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Enter CEDIA’s 2013 Electronic Lifestyles Awards

Working with clients around themes can be a difficult task. Electronic systems contractors (ESCs) have to be mindful achieving that top shelf automation experience while working with additional elements to pull off “the look.”

Enter CEDIA’s 2013 Electronic Lifestyles Awards

Feb 5, 2013 12:36 PM

Working with clients around themes can be a difficult task. Electronic systems contractors (ESCs) have to be mindful achieving that top shelf automation experience while working with additional elements to pull off “the look.”

See how ESCs from Cantara and Paradise Theater, crafted a Hollywood-worthy cinema room over the course of a three-year build.

Client’s Needs:
These homeowners wanted their friends to be amazed by their home theater’s appearance and blown away by the experience.

The objective of this room was to create the memorable ambiance of “a night at the movies.” Cantara’s goal was to build a system in which the sound and picture far exceeded the performance of a public theater and provided an immersive movie-watching space.

The cinema designer’s goal was to create a space—including lobby, powder rooms, marquee, and hall—that was highly detailed and evoked the golden era of cinema-going.

The Space:

This client’s taste blended timeless haute couture with warm and inviting details. The interior designer, who specializes in designing private cinemas, engaged Cantara to work on the mechanics, noise isolation, acoustics, and room shape to create the bones for the room.

Space planning created seating groupings for localized intimacy in a very large room using sofas, dedicated seats, and the balcony space. The room needed to feel comfortable for six as well as 45. The designer drove the look of the room and made sure every element complemented the technical performance.

Technical Highlights:

The cinema includes an 18ft.-wide Stewart CineCurve screen, seating for 45 (including a balcony), and a Genelec audio array that provides digital cinema-quality sound. The Genelec system needed to be big to adequately pressurize the room’s 16,561 cu. ft., and features five subwoofer enclosures for a total of eight powered woofers, 10 surround speakers, and three massive screen speakers, for a grand total of 8,400 conservative system watts.

The 3D projection system offers convenience through specialized programming in the Lumagen video processor and AMX; the client doesn’t need to make any mode changes to watch 3D content. Two 46in. LED TVs mounted on the balcony walls mirror content displayed on the big screen. In the lobby, Cantara sourced a commercial service that delivers full-motion movie posters that play on a loop when the marquee lights are turned on.

Challenges:

Working closely with the cinema designer and owner, Cantara developed the custom surround speaker port openings for the best possible sound. They also finessed the finish of the proscenium to minimize light reflections and spent considerable study time on the performance expectations for the balcony area. Working with the designer, the speaker locations and video elements were kept sacred, and no compromises were made.

Result:

A room this size is a supersized challenge in terms of project management, trade coordination, and fine detail management. Thanks to careful coordination, the end result is a room that is grand and stately yet intimate enough for watching movies or listening to stereo music. This hard work not only paid off for the client but also for the ESCs who won both the Level V Silver Technical Design award and the Best Overall Home Theater award in CEDIA’s 2012 Electronic Lifestyles Awards competition.

Do you have an amazing project that is award worthy? The 2013 Electronic Lifestyles Awards competition is open! Enter your best projects or learn more at www.cedia.net/awards.

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