Big Theater Poses Big Design Challenges

This sizable theater room forced installers to rely on one powerful projector.

Big rooms aren’t always the easiest places to install whompin’ home theater systems. Just consider this $250,000-plus project in Indiana. It’s 17 feet wide, and about 40 feet long, and has high ceilings.

The length of the room posed some challenges for a video projector, requiring a long “throw” of 18 feet. To accommodate this, custom electronics installer Tri-Phase Technologies used a Runco VX-2c three-chip DLP projector. “It’s a very powerful projector. We couldn’t have gone with anything smaller for that throw distance,” says Ian Bryant of Tri-Phase. “The three-chip helps with the quality when stretching out an image that large.”

A spacious theater such as this presents audio issues as well, especially with its high ceilings. Sound can bounce around and take a bit longer to get to the listerners’ ears, so Tri-Phase brought in acoustics expects and theater design company Acoustic Innovations.

The theater room is actually an Acoustic Innovations design and uses the company’s fabric to cover sonically reflective and absorptive panels that bounce the sound in some places and absorb them in others to achieve just the right balance.

Sound quality is also enhanced by the Crestron DAP8-RC audio processor, which contains equalization for the 7.2-channel Triad speaker system. Three Triad Platinum speakers are in front, the left and right channels flank the screen behind fabric and above 18-inch Triad Platinum subwoofers, and the center channel is concealed above the 123-inch Stewart Filmscreen motorized roll-down and masking screen. Four Triad Silver in-ceiling dipole speakers are used for surround channels, with the two in back cranked because they’re positioned behind the projector bulkhead. The speakers are powered by a Crestron CNAMPX-7x200-watt-per-channel amp.

The equipment is located in a rack in a nearby room, along with an Escient DVDM-1000 DVD management system and a 400-disc Sony mega-changer. The Escient system displays the movies titles on screen for easy access. But the homeowners don’t have to traipse to another space and load a DVD every time they want to watch something new. A Denon DVD player in the back of the room is available is available to play rental discs.

That’s not the only entertainment in this space. The homeowners had Tri-Phase carve out an ample stage area—with about five feet behind the curtains and screen—for their young children to perform plays and skits. Special lights for their performances are turned on by a STAGE LIGHTS button on the Crestron touchpanel.

Acoustic Innovations provided the home theater chairs, and did work on the cabinets and starfield as well.

Runco VX-2c 3-CHIP DLP projector
Stewart Filmscreen Vertical ElectiScreen EletcriMask FireHawk screen
Crestron DAP8-RC surround-sound processor
Crestron CNAMPX-7x200 amplifier
Denon DVD-3900 DVD player
Mitsubishi HRS-U748 VCR
Escient DVDM-100 DVD Management system
Sony DVP-CX777ES 400-disc DVD changer
Crestron TPMC-10 touchscreen with Docking station-TPMC-10-DS
Triad InRoom Platinum LCR front speakers (3)
Triad InCeiling Silver/6 Mini Monitor surround speakers (4)
Triad InRoom Platinum Subwoofer (THX with Rackmount AMP) (2)
Panamax MAX-5500 surge suppressor
Liberty 14/2 Speaker wire
Middle Atlantic MRK 41 space rack
American Recorder POP series cables
Acoustic Innovations Charleton home theater seats (10)
Acoustic Innovations acoustic treatments
Elan Precision Panels with Leviton platework (3)

System Design & Installation
Tri-Phase Technologies
Carmel, IN
www.triphase-tech.com

Acoustics & Custom Theater Construction
Acoustic Innovations
Boca Raton, FL
www.acousticinnovations.com