We are very proud to announce that one of our favorite projects from 2008 was awarded a “Best Home Theater Finalist” designation by Electronic House magazine. Below is an excerpt from an article written by Electronic House. You can also click here for the full article.
Home of the Year Awards 200924-Terabyte Theater Showcases Massive Video LibraryMega storage lets this movie buff keep growing his huge DVD collection, with 2.35:1 video and high-performance Monitor Audio surround system.July 14, 2009 | by Lisa Montgomery
Measuring just 15 feet wide and 19 feet long, this home theater may be on the small side, but the size of the owners’ movie collection is anything but tiny. More than 2,000 movies are already stored digitally in the 24-terabyte Kaleidescape media server, some of which are films with scores written for, or produced by the owner’s two sons.
Still, with so much available space on the server, the owner can’t help but add at least a dozen more weekly—just one of the benefits of being a member of two mail-order DVD stores, says Steve Hooper, president of Audio Video Design Consultants, the Nashville-based firm hired to transform a spare upper-level guest room into a theater worth more than $250,000.
Films aren’t the only type of video stored on the server, however. There’s plenty of room for the owners’ extensive array home movies as well as trailers that he created himself. It’s a quick trip to the theater from his video editing station, which sits just behind the theater in a home office closed off by a door.
Bedrooms reside on the other side of the hall, so Audio Video Design Consultants covered the walls and ceiling entirely with two-inch-thick acoustical paneling to prevent the sound from seeping out—quite an accomplishment given the theater’s audio prowess. Seven Monitor Audio speakers and two subwoofers, driven by Lexicon processors and amps can really shake the room, says Hooper.
Proud of their son’s accomplishments, it only seemed fitting that the owners would present them on the biggest screen the room could hold (illuminated movie posters also pay tribute to their Hollywood projects). The 106-inch Stewart Filmscreen screen is not only big; it can also alter its shape based on the type of video being presented by a top-of-the-line Runco VX-550 projector.
When the owners watch a movie shot in CinemaScope format, the screen stays in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The films cover the entire screen in that setting. Not so with sporting events, however. Because sports and other programming aren’t shot in CinemaScope, the video would occupy only a portion of the super-wide screen. To make the screen more suitable for these programs, Audio Video Design Consultants added a system that rolls black fabric over the unused areas of the screen. The owner activates the motors of the masking system are activated by pressing the appropriate button on a portable Crestron touchpanel.
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