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.

The Crestron touchpanel also operates the rest of the gear, as well as the lights and thermostat. Having control over the room’s temperature was particularly important to the owners. “In the theater in their previous home, the temperature averaged over 80 degrees,” says Hooper. “They didn’t want to experience the same discomfort in this theater.”

To preclude unnecessary overheating, Audio Video Design Consultants placed the rack of audio/video equipment in the video editing office. The rack was fitted with a ventilation system that dispels the warm air generated by the equipment into the attic automatically whenever the temperature inside the rack reaches a certain point.

Comfortable and simple to control, this room has become a space that the owners spent countless hours enjoying.

Click here for additional photos, or click here for another 24-TB theater that holds more than 3,000 movies.

About the Author:
Lisa Montgomery - Contributing Writer

Lisa Montgomery has been writing about home technology for 15 years, with a focus on the impact of electronics on a modern lifestyle.