The children of these homeowners can get a leg up on their potential acting careers. With help from systems installer Adobe Cinema & Automation of Mashpee, MA, their Nantucket home was outfitted with a truly classic looking theater that also incorporates a stage in front of the screen.

So whether they want to be inspired by the acting on the 155-inch screen behind them or just turn the stage into a home playhouse, the kids can get a combination of Hollywood and Broadway in this dedicated home theater. 

And creating a bold theater that mixes the fun of something like a stage and function of jaw-dropping audio and video gave Adobe Cinema and its partners even more of a challenge.

“It’s a multipurpose room actually,” says Adobe Cinema’s Jeff Polchinski. “There’s a stage in there for the children to perform skits. It was a balancing act to keep the performance high, with everything from sightlines, to good audio setup to good listener placement with seating. The interior designer (Carter & Co.) definitely took the lead on design from the beginning, and the architect (Nantucket Architecture Group) was phenomenal.”

The resulting room is a stunner. The burgundy theater features 1080p video firing from a Runco VX-22d projector onto an SmX acoustically transparent screen, with the autoscope lens that allows for full viewing of 2.35:1 superwide movies.

Audio is pumped into the space through Bohlender-Graebener Radia R-600 front left, right and center channels, six BG Radia R-320 surrounds, and four JL Audio F-112 subwoofers (two in the rear and two in the front).

“BG speakers are very detailed, very accurate, with multiple tweeters and midranges capable of producing breathtaking sound,” Polchinski says. “The ribbon design doesn’t interact as much with the floor and ceiling as a traditional driver; they’re big and bold and really in your face in a nice way—very full, very rich, very fast.”

Polchinski chose the acoustically transparent screen in order to anchor the center speaker behind the screen for more realistic dialog, plus the fact that it’s about six feet tall and not the type of speaker that can be placed on its side. Overall it helped produce some pretty wide dispersion necessary for this large room.

The grand appearance of the room certainly befits the high-performance of the A/V gear. “They wanted it really rich and luxurious,” Polchinski notes. They got it in the form of deep rich burgundy suede fabric, 10 custom-manufactured leather seats, two chaise lounges with a triple-cushion sofa in between, and a ceiling lined with woodworking from J Brown Builders. United Leather in Dallas even used Adobe Cinema’s specifications on the custom seating to accommodate the tall homeowner’s long legs.

“The room really is about the experience,” Polchinski says. “You’re not going in to watch a movie, you go in to experience a movie. If it’s a horror flick, your hair is standing up on the back of your neck. If you’re into music, which was very much at the front and center of our demo, there’s so much impact, emotion and energy. The room leaves everybody smiling and having a good time.”

Arlen Schweiger
Managing editor of Electronic House, EH Publishing

Arlen contributes product news items to electronichouse.com along with his role on the print publication. Got a tip? Send it along!

Arlen Schweiger can be reached at aschweiger@ehpub.com