophisticated system very simple to operate. And when you give the customer a gorgeous interface that works well and is simple and intuitive, it eliminates the little roadblocks that keep them from using their system.”

Vitrofsky strives for the same foolproof functionality with the rest of the installation’s Crestron control system: keeping buttons to a minimum, placing those buttons carefully, and putting a lot of attention into even subtler details, like the palette of onscreen colors. “It’s as much psychology as it’s programming,” he says.

But while fun and functionality are crucial, performance is of the utmost importance. “From the standpoint of music, our objective is to assemble a system that simulated having the talent performing for them live in the room,” Vitrofsky says. That’s no small order, and not just any speaker could hope to deliver such fidelity. But Vitrofsky found Genel-ecs ideal for the job: A pair of 1037c Tri-amplified Monitoring System speakers from the company’s professional monitoring line serve as the center, left and right, with five AIW26 Active In-Wall Loudspeakers for the sides and rears.

“The great thing about using powered speakers such as the Genelecs is that you get a perfectly matched speaker/amplifier package,” he says. “Think about it: you would never use Krell amplifiers with Wilson speak-ers. Krell doesn’t make amplifiers for Wilson speakers. Nor does Wilson make speakers for Krell amplifiers. Finding that perfect combination of speaker and amp can be time-consuming. But here we have a manu-facturer who is producing a complete solution. You get the optimum performance because the amplifier is tweaked to the characteristics of the speaker. That’s why, when you go into recording studios, you’ll find them using powered speakers.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: HED South of Hollywood, Fla. (954.929.2700, hedsouth.com)

Theater Architect and Designer: First Impressions Theme Theatres of North Miami, Fla. (800.305. 7545. cineloungers.com)

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Noted home theater design-er Theo Kalomirakis has learned that a snooty atti-tude can sometimes accom-pany the celebrities who

hire him. “They think everybody else is below them,” he says, with a chuck-le. So he was surprised, not to men-tion f lattered, when on a first meeting a Hollywood movie-star client asked

I N T E R I O R S

him to autograph a copy of his book, Great Escapes: New Designs for Home Theaters by Theo Kalomirakis.

That down-to-earth beginning set the tone for the entire project. “The client was against anything that has to do with ostentation or showing off,” says Kalomirakis, who designed the nine-seat home theater around the concept of entertaining family and friends—not impressing industry big-wigs. “He doesn’t care about status. He is who he is. He’s defined by his personality and his movies.”

After the autograph session, Kalo-mirakis hunkered down with his cli-ent, who asked to remain anonymous in this story, for a lengthy conversa-tion about style. “What he wanted to accomplish was something that was 1960s cool,” Kalomirakis says. “So we started throwing buzz words around: Rat Pack. Silvery. Bluey. Cool. The

“The theater sends you right into the Katharine

Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn eras,” says Bethe

Cohen, the home’s interior designer. A custom

sofa in French blue—reminiscent of mid-century

modern design—lines one wall. “You don’t pick up

the theater design trade by doing living rooms and

bedrooms,” says theater architect and designer

Theo Kalomirakis. “And the reason we don’t do

living rooms and bedrooms is we’ve decided as a

company, and I’ve decided as a designer, to focus

on what I know I do well so I don’t embarrass

myself by doing something else.”

HEmagazine.com INTERIORS HOME ENTERTAINMENT | 39

CO

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FaNtastiqueColor suffuses a Hollywood star’s minimalist Home tHeater—to dramatiC effeCt.> By louise farr

Light


things you associate with Elvis Presley.”The theater, minimalist yet glossy,

fills a nearly 1,000-square-foot, free-f loating, shock-mounted space within a 12,000-square-foot house. Anthony Grimani—who developed Dolby Sur-round at Dolby Laboratories, and went on to become director of technology at Lucasfilm THX—designed the layout. Gruen Construction lowered the f loor and pushed back the proscenium wall 6 feet. “We were working in a purist environment,” says custom installer Mur-ray Kunis of Los Angeles’ Future Home Media. “You couldn’t put subwoofers wherever they would fit.”

While the rest of the residence was under renovation at the time, Kalomi-rakis collaborated closely with interior designer Bethe Cohen of Silicon Valley’s Bethe Cohen Design Associates. “The rest of the house is very masculine, as is the theater, but it has a warm, elegant contemporary feel,” says Cohen. “You get a sense of drama from the moment you step into the lobby.”

That, of course, was Kalomirakis’ intent. “I always try to persuade the cli-ent to break down the area into small spaces that lead into the big space to cre-ate a sense of anticipation, of process, of arrival,” he says.

Columns in the lobby, foyer and the theater itself glow from within—their facades created from perforated, trans-lucent metal that allows light to shine through. “You see the light before you see the metal,” says Kalomirakis.

The client’s favorite color is blue, so Kalomirakis and Cohen settled on a blue and gray palette, with stainless-steel accents: Then they leapt forward in time and considered that there may be a day when the client might want to change the room’s color scheme without chang-ing the design.

“I brought in the idea of using Color Kinetics, the technology that allows you to change color at will,” Kalomirakis says. “So the whole lobby, and the whole theater, can be totally cool with white

light, or it can be fire engine red, with the lights turning green to red, or blue or green.” The system rotates through the entire color range in 10 minutes—or it can connect to a CD to unleash light that pulses with the music.

Vitralight glass panels, backed with lacquered color, cover the walls: The effect mimics oversized tiles. “That gave it a very cool, antiseptic look. But it was also a technique that has its origins from the Deco era,” Kalomirakis adds. “The ’60s had a lot of retro elements from the ’30s, so you can mix styles if they are compatible.”

The main foyer, which sits just beyond the entry lobby, serves as a focal point and is complete with a bar and sofa for pre-movie indulgences such as drinks and snacks. Smoked-glass doors enclose an air-conditioned equipment booth that’s tucked away in the lobby area, while the Runco projector hides in a soffit. Past the lobby, an equipment room and wine cellar pick up the ’60s cool design theme. If guests decide to duck out of the movie for a moment, a 32-inch Panasonic plasma screen drops from the bar’s ceil-ing, allowing them to keep current with the film at hand.

It’s unlikely, though, that guests will feel the need to get up and stretch their legs. The client, who is more than 6 feet tall, wanted seats he could lie down in. After test-driving many models, he chose a custom-made CinemaTech Ferien the-ater chair in blue-gray leather. “It’s very risky,” Kalomirakis says of selecting the-ater seating, “because the comfort level

I N T E R I O R S

“(The client) wanted the the-ater to continue from the rest

of the house, which is contem-porary, cool, clean, and not too

many bright colors.”

—Theo Kalomirakis,theater designer

“There’s tremendous acoustic design and treatment that you

don’t see, and behind what you do see there’s a lot of sci-entific acoustical engineering.”

—Murray Kunis,custom installer

“It’s not a typical big Hollywood screening room that will accommodate 30 people,” says Kalomi-rakis, adding that the theater won one of the top design awards at CEDIA last year. “The room is not too big; it’s not too small. It’s comfortable.”

Perforated metal columns hide the colorful fiber optics, and behind the wall upholstery is a

sophisticated system of acoustical treatments. “Diffusive, reflective, absorptive panels shape

the sound and make the room sound terrific,” he says. Gray wool carpeting in a retro design picks

up the theater’s ’60s theme.

HEmagazine.com INTERIORS HOME ENTERTAINMENT | 41


varies from person to person.“In one of his visits to New York, he

came to the office to play around with the seats and select the one he liked the best. That [chair] is what we used.”

Kalomirakis acknowledges that he and Cohen held several meetings in order to establish territory. “A lot of the time designers feel very threatened by some-one else who does a section of the house that they’re not involved in. And I want my space to ref lect my ideas,” he says. “But unless we put down our egos and work together, the client suffers, the proj-ect suffers. There has to be continuity.”

Both Cohen and Kalomirakis agree that they set territory aside. And the result? The client loved their work.

“You do a project and they forget about you, and you forget about them, because you move on,” says Kalomirakis. “But this is a very special client. He sent me a card for my birthday.”

All of the theater’s gear is neatly tucked away

behind one of the theater’s illuminated panels.


>

I N T E R I O R S

As with many high-performance installations by Murray Kunis, president of Future Home Media in Los Angeles, the aural centerpiece of this home theater is its JBL Synthesis audio system, which is complete with speakers, surround processor, amplification, and equalization. “In this case,” Kunis says, “the Synthesis Two was perfect for the size of the room. Of course, JBL has other systems that could have easily filled the room with sound, but we find that the Synthesis Two drivers are smoother, and they really sweat less when you play the system very loudly.

“There are a hundred speakers out there that sound really phenomenal if you’re just sitting [and] listening to jazz or classical music, but if you play an action picture through them, you’ll damage the drivers,” Kunis continues. “This system can handle extreme theatrical sound pressure levels and still sound really great for music.”

One interesting modification to the Synthesis Two system, though, is the replacement of its standard subwoofers with a quartet of Triad Custom InWall Silver/12 PowerSubs. Theater design and acoustician Anthony Grimani, president of Performance Media Industries (PMI) in Fairfax, Calif., explains: “JBL Synthesis makes great subwoofers, but they’re all 16 or 18 inches deep, and my designs and Theo’s designs are all about hiding all the gear. So given the available space, we needed a good, shallow subwoofer—shallow enough to hide in the 7-inch gap between the decor and the hard wall.”

By why four subwoofers in a room this size? “As a theater designer, I’ve been messing around with subwoofer placement for years, and my solution had usually been to come in with an analyzer and subwoofers and try mul-tiple configurations to find the ones that had the smoothest response,” says Grimani. “And it would take about four or five hours to mess around with all of these configurations and find the one that works within the aesthetic confines of the room.

“Then a gentleman named Todd Welti from Harmon International inves-tigated the same issue using mathematical modeling,” Grimani continues. “He did finite element analysis, trying out 5,000 different configurations on the computer. Through successive approximations he found that if you put subwoofers in a cross-pattern, you get the best metrics of smoothness and evenness from seat to seat.” Grimani says that when you put a subwoofer in the middle of each wall, you effectually contradict the room’s standing waves—those pesky variations and nulls in bass response that plague any theater. “And despite the fact that single corner placement is the worst con-figuration,” Grimani says, “it turns out you can also achieve the same goal by placing them in a criss-cross pattern—a subwoofer in each of the four corners—but the front-back, side-side pattern works the best. So that’s what we did.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Acoustic Design/Project Manager: PMI Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. (415.454.2087, PMILTD.com)

Custom Installer: Future Home Media of Los Angeles, Calif.(310.966.9442, futurehometheater.com)

Theater Architect/Designer: Theo Kalomirakis Theatres of New York, NY (877.858.4328, tktheaters.com)

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There’s a certain ruggedness—a rough-and-tumble way of life—in Colorado that’s as irresistible to the locals who run the ski mountains as it

is to the well-heeled who build vacation homes from the ground up.

While the Mountain West’s second-home residents may be in hot pursuit of that iconic Ralph Lauren lifestyle, most of them can’t live without the technological creature comforts of home—big-screen plasma TVs, distributed audio indoors and out, top-notch security systems, elaborate game rooms and, of course, comfy full-f ledged home theaters.

Such is the case of this three-story retreat—27,000 square feet of luxurious living space that’s wired with fine-tuned, easy-to-use technology. “Sometimes people overcomplicate things,” says cus-tom installer Robert Bliss of Bliss Home Theaters and Automation Inc. in West-lake Village, Calif. “The key was keeping

I N T E R I O R S

the system simple so anyone could come in and use the house without needing extensive lessons on how to use it.”

Say you wander into the grand Victo-rian-style home theater masterminded by interior designer Jill Cole and her team at Martinez Curtis and Associates in Marina Del Ray, Calif. After running your hand along the top of one of the customized velvet theater chairs by Fortress, you take a seat in front of the coffee table and press “start theater” on the Crestron touch screen. Like magic, the Henna-red theater curtains part to reveal the 15-foot THX four-way masking screen, and the E-Cinema projector by Digital Projection fires up. “This is probably the highest-performing theater we’ve ever done,” Robert says. In addition, the theater is designed as a room within a room, and was extended 12 feet in length to accommodate the required seating, sight lines and the custom Krell audio system, which was personally designed


mounTain masTerpieceA cApAcious mountAin getAwAy, designed for fAmily And business retreAts, is sprinkled with technologi-cAl treAts thAt Are eAsy to use.> by brooke lAnge > photogrAphy by rAndAll cordero

by Krell’s owner, Dan D’Agostino. “He did a fantastic job—I have yet to hear anything better …. and if someone said they wanted a better projector, it can’t be had,” Robert says, adding that there are only two residential installations that use the E-Cinema in the United States. This projector is also used at the Motion Picture Academy in Los Angeles.

While technology reigns supreme in this vacation home, so do the breathtak-ing mountain views—which the interior designer did not want to compromise in any way. “In the majority of rooms, there are spectacular views,” says Cole, adding that the client’s wife wanted a castle-like décor instead of the predictable log-and-antler motif. Cole and her team infused the interiors with lots of rich, decorative millwork in a variety of woods—from


cherry to maple and walnut—a soothing-and-subtle color palette, and comfortable furniture. “Technology is important to this homeowner, but it was also important to make the home look like someone’s house and not a rocket ship,” she says.

So that the owners and their guests can enjoy a movie or a TV show in their private quarters without the interference of the glaring sun, Cole designed and installed elaborate drapery systems. In the vaulted-ceiling master suite, clerestory windows allow the view to be enjoyed continually—even when the draperies are drawn. “It was challenging to figure out a way to integrate a good place for the TV, the fireplace, the view, and the bed,” Cole says. While the designer considered installing a ceiling-suspended drop-down TV at one point, they decided upon a

In the master suite, above, the locally crafted millwork combines with an antique Victorian bed and nightstand and a hand-carved mahog-any TV cabinet built by Los Angeles artisan Vaughan Benz. Mecho shades tuck into a false horizontal mullion to prevent TV glare. Previous spread: “The owner said, ‘I love the Paris Opera House.’ And that’s how the design got started,” says the designer. The 18th-century Italian sideboard is an auction find. The mahogany coffee table, custom designed by designer’s firm, is inspired by an Italian-carved chest. Rich

damask-print carpeting floors the theater while an acoustically correct fabric blankets the walls.

I N T E R I O R S


custom-carved cabinet that makes the 50-inch Marantz and its 5.1 surround-sound system vanish when it’s not in use. When the TV is in use, it rotates on the custom-designed, motorized Microcos-man lift so the program at hand can be enjoyed bedside.

Each of the home’s nine bedrooms enjoy a similar TV setup with surround sound, as well as a simple-to-use two-button light switch and a Crestron touch screen. “People are very used to light switches,” Robert says. “It’s not intuitive for them to go to a touch panel.” Press one of two buttons on any of the spe-cially designed switches to turn the lights on or off. Guests can access any of the home’s music sources from the switches as well, from XM satellite radio to MP3s and CDs. Or consult the room’s Crestron touch screen to access the time, increase the bedside table’s lighting level from 20 percent to 94 percent, or adjust the room’s temperature.

Despite the luxurious bedroom set-tings, guests won’t feel the need to hole up in their bedrooms—regardless of the views, and the primo TV-viewing accommodations. Instead, they’ll f ind themselves drawn to the lower level—a full f loor of the house that’s focused on fun, and includes an easy-to-operate home theater, a black-light bowling alley, a wine cellar and tasting suite, and a game room complete with a foosball table, a pool table, a 65-inch Sharp LCD TV, a pinball arcade, a professional shuff le-board table and an Xbox 360. “There are lots of places to play,” Cole says. “This house is about playing.” Since Colorado’s mountain areas can be difficult to reach by plane and car, the owners oftentimes host large groups of people for numerous days. Therefore, the house is equipped to entertain guests for longer periods of time—not just weekends.

Let’s say the homeowner is hosting 30 clients on a blustery, snowy weekend

The rug in the guest bedroom is also by Patterson Flynn & Martin, and the TV cabinet is also a custom design by Cole’s firm, which was fabricated by the same Los Angeles artisan. A late 18th-century chande-lier lends a touch of drama to the space, as does the linen Scalamandre draperies in a leaf design.

“One hundred percent of the people we brought into the theater had the response

we expected—their hair stood up on their arms.

That’s how good it is.”

—Robert Bliss, custom installer


and the electricity goes out. “The way these homes become reliable is the way we work on them properly,” says Rob-ert of the technological work he and his brother, George, conduct. In this home, the strip lighting along the baseboards will illuminate immediately if the home’s electricity goes out. “Even if there’s a fire, these paths will light up to lead you to the nearest exit,” he continues. “The system can actually save a life.”

In addition, the home is equipped with several tons of HVAC equipment and a backup power system. “For us, this kind of setup is standard,” Robert continues. “The home is fully backed up with enough generator power that it could fully support itself.” Most electri-cal back-up systems, he adds, support the core of the home—not the full home. “This generator is so large that it can cre-ate electricity and feed the electric grid … the owner can get rebates from the electric company.”

Other energy-saving technologies include the motion detectors that are

Touch the “cosmic bowl” button on the bowling alley touch screen and the space morphs from a traditional bowling alley into a psychedelic party zone with black

lights and disco music. Score a strike and special lights pulse in celebration. The wall columns and carving that are visible above the pins are painted in black-light paint so

they glow. In the billiards room, below, a 60-inch high-altitude Marantz flat-screen

displays television and movies; it also doubles as an electronic scorecard.

I N T E R I O R S


wired into the lighting system. “If the system doesn’t detect anyone in the room, it will cut the lights off,” Robert says. From a human energy savings standpoint, every lighting element, automated blind and speaker—both indoors and out—and all of the interior and exterior gas fireplaces, spas, and the snow melt system leading to the outdoor hot tub, can be controlled while the homeowner lounges in bed. Tracking down a loved one via the home’s elaborate intercom system also saves the homeowner from a lot of need-less running around.

The gallery space, above, leads to several guest bedrooms; some of the pieces, including the 18th-century English chairs, were purchased at auc-tion. The 17th-century Italian angel statuary at the end of the gallery watches over the space. The Crestron system eliminates the need for 776 light switches and 43 HVAC zone controllers in the house. “If all these existed, it would take someone three hours to walk the property and turn them all off,” Robert says. In the living room, left, the lanterns are antique reproductions.


“The most robust thing the Crestron program does is the two-way intercom,” Robert adds. Guest can converse via the Crestron intercom system, and can actu-ally view each other via the touch screen’s video window. With 14 touch panels in the home, you can have seven conversa-tions going on at once.

“Anybody can buy a bunch of touch panels, a bunch of equipment and install it,” Robert continues. But our team has the know-how to make a system of this scale really work.”

The smaller, 120-square-foot equipment room is fully designated to power the home theater,

while the larger technology room, at 600 square feet, is command central for the home’s

automation, HVAC and security systems. The homeowner can access the security system

via a computer from anywhere in the world. If someone rings the front gate buzzer, he can even

open the gate from his laptop.

When the owner approached the Bliss brothers about designing his vacation home’s technology, his goals were succinct: “He wanted extreme automation with every possible feature—a smart home that knows when it is being occupied and knows how to save energy when it is not,” George says. “He wanted it wired so that it was scalable for the future.”

That’s no short order for a 27,000-square-foot house that’s wired with 96 miles of cables that support the automation and entertainment systems in two massive dedicated equipment rooms. In fact, it took programmer William Brewer nearly a year to program the massive Crestron control system.

Brewer recalls just one of the challenges: “The Crestron lighting system alone required two Crestron PRO2 [Control Systems] networked together. And because some of the 776 lighting loads in the middle of the house were wired to one equipment room and other loads to the other, the lighting in some rooms was controlled by two different processors. That necessitated a complex inter-processor link so that the lights in the ‘split’ rooms ... operate in a unified manner.”

Even in the midst of such a monumental automation system, and a dis-tributed AV system to match, the million-dollar theater still stands out as the home’s centerpiece. At its heart is a complete Krell sound system, consisting of a Home Theater Standard 7.1 AV Preamp, 350Mcx and 750Mcx Full Power Balanced amplifiers, LAT-1 Lossless Acoustic Transducers for the LCR speakers, and a quartet of LAT-2s for the surrounds. “I’ve never heard another audio system that outperforms the Krell system,” Robert says. “We went to [Krell CEO] Dan D’Agostino himself and said, ‘We want the ulti-mate audio system.’ And he came back and said, ‘here are the pieces.’”

Those pieces didn’t quite fit the original space allotted for the room, though. “The entire room had to be extended something like 12 feet,” Rob-ert says, not only to accommodate the fact that the owner wanted nothing less than a 15-foot screen, but also because of acoustics.

“The master bedroom was above the theater,” George adds, “so by extending the front of the theater and by building this as a room-within-a-room, we were able to keep the sound from blowing into that bedroom. There’s no such thing as a completely soundproof room, but we got as close as you can get.”

To top it off, the room features not one, but two D-Box Odyssee Motion Simulator systems running in parallel. But for the Bliss team, this installation is less about the gear and more about how it’s assembled. Says George: “Our team has the know-how to make a system of this scale really work.” Finish-ing his thought as only a brother can, Robert adds, “Yeah, you can give me eggs, cream, and sugar and ask me to make crème brûlée and you’ll get soup. But give those same exact ingredients to a chef and he’ll work magic. That’s what we do for clients like this.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: Bliss Home Theaters and Automation Inc. of Westlake Village, Calif. (818.706.2794, blisshta.com)

Interior Designer: Cole Martinez Curtis and Associates of Marina Del Ray, Calif. (310.827.7200, cmcadesign.com)

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT


>

I N T E R I O R S IN THE WORLD ʼS F INES T HOME C INEMAS ,IMAGE I S EVERY TH ING .

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Through engineering innovations such as our ColorMax™ technology, Digital Projection creates the captivating imagery demanded in the most elite home cinemas. Naturally, customers with such high expectations also benefit from DP’s exceptional customer service, including 24-7 technical support, an extensive customer service team and dedicated applications engineers.

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IN THE WORLD ʼS F INES T HOME C INEMAS ,IMAGE I S EVERY TH ING .

Atlanta, GA USA • Manchester, UK • Beijing, China • Singapore 770.420.1365 • www.digitalprojection.com

Find the perfect projector at www.digitalprojection.com/hc

Home Cinema using a Digital Projection TITAN Reference 1080pDesigner and photo: First Impressions Theme Theatres

For twelve years, Digital Projection International has delivered the most powerful line of DLP® displays available. In 1998, DPI earned two Emmy®

Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development. We remain the fi rst and only projector manufacturer to win the coveted award.

Through engineering innovations such as our ColorMax™ technology, Digital Projection creates the captivating imagery demanded in the most elite home cinemas. Naturally, customers with such high expectations also benefit from DP’s exceptional customer service, including 24-7 technical support, an extensive customer service team and dedicated applications engineers.

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light and simpleA Westchester county home With minimAlist design touts the benefits of minimAlist-looking technology.> By B.A. HoffmAn > PHotos By AntHony D’EliA

this is a “less is more” story: a tale about a home in New York’s Westchester County that is minimalist in décor—and minimalist in the amount

of visible technology it showcases. But regardless of how simplistic everything looks at f irst blush, this house is robust in the kinds of technology it embraces—up front and behind the scenes. “My house doesn’t have a lot in it,” says homeowner Randi Walden. “When you have the technology that we have, you need less in the room. I like it clean and simple and comfortable so people can put their feet up.”

Take, for instance, the sitting room outside the master suite. This is Randi’s domain—a place were she unwinds, reads, watches TV and movies, or works late while her husband is slumbering in the enclosed, adjacent bedroom. The sleek

i n t e r i o r s


f lat-screen television f its snugly over the restored f ireplace mantle. Better yet, it doesn’t distract from the chandelier or upset the space’s peaceful aura. Embraced by lots of ambient light with white trim, sky-blue walls and an Art Deco-styled sofa in a gray-blue upholstery, this space soothes even the most harried soul.

“I had this house in my head for 15 years,” Randi continues. “It’s a beachy kind of look with a little bit of Art Deco.


The colors are comforting. Most of the walls are different shades of blue.”

What’s also comforting to Randi and her husband, George, is that the technol-ogy is as easy to use as the home’s colors are on the eyes. “We wanted something simple to operate,” says George. “My wife is technologically illiterate. And the system is easy for me and the kids to use, too.”

Custom installer Richard Hollander of

IVCi Home in Hauppauge, NY, started out by designing an intuitive touchscreen interface. “What I hear in just about every one of our projects is ‘we want fantastic sound, great video quality and we want to be able to use it,’” he says, adding that his team designed the touchscreen to be as simple to use as an ATM machine. “Any 6-year-old kid can use the touch-screen and tell Mom and Dad how to operate it.”

The flat-screen television in Randi’s sitting room—which the owners brought in from their previous home—is one of eight TVs in the home. Surround sound wasn’t required by the owner, so Hollander installed Tannoy ceiling speakers. Randi’s desk and computer reside on the other side of the TV/fireplace wall.

From any Crestron controller the fam-ily can manage any of the home’s lights, the HVAC system, the DVRs, the secu-rity system and the music hard drive. Any user can control any of the automated systems by selecting the intended room on the touchscreen via pictures of the architectural f loor plan. “You can pick exactly where you are—first f loor, sec-ond f loor—and go from there,” the cus-tom installer says.

The Waldens are huge music fans: Their AudioRequest music server is the heart of their home, and it stores upward of 8,000 songs. “I hate rap, but I like the Rolling Stones, Steely Dan and Simon & Garfunkel,” George says, adding that his younger daughter shares his music tastes, while his wife loves country. “We have more country and western on the music server because my wife is buying the CDs, but we haven’t even used up 10 percent of our capacity. All you do is open up the drawer, f lip in the CD and it sucks in the

I N T E R I O R S

info—it’s that easy.” Hollander equipped the family of four with a quartet of wire-less touchscreens so each family member can roam anywhere in the house, altering their music selections along the way.

“They’re entertainment junkies,” Hol-lander says. “They’re the type of family that really uses the audio feature. Every time I’m there, it’s on.” To help the fam-ily access their expansive music collection easily—from dozens of radio stations to thousands of songs—Hollander’s team added logos of the family’s favorite radio stations to the touchscreen’s music menu. He even provided Randi with a full line-up of all of Sirius’ country stations. All she has to do is select her room of choice on the touchscreen, and tap the radio sta-tion logo. “He can be in the kitchen with his rock and she can be somewhere else with her country,” Hollander says. “It’s that easy.”

The kids have their own DVRs, as do the adults. Hollander set up the system so


Technology does not clutter the small media room. The

credenza below the 60-inch Pioneer flat-screen TV houses a Sony BluRay DVD player, a

Cinea DVD player for encoded DVDs, a VHS player and the

balance of the audiovisual equipment. Because the pocket

door occupies a lot of the TV wall, Hollander opted for Totem

Acoustic Tribe IIIs for the front left, center, right and rear speakers, and a Totem Acoustic

Storm subwoofer and ceiling speakers. “They didn’t want a

dedicated theater—they wanted a cozy media room setting and a screen that they could see from 15 feet away that worked in the existing space,” Hollander says.

In the kitchen, the 37-inch Sharp LCD is view-able at any time of day—from any seating position

at the island or the kitchen table—since the TV is mounted on an articulating arm. The space

is floored with tumbled marble and illuminated with two custom wrought-iron fixtures found in

an antique store. The island is topped with a rolled custom copper; the custom glazed cabinetry

features antiqued glass fronts.


any family member can watch whatever he or she wants in any room. “It’s about identifying who is in the house, what their routines are, and what they enjoy in terms of recording,” Hollander says.

Another customized option Holland-er’s team created for the family is lighting control: They can select “all on” or “all off ” on any touchscreen to turn every light in the house on or off. “Vacation mode,” Hollander says, “features stored lighting patterns from the past week of lighting use—so it’s very realistic.” They can also override any preset scene and manually customize the setting at hand—

such as increasing the lighting level in a specif ic room.

“We’ve been in the house one-and-a-half years and I love to go room to room to adjust the lighting and temperature,” George says. “And I like to check the touchscreen to see which doors and win-dows are open or locked.”

But there is one thing the family can’t control: The intermittent power out-ages that accompany coastline living, many of which cause the furnace to shut down. To amend that situation, Hol-lander designed a special system for the boiler room that works in conjunction with the one-hour UPS backup battery. If the electricity goes out, the backup bat-tery comes on, and a group email is sent out to the project manager, homeowner and the plumbing contractor so everyone can respond immediately. “It’s an extra benef it,” George says, adding that he can monitor all of the home’s automated functions—including power outages—

“The end result of this project allows our client to focus less on the

technology, and more on enjoying the experience.”

—Richard Hollander, custom installer

Ask IVCi Home’s Director of Engineering Toma Lekaj what goes into designing the sort of system that wins Crestron’s 2007 Integration Award for Best Integrated Home System, and surprisingly enough you’ll receive a straightforward answer:

“You have to take into consideration what the client wants, of course—hidden, or the same function on every page, et cetera,” Lekaj says. “But our goal is always to keep access to any feature no farther away than two button presses.”

For a project as complex as this one, that’s not nearly as easy as it sounds. The HVAC system alone, for example, encompasses the home’s radiant heat system, forced hydro-air, and automated temperature regula-tion (which is based on the current outdoor temperature.) Lekaj explains how even the most complex lighting control applications can be simpli-fied to two touchscreen buttons.

“When the owners are away for an extended period of time, we wanted it to appear that the home is occupied with people moving around during the evening, turning lights on and off until bedtime,” Lekaj says. “So we created a two-touch system: With one touch you can initiate a ‘record’ feature, where the system takes a snapshot of the lighting condi-tions throughout the whole house approximately every 15 minutes. It does so for a week, and at the end of the week it starts overwriting what it previously recorded. So it’s continuously recording a week’s worth of activity. With another button you go into ‘vacation mode,’ and it then plays back that weeklong sequence. It’s that simple.”

Interestingly enough, shade control wasn’t part of the system. “He didn’t want any shade integration whatsoever,” says Hollander. “It’s not that he was unaware of the possibilities—he just didn’t want it. We’re in the business of making recommendations, and providing the service that goes with those recommendations. We’re not here to force technology on clients.”

A few years ago, that would have been a big problem for the home’s main media room. Just imagine the television displays in the early part of the decade trying to display anything more than the hint of an image in the presence of such big, beautiful white walls—with coastal sunlight pouring in from numerous directions.

“The amount of light entering this room is why we didn’t go with a projector,” Hollander says. “And the fact that it could stand up to the light is one of the main reasons we went with a Pioneer [PDP-6070HD] 60-inch plasma. It’s funny how things change. A few years ago we were complaining about the plasmas because the contrasts were crushed and images were awful. Today the image you can get from manufacturers like Pioneer and Panasonic is just phenomenal.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: IVCi Home of Hauppauge, NY, with offices in New York, NY (800.901.6583, ivcihome.com)

Interior Designer: the homeowner

TECH TALK


>


on the Internet via Crestron’s e-Control. “It makes me crazy when the heat goes out and the pipes freeze. It happened in our previous home.”

“One of the most important things is putting in a boiler system shutdown alert,” Hol lander says, “The backup battery goes on if the house boiler goes out. This really prevents any disaster situation.”

And how does the homeowner feel about Hollander’s solution? “I love these smart homes,” George says.

I N T E R I O R S

The sun room, top, epitomizes the overall look of the home—light and airy. Flooded with sunshine,

it overlooks the backyard, pool and Delancey Cove, a Long Island Sound inlet. Instead of having

to physically visit each window to see it’s locked, the homeowner can access the floor plan on the

touchscreen to determine which windows and doors are open or closed (red indicates closed

and green indicates open). The equipment rack, bottom, is tucked behind a railing. The home’s extensive automation system keeps tabs on all

things technological. If there’s a problem with the boiler, the system immediately notifies the project

manager and service team at IVCi.

I N T E R I O R S

call of the wildHOmE THEaTER dESIgN lumINaRy JEff SmITH cOllabO-RaTES wITH a STylE-Savvy clIENT TO cREaTE a glamOROuS ScREENINg ROOm fOR a SOuTH flORIda vacaTION HOmE. > By “De” SchofielD > PhotograPhy By groSSman PhotograPhy

“The screen wall totaled 165 inches in width, so

we fitted the main speakers at an angle flanking

the stage, and concealed a [Sonance] Ultra 2 THX

center speaker that is only four inches deep below

it,” says custom installer Jim Pearson. “Then we

tucked the drapery pockets along an angle on each

side of the screen.” The coffered ceiling is equipped

with amplified diffusion elements that are hidden

behind the gold ceiling panels.

Jeff on numerous projects in and outside of Florida,” Pearson says. “It’s a great collaboration. Smith gives us his plan [on paper] when it’s about 90 percent complete, then we work together on the details to make sure everything works.”

As with all of Smith’s installations, the home theater was designed and built at the company’s North Miami facility, then disassembled, delivered and custom installed in the home. “We begin with the space plan, proceed with specifying site lines, monitoring angles and aisle spacing, then add the embellishments such as the woodwork, lighting, furniture and accessories,” Smith says.

Originally one large open space, Smith carved out an 8-foot-by-10-foot vestibule in the entryway. The dramatic design scheme originates in the “CineBar,” Smith’s trademarked bar in which flooring of Absolute Black granite commingles with dark wenge wood cabinetry—finishes that are a precursor to what lies beyond the doors that lead into the home theater.

B“Build a home theater around this,” the wife said to First Impressions Theme Theatres’ founder and theater designer Jeff Smith, as she handed him a sample of carpeting that she had fallen in love with. “There was something about it that spoke to me,” she says. “I felt the tiger-print motif would impart a sense of drama and elegance.”

Smith credits his client’s sense of style as the driving force behind the project that now serves as an entertainment zone for the couple’s grandchildren, and a retreat where the husband and wife can relax and socialize with family and friends. “She wanted something fun and informal with a sophisticated theme that harkened back to the glamorous, old-style traditional movie houses,” Smith says.

The owners, an active couple with eight grandchildren ranging in age from 4 to 22, are avid golfers. Their desire for a warm-weather retreat away from their home in the Northeast led them to build a two-story, 10,0000-square-foot estate in a South Florida golf community. “We [had considered] including a home theater in our vacation home,” the wife says. “It was a toss up between a home spa or a home theater, and the theater made more sense because we could enjoy it as a family.”

To manage the technical aspects of the 500-square-foot private screening room, Smith enlisted Jim Pearson, founder and president of Creative Media Designs in Boca Raton, Fla. “We’ve worked with



An archway swagged in gold-toned French velvet drapery provides a peek into the theater, where tawny animal print tones and rich, textural fabrics imbue a comfortable, yet sumptuous appeal. A cozy configuration of two tiered rows of pillow-back CineLounger home theater chairs—clad in black French velvet and caramel-toned piping with Absolute Black granite

cup holders—accommodates enough seating for seven guests.

“The rest of the house is more traditional in style and features a neutral color palette accented with soft blues and greens,” Smith says. “The wife’s carpeting choice clearly states that she envisioned this space as a destination all its own, so we suggested more of a ‘wow factor’ here to set the room apart from the rest of the house.”

While the 400-square-foot home theater did not pose any spatial restrictions for the design team, the location of a large air-conditioning soffit in the rear of the room created a stumbling block. Smith’s response was to rotate the floor plan from front to back, making the rear of the space now the front/stage area. He took advantage of the soffit by building the stage’s proscenium elements around it. “This is really a cube space with very high ceilings,” Smith continues. “We created a place to house the projector by building a matching soffit at the back of the room, and then had it fitted into an insulated thermal box and hidden behind water-white optical glass.”

Initially, the decision to flip the floor plan created concern about lining up the projector and the screen. “The sight-line issue posed a challenge,” Pearson says. “I realized we needed a long-throw projector for the owners to enjoy the biggest screen possible.” The room’s dimensions required an 18-foot throw distance and necessitated the screen be placed high enough to be visible from the back. “We pushed the projector as far back within the ceiling soffit as possible, then increased the lens port for maximum efficiency,” Pearson says.

To accommodate Pearson’s selection of a 123-inch Vutec Fixed Screen, the team added proscenium elements to conceal the Sonance THX Ultra 2 left, center and right speakers. Meticulously detailed “columns” along the back and side walls house the system’s rear and surround speakers.

“The columns were created for pure aesthetics and were detailed with corbels to give them an authentic look,” says the interior designer. “Our goal was that the

I N T E R I O R S


Smith and his team conjured up

a modified jungle theme with a

touch of a Moroccan style for

the theater. Crown molding is

outfitted with backlighting to an-

nounce the entryway. Next to the

popcorn machine is a two-panel

door that leads to the audiovi-

sual equipment.

The side and rear wall panels,

as well as the projector soffit,

are clad in First Impressions’

trademarked AcouSuede in

black ostrich leather and gold;

each is custom-matched to

complement the French velvet

draperies with imported fringe.

The wife selected all of the

lighting elements.


columns not protrude into the aisle. This required the use of speakers that are only four inches deep.”

To further enhance the audio effect, Smith’s design team created base traps in the corners of the theater, which are filled with sound baffling material; there are also base traps tucked into the three rectangular areas of the projector soffit. “The base traps act like pool table pockets in the sense that

they prevent the sound from bouncing all over the room, and they catch as much sound reflection as possible.” Above, an engineered diffuser ceiling—whose elements are hidden behind burnished gold ceiling panels—makes the home theater space sound “voluminous.”

Notwithstanding the myriad of detailing in every aspect of this project, one of First Impressions’ many signatures is its focus on

resourcesCustom Installer: Creative Media Designs of Boca Raton, Fla. (creativemediadesigns.com 800.237.9161)

Theater Architect and Designer: First Impressions Theme Theatres of North Miami, Fla. (cineloungers.com; 800.305.7545)

For a full equipment list for this project, please visit HEmagazine.com.

>


team also decided to avoid the use of a perforated screen early on, which meant that the speakers could not be tucked behind the screen.

“The center channel had to go beneath the screen,” he says. “But we had to place it in such a way that it was in line with the second row of seating—so it wasn’t muffled by someone sitting in the front row. And we couldn’t raise the screen higher because of design elements above it.” The solution was to turn the center speaker sideways.

With most speakers, this would have led to serious dispersion problems—especially a speaker built to THX Ultra 2 specifications, which call for wide horizontal dispersion and narrow vertical dispersion. But the custom installer’s choice of LCRs offered the perfect solution. “The baffle that holds the midrange drivers and tweeter in the Sonance Cinema Ultra II LCR in-wall is rotatable,” he says, “so we were able to turn the speaker on its side and still maintain the proper horizontal dispersion.”

The theater is a good example of a trend we’re seeing more of these days: the use of high-end integrated AV receivers in lieu of separate surround-sound processors and external amplification when sound quality is important, but rack space is limited. Is this an indication that receivers are finally losing their second-class status? Actually, Pearson says that they may actually be pulling ahead of their bulkier brethren. “We went with the Marantz SR9600 THX Ultra2 Surround Receiver for two reasons: sound quality and space limitations,” he says.

“The area where the equipment was going also had to house the equipment for the rest of the home. Plus, the receiver gave us nine-band equalizer for any room correction we might need to do. It had HDMI; it had video up-conversion. It had a lot of the features that we needed to get the job done—features that may be lacking in some high-end processors.”—Dennis Burger

“Design and technology played equally important

parts in this theater. With First Impressions, we were able to produce

another CEDIA Best Home Theater Lifestyle

Award winner.”

—Jim Pearson,

custom installer

“The husband wanted grandkid-proof materi-

als, and the wife wanted delicate architectural details. Achieving the

balance of the two was the real mission.”

—Jeffrey Smith, theater

architect and designer

proper lighting, Pearson says. “This home theater has 12 automated loads of lighting, including cove lighting, chandeliers, CineBar lights, and numerous stage lights. There’s also a Hollywood light bar above the screen and downlighting in the stage area to spotlight the grandchildren’s karaoke performances. Twelve loads is a lot, but it gives maximum theatrical impact.”

The wife, in a resounding testimony to the project’s success, says she and her husband cannot keep the grandchildren out of the screening room. “The 9-year-old can be in there for hours with his Xbox,” she says. Overall, they couldn’t be happier with their home theater.

“We felt early on that Jeff Smith was the best fit for designing our home theater, and we would choose First Impressions again if we have the opportunity,” she says. “His expertise and creativity were certainly impressive, but more importantly he and his team were totally gracious and responsive to all of our requests.”

Where the Wild things AreThis elaborate project epitomizes the challenges that accommodate retrofitting a home theater into an existing space—even one that was designed to house a private screening room. “The room was designed as part of a spec house, and they didn’t do the things you do when designing a theater—like checking throw distances or projector offsets,” says Pearson. “So the location we had for housing the projector was right at the cusp of a long-throw projector’s capabilities for the minimum throw distance.”

This factor created a domino effect that shaped the entire course of the installation. For aesthetic reasons, the Marantz VP-12S2 DLP projector was selected and moved back (instead of using a standard lens and positioning it in front of the soffit, Pearson went with the long-throw lens). As a result, the image naturally got larger, and the proscenium size did not have to change from the original design. Pearson and his

I N T E R I O R S

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I N T E R I O R S


er John Stumpf of Station Earth Total Home Technologies in Ontario, adding that the home won a 2007 Cedia gold award in the integrated home category. “The wiring—more than 47,000 feet of it—the technology [including 12 TVs], and the time and effort blend seam-lessly with the decor.”

Take, for instance, the 510-square-foot media room, which boasts, says Stumpf, “an understated Golden Age of Cinema feel” with fully concealed technology. The 110-inch Draper screen cannot be seen until it descends from the ceiling bulkhead. The Runco DLP projector is tucked into the back bulk-head, and the speakers are built into the walls and are faux finished to match the walls perfectly. The only hints that this room is, in fact, a movie-viewing space include the film reel hanging on the back wall, and the eight framed sepia tone portraits of movie stars that the designer had custom printed.

“We were going for more of an Old World feeling,” Knapp says of the media room and the lower f loor.

The walnut-paneled library follows the same design approach in that the look and feel of the space honors the past, while the hidden technology is a nod to the future. The antique Geor-gian-style fireplace surround in pol-ished black marble, the custom leather

Hidden BeAUTY

In this award-winning house, what’s new is meant to look old. Translation: This residence is designed to resemble

a finely restored Georgian home. And that means every ounce of technology is hidden and out of the way.> By Brooke LAnGe > PhoToGrAPhy By Terry ScoTT WhITe

he clients who own this 14,000-square-

foot, two-story Georgian-style house in Canada are, in

many ways, living oxymorons. Their design taste is traditional, yet

they love contemporary art. So they’ve incorporated, accordingly, modern art into their living spaces. In addition, they love the entertainment benefits of modern technology, yet they don’t want to see any technology. So they’ve incor-porated, accordingly, technology into their home in an invisible manner.

“They wanted a media room, but they didn’t want it to look like a media room at all—no theater seating, no f loor elevations,” says interior designer Alison Knapp of Barnard & Speziale Design Associates in Ontario, Canada. The end result is a classically designed home and home theater that’s loaded with technology—most of which is not visible to the eye. “The client wanted the technology to be hidden and non-existent to someone walking through the house,” Knapp continues. “You’d never know the house is as technologi-cally advanced as it is—it’s all hidden in armoires and the cabinetry.”

“Every pair of speakers is hidden in a wall or in the ceiling, and is painted to match the environment so they don’t impair the design,” says custom install-


chairs and sofa, and the custom-crafted bookshelves and cabinets epitomize the owners’ love of traditional architecture and design. Couple that with the pop-up 42-inch Pioneer Elite plasma TV that vanishes into custom cabinetry when it’s not in use, and it’s no wonder that this room has become a favorite entertaining venue for the couple. “It’s used a lot more than they anticipated,” Knapp says. “It’s a very cozy place for before and after dinner.”

Only three rooms showcase technol-ogy in the form of fully exposed f lat-screen TVs: the kitchen, family room and “her” office. “This is the most

In the library, the TV lift is equipped with a Swiss mo-

tor made by a company that makes hospital beds. “It’s re-

ally quiet and strong,” Stumpf says. Previous spread: Indigo blue Venetian plaster walls set

the media room’s tone. The sofas are customized in a deep

blue velvet; the swivel reclin-ers are bathed in a Ralph

Lauren paisley fabric.


commonly used room to watch news or Sunday afternoon golf,” Stumpf says, alluding to the family room’s 42-inch Pioneer Elite plasma TV.

Originally, this space was slated to feature a motorized painting that would slide up and down in front of the TV, but that request was removed from the interior design equation when the homeowners decided that this space would be used daily as a TV room. “Because the room is used so much, they wanted to leave the TV exposed all the time,” Knapp adds.

In the kitchen, a 23-inch Sony LCD screen peers out from the custom cabi-

I N T E R I O R S

Antiqued Cabrian black gran-ite graces the countertops. The walnut plank flooring and the coffered ceiling with beadboard detailing is a nod to the home’s elaborate ceiling treatments. The kitchen’s beer tap is con-nected to the media room’s tap.


“These clients have very refined tastes, but are open to

new things.”

—Alison Knapp, interior designer

“Our biggest challenge was how much physical technology is in

the house, and how little of it you see.”

—John Stumpf, custom installer

netry with glass-fronted doors to showcase the homeowners’ extensive collection of silver. The pendant lights on pulleys are designed to look like old gas station lights and are ref lective of 1920s design.

“Everything in the house is new,” Knapp says of the custom home that’s almost 2 years old. “But the clients wanted everything to look old—like the real thing with modern conveniences.”

With 190 lighting loads spread across 14,000 square feet, those modern conve-niences include the Vantage control system. “Because of the sheer scale of the house, the automated lighting system is functional for energy conservation and ease of use,” R

oy

Tim

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I N T E R I O R S

Columns fronting the family room’s entryway maintain a sense of classicism in the TV-exposed space. The gas fireplace here, and in several other rooms in the house, can be controlled from a touchscreen controller. The Indiana limestone fireplace surround and the mantel bears and antiqued finish. The French doors behind the sofa in this symmetrically designed room lead to the loggia. The contemporary painting

“Untitled” is by Graham Coughtry.


Stumpf says. “Rarely will a lighting load be above 80 percent. In a house this big, the lighting system will make the light bulbs last longer. They can run the entire home with very little effort.”

The blinds and draperies are also wired into the Vantage control system. Hit the “good morning” button on the touchscreen in the master bedroom, for example, and the curtains open like magic. The Van-tage control system also accomplishes the owners’ goal of keeping walls clutter-free. “There’s lots of intricate lighting through-out—from pot lights to wall sconces, chandeliers, and outdoor uplighting. In a home that’s not done with a proper light-ing system, you’d have a massive wall of

In the wife’s office and sitting room, shown above, the 32-inch Sony LCD

screen can be viewed from both the sofa and the desk. The owners wanted the main equipment rack, right, centrally

located so they can show it off.

Roy T imm



>

While the Plexiglas door on the rack’s backside shows off the tidy wiring per the owner’s request, it also accommodates the delicate balance of airflow that’s necessary to keep the gear cool.

According to Stumpf, the last thing his clients wanted was a dedicated home theater: “They wanted a very tasteful room that you didn’t have to watch a movie in—where it also made sense to sit and read a book, have a glass of wine. They wanted an open, airy space; they didn’t want to see a projector, and they didn’t want to see a screen. They didn’t want to see speakers.”

The biggest challenges included how to make the room sound good, and how not to cook a projector that’s squeezed into a ceiling bulkhead. Luckily, the question of acoustics worked itself out thanks to an architectural coinci-dence: a protrusion in the back wall breaks up any rear ref lections and con-tributes to a room that sounds great with no acoustical treatments.

As for not cooking the projector—a Runco CL-610LT DLP—design became paramount. “The bulkhead around the perimeter of the room gave us a beautiful space to work [with] to hide the screen in the front and the projec-tor in the back,” Stumpf says. “But we really had to work with the architect and HVAC guys and give them very specific instructions: ‘here’s what we’re going to put in, here’s the BTU generation [a measure of heat output], and here’s how many CFM [cubic feet per minute] of air we’re going to have to move over it.’ With that knowledge ahead of time, they were able to provide us with a cold-air return vent so we could pump all of that heat back into the HVAC system. So the projector runs cool as a cucumber and we don’t have to worry about cooking bulbs every six months.”

Thankfully, not every component in the room generated so much heat. “The owners wanted quality audio, but they didn’t want or need the volume levels that most people would be comfortable with. They simply don’t watch action movies. They’re far more likely to sit down and watch a classic film—The Bridge on the River Kwai, for example. So to go in there and blow them out of their seats would have been counterproductive.” At 140 watts per chan-nel, the Pioneer Elite VSX-74Txi A/V receiver offers plenty of power for the space, and provides great sound quality and plenty of features for the price.

But the projector wasn’t the only hot spot in the house: “Our original plans called for two full equipment racks for the whole-house system. We had to condense it down to one main rack and a very small ancillary rack downstairs because of design parameters. But we did the calculations, and we figured out pretty quickly that it wouldn’t work in the space we had available to us,” Stumpf says. “The equipment would have self-destructed.”

“We came up with a solution, which involved running an air-condition-ing branch to the rack, but, you know, a lot of people would have just put the equipment in, got it up and running, and then realized there was a heat issue,” he says. “The more you can interact with builders, architects and designers early in the process, the better because you head off a lot of those potential problems like that.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: Station Earth Total Home Technologies of Ontario, Canada (519.843.3474, stationearth.com)

Interior Designer: Barnard & Speziale Design Associates of Ontario, Canada(905.690.2233, barnardspeziale.com)

TECH TALK Out of Sight But Not Out of Mind

switches, which looks horrible,” Stumpf says. “We call that wall acne or scarring.” The Vantage control system streamlines the lighting and automated functions into one keypad in each room, and doesn’t cut into the trim work or molding. “So it’s not an eyesore,” he says.

Looking back on the numerous chal-lenges and layered complexity of this high-end project, Stumpf couldn’t be happier. “In this project, everyone clicked. And this [scenario] is becoming more the norm because we are seeing architects and design-ers accepting [installers] more because we can make the equipment blend with the decor, or hide it all.

“Technology guys like us are so geeked out on the gear that we often throw design to the wind. We try to learn more about what [clients] are trying to do and work with them instead of trying to work against them.”

I N T E R I O R S

DISCOVER THE NEW TRIBE DESIGN SERIES. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT www.totemacoustic.com

Soul moving.

Totem_HomeEntertain_Jan09.indd 1 02/12/09 6:02 PM

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I N T E R I O R S


‘I really want to feel like I’m at a movie theater—I want a huge screen.’” The 150-inch projection screen from Stewart FilmScreen, which sits 18 feet away from the front row of Murano black Acoustic- Smart recliners, works in tandem with the Runco three-chip projector. “He wanted the best image possible,” McNeill contin-ues, “and with a screen this massive, you have to have a three-chip projector.” The video projector’s three DMD chips and lack of a color wheel puts more light on the screen than the single-chip brethren.

“When Runco sells you a projec-tor, they have guidelines on how their products can be used,” McNeill contin-ues. “You can’t produce a stellar picture beyond a certain screen width.”

With a serious video projector such as this, the homeowner has quadrupled his clout, right? He’s the kind of guy who has a chauffeur drive him to his Manhat-tan office every day; the type of gentle-man who will pay the most sought-after interior designer to create a coliseum-like venue for entertaining the wealthiest businessmen in New York.

Guess again.The owner of this gargantuan home

theater, which won two prestigious 2007 Cedia awards, is an easy-going profes-sional in New Jersey’s homebuilding industry. Surprisingly, he handled all of the interior design himself. He researched

MASCULINE TO THE MAXA homeowner, who built a private screening room for his family to enjoy, has fallen in love with it himself.> By B.A. HoffmAn > WIllIAm J. PsolkA PHotogrAPHy

W alk into this monstrous 2,600-square-foot pri-vate home theater and try to envision the kind

of person who would build a screen-ing room of this magnitude. The space is probably owned by a man, right, since it’s extremely masculine in style with polished wall-to-wall woodwork-ing, two rows of sturdy-yet-handsome leather recliners, and a red velvet theater curtain with gold tassel fringe. The no-nonsense interior design of this home theater is confident. Bold. Refined. Sophisticated. This is a serious space for serious entertaining.

Even the custom-carved columns at the front of the theater emote power. Can’t you see two dozen Wall Street-ers standing around in pinstripe suits, with cigars and cocktails in hand? The simple yet elegant antique torches that add a touch of sparkle to the walls may be a nod to those that were carried by the early Olympians. The 26-foot-long counter that stands behind the last row of theater chairs says “let’s sit down in back and sign the deal now.” And then there’s the size of the projection screen.

“The client wanted the biggest high-definition image for gaming and sports,” says Senior Systems Consul-tant Joe McNeill of Electronics Design Group, Inc. in Piscataway, N.J. “He said,


I N T E R I O R S

every single furnishing element that is used in the home theater without any assistance from his wife.

“We built the theater to use as a family,” says the owner, who comes from a Soprano-size brood. “We thought we’d go down there once or twice a month, but we’re in there two or three times a week.”

While he mostly watches football and baseball with his three middle school-aged boys, he’s been known to host the occasional movie night for the guys, hold a Super Bowl party or two, and entertain the extended family—all 35 of them—after Christmas dinner. “Sometimes the kids watch movies in there on their own, but more often they are in there with their Xbox. It’s nice to have it [to use] on a whim.”

Whenever the owner hosts a special event in the theater,

his kids and their friends man the concession stand. “We

made the area in front of the theater big so people can walk around and not interrupt the movie watchers,” he says. For

extra seating, the kids bring in beanbags.

“He was really building this for his kids and wife in the beginning,” says McNeill. “He didn’t really watch movies. But once the room was installed and he tried it out, he changed his tune. He was blown away by having a theater of this caliber.”

From the beginning, the owner decided to design the home theater himself instead of hiring a decorator. “You know, too many interior designers design what they want—not what the owner wants, and I didn’t want to deal with that,” he says. After looking at pictures of theaters in books and on the Internet, the owner and his wife decided upon a design direction—grand and Old World in style. “We knew we wanted an elaborate coffered ceiling with gold gilding. We wanted the theater that we went to as


“I’m surprised how much time we spend together in the room,” says the homeowner. “We get pizza, do dinner down there and watch a movie. It’s a standing thing.” In addition to the soundproof mahogany doors, which are installed with rubber seams to prevent vibration, the theater floor is topped with a sheet of rubber padding. Four layers of sheetrock also help soundproof the space.

“When we demoed theater, [the owner] was stunned. He said, ‘This is really cool. I am going

to use this a lot.’”

—Joe McNeill, custom installer

kids, but more ornate to match the moldings and general theme of the house,” he says.

He found most of the interior furnishings online—from the velvet theater extensions to the pillows, throws, and film reel artwork. The wall panels are wrapped with acoustical fabric from AcousticSmart; the 7.1 chairs, also from AcousticSmart, offer seven different reclining positions. The custom woodworking ranges from birch to maple and cherry, and features a dark walnut finish. “The difference in what you see is the hand-done gold-leaf gilding,” the owner says. The built-in bar serves as Play Central for the kids when they’re playing

Xbox games; the granite-topped counter conceals the bar stool seating area from the rows of theater seating. Two more built-in cabinets in the back of the theater provide storage for DVDs and all the necessary Xbox accoutrements.

“I knew what I wanted,” says the home-owner. “I wanted the highest screen quality and good sound quality, but I didn’t want to shake the walls off.”

“The video and audio is excellent, com-bined with the sheer size of the room,” McNeill says, adding that for any guest who sits in a chair at the end of a row, or at



>

In addition to housing the projector, the room behind the theater stores two equipment racks: one for the surround processor, amplifiers, and Richard Gray’s PowerHouse, and the other for the Crestron control and the Lutron lighting system.

The ceiling usually isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when one is ponder-ing a home theater design, but in this case the owner definitely had plans for the room’s lid—plans that significantly affected the selection of a few key piece of gear. “The owner really wanted to do a beautiful, clean, uncluttered coffered ceiling, but [the other custom installers] he spoke with told him the projector needed to go right in the middle of the ceiling,” says McNeill. “I knew right off the bat that this wasn’t the case: I knew we could put the projector behind the room, outside it, with the right projector.”

McNeill and his team turned to the Runco VX-2dcx three-chip DLP projec-tor in order to get the most detailed picture with accurate color reproduction. “We went with the VX-2 because it comes with a variety of lenses, and the fact that it’s a three-chip projector gave us the light output we needed to fill the 150-inch [screen from] Stewart all the way on the other end of the room.”

Despite the fact that the VX-2 is available with Runco’s ultra-widescreen Cine-Wide option, the homeowner opted for a standard 16:9 screen. “He wanted the largest image possible for sporting events and gaming,” McNeill says, adding that the homeowner didn’t mind cropping the picture from the top and bottom on 2.35:1 movies via the Stewart FilmScreen’s horizontal motorized masking system.

Sound is provided by six Triad InWall Gold/4 Surround loudspeakers, two Triad InRoom Platinum LCRs, and an InRoom Platinum Center beneath the screen with a Triad InRoom Platinum PowerSub on either side.

Given the reputation of Triad’s in-wall loudspeakers, one has to ask, “why not go that route and place the speakers behind the screen?” As it turns out, the answer once again goes back to the long distance between the projector and screen: “We didn’t want to go with a microperf screen because we didn’t want to lose anything from the image,” McNeill says. Microperforated screens are designed to allow sound to pass through thousands of tiny holes in the screen material with minimal sonic coloration. But that also means that some of the light directed at the screen passes through rather than being reflected back, reducing brightness. “Having the center channel that low didn’t affect us because of the great horn in that Triad center, and its integrated tilting feature. We got the sound to the front and middle rows of seating and the bar with absolutely no problem. It sounds great.”

The room also features a Rotel RSP-1098 Surround Processor and an array of Rotel 200-watt high-current power amplifiers; PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 gaming consoles; a complete Crestron control system; and six zones of Lutron lighting control, all of which is plugged into a Richard Gray’s Power Company PowerHouse power delivery system, which provides the system with 21 outlets’ worth of clean, isolated electricity. “It’s easy for interference to creep into systems like this,” says McNeill, “and the last thing in the world you want is one hundred grand worth of high-performance A/V gear plagued by hum or noise from the lighting system. With the PowerHouse in place, we know we’ve got the utmost in isolation and protection for this sensitive gear. It’s that simple.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: Electronics Design Group, Inc. of Piscataway, NJ (732.650.9800; edgonline.com)

Interior Designer: the homeowner

TECH TALK Behind the Scenes

the bar, the sound is stellar. The greater the speaker-to-ear distance, McNeill says, the more well-rounded the sound. “In smaller home theaters, the speakers are right on top of you. That makes it seem like the sound is coming from two feet away, which it is. The greater distances here create much more of an enveloping sound effect.”

And the homeowner’s reaction when McNeill demoed the home theater?

“He was totally stunned,” McNeill says. “He looked at me and smiled and said, ‘This is really cool. I’m going to use this a lot.’”

Now the owner is more “into” the theater than imagined. One year later, he replaced the DVD player with a Blu-ray player. “There’s a noticeable difference in the quality. It went from great to fabulous,” he says.

“It was a lot more work than I antici-pated,” he says of handling the interior design process and the architectural buildout from top to bottom. “It took more coordination in this room than it took in the entire house. But it’s worth it. It’s a cool thing to have.”

I N T E R I O R S

Make room for lifeWith Sanus Systems, you’ll always get smart design, high quality andpatented technology. Our new, innovative products are easy to install

and easy to use, giving you more time to enjoy cherished moments with friends and family. Learn more at www.SANUS.com.

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MakeRoom_Fireplace 11/4/09 3:16 PM Page 1

Make room for lifeWith Sanus Systems, you’ll always get smart design, high quality andpatented technology. Our new, innovative products are easy to install

and easy to use, giving you more time to enjoy cherished moments with friends and family. Learn more at www.SANUS.com.

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A single gentleman building a three-story riverside home in Bowling Green, Ky., decided it would be fun to enter-tain his friends in a custom-

built home theater whenever the Tennessee Titans and Western Kentucky basketball and football games are televised. A maga-zine story about First Impressions Theme Theatres Inc. and its elaborately designed residential screening rooms inspired the idea. Before long, the future theater owner and one of his buddies found themselves taking a detour from their Florida golfing vacation to meet with company president and CEO Jeffrey Smith in North Miami.

The house had been under construction for more than a year, the gentleman told Smith, and the space allotted for the theater was slightly less than 600 square feet. Smith determined that his client wanted his theater experience to be a “guy thing,” so he sug-gested the addition of a “buddy bar” in the back of the room and two extra cafe tables to accommodate overflow seating during sport-ing events. Adjacent to the space would be a fully equipped catering kitchen, a billiard/game area and a gymnasium.

Smith provided a ballpark estimate of $300,000 and promised full delivery in less than four months—and before Christmas. The client was happy with Smith’s proposal. “I knew if I was going to get something nice, it would be pricey,” the client says.

I N T E R I O R S

Much to Smith’s delight, the client fell in love with his company’s Art Deco-style demonstration theater known as the Starlite Electronic Video Theatre, and chose to repli-cate many of its features in his private home theater. “The form-follows-function demands of home theater design are perfectly suited to the fluid Chrysler car look that came out of the industrial 1930s,” says Smith, alluding to the style of his showroom theater.

After completing the interior design plan, Smith’s team drew up the technical drawings. Factors such as the video projector throw distance for screen visibility, the appropriate screen size for the room, and the placement of loudspeakers for optimum acoustical per-formance were worked into the blueprints.

Knowing there was enough of a budget to do something special, Smith incorporated custom-made torchères and an elaborate ceiling treatment that’s illuminated with ice-blue LED lighting. The color palette of olive green and cranberry is directly woven into the custom-made wool carpet that bears an Art Deco pattern. Quarter-round columns are bathed in First Impressions’ trademarked AcouSuede, an acoustically transparent fabric; each is topped with lacquered trim. Within this linear trim are the concealed bass absorb-ers, omni diffusers and strategic reflectors, which enhance the audio presentation.

An inviting custom chaise lounge—named the CineRodeoLounger—is front row and center, and is flanked by matching


&StyliSh StreAmlinedA KentucKy client modifies first impressions theme theAtre inc.’s showroom cinemA for his own privAte screening room At home.> By JeAn penn > photogrAphy By BArry grossmAn photogrAphy


I N T E R I O R S

theater chairs, all of which are fully motor-ized and feature double-wide arms, Black Granite drink holders and trays. Behind those two rows of seating is Smith’s “buddy bar”—a marble-topped counter where guests can sit and enjoy chicken wings and a beer. Smith’s “sky lounge” lies beyond the bar—an area equipped with two 42-inch-high tables where guests can talk without disturbing those seated in the theater. Four hydraulically adjustable chairs, which provide a customized sightline to the video screen for every seated guest, can be added. The setup encourages guests to circulate in and out of the theater to grab a hot dog from the adjacent kitchen. “The lights can be on 25 percent and not disturb the video picture,” Smith says of the back area.

About $80,000 was budgeted for the audiovisual equipment. “There was ample room to do something special,” says Zach-ary “Zak” Deily, executive vice president of Definitive Electronics in Jupiter, Fla. “You can easily get a real nice audio and video sys-tem under $100, 000.” Definitive has worked with First Impressions on several high-end home theater projects. “First Impressions’ rooms look beautiful and are built around making it sound good,” Deily says.

Thirty days after the client signed the contract, Smith presented his elaborate three-dimensional theater renderings. These included the final mechanical and electrical drawings and a contract inventory for all furniture, furnishings and electronics—all for a tad more than the $300,000 estimate. After some modest negotiation with the client, Smith closed the deal; the contract included all of the theater’s interior construction, interior design materials, audiovisual com-ponents, programming (including Internet-accessible remote programming services), after-sales service and the full installation.

After the initial house call was made to measure for electrical wiring and other specifications, the movie theater was fully built in First Impressions’ facility. Once com-pleted, it was prewired, tagged, disassembled, and transported to its new home in Kentucky (leaving the baseboard and door casing to

Four rows of motorized theater seating, including the chairs in the “sky lounge,” can accommodate 19 guests. The cushy loungers with Black Granite drink holders and

trays cost about $4,000 each. Each chair features in-arm storage for blankets, gaming equipment and telephones. The original ceiling, more 16 feet tall, was dropped to 12

feet in front and 8 feet in back to improve the sound and to create a more proportional space. The ceiling is louvered and illuminated with ice-blue LED lighting; it also con-ceals the HVAC system. “Some of the louvers can be removed to access the mechani-

cal systems above,” Smith says.



>

“Twenty thousand dollars will get you the same quality projec-tor that would cost $30,000 to

$40,000 a few years ago.”

—Zachary Deily, custom installer

“The home theater is always the most expensive per-square-foot

room in any house.”

—Jeffrey Smith, theater architect and designer

This installation, which boasts a gorgeous theater design by First Impressions, and sports an impressive collection of gear assembled by the Definitive Electronics team, beautifully illustrates the fact that even the most prepared custom installers, working with the best of theater designs, can sometimes run into unforeseen technical challenges.

The centerpiece of this home theater’s gear is its Digital Projec-tion dVision 1080p, a single-chip DLP projector that offers picture brightness that’s comparable to a three-chip projector—but with much better contrasts and black levels thanks to its advanced dual-lamp/dual-color wheel design. “Digital Projection had primar-ily been in commercial applications—the Academy Awards and so forth—before entering the home market, and it really shows,” Deily says. “They bring a commercial sensibility to the home market that we love. And with projectors that range from $6,000 to $7,000, and all the way up to $125,000 and $250,000, I know we’re going to have a product that fits well into any home theater we do—no matter what the budget for the room is.”

The home theater also boasts a Lexicon MC-4 Music and Cinema Processor, the company’s previous entry-level piece, which was recently replaced by the newer MV-5. “The client wanted high-quality gear,” Deily says. “He didn’t want to spend $12,000 on a processor, but wanted good stuff. So the MC-4 was a good fit. It gave us all of the room setup and EQ tools that Lexicon is famous for without breaking the bank.”

The MC-4’s sound is amplified by a Lexicon RX-7 Power Amplifier into a full complement of James Loudspeaker in-walls: a trio of 85-SDX 2-Way Shallow Depth in-wall speakers up front; and four 63-SDX 2-Way LCR Shallow Depth in-wall speakers fitted into custom-made brackets in the soffits along the sides and rear of the room (these are angled downward toward the listeners).

Rounding out the speaker system is a pair of James EMB-1500, and herein lies the project’s biggest unforeseen challenge. “The theater has a little workroom behind the screen, where the subs are located. The first time we fired up the theater we found that bass was leak-ing from that room into the rest of the house—so you could hear it everywhere except in the theater.” The solution to that problem came in the form of custom-made boxes, lined with acoustical foam, which surround the subs and direct their sonic energy forward and into the theater room. “There’s no question that you’re going to run into things like that from time to time,” Deily says. “Always expect the unexpected. The question is whether or not you’re prepared to deal with those little surprises when they do crop up.”—Dennis Burger

TECH TALK Behind the Scenesbe finalized on site in the home). Then, like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, the theater was reassembled piece by piece. After ordering the audiovi-sual equipment, Definitive Audio assembled the racks, test wired everything and boxed it all up for delivery.

The design team arrived on site after Thanksgiv-ing and finished two weeks before Christmas as prom-ised. Josh Pressley, Definitive’s project manager, arrived with the equipment, along with programmer Alec Smarev, four First Impressions install-ers and a supervisor to assem-ble it all. Smith coordinated every aspect of the project, and made all of the final inspections; Deily handled the client demo after every-thing was in place.

The home theater, which was the first finished room in the house, was sealed up while the rest of the home’s construction continued all around it. This, however, did not prevent the client from sneaking into his pri-vate screening room several times before moving into the home, which was finished a few months ago.

“They did a nice job. I especially enjoy the Blu-ray quality,” he says of the audio and video produced by the Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc Player.” While the client is a man of few words, he does notice details.

RESOURCES

Architect/theater Designer: First Impressions Theme Theatres Inc. of North Miami,Fla. (800.305.7545, cineloungers.com)

Custom Installer: Definitive Electronics of Jupiter, Fla. (561.748.3564, definitiv-electronics.com)


I N T E R I O R S


“The Chadwicks wanted to lie in bed and see the ocean, the fireplace and the television at the same time,” says interior designer Curtis Stal-lard, whose International Design Group in Los Angeles specializes in classic American design. “I took a picture of an antique sideboard, copied it in mahogany at 16 inches wide, and put in a plasma lift with a 360-degree swivel,” he says of his attractive TV enclosure.

Aside from a giant wooden dollhouse, the focal point of the girls’ upstairs playroom, is a cabinet- enclosed 60-inch rear-projection Sony TV topped by three 23-inch high-definition Sony flat-screen TVs. One can’t help thinking that this is a rather elaborate set-up for their three girls, who range 8 to 10 in age.

Chadwick finally comes clean: Sometimes he does enjoy watching television. In the morning, for instance, he multitasks by monitoring ESPN, Bloomberg and “The Today Show” while mak-ing phone calls.

The family has lived in Malibu for quite some time. But Chadwick, who is also a real-estate investor, may have made one of the canniest moves of his life when he persuaded nearby Pepperdine University to part with the beach property that had housed visiting dignitaries and high-profile professors for years. At 2,500 square

Beachy Keen A long-time Malibu resident who doesn’t watch television turns his beach house into a flat-screen showcase. >BY LOUISE FARR

>PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDALL CORDERO

Investment banker William J. Chadwick’s father lived by several rules: “Billy,” he said,” You can play football or play in a band, but you can’t be in the stands because spectators are losers.” Little won-

der that full-grown Billy, who became a football and lacrosse star at St. Lawrence University, has little patience with television. “It caused me not to be a very good sitter,” he says, alluding to his father’s advice. “I’ve never seen ‘Seinfeld.’ I’ve never seen ‘Friends.’ We don’t do ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I’ve never been into mainstream trash.”

Funny then, that Chadwick just happens to have an abundance of flat-screen TVs in his 11,000-square-foot home, which takes up a considerable chunk of Carbon Beach—that crescent-shaped white-sand setting, also known as “Billionaire’s Beach,” that boasts some of Mali-bu’s priciest real estate. The house blends the East Coast tradition of walnut flooring, tailored crown molding and custom wall paneling with a breezy California-style open floor plan. Throughout the lavish two-story space that’s colored in ocean and sand hues, Chadwick, wife Cheryl, and their three young daughters share 18 televisions—ranging from the 15-inch Sharp Aquos LCDs in their “his” and “her” bathrooms to a 32-inch Sony LCD screen in the master suite.


I N T E R I O R S

feet, the house was unprepossessing. But it sat on a 190-foot sweep of beach where 40- to 60-foot-wide multimillion-dollar lots are customary.

When the Chadwicks began the four-year building project, they were living in a smaller house next door that they had remodeled. Cheryl threw herself into overseeing details of the sprawling new home.

Since her husband prefers to be surrounded by space rather than clutter, the downstairs great room is rimmed by a bar, and a combined dining-living room space, which is vast enough to accommodate 100 or more guests and a grand piano. Through floor-to-ceiling windows, visitors can peer across 4,000 square feet of deck space and a 75-foot-long oceanfront pool. Beyond that lie gasp-inducing vistas of crashing waves, dol-phins and the occasional spouting whale.

“Who in their right mind would live in a house like this with three kids, two golden retrievers and a Fox Red lab?” Chadwick asks rhetorically, glancing at the perfectly polished wood floor. “It’s a noisy, busy house with lots of

The owners removed original walls to combine the kitchen

and breakfast rooms into a single functional space

where they can supervise the children’s homework or watch

the 53-inch high-definition TV. They can access their per-

sonal DVRs from any TV in the house. Sound—other than the

mesmerizing crash of waves filtering in from outside—is

provided by Sonance Sym-phony in-wall speakers. All the upholstery in the house is from

Nancy Corzine.

drama. But the girls know not to come through the living room in their wheelies.” And despite its grand scale, Chadwick finds the great room casual enough that he can comfortably plop down on one of the oversized sofas, upholstered in Nancy Corzine fabric, after returning from a sandy jog on the beach. “People remark, ‘How can you have an 11,000-square-foot house that’s so cozy?’” he says.

If the family does feel like hunkering down—or if the girls refuse to remove their wheelies—they can regroup in the adjacent kitchen-family-breakfast room, where the children’s computers are lined up on a built-in desk; a 53-inch Fujitsu plasma TV resides above the fireplace.

Because the home lots on this cramped strip of coast tend to be small, private screening rooms are a luxury—even when neighbors include Hollywood heavyweights such as Larry Elison, David Geffen, and real-estate tycoon and art col-lector Eli Broad. Still, with Chadwick willing to be a Super Bowl spectator and Cheryl’s viewing partner whenever she’s in the mood for an old

EvErEt FEnton G i dlEy


In the playroom, the girls like to watch as many screens as possible as music blasts from another room. Most of the home’s electronics are tucked away. “We don’t like to off-load equipment around the house,” says the custom installer.

The main living area, left, combines a bar, and the dining and living rooms. It’s perfect for sipping cocktails to the tinkling of the Steinway grand piano.

“When clients ask, ‘Are you going to give

me a cheat sheet [for the technology]?’ I say, ‘If I

do my job right you won’t need one.”

—Patrick Calderone, custom installer

EvErEt FEnton G idlEy

EvErEt FEnton G idlEy


I N T E R I O R S

The interior designer surrounded the bar’s 23-inch

Sony LCD TV with framed art to appease the owner’s aes-

thetic concerns. A rosewood-framed mahogany dining table gleams with 11 coats of hand-

applied clear piano lacquer; the 8-foot-wide piece was hoisted

over the beach balcony in order to get it into the house.

“AVX is so easy to work with, and we are repeat customers,”

says Cheryl about the company who installed the home theater,

right, and the whole-house automation system. When the

children perform in the the-ater, they use the sound system to play music for their original

numbers.

EvErEt FEnton G i dlEy


The homeowner had Kevin Phoenix of Doc Aquarium install a 1,000-gallon aquarium in his home office, above, which houses moray eels, stingrays, puffer sharks and a living reef. The wall paneling and flooring are solid walnut, as is the Curtis Stallard-designed desk, which is inlaid with walnut burl. A nautical compass medallion in the floor is inlaid with walnut, as well as birds-eye maple and mahogany.

musical, he wanted a dedicated home theater. “I absolutely desired the highest quality with

no compromises,” says Chadwick, who spent six months interviewing A/V companies before hiring Los Angeles’s AVX Audio Video Experi-ence Inc. “We’re not viewing dailies or throwing home premieres, so the movie industry approach of ‘Let’s throw money at it’ is silly. I relied on AVX for advice. These guys are highly organized and know what they’re doing.”

Project manager Patrick Calderone, who founded AVX in 1990 with Steven Merrick, knows clients are often taken advantage of by companies that become unresponsive once the job is completed—and sometimes even before. “I’m not a salesman. I will always choose reliabil-ity and serviceability,” he says. “The whole idea is to simplify and not complicate people’s lives.”

Calderone, who worked his way up from shop boy to company owner, has installed home theaters all over the world, including manor houses in the United Kingdom and a 200,000-square-foot palace in Saudi Arabia. He says too many in the industry—many of whom have

security or telephone installation backgrounds—are not educated in high-end custom installation. “There’s glamour to it,” he says, referring to the audiovisual industry. “People want their home theaters to be the equivalent of a Ferrari.”

Before the Chadwick family settled on an Art Deco style for their home theater, their

interior designer researched the designs of old-time movie houses dating from 1910 and into the 1940s. Leather seats with down-filled kidney pillows, by Premiere Home Theater Seating, were custom dyed to match the walls; fiberglass and acoustic panels are equipped with sound-proofing material installed under double drywall, all of which are tucked behind a FabriTrak wall covering system. “The blue works great for mov-ies because it gets really dark,” Calderone says.

Soundproofing is especially crucial along this stretch of Malibu due to the never-ending trail of cars thundering down Pacific Coast Highway. The theater cabinetry is Macassar ebony with a hand-applied lacquer finish. The 9-foot projec-tion screen is by Screen Research, while the



>

Both “his” and “her” baths feature 15-inch Aquos LCDs and Sonance Symphony in-ceiling speak-ers. Her bath, above, is clean-lined and elegant, while his is more sporty in design.

It’s funny—for a magazine dedicated to the art of custom installa-tion, we’ve never provided a precise working def inition of what cus-tom installation is. Thankfully, we don’t have to: We simply can point to the work of AVX Audio Video Experience Inc. Custom installer Patrick Calderone explains: “Some installers drape wires across the f loor and tuck them under the carpet. [For them], it’s good enough to get paid for the gear. That’s not good enough for us. I would lose sleep over that—it’s just not custom.”

For AVX, cleanliness is central to customness. All AVX staff bring to every job site drop clothes, latex medical gloves, Windex wipes and towels. Every run of wire is well thought-out; visible dongles are strictly verboten. Every component lacking an external control port is modif ied personally. That means AVX buries IR emitters inside the equipment: No AVX job has an IR eye stuck to the component’s facade, Calderone says.

If such an approach appears slightly extreme, Calderone’s explana-tion quickly reaff irms their long-term strategy: “Service calls will kill a company, especially when you’ve got installations in Mexico, the UK or just a few hours away in San Francisco. If the service call ends up being a result of someone knocking an IR emitter off the face of a cable box, that call just cost you thousands—just to re-adhere a little plastic emitter to the face of a box,” Calderone says.

So what’s more eff icient? A service call that involves a frustrated client, and the installer loses a day of work—or modifying a DVD player in such a way that sometime down the road, it doesn’t meet warranty specs and the installation f irm might have to replace it?

This approach to custom installation isn’t without its challenges, though. It requires an intimate working knowledge of myriad prod-ucts from disparate manufactures. And, as Calderone and his team learned on this job, products change quickly. “For years, Sharp’s smaller f lat-screen TVs used low-voltage, transformer-style power supplies, which we could locate remotely below in cabinets. So [on this project] we didn’t make provisions to have power outlets behind the TVs. We had our wiring come in low, into a cabinet, and we routed low-voltage cables through the wall to the back of the TV.

“Toward the end of this job, lo and behold they all had 110-volt ports on the back. We had to come up with a solution to get 110-volt outlets up behind these TVs, but the walls were already f inished: The cabinets were in, the paint and wallpaper and tile were up. But hey, things like that keep us on our toes.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: AVX Audio Video Experience Inc. of Los Angeles, Calif. (310.445.9989, avexperience.net)

Interior Designer: International Design Group of Los Angeles, Calif. (323.464.8478)

TECH TALK

high-definition projector is by Sony; the rear speakers are by Sonance and the side speakers are by JBL. The illuminated Deco-style panes on the home theater’s side walls, copied from a now-defunct Los Angeles theater, are custom-designed, laser-carved wood panels; each is finished with customized auto body paint.

As satisfying as the project turned out, it was not without glitches. With practicality in mind, Cheryl chose blue carpet for the theater origi-nally, but when the carpeting arrived she looked at it and said, “I don’t think so.” It was just too much blue. Now the Karastan carpeting is sand-colored and patterned with squares in gradations of blue. Another surprise was discovering that the Crestron automation system’s range was so powerful that it had to be adjusted so it wouldn’t give orders to the neighbor’s home (coinciden-tally, AVX handled the custom installation for the house next door, too).

For all his distaste for TV, Chadwick is emi-nently satisfied with his little theater. “If

you want your kids to be at your house and not someone else’s, a theater is killer,” he says. But as for him and his wife, catching a private screening of Grease or Westside Story has turned out to be a rare event. “With three girls we’re lucky if we can get in there at the same time,” he says.

I N T E R I O R S

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I N T E R I O R S


opportunity presented itself—in the form of a well-positioned plot of land boasting dramatic vistas of the perfect southwestern peak. And it was this view that led Cioe to create his own archi-tectural “interface”—one that would define his young family’s future experiences.

“I never had a need to build a home for myself,” says the father of three children. “But there I was with growing family. Then the next thing you know, I discovered the site.”

The site in question is in a luxury golf course community in North Scottsdale, and—more importantly—it offers stellar views of nearby Pinnacle Peak. “The home was designed and sited with [those] views as a priority,” Cioe explains,

A TheATer of The Senses

Technology and texture unite to foster one growing family’s togetherness.> By Hope Winsborough > Photography by Dino Tonn Photography Inc.

he eyes want to collaborate with other senses. All the senses, including

vision, can be regarded as extensions of the sense of touch … They define the interface between the

skin and the environment.”—Juhani Pallasmaa, Finnish architect and theorist

Custom homebuilder and homeowner John Cioe would no doubt agree with Pallasmaa’s view—particularly since his own family’s com-fortable haven in Scottsdale, Ariz., is a testament to the importance of sensorial experience to matters of design.

With years of experience under his belt, the co-owner of Lusso Homes of Distinction post-poned building his own home until the perfect


I N T E R I O R S

In the great room, above, a custom Vision Art work dis-

guises the 50-inch Sony LCD (part of the high-definition Sony New Home System).

The expansive living area is well delineated with stained

wood beams.

Though designed for large group activities, the outdoor

living space that includes the theater, right, is equally suited to individual screen-

ings. “I can sit here by myself at dusk, watch a movie and peek inside at the screen [in

the great room] and watch my kids play,” says the owner (or check in on them to make

sure they are asleep).


adding that the engineer staked the home at two different angles to determine which orienta-tion offered the best vantage point and the most privacy. “We discovered that by adding a partial basement [that stepped-up the sightline], we could capture even more views,” the homeowner says.

Geographic positioning was just the beginning, however, and yet another way in which Cioe’s approach dovetails with those of Pallasmaa, who states that “Authentic architectural experiences [consist of] looking in or out through the window, rather than the window itself.”

Accordingly, Cioe’s main priority was lifestyle. “I thought a lot about how we actually live.

We entertain a lot so there had to be a great room,” he explains. “And an open floor plan was clearly the way to go.” Everything from the technology to the decor—a Southwestern take on an Old-world Tuscan style—was driven by the goal of creating an environment that is, at once, rustic and luxurious, kid-friendly yet elegant. Technology-wise, Cioe’s plans called for remote access to all things technological, including security, lighting and drapery control capabilities.

The dining room’s solid appoint-ments, above, and symmetrical configuration contradict its casual ambiance of warm textures and a desert palette. The trompe l’oeil recess surrounds a custom, hand-painted ceiling that incorporates rusts and browns with bronze metallics, culled from the seating and window treatments. The wine cellar is visible through a custom-designed wrought-iron and glass door. Should the compressor malfunction, a remote device will notify the owner immediately via his cell phone.


I N T E R I O R S

“My house has been designed and built to let

me raise my children from toddler to teenager—while allowing my wife and me to entertain our adult friends

and family.”

—John Cioe, homebuilder and homeowner

emphasized from room to room.” The great room is highlighted with browns and rusts, for example. Black is highlighted in the kitchen, with reds and golds in the dining room.

By combining formal configurations with inviting pieces, such as the dining room’s dis-tressed wooden table bookended by ironwork and carved-wood, hand-painted artwork, Hazen establishes a sense of comfortable stability. It’s the same compelling juxtaposition echoed in the out-door environment that is visible from every room: a stony peak bathed in ever-changing hues and gradations of light.

The Cioe home is designed to promote viewing of all kinds. In the master suite, the

bed is positioned at the perfect angle for taking in both Pinnacle Peak and whatever movie or TV program is showing on the 42-inch pop-up Pioneer plasma television. A separate sitting area capitalizes on comfort, while the expansive dress-ing area and master bath spans more square foot-age than the master bedroom itself—a luxurious layout complete with a Kohler Rain steam room/shower, twin commodes, and a commercial-grade cappuccino machine. “When I’m in my place in Rhode Island, [the steam room is] what I miss most,” says Cioe.

“There are certain things you have to have in a house at a certain price point,” says Cioe. “But the challenge is for the technology to be unobtrusive.”

Working with custom installer Ron Koistinen of Morgan Securities & Sound LLC in Phoenix, Cioe says this goal was well-served. “For example, when I fly in from my house in Rhode Island, I call from the airport on my cell phone and turn down the A/C, turn the lights on and adjust the motorized drapes in preparation for arrival.” From his point of view, certain technology—especially the remote access—“just makes sense.”

The task of translating the family’s lifestyle and Cioe’s technology parameters into a beauti-ful interior appointment plan fell to designer Kristin Hazen of Est Est Inc., who began at the beginning—with surfaces.

“Even though the style is reminiscent of Old-World looks, there is an airy feel,” she explains, alluding to her use of light and warm surfaces—such as the home’s tobacco-colored canterra stonework and warm muted woods. On the floors, a tumbled travertine in a multi-sized pattern pairs with graham cracker-hued walls, establishing a calm atmosphere.

“There’s a unity of look with the open floor-ing plan,” says Hazen, “but with different tones

In the kitchen, black- and cream-flecked granite, with

slivers of brown and gold, and a distressed-wood island topped

with a thick butcher block center the roomy, pass-through

kitchen. The cabinets and hard-ware coordinate with the built-

ins in the nearby living area.


When the homeowner positioned the master suite bed for maximum outdoor views, above, a retractable flat-screen TV and complementary storage-laden end pieces also came into play. Cioe believes most people spend a lot of time in the bath and dress-

ing area, so his floor plan relegates space accordingly—allowing for private water closets and individual walk-in closets. The two areas unite in a centrally positioned

marble-topped bath and an adjacent steam room/shower that’s surrounded by champagne gold floor-to-ceiling tile throughout. Twin arched vanities are topped

with gold-veined black marble. The enclosed shower features dual showerheads with bench seating and steam controls.

The heart and soul of this grand home, how-ever, is the great room, which incorporates a pass-through kitchen, a comfy breakfast nook and a large living area. In the kitchen, spacious counter space invites simultaneous use—whether for food service during parties, evening laptop work or color commentary during culinary activities. “John really enjoys cooking,” says Hazen, “and the open layout makes it easy for him to cook and interact with the rest of the family.”

The main living area is equally inviting. “They wanted a lot of seating for this main gathering place for lounging,” says Hazen, alluding to the space’s two sofas. “The kids love to run around and play, so we gave them a way to do it—with no dangerous edges or glass to collect fingerprints.” A custom-made, tufted-leather ottoman easily moves aside to create a big play zone that’s padded with an easy-to-clean area rug. Comfort, again, reigns supreme, thanks to stain-resistant upholstery sur-rounding voluptuous down-blended cushions and seat backs. A 50-inch Pioneer LCD is positioned within easy view, and, like all the home’s flat-screen TVs, can be programmed to display live color images captured by any of the home’s security cameras. Thus, the need for multiple television screens is eliminated.

The theater functions as an extension of the



>

Surprisingly enough, designing a covered outdoor home theater in Arizona—where temperatures climb north of 100 F for three months in a row—isn’t the technical challenge one might assume. According to Koistinen, the nature of the theater does impose a few restrictions on its use: The lack of lighting control makes it pretty much a nighttime sys-tem, and even the summer evenings are a bit too toasty to be outdoors. (“Nobody moves to Arizona for the summers,” he says.)

But luckily, the environment doesn’t significantly impact the equip-ment’s performance: “You may think ambient temperature as high as 110-plus as being extreme, but we run into [indoor] environments more extreme than that when we start dealing with hidden projectors,” Koistinen says. “The little niches that people want to put their projectors into can fry sensitive electronics really quickly. So even during the sum-mer, the Panasonic PT-AX100U we’re using outside is still getting better ventilation than many indoor projectors.”

In this home, there’s much more to discuss than the outdoor theater. For one thing, you’d expect a house of this caliber to feature an AMX or Crestron control system. Instead, the lighting, HVAC, and security is handled by OnQ. “With the OnQ system, we have the functionality that one of those other systems would give you, but at a much lower price,” he says. “Not that budget was the deciding factor here: The homeowner wanted to be able to modify the programming without calling us. It’s a sophisticated system—he can call the house via cell phone to lower the temperature and disarm the security system. We have motion sensors so when one of his children wakes and steps into the hallway, [it] provides path lighting for them—and it’s very easy to program.”

While the OnQ system handles the typical automation tasks, the home’s entertainment systems are controlled by a Sony New Home system. “That’s a neat product—very plug-and-play,” Koistinen says. “It comes with Wallstations that feature built-in DVD players, or you can access the 400-disc changer in the main rack. And also it’s part of the distributed audio system, so you can bring up whatever source you want from any room in the house.

“The beauty of that product is you send [Sony] the specs prior to the house completion and it comes pretty much pre-racked and ready to install,” Koistinen continues. “That’s unusual for us since we’re used to taking all of the components and assembling them ourselves. This was definitely a first for us.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: Morgan Security & Sound LLC in Phoenix, Ariz. (602.454.7200, morgansecurityandsound.com) Homebuilder and owner: Lusso Homes of Distinction of Scottsdale, Ariz. (480.281.1585, lussohomes.com) Interior Designer: Est Est Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. (480.563.1555, estestinc.com)

TECH TALK great room and epitomizes the family’s outdoor-loving lifestyle. “I could not envision a true [indoor] home theater,” says Cioe. “With three small kids, we just can’t be in a room that’s sound-proof.” By bringing the home theater experience outdoors, the family’s entertainment options have expanded exponentially.

“They really wanted that ‘party-in-the-back-yard’ feeling,” says Hazen. “A set-up that makes it easy for a large group of people to enjoy themselves together comfortably.” With its suspended theater system nestled within a covered patio, the outdoor home theater fits the family’s lifestyle perfectly. “The furniture is light enough that you position it a number of different ways,” says Hazen. “You can swing the seating around to face the screen or keep it grouped together for a dinner party with concert video playing in the background.”

Cioe himself was pleasantly surprised at the theater’s crowd-pleasing impact, especially during the summertime and among the kids. “We can all watch something together or the adults can enjoy a video while the kids are playing in the pool only a few feet away.”

Even though the home was designed with Cioe’s young family in mind, its infrastructure will support future adaptations. For example, Cioe expects to add automated touch-screen technol-ogy when the children are older. By working with Koistinen, such structural concerns were addressed at the outset. “Having the team in place before you break ground is huge,” says the homebuilder. With the outdoor home theater, for example, plans called for installing a projector lift from the ceiling. Thus, the home was built with the structural and wiring support to do just that.

The interiors, too, have been created to ebb and flow along with the Cioe gang—an achieve-ment Hazen is most proud of. “John had a lot of very specific things he wanted to do in terms of technology and of comfort,” she explains, “so it was like a puzzle. Each scene had its own challenge, and each had its own reward.”

Philosopher Pallasmaa would surely under-stand. No doubt such puzzles have always chal-lenged and delighted those who value authentic architectural experiences.

I N T E R I O R S

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I N T E R I O R S


ROMAN HOLIDAY

Every time the owners step

foot into their golden home theater, they feel as if they’ve traveled back in time to their

Italian honeymoon.> BY BROOKE LANGE

> PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDALL CORDERO

C onsider this: A regular every-day person—not a big-name, highly-in-demand interior designer—masterminded every single detail of this elegant

private screening room outside of Los Angeles. While the wife doesn’t have any formal interior design training, she bravely orchestrated all of her home’s interiors from top to bottom. “I know what I like,” Kim Banducci says. “It’s in my head, and sometimes it’s difficult to verbalize, but I know it when I see it.”

At first blush, the theater’s aesthetics appear utterly simplistic with its monochro-matic color palette and minimalist embel-lishments. The look of the space is so easy on the eye that none of the carefully crafted architectural detailing or design flourishes will cause any guest to do a double take—nor do those flourishes distract from the film at hand. Even the streamlined leather theater seating melts into the background instead of competing for a second look.

Upon closer inspection, however, it’s clear that the room’s visual artistry is as complex and ornate as Florence, Italy’s famed gilt-bronze Baptistry doors. Even

the intricately stitched acoustic wall fab-ric echoes the stunning craftsmanship of the handmade gowns worn by those who passed through the historic doorway.

The owners of this theater admit that last year’s Roman Holiday in Italy

influenced their theater’s design deeply. “Everything in Italy is in the molding and the details,” Banducci says, adding her company provides security services to the largest commercial movie theaters around the world, including the Kodak Theater, which stages the Oscars. “Italy’s streets are literally lined with marble,” she says.


To that end, Banducci found a way to re-create Italy’s stone-laden vias in her screening room in the form of backlit onyx marble panels, each of which strategically lines the bottom portions of the theater’s side walls. A soft light blushes through the marble slabs, lending a romantic glow to the space while illuminating the tiered the-ater aisles for ease of movement.

In a nod to Italy’s richly decorated villa and palace walls, the panels of gold-stitched, flora-patterned acoustic fabric—which Banducci found after scouring L.A. Mart’s showrooms for several days—are framed by multiple layers of gold-gilded

crown molding. Each hand-selected layer of crown molding, as well as the perfect arrangement of crown molding for each area, took an untold number of hours.

“Just the chair railing itself has eight different pieces of molding,” she continues. After the molding company J.P. Weaver carefully placed Banducci’s custom-cut pieces for the baseboard design, she real-ized the intricate detailing of the elaborate woodworkuing was lost, so it was back to the drawing board. “Luckily the general contractor was patient with me,” she says, adding that she worked with professional colorist Phillpa Radon (who also works

“Kim knocked the ball out of the park. For someone to design

a theater like this their first time is very impressive.”

—Murray Kunis, custom installer


with Ralph Lauren) to ensure the palette of more than 20 paints work together seamlessly to complement all of the architectural elements. “We created mock designs on one wall and changed them if I did not like them,” Banducci says. “We did not want the whole room to look the same.”

The owners’ beloved memories of Italy’s grand villas and duomos came into play

when designing the theater’s “sundown” ceiling of bronze, brown, taupe and gold. The famed celestial ceilings in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas also contributed to the theater’s heavenly ceiling scene. “We didn’t want it to be gaudy,—we wanted a classic, breathtaking look,” Banducci says. “We wanted to be able to walk into the theater 20 years later and think that the design is timeless.”

The theater’s original rooftop design called for each corner to be punctuated with a medallion- like, carved-wood cornice. Banducci decided against those concentric accent pieces in the end, fearing they would overpower the cloud scene. Numerous layers of recessed lighting, which spills over much of the room’s crown moulding, cast a warm glow on the sundown scene. The wall sconces are from Fine Art Lamps’ catalogue.

What started out as a simple space evolved into a much more involved design, both from a visual and a technological standpoint. In the beginning, the husband envisioned building a liv-ing room-like environment that revolved around a wall-mounted 71-inch plasma TV. Knowing

The Cineak Fortuna theater chairs, which bear a dark

chocolate brown leather, will be replaced by a more custom-

ized version of the same model. The new chairs will recline

more, and the leg lifts will rise to a higher level. In addition,

the master theater seats—those on the back row—will feature

lumbar support.

such a setup wouldn’t deliver a bonafide theater experience, the wife and custom installer, Los Angeles’ Future Home owner Murray Kunis, quickly talked the husband out of that media room design approach.

Soon enough, with the guidance of Kunis, the couple was learning about high-end projectors and automation possibilities. Once they saw how much fun they could have with the technology, the theater system grew in sophistication. “They love the Kaleidescape,” Kunis says of the movie and media management technology. Kunis’ team wrote the software for the touchscreen’s video overlay, which allows the homeowners to select a movie by touching the DVD title on the touch-screen instead of having to cursor through a list.

“It’s much easier to use instead of having to look up at the screen and use the up/down/left/right touchscreen button,” says Kunis, a classically trained musician who has been installing high-end home theaters and doing Crestron program-ming for 20 years.

“We’ve been designing THX theaters since 1991,” says the music engineer who graduated from the University of Miami—one of the top music-engineering programs in the world. “It’s a given that the room has to be easy to use, a given that it provides a theatrical experience, and a given that it has Dolby sound that’s encompassing.”

Working within the framework of a 425-square-foot room with an 8-foot

I N T E R I O R S


>

Regardless of the theater system’s sophistication, it had to be simple to operate. “We’re very non-

techy people,” Banducci says, “so we had to have a something foolproof.” Adds custom installer Kunis: “We have to schedule a time to teach

homeowners how to use their systems. But we didn’t have to for this theater because the family

had already figured it out and was using it.”


Ask any systems integrator how early they need to become involved with a construction project and the answer you receive will invariably be “before the beginning.” General contractors aren’t custom installers, after all, so they’re often unaware of the seemingly esoteric requirements of home theater and whole-house entertain-ment. As a result, custom installers aren’t always afforded the luxury of early involvement in home-building projects.

“The shell of the theater was already built by the time we were brought in,” Kunis says, “and the ceiling height was lower that we would have liked, so making everything f it was a challenge.” Kunis had to f igure out how to create a comfortable line of sight, get all of the theater seating to f it and still deliver a wide enough image. “We wanted a 35-degree or 40-degree f ield of view, so that means we needed an 11-foot screen. We had to f igure out how to accomplish that with the restrictive ceiling height,” he says.

Once Kunis accommodated the line-of-sight issues, though, the rest of the room fell in place. Fortunately, the space was fairly deep—at 23 feet—relative to the other dimensions. “That’s important because you lose a little more than 2 feet at the front of the room because of the screen wall and subwoofers,” Kunis says.

The screen in question is a Stewart Filmscreen Luxus Screenwall with an ultra-wide 2.35:1 cinematic aspect ratio. In addition, the room is equipped with a JBL Synthesis Two Array System—a com-plete home theater solution featuring an audio processor, equalizer, crossover, amplif iers, and speakers. “We love the JBL Synthesis Sys-tems because you don’t have to mix and match and try to hope that things work together,” Kunis says. “All of the components have been pre-engineered to work together. They all meet THX standards, and you’re getting a complete system from the premier name in profes-sional theater sound.”

Kunis and his team did make one slight tweak to the system, though: “Although this is the Synthesis Two Array, we’re using Syn-thesis One [subwoofers]. Often, in rooms that call for the Synthesis Two, you don’t have room for bigger subwoofers. Fortunately we had room here to upgrade to the larger series.”

But they didn’t have room to raise the ceiling or lower the f loor since the theater is located above the garage, and the roof was already in place. “I would like to have had 2 more feet of ceiling height, but it wasn’t necessary in the end. Once we did the initial engineering and f igured out the line-of-sight issues, it actually went really smoothly. Little things always pop up, but nothing that required more than a two-minute conversation.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: Future Home of Los Angeles, Calif. (310.966.9442, futurehometheater.com)

General Contractor: Joseph Kearney Construction of Newhall, Calif. (818.425.2930)

TECH TALK

ceiling—one of the lowest ceilings Kunis has worked with in a theater of this scale—was a chal-lenge, especially when the ultimate goal of creat-ing a “theatrical experience” translates into fitting a 10- or 11-foot video screen into a space that’s less than 23 feet deep—all while carefully execut-ing the perfect seating plan to accommodate the perfect sightline to the screen.

“The coolest thing,” he says, “is that we were able to create a very comfortable room in a limited space with a low ceiling for six to 10 people. The logistics of the room are very com-fortable with no compromise of performance.”

But Kunis did more than deliver a jaw-dropping theater system: He saved the couple’s marriage. “When my husband was laid up after having ankle surgery and was ordered to stay off his foot for at least four weeks, he set up camp in the home theater and barely left the room,” Banducci says, adding that her husband, a retired LAPD and SWAT Team member, typically exercises two to three hours a day after working a 12-hour day. Not exactly your sit-still-for-long kind of guy. “He could recline and watch movies and Fox News,” she says. “He brought his office into the theater so he could work. It was a godsend.”

I N T E R I O R S


MiaMi LiGHT

A designer and a custom installer make a

major audiovisual installation look easy.> BY VALERY ROCKWELL

> PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN NELSON PHOTOGRAPHY

Dean Martin spins and shoots the bad guy out of the saloon’s rafters. Everyone seated in the living room applauds. Thanks to Martin, life is looking up for John Wayne, the beleaguered sheriff in “Rio Bravo,” who

appears larger than life on the 50-inch Runco TV. The Duke feels so close and so real that you could hand him a tequila on ice.

Actually, you are a far cry from Rio anything. Instead, you are nestled into a luxury condo in the Four Seasons that overlooks Miami and Biscayne Bay. The Crestron keypad and Kaleidescape movie and music server puts you at ease and in total control of your audiovisual universe. With so many movies, TV channels and music options to choose from, the world is at your fingertips.

Ease of control and ease of access to countless entertainment options is exactly what this family wanted for their pied-a-terre. But this gathering place is not only for themselves—it also accommodates all the CDs and DVDs they bring back from their many travels. Luck-ily, the Kaleidescape server gobbles up more than one disc at a time, digitizing all it ingests for future use. Loading one CD or DVD at a time would take untold hours—time that the family would rather spend convoying their Bentleys and Jags through South Beach.

The custom A/V system required by this CD-and-DVD-collect-ing family is indeed complex. Plus the easy-to-use system operates at Bentley- and Jag-like performance levels. The challenge for this project—which was headed up custom installer David Frangioni of Audio One Sound & Video Inc. in North Miami Beach, Fla.—was to make all the heavy gear “light” in appearance. The custom



cabinetry and built-ins—which were designed by Carola Hinojosa’s Miami design firm, Hino-josa Design Studio—house all of the state-of-the-art Runco CW-50MCs, the Marantz SR7500s, and the Genelec HT206B speakers (Hinojosa also consulted with the homeown-ers on all of the art and sculpture purchases for the condo, as well as the wall finishes).

To maintain the residence’s light-as-air style, the speakers could not look or feel massive, unwieldy or tank-like even though they play a huge, defining role in every room. Like the Duke in nearly every frame of “Rio Bravo,” the powerful yet subtle A/V system is the big star of this home. Thus, the cabinetry housing the condo’s elite A/V gear embodies the light-hearted spirit of the Miami zeitgeist. In addition, each custom cabinet provides the proper ventilation for the respective heating issues. “It wasn’t that we were working with a small space,” says the custom installer. “We had so much that had to go into the footprint—and all the cable management had to be factored in as well.”

I N T E R I O R S

In the great room (above and previous page), automated shades protect the furniture from sunlight. When not in use, they retreat into a tidy cluster below the ceiling soffit. The in-wall speakers are nestled into the same soffit. The owner chose the 50-inch Runco plasma TV. “He thought it was a good fit for the space—he didn’t want the TV to be too big,” says the installer, who has handled several installations for the client. “This high-performance system is nearly a carbon copy of their other systems.” In the office, below, a 26-inch Runco LCD pairs with Bay Audio 880 in-wall speakers.

Overlooking the breakfast table, above, is a 32-inch Runco LCD screen and Bay Audio 885 in-wall speakers. “We had very limited space in the kitchen, so we wanted the speakers to be tight with the TV,” says the installer. “And the ceilings are concrete, so we had to use in-walls.” Bay Audio 880s are used in the dining room, left.


Fortunately, the installer already had designed an exclusive computer system to ensure every A/V detail was factored into the home’s blueprints properly. “We hold the hand of the project the whole way through to make sure what we have chosen fits,” he says. “From the beginning [of every project], we publish all the A/V specs in detail on a password-protected website—every piece of gear in every room, every weight, and every dimension.” That list even includes color choices for equipment, such as almond, white or black for the Crestron keypads. This allows everyone involved in the project—from the interior designer to the general contractor and the electrician—to log on and work with the custom installer’s specifications. Even if the electrician bows out mid-project, his replacement can get up to date quickly by consulting the website to review the custom installer’s equipment specs.

“No one says ‘I thought we were putting


Each of the condominium’s bedrooms is fully equipped with all the available entertainment options so guests or family can enjoy music, movies or televi-sion in privacy. Each bedroom suite features carefully designed cabinetry that becomes one with the wall. The master suite, shown left, is equipped with a 50-inch Runco flat-screen television; the space also is equipped with surround sound and distributed video.

“What’s nice about this system is it’s very easy to use,” says the installer. “They can control the sound and video via the Internet if they want. With multiple sources—cable boxes, DVD, Kaleidescape, Blu-ray—you can go through these well-traveled areas and have the video follow you [everywhere] in the 4,000-square-foot house. You can resume the movie in the office while you’re sending an e-mail and looking at the ocean. It’s a special system in that regard.”

“With the push of a button, the system offers incredible sound and the picture comes to life.

Push another button and you’re back in the living room.”

—David Frangioni, custom installer

I N T E R I O R S

The homeowners wanted their family members, as well as their visiting guests, to be able to enjoy all of the home’s entertainment options in the bathroom of each bed-room suite. Guests can tune into the 6 o’clock news on the 32-inch Sharp LCD in a guest bath, above, while the homeowners can finish up watching the movie at hand,

or tune in to CNN in the master suite bath, below, on the 26-inch Runco LCD.


a television in that room’ halfway through the project,” says the custom installer.

Unlike an electrician or a plumber who directly executes the plans of the interior designer or architect, the audiovisual details oftentimes are overlooked. “Given that most interior designers know little about A/V, there’s more back and forth,” Frangioni says. “In fact, sophisticated A/V is not something most interior designers want to incorporate in their room designs. Usually the request comes directly from the client.”

This is Audio One’s third project for the client. “They wanted distributed audio

and video in all the rooms,” says the custom installer. This created a challenge in terms of achieving the sonic results the clients wanted since the high-rise building had relatively low ceilings and little, if no acoustic sensibili-ties. These conditions could have resulted in sound reverberations and sound reflections.

One way to compensate for the muddied sound that results from this kind of scenario is to strategically place fabrics and furniture for sound absorption. The Marantz receiver, for example, which allows the user to “dial in” and make final adjustments, aided in this goal. In essence, the custom installer attaches a microphone to the receiver and analyzes the room’s sound. The receiver, Frangioni says, “learns” the room’s acoustical footprint and makes corrections [via equalization]. And then you can go in and fine-tune by ear,” Frangioni says.

Much of the condo’s furniture, which came from the family’s previous home, is by the contemporary French furniture house Roche-Bobois. The anchor of main living area, however, is the custom cabinetry that conceals all things audiovisual. As the domi-nant architectural features in the condo, these structures resemble miniaturized sky-scrapers tipped on their sides. For this Hinojosa turned to her firm’s Lebanese-born, Paris-educated architect Bilal Barakat.

“We didn’t want [any] cabinet to look like a big block, like a commode,” he says. To lend a touch of lightness to the cabinet design,


I N T E R I O R S


>

You can learn a lot about an installation from a quick glance at its equipment list. Some speak to a cost-no-object dedication to high-end name brands. Others are a nod to aesthetics, where “good enough” electronics will do. What the equipment list for this installation says is that every component was carefully and deliberately selected to suit the very specific needs of the client.

“What I’m delivering to the end-user is a custom system,” says Frangioni. “You can’t just put this TV here and that speaker there: There’s a science to it.” To accomplish his science, Frangioni fac-tors all kinds of details into his proprietary software program: room dimensions, seating distances, number of speakers, whether or not he’s installing front-projection, ref lections, room boundaries, ceiling height. All of these specs generate a letter and number combination, which directly correlates to the best technological solutions. “I didn’t build [the program] on a product list because it would be obsolete in a year. I built it on product parameters and then the list gets updated all the time, based on what I’m going to use for equipment.”

The resulting system is a perfectly tailored mix of ultra-high-end components and gear that performs extremely well at a lower cost. The displays are all Runco LCDs and plasmas. “These displays are the best TVs you can buy—so we didn’t spare any expense there,” he says. At the heart of the system is the astronomically steep Kaleidescape movie and music server. The main system in the living room also features a trio of Genelec’s renowned HT206B Active Speakers across the front and a pair of Frangioni Systems In-Wall Speakers in the rear.

Frangioni’s choice for surround processing might send snobbier noses skyward, though. “I went with the Marantz SR7001 Surround Sound Receiver for two reasons: One is space, the other is that Genelec speakers come with their own internal amplification, so we only needed a good, clean preamplifier with good switching control as well as the room correction software. We didn’t use the receiver as a tuner [nor are we] running the video through it.

“There were a lot of features that the processor did not need to have, so going to a preamp and amplifier combo would have been overkill,” Frangioni continues. “At a certain point you have to pick what’s important.

By running the signal straight from the Marantz receiver’s preamp outputs directly into the speaker’s internal amps, Frangioni was able to craft a high-quality two-channel playback system, which is exactly what the homeowner wanted. “It [also] allowed us to give him great surround sound, and it left enough money in the budget for us to deliv-er an amazing and intuitive Crestron control system.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Cabinetry: Hinojosa Design Studio of Miami, Fla. (305.666.9794, hinojosadesign.com)

Theater Designer: Audio One Sound & Video Inc. of North Miami Beach, Fla.(305.945.1230, audio-one.com)

TECH TALK each custom entertainment unit is integrated into the wall. The designer played with the shelving height in each built-ins’ “three verti-cal blocks” to avoid what could have been an “overly symmetrical or ponderous design.” Each cabinet conceals some of the audiovisual equipment behind metal mesh.

“We installed the mesh for the sake of ventilation but also to give some play to the idea of ‘openings and closings’—some varia-tion in the pattern,” the cabinet designer says.

The center unit frames a 50-inch Runco TV and is flanked on either side by shelv-ing for the display of objets d’art. The look may be delicate, but the color is strong and powerful in a deep walnut-stained chocolaty brown. The warm, natural grain of the cabinet contrasts nicely with the cool Venetian plaster of the wall behind it.

In the master suite, a large U-shaped cabinet draws the eye toward the bed—as if the wall unit is a mighty floating magnet that aims to embrace you. “We didn’t want you to be greeted by a big cabinet as you come in the bedroom,” says the designer. The piece features another 50-inch Runco that, this time, overlooks the bed. Instead of walnut, a chocolate-stained oak with satin-finished aluminum hardware is used. The effect is sub-tly different from the living room’s dark and deeply rich walnut pieces. This oak is corner cut against the grain (as opposed to flat cut with the grain) to reveal more of the rich pat-tern of the wood grain’s horizontal waves.

The unit in the guest bedroom shown in this story is a sharp contrast with the others, two of which are John Wayne macho in dark wood. Not only is this rendition light in spirit, but it’s light in hue—more “Dino” with its streamlined Art Deco overtones.

With this piece’s white-washed oak and glass shelving that’s set within a framework of white-lacquered boards, the designer’s fasci-nation with open/closed spaces is clear. Upon closer inspection, however, the horizontal and vertical grains that meet in the middle are vis-ible. It’s a light touch in the midst of an very serious A/V system.

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Custom InteriorsCheck out our superb hand-crafted home theater interior elements, including custom ticket booths, concession stands, projection screen prosceniums, decorative columns and so much more. Choose from our many existing styles, or let us match your own style with a custom design. We offer many standard finishes, or can create a finish to match virtually anything you can imagine.

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Home Theater Building HeadquartersVisit us for individual home theater décor and seating products, or complete cinema interior packages.

Every CinemaShop™ product can be easily added to your home—even after your rooms are finished.

Room AcousticsLet our experts tune your room for great sound and keep that sound inside your room with advanced sound isolation techniques. Our acoustic panels, curtains, starfield panels and fabric wall systems enhance performance and add that spectacular finishing touch to your room décor.

Custom InteriorsCheck out our superb hand-crafted home theater interior elements, including custom ticket booths, concession stands, projection screen prosceniums, decorative columns and so much more. Choose from our many existing styles, or let us match your own style with a custom design. We offer many standard finishes, or can create a finish to match virtually anything you can imagine.

Home Theater SeatingWe offer affordable authentic movie theater seats, flexible media seating and superb home theater loungers. Our in-stock seating ships out in just a few days, or you can custom order your own color and exact configuration - all at great discount prices - with free shipping included.

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110 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT november 2008 HEmagazine.com

I N T E R I O R S


A THEATER REASONSIn downtown Chicago, one family’s private screening room gives new meaning to the term “mixed media.”> BY HOPE WINSBOROUGH > PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDALL CORDERO

When the family of a well-known television broad-caster returned home to Chicago, the city they

loved most, it was inevitable that their new digs include a state-of-the-art media room. Working together with Jeffrey Smith of First Impressions Theme Theatres of North Miami, Fla., the husband and wife envisioned creat-ing a venue for home entertainment that is as animated, theatrical and mul-tifaceted as the city itself.

“This particular client is what I call ‘a repeat-offender,’” says Smith, laughing. By that he means that the client had hired Smith once before—in this case to help design a cozy, six-seat home theater for their previ-ous residence in Malibu, Calif. That project, Smith recalls, was quite a feat, given the long-and-narrow footprint of the room, which formerly housed a 30-foot-long shooting gallery. When the family relocated to the Windy City in 2007, they called upon Smith once again to design a basement-level screening room in their five-story townhouse in downtown Chicago.

For the clients, having experienced that “prior conviction” helped stream-line the design and building process

tremendously. More importantly, they knew First Impressions would deliver. “We knew exactly what we wanted,” the wife explains. “In building this home, we knew we wanted a larger space—10 seats to be exact. And we wanted it to be quietly understated yet still have that ‘wow’ factor.”

The husband’s broadcasting back-ground made it easy to establish what technical capabilities were mandatory. The clients also wanted to create a smooth traffic-flow pattern for the space so guests can circulate effortlessly throughout the theater during a movie without inhibiting the all-important sightline of the film at hand.

What the homeowners did not know, however, or even anticipate, was just how much the new, more formi-dable screening room would enhance their day-to-day lives. Says the wife: “It’s the ultimate luxury to be able to go into the theater—in PJs no less—and totally escape for a couple of hours.”

The family also has discovered that the theater is a great place to relax even when they are not watching movies. Their daughters use it as a soundproof study hall, while their young nieces and nephews think of it as a playhouse theater. “And my husband drags in a

A THEATER REASONS

“This is our second theater for this client—new home,

different coast.”

—Jeffrey Smith, theater architect

and designer

“Sonically, this project is far and away is the best home theater I

have ever done.”

—Chris Batte, custom installer


stool and plays his guitar,” says the wife, allud-ing to the room’s acoustic properties that rival those of Chicago’s best music clubs. But, she adds, their private home theater is far more intimate than any music club.

It makes sense when you think about it: The governing concept of home theater is sensory excellence. It’s what makes us appreciate the perfect, unfiltered musical tone or the well-focused director’s cut. But this concept extends to all activities, more or less. Great theater design, then, recognizes that stellar sensory experiences rely on far more than good wiring and high pixel counts. And that’s where Smith’s involvement is key.

“We start by asking a functional ques-tion: How many people do you expect to [seat in] the theater at once?” Smith says. “With us, form truly follows function.” The next stage is a technical drawing that takes into consideration sightlines, viewing angles, speaker positions, eye-to-screen distances and acoustical considerations. With client input and approval, the next move, says Smith, is to “make it pretty.” Or in other words, to make those technicalities aesthetically appealing.

In this case, “making it pretty” was literally a ground-up operation. The lush Kashimar

carpet by Courisan was pre-selected by the home’s interior designer. Smith drew upon its palette of rich crimsons, olives and golds, picking up hues that resonate on the walls, ceiling and seating. The walls are covered in Smith’s trademarked high-density acoustic panels, which are shrouded in his trademarked chamois AcouSuede scrim in cranberry. “It’s

A William Morris-inspired rug pattern—along with the calculated positioning of panels, ceiling trays and seating—brings a sense of movement to this theater. The viewing audience is isolated from any external noise, thanks to Smith’s trade-marked, soundproof door. The CineLounger the-ater chairs feature heating and massage features, and Black Granite serving trays. These elements draw the eye forward to the 135-inch screen.

acoustically transparent,” he says, noting that the panels are trimmed in a thick, hard-edge mahogany that permits sound diffusion.

The ceiling is broken up artistically by recessed trays that are punctuated with beams, which house strategically placed, low-voltage LED cove lighting. “It’s aimed at the seating,” Smith explains. Nickel-plated sconces bring warmth to the room’s edges. The rhythmic sequence of features—from the elaborate


>

I N T E R I O R S


ceiling treatment to the wall panels and the lighting—creates a kind of order found in Mission-style spaces. It’s a style well-suited to the clients’ goals: formal but not staid.

Each of the custom CineLounger theater chairs are enveloped in full-hide, custom-dyed leather in a cranberry hue; the serving trays are perched atop hinged arm rests that double as storage compartments. The formal silhouette of the seating belies its high com-fort potential. “They have dual motors and [both the feet and back] can be adjusted to fit [each guest],” Smith explains.

The room’s simple lines and luxurious comfort are easy to admire, perhaps, due to its “invisible” technical facility. For example, First Impressions’ trademarked 450-lb. Noise-Loc door seals sound in and keeps external noise out (and can be opened and shut easily by a child, thanks to its magical hinges). A Marantz projector with a hermetically sealed, commercial-quality film port lens contains the projector’s heat and noise behind white water glass. To further conceal the technology, the custom installer, Chris Batte of Chicago’s Sound Specialists, configured all the wiring infrastructure, equipment racks and enclosures in a separate mechanical room. With heat, noise and equipment sequestered outside, the technology that remains inside the room is a single, simple-to-use touchscreen.

“The Crestron remote is so simple a 5-year-old could use it,” says the wife. “As a totally inept technical person, ease of operation is the most important feature for me.” Her broadcaster hus-band, on the other hand, enjoys the audio and video quality. “He likes to hear and feel every nuance,” she says, adding that after living in their Chicago townhouse for more than a year, the home theater is “one of the best features of our home.”

Her other favorite spot in the house is the roof-top garden, which the couple built after moving in. The garden was a very strategic addition “to get us out of the theater every once in a while.”

According to the custom installer, the secret to operating a success-ful, eff icient, knowledgeable installation f irm involves a certain level of simplicity: “As a f irm, we do not have a huge line of electronics. We have three or four tiers for each different product—processor, ampli-f ier, speakers, et cetera—because our clients are not the sort to come in and want to demo five different sets of speaker cable.

“By limiting the number of lines we carry we can talk to a client, f ind out what their needs are, what is most important for them, and quickly select the right tools for the job and be done with it. We are not going to force our clients to sit down and demo 10 pairs of speakers because we already know what works well at every level.”

So when Batte realized that this particular client was extremely detail oriented—and had uncompromising standards for picture and sound quality—he didn’t have to put much thought into the selection of the theater’s surround-sound processor.

“Lexicon is our top-of-the-line processor, and within that line, the company’s MC-8 [Music and Cinema Processor] was the right f it for this job. The processor offers an amazing level of f lexibility to adjust to every different room and every different source that we deal with. And you cannot deny its build quality, its audiophile grade inputs and out-puts, and the fact that it is incredibly easy to work with. More impor-tant than anything else, though, is its reliability. If something goes wrong with the system, I would seriously doubt it’s the Lexicon.”

Speaker selection was not diff icult, either. “In terms of speakers, the client wanted the best we could give them, which for this room meant the Focal-JMlab Alto Utopia Be and Center Utopia Be.” Given Utopia’s reputation as a drop-dead gorgeous speaker, in addition to being an audio purist’s dream, I ask Batte about the decision to con-ceal the speakers in the cabinetry. “Jeffrey Smith of First Impressions Theme Theatres and I traded e-mails about this,” he says. “When I gave him the specif ications on the speakers, he asked, ‘Couldn’t you just do some in-wall speakers, or something that’s easier for us to work with?’ And I said, ‘We’re going for the best of the best here. It would be really nice if you could utilize these in your design.’ And his team redid the entire room to be able to incorporate those speakers.

“No matter how great a speaker you use in a system, you have to have a good room because the room affects the sound quality more than anything else. But with a f irm like First Impressions, you know that they are going to make the room perfect. They laid out an awesome design, and everything just slipped right into place. We couldn’t have asked for anything more.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: Sound Specialists of Chicago, Ill. (773.278.1650, soundspecialists.com)

Theater Architect and Designer: First Impressions Theme Theatres of North Miami, Fla. (800.305.7545, cineloungers.com)

TECH TALK

I N T E R I O R S


Out Of thin Air

Incorporating a theater into the vaulted ceiling area of a

two-story-tall living room requires adaptation and flexibility.> BY HOPE WINSBOROUGH

> PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDALL CORDERO

Blake is what you could label a “multi”—as in multidisciplinarian. With a background in real estate and commercial interior design, as well as some architectural know-how, she brings to each project both left- and right-brain tendencies—offering not only hands-on utilitarian expertise, but also empathetic artistry. According to Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Infor-mation Age to the Conceptual Age, multidisciplinary professionals like Blake are “the sort of people who trigger the breakthroughs.” What that means in the world of home theater design is that Blake is as comfortable executing complex CAD drawings as she is designing a custom carpet or custom-crafting the unique, archeological details that imbue her theater spaces with character, texture and heart.

In truth, this project demanded both logic and flexibility—beginning with structural

concerns. “Our challenge was to house the front equipment [three speakers and two subwoofers] within the screen wall and still get the longest screen-throw possible,” Blake explains. After brainstorming with the home-owner and custom installer Scott Aarons of AB Audio Video in Santa Monica, she drafted a plan to build screen-adjacent, angled walls that would also house the system’s sound equipment behind black acoustical sound panels. The angled walls create a dramatic screen-frame, and are shrouded in a deep violet velvet and sheer gold drapery panels.

W hen a hip, young Los Angeles real- estate developer and entrepreneur decided to add a home theater to

his Los Angeles-area home, he knew exactly what he wanted—right down to the L.A. Lakers color scheme and seating configura-tion. How to incorporate the theater into his existing home, however, was another question. The owner wasn’t sure that the layout of his home lent itself that kind of defined space.

That’s how interior designer Trayce Blake, who has designed more than 40 theaters to date, found herself working on a home the-ater that was created, literally, out of thin air.

The home’s large living room with a two-story vaulted ceiling became the inspiration. Soon enough, Blake’s client started building his private screening room in that unoccupied “room” of air above the living room. Never mind that the screen wall-to-be contained two windows, or that the room’s parameters were partially defined by an existing convex archway. Then there was the theater’s targeted completion date of six to eight weeks.

Regardless of the inherent obstacles, the proj-ect was perfect for Blake, whose interior design company Cinema di Cuore crafts and produces home theaters, game rooms and ballrooms. Prior to starting her company several years ago, Blake designed commercial movie theaters for more than a decade, which also included the orches-tration of the room’s acoustical design.

“It was really exciting to design a theater that wasn’t red or

wine, which is so common. The purple and gold colors make

the theater very royal and palace-like.”

—Trayce Blake, interior designer

The front row of Fortress theater seating accommo-dates nine people when the arm rests are up. “The

owner wanted the colors to be like the [Los Angeles] Lakers,” says Aarons of the 400-square-foot screening room. “The goal was to get the best picture and sound

for the money, so we chose the best combination of products to get us there. The end result is fantastic.”


“since rear walls need less absorptive materi-als,” Blake says. The homeowner installed a working concession stand behind one of the “curves,” which is complete with a popcorn maker and self-serve candy counter.

The room’s symmetry is highlighted by faux columns covered in Sapele wood veneers. Interspersed between the wood-covered columns are acoustic-paneled walls bathed in velvet chenille scrim. The wall panel seams themselves become beveled decora-tions when they are conjoined by Blake’s custom-made, three-dimensional decorative medallions. Each fabric-covered medallion is topped with square brass nail heads. Their impact is one of subtle, tailored modernism.

“The truth is that there are a lot of tradi-tional aspects to the room,” says Blake. “So the challenge was to make a ‘wow’ statement—one that made the theater an exciting place for [the homeowner’s] friends to be.” That goal was accomplished through the use of subtle—and not so subtle—surprises.

For example, a discernible sense of vibran-cy emanates from above and below. Above, a drop-down soffit mounted at ceiling height is surrounded with special, flexible crown molding made of rubber that’s faux painted to match the Sapele wood columns. Rope lighting tucked within the molding reinforces the room’s curvy silhouette and suffuses the blue-violet ceiling with a warm glow.

The theater’s most animated influence, however, lies underfoot—a custom-patterned

Another structural curve ball came in the form of a pre-existing angled wall. “There was a convex, arched wall on one side of the living room that continued up to the second floor,” Blake explains. “So we decided to add a similar curved wall to the opposite side of the theater for symmetry.” The slanted walls called for specially designed, thinner acoustic panels—an acceptable modification


>

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floor covering that’s bright and playful from Miliken Carpets. “The homeowner wanted a fun, contemporary carpet pattern that incor-porated the room’s fabrics and walls,” she says. Blake matched the colors using Cinema di Cuore’s online custom carpet-color system, which dropped her specific hues into one of Miliken’s pre-existing commercial carpet patterns. The carpet samples were received within a week—and the carpet shipped in three. Blake says she loves the end result, which interjects a fun and film-strip-like sense of movement into a space that might otherwise feel somewhat staid.

“I love that [the custom carpeting] has that bubbly, curved effect that’s already going on in the space,” she says.

To accommodate the homeowner’s desire for a rear double-door entry, a tiered floor plan and the maximum number of seats, the interior designer specified an extra-long sofa-like piece for the front row. “They’re all motorized with foot rests and reclining capabilities,” says Blake of the Fortress theater seating. Both the sofa and the three-seat sec-tionals in the back row are covered in soft and inviting moss chenille.

Meeting the homeowner’s demand for a speedy completion schedule is an achieve-ment Blake attributes to a highly refined, streamlined level of coordination with several key manufacturers and the custom installer. “We were able to carry out a specific vision and to do it creatively,” says Blake. “And in the end, we used very traditional fabrics and colors to [design] a very contemporary, very transitional space.”

Orchestrating a home theater out of thin air is a pretty unconventional goal, after all. And creating one with a huge “wow” factor in a limited amount of time can well be con-sidered a design “breakthrough.”

“[I’m proud] we completed such an out-standing-looking room in such a short amount of time and on a limited budget,” Blake says. “It was a nice collaboration with Scott, the homeowner and his interior designer.

According to the installer, the main technological goal for this home theater was a bit unusual: “We wanted to make it great-looking, but have the equipment be more on the modest side so if someone bought the house and wanted to upgrade, they could easily do so,” Aarons says. The original owner is still living in the home, though, and he’s still using the gear Aarons installed, which is relatively modest in comparison to what AB Audio Video would typically install in a home theater of this caliber. “But it sounds really good,” Aarons adds. “I was blown away by how good it sounds, budget or no budget.”

One of the ways Aarons kept the upgrade path clear was by eschewing in-walls in favor of f loor-standing speakers at the front of the room. “We left big cavities for tower speakers so if someone wanted to put, for example, B&W 800s in the home theater at some point in the future, there’s plenty of room for that.” Meanwhile, the Paradigm Monitor 11 tower speakers and CC-370 center channel that actually inhabit those cut-outs in the front wall may cost less than the aforementioned B&Ws, but these critically lauded overachievers are certainly nothing to scoff at.

“The choice was simple: Those speakers gave us the most sound and the best quality of sound for the money,” Aarons says. “Since we were using a receiver—an Integra DTR-6.6—instead of a separate processor and amps, I needed a very efficient loud speaker. I needed something with a whole lot of get up and go, but on a budget.”

Unfortunately, working with the back side of the home theater was a little more tricky in terms of speaker placement because the rotunda/entryway and refreshments room prevented Aarons from incorporat-ing surround speakers into the wall. So he went to the ceiling, install-ing a quartet of pivoting SpeakerCraft AIM 7 Two and aiming them toward the main listening positions.

Not all challenges were so easily overcome, though. “The owner wanted to be able to push the ‘welcome’ button on his [Universal Remote Control] Home Theater Master MX-3000 touch panel and have a voice come over the system’s speakers with the message, ‘Welcome to [our] theater. Sit down, relax, and enjoy the show.’ To accomplish that, we had to find some little OEM voice recorder ship—basically the guts of a voice recorder—that would give us a stereo audio output. We made that a source in the system, and used an MSC-400 Master System Controller at the heart of a very complicated macro to switch inputs, play the clip, and then switch inputs again on the receiver so you wouldn’t hear any digital pops. It took us days of work just to get that one feature working correctly.”—Dennis Burger

TECH TALK

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: AB Audio Video Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif (310.923.3984; abaudiovideo.com)

Theater Designer: Cinema di Cuore of San Dimas, Calif.(909.437.8765, cinemadicuore.com)

I N T E R I O R S


Comfort Zone

A former pro athlete creates the perfect field for his growing family’s dreams.

> By Hope Winsborough > Photography by Scott Sandler

In the world of baseball, shortstop is considered one of the most difficult and demanding infield positions—requiring equal measures of agility, range and strength. So it comes as no surprise that a standout former MLB player like Royce

Clayton, who in 2007 earned a World Series ring during his swan song season with the Boston Red Sox, would apply similar skills to any post-sports endeavors.

When Royce began making plans to build his dream home in Arizona’s scenic Paradise Valley, he did just that. Instead of the next pitch, he focused on his growing family’s lifestyle. “After living in Scottsdale for 14 years, we found this community where we just connected,” says the avowed family man. Both he and his wife Samantha Davies, a sprinter on Britain’s 2000 Olympic track team, were drawn to the dynamic views. “We knew we wanted to bring the outdoors in,” he says, alluding to the city skyline to the north and the mountain peaks to the south.

Working in tandem with architect Michael Miller and cus-tom home builder Mark McClanahan—both of whom have partnered with Clayton in a residential property development company, just one of the former pro athlete’s entrepreneurial ventures—the couple envisioned a lifestyle-driven floor plan. “We wanted a great room that was the center of everything,” Clayton says. “And when we did that, the rest of the house became centered on that idea.

“We really built [the home] from the inside out,” Royce continues. “It’s very unique in that regard.” The residence’s 14



patios and resort-sized pool with a swim-up bar testify to the family’s passion for outdoor living, as does the automated misting system, outdoor rock and ceiling speakers and a flat-screen TV in the barbecue area. Not surpris-ingly, the great room serves as the expansive center of the home—exactly as planned. The scenic yard is visible on three sides through massive glass doors that vanish into the walls, making the great room one with the backyard. The space also keeps everyone connected, guests included, regardless of their location. “A group of us can be upstairs and look down and see the kids,” Royce says. “Or you can stand at the kitchen sink and see the TV. You don’t feel like you’re separated, but you still have your space.”

Achieving such warmth and intimacy in such an expansive home was the project’s single major challenge, says interior designer Bonnee Sirotkin Gruber of Taggywail Inte-

I N T E R I O R S

rior Design Studio. Her firm boasts a roster of sports-celebrity clients. “Most of the home’s rooms were huge,” Gruber explains, adding that the couple also wanted a contemporary design scheme with African tribal influences. The “challenge quotient” expanded expo-nentially when the home’s construction com-menced. Just two months into the project, the couple learned that they were expecting triplets. With 14-month old Royce Jr. already in the picture, the announcement reinforced the necessity for ultra-child-friendly design solutions, and the most simple-to-use home automation technology available.

The good news, says Gruber, is that such design solutions are much easier to imple-ment during construction. “Getting form and function to work together [is] much easier than [designing within] an existing structure.” Working with custom installer Justin Jones of Just In Time, which Royce co-owns, Gruber

The warm but dramatic double-staired foyer leads to the lofty game room above, and to the expansive great room and the multi-patio outdoor world beyond. The three prominent art pieces, hand-carved from alder wood and about 4 feet in height, were inspired by African masks. Previ-ous pages: Says Royce of the great room: “We wanted our friends and families to be able to take their shoes off—to say ‘just enjoy yourself.’” Each custom-made table is crafted of alder wood and features a different finish. In the middle of the stacked stone fireplace is a custom copper water feature that’s more than 12 feet tall. Arizona artist Gary Slater is known for his water sculptures.

The ceiling’s mosaic work in the master bath, left, is a combination of 1-inch square glass tiles in iridescent copper, gold, pale purple and white. Outfitted with a 32-inch LCD, this room has become a favorite hangout for the children. “The kids get to watch more tub TV than we do,” says Royce, who expects he’ll enjoy the bubbles more often once all four toddlers achieve bathing independence.

provided scaled drawings that pin-pointed the optimum furniture placement for the great room based on its dimension and the audio-visual configurations. Since the great room encompasses several conversational and living areas, and a 63-inch Fujitsu plasma television, traffic flow and seating arrangement were high priorities for the family.

Form and function also are integrated in the textural elements. Distressed, espresso-stained wood floors and custom alder wood


The chandelier in the master suite, above, adds a touch of the ornate to the otherwise contemporary room. A bed platform helps anchor the large space. The paneled treatment of the fireplace surround is comprised of soft beige marble slabs, each of which is separated by thin bands of stainless steel.


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The dining room is designed as a formal venue for large family events. The room’s lush parameters—including rich tonal draperies and a gilt-rimmed recessed ceiling—lend a touch of Hollywood glamour to the space. The shape of the custom-designed mesquite wood table, and that of the concave-fronted buffet, mirrors the shape of the ceiling dome, which is faux-finished in copper and gold. Rope lighting that’s recessed into the lip lends

a soft glow to the space. The chandelier is comprised of multisized Swarovski crystals.

tables add warmth and richness—and are practically immune to “kid dings.” The over-sized, custom-designed upholstered sofas are enveloped in stain-resistant microfiber; the leg-free silhouette adds both weight and visual impact to the space. Perhaps the warm-est element in the great room is the custom area rug. “An area rug helps define a seating group that ‘floats’ in the middle of a room,” Gruber says. “In a room this size, this kind of definition was a design must.”

Both husband and wife worked closely with the interior designer to create a rug design that echoed the colors used through-out the room. The Mondrian-esque pat-tern incorporates variously sized shapes and lines, and its perimeter is tailored to hug the main seating group. For additional dimension, Gruber added different weaves, heights and piles—all in wool and silk yarns that were custom dyed for the piece.

“The clipping of the corners was a last-minute decision,” Gruber says. “It was driven by the diagonal placement of the furniture, but I also felt it would be safer for the children to not have the corners stick out.”

“Bonnee did a great job in designing that carpet,” Royce says, noting its colorful contrast with the dark wood. “She helped us create a family heirloom that is [mostly] stain resistant.”

In addition to the main seating area, the great room’s ancillary spaces—including a bar/wine cellar and breakfast nook—

received similarly thoughtful treatment. The kitchen chairs are upholstered in colorful pat-terns that resist and camouflage food stains, for instance, and the breakfast table is distressed. The kitchen bar stools have heavy wood legs to prevent tipping, and the glass countertop has a textured underside that lends a “wave”

“When first meeting with the Claytons in their other home, it was evident that their comfort level was in the field of beige, gold, rust and taupe in a soft

contemporary style.”

—Bonnee Sirotkin Gruber,

interior designer

Cleverly tucked away in a loft above the great room, the game room offers a distinct “gentleman’s club” appeal without sacrificing its contemporary connection with the space downstairs. The chairs in the television-watching area are upholstered in suede with extra-wide arms caps that bear a

snakeskin-like leather. Two Masaii warriors, about 5 feet tall, stand sentry at the top of the stairs.


look; beneath the glass is a layer of powder-fine white sand that’s dotted with river rocks. Most everything was done with four young children in mind. “With all the options on the market today, you don’t have to sacrifice style for durability or safety,” Gruber says.

The family-friendly ethos extends to the kids’ wing, which includes four separate bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a playroom equipped with a 42-inch Fujitsu plasma TV and its own DVD player. On the adult side, a chic-yet-masculine home office is surpris-ingly conducive to work—even with the 42-inch plasma TV within easy view. “The kids know that if the door is shut, not to dis-turb,” says Royce. “And when the door is shut, you can’t hear a thing.” However, Dad can make sure the kids are OK in the playroom by eavesdropping on them via the Crestron-controlled intercom system.

The master suite—designed to reflect the 1920s glamour of Hollywood—boasts the best theater set-up in the house, says Royce:

The kitchen, equipped with two dishwashers and a double sink, overlooks the great room. The bar counter, topped with Black Galaxy granite, is as conducive to hanging out as it is to having lunch. The open nature of the kitchen dictated that most of the alder-wood

cabinetry be tucked below the counters. The backsplash’s tile work and the stainless-steel range hood are both custom designs by Gruber.


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>

Custom installer Justin Jones of Just In Time in Scottsdale, Ariz., faced the interesting task with this installation of crafting a seamless media experience that flowed from one end of this 14,000-square-foot home to the other. “We did think about doing a dedicated home theater,” he says, “but with most of the rooms being occupied with little ones, and with the focus of the technology being on bringing the family together no matter where they are in the home, a theater just didn’t make sense. They’re not the types to sit in a theater and watch a movie, anyway. They’re active. And the system needed to reflect that.”

That’s not to say that the family wanted to live without a surround-sound-equipped media room, though. In fact, this home has two full-blown media rooms: one in the upstairs game room, and another in the expansive great room downstairs.

In the game room, the biggest challenge was containing the sound: “It’s a really modern layout, and the rooms flow from one to the other, so there was no way to confine sound within a certain space. It’s all wide open. So we had to go in-ceiling and bring the sound down onto the listener rather than bringing it to them from the front and rear.” That system features Boston Acoustics VRi595 in-ceiling speakers, an Integra DTR 10.5 THX Ultra2 Home Theater Receiver, and a Fujitsu P63XTA51US 63-inch plasma TV.

As it turns out, Integra receivers and Fujitsu plasmas are a common sight around the house: They also form the heart of the great room’s system, which posed different sonic challenges. “It was such a big room, with ultra-high ceilings and even a waterfall of sorts,” Jones says. “So the challenge was finding speakers that could project into the room and fill it with sound, even if a lot of people were there to watch a movie, for a Super Bowl party or the World Series.”

To that end, Jones found that Boston Acoustics’ BT2 loudspeakers pen-etrated the air of the open environment perfectly. Although the BT-series speakers are intended to be built into cabinets, Jones positioned them on stands at the front of the room to ensure their breathability. At the back of the room, Boston Acoustics VRi593 in-wall speakers create the surround soundfield without imposing on the room’s interior. Finding space for the surrounds was tough, though, says Jones, because “all of the windows in the back corner of the room retract into the wall and open up the room to the barbecue area outside, where the family also entertains. The entertainment flows from room to room, from inside to outside, and the performance remains the same no matter where you go. It’s the Zen house for audio video.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Architect: Michael Miller and Associates Architects of Scottsdale, Ariz. (480.947.3933)

Builder: Homes by Mark McClanahan of Scottsdale, Ariz. (602.652.8044)

Custom Installer: Just in Time of Scottsdale, Ariz. (888.985.3777; justintime.tv)

Interior Designer: Taggywail Interior Design Studio of Scottsdale, Ariz. (480.443.3267, taggywail.com)

TECH TALK “The 5.0 surround-sound system in there rocks, and the room has the best acoustics.” Another bonus: a comfy sofa at the end of the bed for watching movies on the 50-inch Fujitsu plasma. “It turns out that we enjoy that more than we ever expected,” he says.

The couple hasn’t had much time to enjoy the 32-inch LCD television while

soaking in the master bath’s tub. “It mainly gets watched by the kids these days,” Royce laughs. But with a window overlooking the pool area and the stunning mountain views, it’s a private sanctuary the couple hopes to enjoy in the years to come.

As you might expect, this athletic family’s physical pursuits are just as important as the quality of their sleeping quarters. The home gym—which includes a spa area complete with a sauna, steam shower and, of course, a 42-inch plasma TV and sound system—is a part of the separate two-bedroom guest quarters that are just a short walk away from the main house.

All in all, says Royce, the home he mas-terminded for his growing family surpasses his original vision, which was grounded in his own childhood. “When I was growing up, all the activity took place in the den. Everything happened in, and just off, that room.”

That said, it’s clear that Royce’s remarkable shortstop skills—agility, range and strength—have always been driven by his love of family. Even when he was playing ball and chang-ing teams “my focus was on how the kids were doing—how Samantha was doing, how she was managing.” Now that the family is together a lot more, Royce takes pride in the home he’s helped create.

“The house turned out better than I ever envisioned,” he says. “And all the com-ments we get from our friends—how warm and comfortable they feel when they are here. That’s all you can ask for.” The house is currently on the market for $12.3 million. For more information, please contact Cathy Fassero of Choice Real Estate Group (choicerealestategroup.com, 602.317.4123).

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I N T E R I O R S


Balancing act> BY HOPE WINSBOROUGH > PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID JASAK

an home-theater technology help alleviate the chaos of modern life? It’s not the typical path-to-enlightenment story, to be sure.

But it’s one that rings true to Stephen and Kelli Brown of Austin, Texas.

As parents of four children ranging in age from four to 17, the Browns are well-versed in “chaos.” Add to that the fact that Stephen, a prominent oncolo-gist, and Kelli, a former Broadway dancer, kicked-off their screening room project while they were already knee-deep in the process of renovating a newly purchased 6,000-square-foot home. From their per-spective, vision superseded chaos. And their small attic office represented 170 square feet of potential.

“They wanted a modern, chic room with state-of-the-art audio,” recalls Kyle Griffith, who handled the custom instal-lation of the project with Bryan Arnold of Texas Integrated Systems/Texeleco. (Griffith is now the director of dealer relations for California Audio Technolo-gies/CAT, CAT Elite, CAT MBX and Newport Audio.)

Stephen envisioned building an in-home oasis—a space that would help him maximize his limited downtime. That meant the theater had to comfortably accommodate the entire Brown family, as

well as a regular stream of guests. “With four active children, our family time con-sists of sports activities, meals at home and watching movies or playing games,” Stephen says, adding that the theater brings everyone together. “It’s an envi-ronment that all ages can enjoy.” When the younger kids are in bed and the teens are doing homework, Kelli retreats to their home theater to take in some jazz or blues. From her perspective, the space is “a vacuum without time.”

To create the Browns’ mulipurpose in-home getaway, Kyle enlisted a group of experts to handle everything from the system’s sound design to the custom lighting. Together, they created a remark-ably dynamic audiovisual system, one that features a wide-aspect ratio screen and seat-shaking subwoofers—all of which are fully integrated into a compact-yet-aerodynamic space that the family calls “the airplane.”

Engineering this luxury “aircraft” was a multistep process. First-up: structur-

al issues. To deaden sound transmission, the entire room was enveloped in Acous-tiblok, a rubber-like mineral composite. “After [we installed] that, whenever you walked in the theater it felt like you were in a vault,” Stephen comments.

Creative collaboration produces a home theater that’s truly life-enhancing.


The next challenge was the room’s layout. The configuration options for this 10-foot-by-17-foot space were further limited when the Browns opted for a larger projection screen, which required an 8-foot screen throw. The new screen is so large that it nearly extends to touch both of the home theater’s right and left side walls.

According to the custom installer, such limitations are worth the trouble. “If you have the budget, the wide-aspect provides a more [engrossing] experience,” Kyle says.

“With the invested effort in acoustic design,” Stephen adds, “I felt that a standard screen minimized what had been accom-plished with the space. Cinematic video from wall to wall would be astonishing.”

To amp up the room’s intimacy, a lobby was incorporated into the theater’s blueprints; the space also is blanketed with Acoustiblok material since it is located directly above the master suite. “That kept all noise and traffic outside the room,” Kyle explains. “Once you are inside [the theater], you can fully disap-pear—and you can do it at night without disturbing anyone.”

The curved ceiling that draws the eyes upward lends a sense of spaciousness to the otherwise small space. Design consultant Jen-nifer Griffith, who is married to Kyle, worked with Kelli to orchestrate a kid-friendly pal-ette of finishes and furnishings that infuses the space with depth and texture.

The theater’s wall panels, made by Acous-tic Room Systems, are covered in sandstone fabric with horizontal patterns, which lend a modern touch to the room. The the-

ater seating by Acoustic Innovations—three chairs up front that are combined as a sofa with two elevated loveseats in the back—are upholstered in a warm, distressed premium leather. But the most important design ele-ment, everyone agrees, is the lighting.

The Browns wanted to incorporate some form of special lighting into the room—including a blue hue to sate Kelli’s love of water. The idea for the lighting system first occurred when Kyle picked up a piece of 3-Form resin. Why not use the product to create columns of light?

To bring the idea to life, Kyle enlisted the help of Acoustic Room Systems’ Frank Rose and Texas Integrated Systems’ Rod Mueller. The trio began experimenting immedi-ately. In the end, the red-green-blue LED lights from Solavanti were placed on a track and back-mounted to the wall track. The lights were then tucked behind the 3-Form, which was cut into columns, end-capped

“The biggest key in this room is the lighting,” says interior design consultant Jennifer Griffith. Not only does it eliminate any question of claustrophobia, but it allows the viewer to vary colors according to mood. The columns are made of 3-Form resin, and are mounted between the track system using metal-capped towel holders Kyle Griffith discovered at Ikea. The LED lights are affixed to the tracks and are mounted inside frosted polycarbonate resin.

Custom cabinetry (below left) houses the snack bar’s offerings, including refrigerated beverages and a popcorn-ready microwave. The family’s favorite movies—including Pirates of the Caribbean —assume positions of honor.


>

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and mounted nearly flush with the wall panels. With 18 color variations programmed into the Lutron system, the glowing columns inject the right level of pizzazz and offset the room’s elegant neutrality.

After using the theater for a month, CAT’s audio engineers performed their customary on-site calibration. “I was impressed before it was fine-tuned,” Stephen says, “but I couldn’t believe the sound quality after the calibration. Listening to an HD concert is now the equiv-alent of [experiencing] a private concert.”

Kyle christened the theater with a show-ing of Transformers.“[The Browns] thought we put vibration in the seats, but it was the bass management system at work,” which includes four subwoofers in the ceiling and four in front. “It really shook them up!”

More importantly, says Stephen, the home theater has met the family’s oasis require-ments. “It’s mood-enhancing,” says Stephen, adding that it provides a respite away from his world of never-ending demands. “It’s a place for me to relax and listen to music,” he says. “The times when I just chill out in the the-ater are my release.” That satisfaction extends to the rest of the family. For example, Kelli has hosted showings of HBO’s “Sex and the City,” and the teens invite friends over for eight or 10-hour movie-fests.

The screening room has been a major attraction for adults, too. “Sometimes during parties, I notice people are missing,” Stephen says. But when he dials into the security sys-tem, he often finds everyone in the theater—especially during a major sporting event.

Though the theater continues to amaze the Browns, Stephen still is surprised by its new role in the family. “It’s neat how it has played into our shared activities,” he explains. “In our hectic lives there aren’t many oppor-tunities to shut down your working environ-ment (he cites the ever-present Blackberry as an example). The theater is a way to do just that—just by listening to music or watching something enjoyable.”

Custom installer Kyle Griff ith—who was with Texas Integrated Systems/Texeleco at the time of this installation—describes the rather unorthodox origins of this home’s new theater: “It started off as an office, like a second-and-a-half f loor, if you will. A really small space with a very low ceiling and a 45-degree angled coffer on each side. And they decided to turn that into the home theater.”

I ask Griff ith if the unusual shape of the room presented a challenge in designing or tuning the theater. “Actually, no,” he says; “I’ve done a few similarly shaped rooms, although larger than this one. My biggest concern was the width of the room. To really get everything to fit, I knew I was going to be shoving the front left and right speakers almost all the way into the side walls. So I was really concerned about the imaging of the left and right speakers—getting the stereo sound right. If you get that right, everything else falls into place.”

To help him get the sound right, Griff ith turned to California Audio Technology (CAT). The room features a trio of CAT’s C6.7 Holly-wood In-wall Architectural Loudspeakers and eight CS4 San Andreas In-wall Architectural Subwoofers up front; Newport Audio’s Gold Series 8-inch rectangles for the rear speakers; two CAT amps and two Anthem amps. “CAT is the only company I know of whose engineers come out to the room to hand-tweak the DSPs, the processor, and crossovers, and tune the speakers to the room. That makes all the dif-ference in the world.

“Fifty percent of a theater’s sound quality is dictated by your room, but if you can get the engineers who designed your speakers to come to your room, they can eke out as much of the remaining 50 percent as possible from those speakers in the tuning and calibration phase.”

Critical to the tuning and calibration of the space is the system’s Anthem Statement D2 surround-sound processor, an Anthem State-ment D2 and a Symetrix 8x8 Digital Signal Processor. “The tools that the D2 provides a custom installer are amazing—especially the room-resonance filters,” Griff ith says. “Every room is going to have a key resonance, where the entire room will vibrate in sympathy with the sound. Needless to say, that’s not a good thing. But with the D2 I can quickly figure out where the problem area is and take all of the boomi-ness right out of the room.

“The D2 also gives you balanced outputs, which was essential because if you’re going to come out of a preamp into a DSP—which we needed to properly adjust the phase and timing of the four subwoofers in the front wall and the four in the ceiling—and then from the DSP into the amplif iers, you really need to keep that long signal chain bal-anced to minimize noise as much as possible.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Custom Installer: Texas Integrated Systems/Texeleco of Austin, Texas (512.292.0656, texeleco.com)

Interior Designer: Jennifer Griffith of Austin, Texas (512.394.9608)

TECH TALK


Bespoke Beauty

A custom installer—who likes to see his wife in Manolo Blahniks and has four separate fittings for every handmade suit he has made—brings new

meaning to the concept of custom installation.> BY BROOKE LANGE >PHOTOGRAPHY BY DIETRICH FLOETER

ustom installer Michael K. Leader of Leader D-Cinema

Systems Inc. in Beverly Hills likes to apply haute couture-level crafts-

manship to his custom-designed-and-fabricated audiovisual systems. “I like to apply bespoke tailoring to my work,” says the man who won an audio Emmy for his work on the XXIV Olympics for NBC.

Leader’s appreciation for the most min-ute details of a handmade suit, for example, is directly reflected in every A/V system he designs and builds. “My grandfather was a beautiful tailor and my father was an excep-tional musician, so I bring these sensibilities into the technology. This makes the speakers I build very unique.”

While Leader mostly installs large-scale Hollywood-caliber screening rooms for movie studios, post-production facilities and corporations, he occasionally designs a high-end residential project. Or seven.

A case in point is this media room, located in a Michigan home owned by a well-known retired music-industry execu-tive who has represented many of the world’s biggest internationally acclaimed musicians. Leader has designed seven audiovisual sys-tems for this client to date.

Leader first met this client in 1992. The client’s insatiable passion for designing the most elite industry-quality cinema—with a special emphasis on supreme music play-back—piqued Leader’s curiosity so much that he courted the gentleman for nearly two years. It took that long to convince the client that Leader was the right man for the job.

“He was not confident that anyone could create the system he wanted,” he says, adding that the potential client not only had access to the most elite speaker manufacturers in the world—he had experienced those speakers first-hand, as well. “There are great speakers made by other companies, but it would have been impossible to meet the client’s demands with an off-the-shelf speaker,” he says.

Twelve years and several elite systems later, Leader, no doubt, won over his client. “He wanted the world’s best system to play chamber music, jazz, harp recitals, movies—everything,” he says. “It had to be the closest thing to the real thing.”

The first project Leader completed for his client prior to designing this 700-square-foot media space, which includes the kitchen and dining room, is about 2,800 square feet and can accommodate 200 guests. “The Michigan system had to retain that same

photographybypaquette.com/provided bay harbor properties

I N T E R I O R S


“The system is somewhat relaxed due to its size and use. But we were able to retain the clarity and sen-

sual dimension of the music in a smaller room.”

—Michael Leader, custom installer

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luster, front and back depth and dimension, and be capable of retaining the subtleties of all musical forms at a whisper.

“This system is on the level of a May-bach,” Leader says. “When it plays Mozart minuets, Led Zeppelin or David Bowie, it performs. You’re in a concert setting.”

Not surprisingly, the client wanted the technology concealed. “When the system is in operation, it’s invisible,” Leader says, add-ing that he always strives to honor the room’s look. “I respect the architect’s work and art. I have an understanding of what it takes the architect to satisfy the client.”

Since the client wanted to duplicate his previous theater’s A/V system, Leader’s work was cut out for him. The challenge was to duplicate the system in a smaller space.

“First and foremost, the room had to function as a formal living and dining room,” says interior designer Michel Laflamme, add-ing that the client requested a more relaxed look and approach since the space opens up

The acoustical arrangement of the front wall helps with the

room’s acoustics. Leader designed and manufactured the custom

speakers. “We optimize the performance of the speakers and

the acoustics of the room—we leave nothing to chance,” he says. “And the room itself is a physical

device.” Woven into the front wall is a 14-foot microperforated

Stewart screen. “This screen is recognized as the best screen and

it’s seamless.”

to Lake Michigan’s shoreline. “But it couldn’t feel like you were in a home theater either.”

In addition to designing a room with multiple personalities, the architect had to address the owner’s passion for finely crafted sailing vessels, and his desire for a contempo-rary look that complemented the Victorian architecture. “The owner had a ship and he wanted the room to have that feel,” Laflamme says. “He understands the craftsmanship of a fine boat—the beauty of subtle details.”

Luckily, the architect and installer spoke the same language. “We were on the same wavelength,” Laflamme says. “It can be a real fight when working with any sound consultant. But Michael understands that the sound and image are the feature of the home theater—not the equipment.”

The rectangular nature of the room is a natural byproduct of the architect’s intension to capture the stunning water views from every vantage point, and to make the most of the area’s beautiful ambient light. “The view is to the North, so it was important to keep the house narrow [to enjoy] the view and get southern sun,” he says. As a result, the length of the house runs from East to West.

The living-dining-media room is anchored with the kitchen and the projec-tion screen wall at opposite ends. The seat-ing and the dining area fall in between. The fireplace is designed as part of the room’s focal point, while the room’s second focal point is the water. Neither distracts from the other, nor does the gas fireplace distract from the 42-inch Pioneer plasma TV when it is in use.


>

I N T E R I O R S


Cherry woodworking frames the floor and the walls; even the kitchen cabinets are cherry. “The owner wanted a nautical feel,” the architect says, making note of the neu-tral color palette. The handrails throughout the home are also crafted in cherry and are strategically punctuated with elaborate brass anchors. “The owner appreciates the handrail every time he walks by, every time he uses that handrail or runs his fingers along it,” says the architect.

Heavy wood ceiling beams alternate with acoustic fabric panels. The same fabric also frames the projection-fireplace wall, conceal-ing the massive custom-designed speakers. “Instead of seeing speaker grills, you see something that’s integrated,” Laflamme says. “That was a key thing Michael and I tried to do—integrated it all.

“The ceiling took all of 30 seconds to discuss—we wanted something minimal that wouldn’t compete with the views,” Laflamme says. The design team did most of “the back and forth” for the front wall design while working on the client’s first residential project. “We went through about 100 swatches to find the right fabric,” says the architect. Above those fabric-covered ceiling panels is about 210 cubic feet of space, which is treated with more acoustical materials.

Leader tested the fabric numerous times for acoustical transparency. Thus, the treat-ment helps eliminate floor-to-ceiling reflec-tions, speaker-to-ceiling bounce and reflec-tions, and controls reverberations and echoes. Walk into this room and you immediately know you’re in a different acoustical space.

The proof that Leader’s work sparkles in any sized system came in the form of a com-pliment from his client’s wife. After she expe-rienced a smaller Leader system in another home, “she could tell it was designed by [my] company,” he says. “It has [fewer] speakers, but the system retains a sense of all musical forms. [The speakers] have impact, dimension and space. Yet the quality is still remarkable.”

Why build your own speaker? That’s the question I ask the designer of this home’s one-of-a-kind A/V system. “It means we have complete control over performance,” Leader says matter-of-factly. “And it also means if we’re 2 inches shy of fitting a particular speaker into a specific space, we can re-engineer the speaker to physically fit.”

Since each precision speaker system is engineered with one spe-cific room and one specific system in mind, Leader can build the right amount of toe-in into the mid- and high-frequency sections to optimize the front sound stage and imaging details. Thus, the entire enclosure doesn’t have to be repositioned to properly aim the sound toward the lis-tener. “If you toe-in a speaker that’s a square or rectangular box, you’ve got all this wasted space behind the box,” he says. “With the toe-in built in, the box remains f lat on the side and adjacent to the wall.”

The front wall of the system is dominated by a trio of Leader Cinema Systems HRRM*3 Series speaker arrays, which boast six massive 18-inch woofers between them and handle 15,000 watts of amplification in total. That may seem like overkill, but as Leader explains, “Each woofer has its own dedicated amplifier, and the system is designed to have at least 10 or 12dB of amplifier headroom above peak operating level.” Not surprisingly, peak operating level for Leader is far beyond typical home cinema levels. “If you want to do music at concert levels the average level is going to be approximately 20dB higher than that of movies,” he continues. “So, we have enough amplifier headroom to ensure that the amplifiers are never going to clip. And because the system is so large, the velocity of the drivers is low. It’s not the same as having an 8-inch or 10-inch woofer cranked up. This system is effortless.” Even the rear channels feature 15-inch woofers, which f lies in the face of conventional surround-sound wisdom. But thanks to some creative signal processing, Leader put those woofers to work: “The legacy of creating the surround channel from Hollywood has always been to high-pass the content in the surround channels—the reason being that the surround-sound speaker systems in theaters are almost always incapable of reproducing low fre-quencies. You’ll blow them up if you try.

“With our digital processing we extract the low-frequency content below 100 Hz that has been filtered out and build it back up. Since there’s energy there—just rolled off at 18 decibels or so per octave—we can effectively restore it, going down to about 35 or 40 Hz. And because of the way the ear integrates low-frequency energy across the spectrum, this smooths out the midrange response. It’s quite astonishing.”—Dennis Burger

RESOURCES

Architect: Michel Lafl amme Architect of Vancouver, Canada (604.737.2250, maldesign.com)

Custom Installer: Leader-D Cinema Systems Inc. of Beverly Hills, Calif., with offi ces in Vancouver (213.359.8129, leadercinema.com)

TECH TALK

R e g i s t e R o f A d v e R t i s e R s

Anthem Back Cover www.anthemav.com905-564-1994

Bowers & Wilkins Page 31 www.bowers-wilkins.com 978-664 2870

Cinemashop Page 109

www.cinemashop.com 866-243-1001

Crestron Left of Front Cover www.crestron.com 800-237-2041

Cordero Studios Page 135 www.corderostudios.com 818-598-297

David Wiener Collection Page 89 www.dwcollection.com 435-649-3458

Digital Projection Page 51 www.digitalprojection.com 770-420-1365

DNP page 63

www.dnp.dk(714) 545.2711

First Impressions Pages C2, 3 & C3 www.cineloungers.com 800-305-7545

Fortress Page 63 www.fortressseating.com 800-873-2828

Future Home Page 43 www.futurehometheater.com 310-966-9442

Home Entertainment Pages 125 & 134 www.hemagazine.com 818-992-6492

Linn Page 57 www.linn.co.uk 519-745-1158

NuVision Page 37 www.nuvision.com 877-738-7641

Panasonic Page 97 www.panasonic.com/viera 800-405-0652

Sanus Page 77 www.sanus.com 800-359-5520

Savant Page 17 www.savantav.com 508-683-2500

Totem Acoustic Page 71 www.totemacoustic.com 514-259-1062

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Even when the finest speakers are perfectly positioned in a room, the room itself still has a dramatic impact on the system’s sound— a more profound impact than that of any individual component. Various solutions have fallen in and out of favor over the years butnone have solved the problem of “the room.” Until now. Until ARC.

Using proprietary processes and the power of your PC, ARC analyzes each speaker’s in-room sound then computes the requiredcorrection to yield optimal performance from every speaker. How dramatic is this breakthrough? “… the difference was huge,” saysKen Taraszka of AudioVideo Revolution, “I was totally amazed by how much of an improvement ARC made.” “Makes the best A/Vprocessor available even better,” says Sound & Vision’s Daniel Kumin.

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