PREMIERE ISSUE

H O M E T H E AT E R S . M E D I A R O O M S . H I G H - T E C H H O M E S .

Technology at its Finest

17 Must-Have Theaters
8 Spectacular Homes

H O M E T H E AT E R S . M E D I A R O O M S . H I G H - T E C H H O M E S .

FIRST IMPRESSIONS THEME THEATRES: SOUTH FLORIDA’S PREMIERE THEATER DESIGN FIRM
FUTURE HOME MEDIA: CEDIA AWARD WINNER AND LA’S CUSTOM INSTALLER TO THE STARS
BLISS HOME THEATERS AND AUTOMATION: TURN-KEY SMARTHOMES AND INVISIBLE A/V MAGIC
Digital Cinema Architecture and Interior Design Development
Acoustical, HVAC, noise and vibration control specifications
Full construction documentation – sealed plans
Special effect lighting design and fixturing callouts
In-house millwork and upholstering manufacturing
Construction management and on-site trade coordination
Audio-video-systems design, integration, installation, calibration
U.S. Patented CineLounger® full motion theatre seating collection
NCARB Certified Architects – Licensed Interior Designers
Global installation capabilities
 H O M E T H E AT E R S . M E D I A R O O M S . H I G H - T E C H H O M E S .

H O M E T H E AT E R S . M E D I A R O O M S . H I G H - T E C H H O M E S .

PUBLISHER & PRESIDENT Mark Mendelsohn

Mark@homeentertainmentmag.com 818.992.6492

HOME Entertainment EDITOR Geoffrey Morrison

Geoff@homeentertainmentmag.com

home entertainment INteriors EDITOR Brooke Lange

Brooke@homeentertainmentmag.com
ART DIRECTOR Betty Abrantes
Betty@homeentertainmentmag.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dennis Burger, Louise Farr, B.A. Hoffman, Brooke Lange, Jean
Penn, Valerie Rockwell, Jack Roth, “De” Schofield, Hope
Winsborugh

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS William Butler, Randall Cordero, Anthony D’Elia, Dino Tonn
Photography Inc., Future Home Media, Dietrich Floeter,
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Don Kreski, Ken Nelson Photography, William J. Psolka
Photography, Scott Sandler Photography, Terry Scott White
FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES CONTACT:
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TO SUBMIT A PROJECT FOR CONSIDERATION IN THE MAGAZINE, please e-mail low-resolution scouting shots and an equipment list to Brooke Lange at brooke@homeentertainmentmag.com.
Advise if project has been previously published.

4 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com


something
unique
B
ack when we were launching
Home Entertainment in 2002, we
knew we had to do something
different from the competition.
We knew we had to “wow” our readers—
whether they were homeowners, interior
designers, architects, builders or custom
installers—with something unique.
That “something” turned out to be luxu-
rious, in-depth coverage of the nation’s most
upscale residences, media rooms and private
home cinemas—all of which were decked
out with elite audiovisual and automa-
tion systems. The idea was to make Home
Entertainment “the Architectural Digest” of
the consumer-electronics lifestyle magazine
category. Our goal was simple: To showcase
the most beautiful, technologically savvy
projects, and to give more coverage to these
stunning projects than our competitors.
To tour some of these amazing instal-
lations, visit our website at hemagazine.com;
they’re located under our “theaters/installa-
tions” tab. These projects are categorized by
style for your convenience—from themed
to traditional, transitional, contemporary, Art
Deco, rustic and Old-World movie palace.
If you need ideas for your media room or
home theater, this is a great place to start.
This is our first issue of Home Entertain-
ment Interiors—a special compilation of many
of these installations. Knowing that you may
not have time to browse every project on
our website, we’ve packaged more than 20
projects in HEI for ease of reference. We’ve
created this new digital magazine with you
our readers, in mind.
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
We take pride in every project we
publish, no matter how small it may be.
We receive dozens of submissions each
week, and we submit each of these proj-
ects through a rigorous approval process.
Each project is evaluated for the way
it looks—its interior design
and architectural features—
and for the technology. Even
though much of the gear is
working behind the scenes
and is invisible, it’s there and
it’s working hard. And it’s
working like magic, as stellar
technology does.
We celebrate that tech-
nology in each story with in-
depth technology writeups.
With each “Tech Talk,” we
tip our hats to all the custom
installers out there who have
worked hard to design and
install these projects. The
technology is the reason for
being in both Home Enter-
tainment and HEI.
This is only the begin- We knew we had to do
ning. Each year, we’ll pub- something different from the
lish a new version of Home competition. And we knew
Entertainment Interiors. We we had to “wow” our readers
look forward to that. We with something unique.
hope you do, too.
Mark Mendelsohn
Publisher
mark@homeentertainmentmag.com
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 5
{contents } premiere issue

8 | Swept Away A Chicago couple weaves elite

technology throughout their elaborate home—and it’s all cleverly
tucked away and as simple to use as an iPod. By Louise Farr

18 | Game On For the thrill of watching year-round

sporting events, a Michigan entrepreneur builds the sports bar of
his dreams—complete with five TV screens, a stellar surround-
sound system and a bar to boot. By B.A. Hoffman

22 | Ranch Dressing This Western-influenced, rustic

home theater in Jupiter, Fla., gives new meaning to the term
“cowboy chic.” By “De” Schofield

26 | Date-Night Getaway In this Asian-inspired

high-rise weekend getaway designed for a husband and wife’s
quiet time away from the kids, the bonsai-filled rooftop garden is
only one of its many wonders. By B.A. Hoffman

32 | Subtle and Stunning At first blush, the design

of this Miami home theater may appear subtle … but dig a little
deeper and you’ll discover that there’s nothing simple about the
theater’s look or inner workings. By Jack Roth

38 | Light Fantastique For one A-List Hollywood

movie star, a technicolor screening room in the privacy of his own
home provides all the drama he needs. By Louise Farr

44 | Mountain Masterpiece A businessman heads

for the mountains when he wants to get away from it all. Did
we mention that his little retreat—a 27,000-square-foot luxury
lodge—is tricked out with all the technological trappings of a big-
city high-tech home? By Brooke Lange

52 | Light and Simple A minimalist, light-infused

home in New York’s Westchester County touts the benefits of
minimalist-looking technology. By B.A. Hoffman

58 | Call of the Wild Home-theater design luminary

Jeff Smith collaborates with a style-savvy client to create a
glamorous private screening room for a South Florida vacation
home. By “De” Schofield

64 | Hidden Beauty In this award-winning house,

what’s new is meant to look old. Translation: This residence is
designed to resemble a finely restored Georgian home. And that
means every ounce of technology is hidden and out of the way.
By Brooke Lange

72 | Masculine to the Max A homeowner who’s

not a big movie fan builds a home theater for his family to enjoy.
Unexpectedly, he falls in love with it himself. By B.A. Hoffman

Photos from top: William Butler, Barry Grossman Photography,

Nathan Kirman, Barry Grossman Photography.
{contents } p remiere iss u e

78 | Stylish & Streamlined A Kentucky client is

so impressed by First Impressions Theme Theatre Inc.’s showroom
theater that he hires FITT on the spot. He then tweaks the
theater’s design with the help of Jeff Smith. By Jean Penn

82 | Beachy Keen A long-time Malibu resident who

isn’t a big TV person turns his beach home into a flat-screen
showcase with countless TVs and audio treats. By Louise Farr

90 | A Theater of the Senses In the custom home

of a high-end custom builder, technology and texture unite to
foster one growing family’s togetherness. By Hope Winsborough

98 | Roman Holiday Every time the owners step into

their golden home theater, they feel as if they’ve traveled back in
time to their Italian honeymoon. By Brooke Lange

102 | Miami Light An interior designer and a custom

installer put their heads together to make a complex audiovisual
installation look simple and seamless. By Valerie Rockwell

110 | A Theater for all Reasons In downtown

Chicago, one family’s private home cinema gives new meaning to
the term “mixed media.” By Hope Winsborough

114 | Out of Thin Air Incorporating a theater into the

vaulted ceiling area of a two-story-tall living room is an extreme
exercise in adaptation and flexibility. By Hope Winsborough

118 | Comfort Zone MLB baseball player Royce

Clayton and his Olympic sprinter wife design the perfect home
field for their growing family of six. By Hope Winsborough

126 | Balancing Act The creative collaboration among

a design team results in a home theater that’s life-enhancing for a
busy Dallas physician. By Hope Winsborough

130 | Bespoke Beauty A custom installer—who likes

to see his wife in Manolo Blahniks and has four separate fittings
for every handmade suit he orders—brings new meaning to the
concept of custom installation. By Brooke Lange

Photos from top: Anthony D’Elia, Terry Scott White, Barry

Grossman Photography, Ron Carell.

About the Cover:

Master theater designer and architect Jeffrey Smith, owner of
South Florida’s First Impressions Theme Theatres, put a spin on
his own showroom theater for a Kentucky client’s home theater.
Photography by Barry Grossman Photography.

HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS is published once a year by Mendelsohn Media, LLC; 21730 MaryLee Street, #37, Woodland
Hills, CA 91367. All correspondence should be sent to Mendelsohn Media, LLC; 22287 Mulholland Highway, #349, Calabasas, CA
92302. To purchase a single-copy digital subscription for $4.95, please go to www.nextnewsstand.com. Copyright © 2010 by HOME
ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS, a Mendelsohn Media, LLC, publication.
 I N T E R I O R S
Swept Away
successful Young Homeowners weave technology
throughout their Old Town Chicago residence—
A
and it’s all as easy to use as an iPod. > By Louise Farr
> photography by Nathan Kirkman
A few years ago, Sheila and Jim Clary
decided that they needed a home upon
which they could impart their own
touches. But they are a busy working
couple—she as owner of a Chicago en-
tertainment marketing agency and he as
president of an executive benefits com-
pany. With their lives filled with work,
travel, and entertaining, they didn’t have
the time to build from the ground up.
Instead, they house-hunted in the Chi-
cago neighborhood where they already
lived, Old Town, which is known for its
tree-canopied streets lined with cafes,
boutiques, and antique shops.
Eventually they stumbled across a
spec house, still in the framing stage,
which would allow them to incorporate
the elements they wanted. “In the city,
your space is limited,” Jim says. “Clearly
there are trade-offs for living there.
You don’t have a yard. You have to go
8 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
through an alley to park your car. But
we wanted a sense of space.”
What the Clarys got is four floors
of airy comfort and sophistication, from
the top-floor master bedroom and the
his-and-hers offices to the lower-level
media area, with guest rooms and other
living spaces in between. A key fea-
ture that sold the Clarys on the 7,700-
square-foot home was its high ceilings.
“A lot of houses we looked at had a
good sense of space on the first floor,
but the other floors had normal-height
ceilings,” says Jim, who also chose the
home because of its builder, Jay Metzler
of Metzler/Hull Development in Chica-
go. “Jay had designed a house where the
ceilings were the same height through-
out,” Jim says. “It’s built for entertaining,
so it’s set up to be welcoming. It’s big,
but it doesn’t feel empty. It had the kind
of living that we wanted.”
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 9
 I N T E R I O R S

Adds Shelia Clary, “I like all of the

natural light in the home.You sort of feel
like you’re swept away.”
For John Cannon, founding partner
of interior design firm Cannon Frank,
the challenge was to meld the owners’
contemporary tastes with the traditional
house they were buying. “I like to follow
the aesthetics of the building,” says Can-
non, who brought the exterior’s Celtic
influences inside through details that in-
clude a Celtic-style arched fireplace in the
living room, various furnishings, and the
staircase’s ironwork.
Cannon also admired Sheila’s personal
style. “She dresses impeccably,” he says.
“The woman’s shoes are to die for—she’s
phenomenal with her textiles.” So the in-
terior designer felt free, on occasion, to
make design suggestions that other clients
might have thought outrageous. “I think
he was excited when I said I wanted col-
or,” says Sheila, who designed the couple’s
second home in Scottsdale, Ariz. “He just
had a good sense of how far he could
push me. John is confident, and it really
helped me gain confidence.” Says Can-
non, laughing, “Not many people are go-
ing to let you do chartreuse.”
The color in question applies to the
Donghia and Pollack fabrics used to up-
holster the Art Deco-style club chairs by
Interior Crafts that take up residence in
the couple’s formal living room.
The lower-level media room and bar,
conceived primarily as a space in which
to entertain (although the Clarys do
watch TV and movies in the space), share
the floor with the wine cellar. The rooms
have emerged as a hub. The Clarys host
wine tastings for their friends and make

The media room boasts a 60-inch Zenith plasma

TV. Vertical pillars within the custom cherry
cabinetry hide the tall Sonance speakers; cen-
ter speakers are tucked below the screen, and
subwoofers are hidden behind cabinet doors.
“A lot of clients don’t want to see technology,”
says the interior designer. Previous page: In the
office, custom cherry cordova cabinetry encases
a 32-inch Sony LCD TV.
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 11
 I N T E R I O R S

“I’m a gadget guy,” says homeowner Jim Clary.

“Technology has always been fun, but now it’s
more just, ‘This is how I live.’ Is it necessary?
Absolutely not, but it certainly is a convenience
that we get a great deal of value from. And with
a project as complex and as expensive as this, I
wanted to be sure I had someone who was going
to go the extra mile. That was John Baumeister.”
In the media room, the Asian-style lacquered
coffee table is by Baker Knapp & Tubbs. “If I’m
going to have people putting their feet on a table
and spilling pizza, it needs to be practical,”
Cannon says. The couple’s Escient system dis-
tributes music, satellite TV, and video to every
room in the house, and it’s all controlled by the
Crestron control system. Below: The master
bath’s wall-mounted Crestron touchscreen.

spontaneous selections via CellarTracker, a

software system that keeps tabs on incoming
and outgoing bottles. (Favorites include Cal-
ifornia’s Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Sine Qua
Non, and Clos des Papes.) An Escient music
and video management system controls the
homeowners’ eclectic entertainment tastes,
which range from comedies and action mov-
ies to Fox’s 24, and from jazz to Rod Stewart
oldies,The Fray, and Coldplay, with a smidgen
of hip-hop thrown in to please Sheila.
This the couple’s first media room.
“They’re getting a lot of use out of it, which
they weren’t sure they would,” Cannon says.
To accommodate Jim’s 6-foot-3-inch frame
when he’s watching the 60-inch Zenith plas-
ma, Cannon designed a high-backed 12-by-
10-foot L-shaped sectional sofa that’s 4 feet
deep for Jim to sink into. “You don’t want to
start fidgeting, you want to relax,” Cannon
says.“When I watch TV, I really like to put my
feet up and have my beverage nearby—just
crash and relax and not wake up an hour-
and-a-half later stiff.” The sofa is bathed in a
Rodolph woven wool flannel; oval Donghia
ottomans roll out on casters from under a
nearby Asian-style table. To aid acoustics and
ward off the slightest basement chill, walls are
covered in a woven red cloth by Donghia.

‘‘J ohn’s first question is, ‘How do you

live?’” says Sheila. “That makes ev-
erything make sense, because you’re
not going in only from a design aesthetic.”

12 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS

Homeowner Jim Clary manages the couple’s
wine collection, left, with CellarTracker soft-
ware. He keeps abreast of all of incoming and
outgoing bottles from his office computer. The
cedar storage units can house 4,500 bottles.
For the kitchen, below, interior designer John
Cannon selected quilted, triple-tone diamond-
pattern Ann Sacks tile, set against putty-colored
cabinetry that is slightly glazed and distressed.
“We tend to spend most of our time in that
area,” says Sheila. The trio of khaki Dupioni
silk shades above the cherry wood island,
designed by Cannon, are from Lightology, while
the L’Origine chairs are from deAurora, and are
upholstered in Retano fabric from Donghia.

It was Cannon’s idea to reconfigure the

L-shaped kitchen/family room into a great
room that would comprise the kitchen and
a secondary media room. “I knew that if one
was in the kitchen prepping dinner, the other
wouldn’t want to be far away,” says Cannon,
who also knew that the couple used video-
tape in their respective professions and might
want to watch video on their 42-inch Fujitsu
plasma TV while dinner was in the oven. To
the Clarys’ delight, that room has become
the most used in the house. “I don’t think
anybody can assume how they are going to
use their house,” says Cannon, who considers
it his job to take on that task for his clients
ahead of the game.
Jim, an ardent technology fan, brought
in custom installer and audio/video systems
designer John Baumeister of Baumeister
Electronic Architects in Niles, Ill., to create a
whole-home automation system that includes
Crestron lighting and iPod interfaces in every
room. “What I wanted was a home that was
not just a so-called ‘smart house’ with a fairly
elaborate electronic setup, but something that
would lend itself to expansion in the future,”
Jim explains. To that end, homebuilder Met-
zler ran electrical conduit to every room so
that the house could be adapted to future
electronic innovations without retrofitting.
“I think I drive John [Baumeister] a little
nuts because I read a lot of the electronics
magazines,” Jim says.“Any time there’s a new
idea, I tend to want to put it in the house.You
know the old saying,‘You can always tell the
pioneers because they’re the ones with all

HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 13

 The kitchen overlooks the al-
der-wrapped great room, which
overlooks the rooftop deck
and garden area. The interior
designer added the leather
daybed by Interior Crafts to en-
courage casual lounging while
Sheila or Jim is cooking.

the arrows in their backs’? I probably need
to be a little less quick to jump on things
and let other people work out the bugs.
“John is not afraid to experiment,” Jim
continues, “but he’ll be the first to tell me
why I do not want to do something—and he
always has a good reason to back it up.”
Baumeister, who relishes in receiving e-
mails from the homeowner whenever he
discovers new and enticing gadgets, designed
the lower-level media room as the heart of
the home’s technology. “It’s an awesome
home, but there’s a lot of Midwest sensibility
in it,” he says.“It’s not like the West Coast. It’s
not like Florida. It’s not something frivolous
that’s just going in there as a show-off piece.
If we’re putting in technology, the Clarys are
going to use it every day.”
Sheila is particularly fond of her bedside
Crestron touchscreen. “My favorite thing
is the Good Night button,” she says. “Push
one button and every light goes out in the
house.” The Good Morning button illu-
minates the path to the bathroom and the
I N T E R I O R S
stairs. “This is definitely the smartest house The living room, which revolves
we’ve ever had,” she says. around the Celtic-arched fire-
place, can be used as an over-
Tech Talk: flow space for the dining room.
The Clary Home The table fronting the window
If you need confirmation that in-wall speak- opens up to accommodate eight
ers have come a long way from their humble guests. The chandelier is by
and much-maligned beginnings, look no Formations, and is available
further than this home’s main media room. through Holly Hunt, while the
Despite the fact that Baumeister had plenty two antique Parisian Art Deco
of room to install box speakers in the media vases that reside on the mantle
room’s large entertainment cabinet (which are from Elements in Chicago.
also houses two full racks of gear and a Ze-
nith P60W26 plasma TV), he opted for in-
walls: Sonance Silhouette I and II in-walls, to
be exact.
Baumeister explains his attachment to
the line: “In the days before the advent of
the plasma speaker—before Artisons and the
like hit the scene—Silhouettes were really a
go-to for me because they sounded great and
they could match a plasma, and even though
they’re in-walls, that long, thin outline gives
you a really cool look.” A look, by the way,
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 15
 I N T E R I O R S

“Preplanning creates a
project where people aren’t
stepping on toes. The
needs of the client are met
and problems don’t arise
because decisions are made
up front.”
—John Baumeister,
custom installer

For the top-floor master suite, the interior designer’s muse was homeowner Sheila Clary. “She’s a beau-
tiful blonde woman,” Cannon says. “I wanted it to be romantic, sexy, and very luxurious for her.” The
custom cabinetry of figured anigre wraps the 42-inch Fujitsu plasma TV. The chairs and the fabric for
the duvet are from Holly Hunt, while the draperies are from Donghia.

that the clients also wanted.
But why use Silhouettes in this room?
Why not rely on a more traditional speaker,
given that the speaker is going to be hid-
den in the cabinet behind acoustical fabric?
“Designers like that elongated, linear look,”
he says. “By the time everything else was put
into the cabinet, space was tight. We needed
a long, thin speaker, and the Silhouettes fit
there perfectly and give us a great sound.”
The Silhouettes maintain their trim form
by using the same sort of oblong 6-by-9-inch
drivers you expect to find in a car audio sys-
tem; in a home cinema speaker, they’re defi-
nitely out of the norm.
Beneath the Silhouette II center speaker,
the custom cabinetry also houses a Sonance
Cinema Sub System, which consists of two
passive subwoofer units, each of which holds
a pair of 8-inch drivers, as well as a Sonamp
Cinema 260 amplifier. Rounding out the
speaker system is a pair of Sonance Virtuoso
V831DR in-ceiling speakers.
“Unfortunately, there was no place to
put surround speakers except for the ceil-
ing,” Baumeister says, “but those matched
the timbre of the fronts beautifully, and the
sound-shaping controls on the Crestron
C2N-DAP8 [7.1 Surround-Sound Proces-
sor] really allowed the programmer to con-
“What made this project
tour the sound to fit the room. They give so much fun was
you so many controls on that thing it’s almost combining function
kind of ridiculous.” with aesthetics and
the homeowners’ sense
Speaking of Crestron, Baumeister says that
of high style.”
one of his firm’s biggest challenges on this
—John Cannon,
project was simplifying the control system: interior designer
“We as industry folk think a lot of this equip-
ment that comes out is cool, but I tell you—a
lot of end users look at it and they’re fright-
ened by it. Jim and Sheila weren’t frightened, RESOURCES
mind you, but they kept asking us to make
Builder:
things simpler and easier.” He says that the
Metzler Hull Development of
interface for the Escient E2-100 Music Man-
Chicago, Ill. (773.871.2258,
ager, for example, was challenging for the
metzlerhull.com)
couple. “They wanted a user interface that
was as intuitive as the one of the iPod, and Custom Installer:
we couldn’t find one, so eventually we had to Baumeister Electronic Archi-
cook one up ourselves.”—Dennis Burger tects of Niles, Ill. (no longer in
business)
Interior Designer:
>To see a full equipment list for this Cannon Frank of Chicago, Ill.
project, please visit hemagazine.com. (312.595.1550, cannonfrank.com)

16 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

 Your Living room ControL P o r ta L

Savant’s breakthrough On-Screen Display (OSD) technology

provides the most advanced and visually engaging way to
navigate, browse and select diverse home control services
and multimedia content. Savant’s On-Screen Display enables
complete navigation and control of all home systems without
the need to leave your comfortable sofa or interrupt your
audio or video programming.

Savant’s On-Screen Display (OSD)

While watching your favorite movie, use a Savant remote

to easily adjust the temperature, dim the lights, check the
security cameras, play music, obtain the weather and sports
scores, and more… Savant has revolutionized your high
definition displays into “living room control portals.”

Use any of Savant’s remotes or your iPhone™

www.savantav.com
18 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

Game On
> what to do if your son
takes beer brewing very seriously,
and Dad loves to knock back son’s
brew with the guys while playing
poker or taking in every Saturday or Sunday
afternoon football game that’s on, whether
it’s collegiate or professional? The answer is
easy if you’re the wife of the owner of this
private sports bar.You either walk away from
the marriage or you succumb to your hus-
band’s crazy fantasy—of being able to watch
several sporting events on several TVs in one
room—with, of course, his buddies and plen-
ty of beer by his side. So the wife stayed in
the relationship and allowed her hubbie to
build what he wanted ... knowing that she
would have a very happy partner and that she
would get to use the sports bar for her girl-
friend get-togethers.
“I knew I wanted five TVs so I could
watch five different games if I wanted to,”
says the homeowner of his private sports bar.
“You know how many sports games they put
on at a time?”
In addition to being a sports junkie, the
homeowner is also wild about technology.
“I read that the homes of the future would
be computerized, so when I first started
building the house I decided to wire for
everything,” he says. “I wasn’t sure what I’d
put in there, but at least it would be there
for the future. All the technology was so
interesting, so as I got more involved I kept
adding more.”
This sophisticated 1,200-square-foot
sports bar shares the lower floor with a wine
cellar and a tasting room. Double doors open
onto a large grass area with a cabana that
boasts, of course, a 30-inch flat-screen TV
that’s tied into the home’s A/V and automa-
tion system. “Walking into the sports bar is
like walking into a movie theater with lots
of screens,” says the homeowner. “It’s really
exciting.”
“Exciting” in that the homeowner and
his friends can easily go back and forth be-
tween sporting events with ease. “One of his
requests was to make the system very simple,”
says custom installer Navot Shoresh, princi-
pal/owner of Spire Integrated Systems LLC
in Detroit, Mich. “Not only can you watch
five different games simultaneously, but if you
want to move a sporting evnt from one of
the smaller TVs to a bigger TV, you can.”The
touchpanel interface mimics the layout of the
TV wall for ease of use.
Set within the custom stained cherry
cabinetry is a 70-inch Sony SBR, and four
32-inch Samsung LCDs. “When we started
the project, plasma couldn’t give us this size,”
Shoresh says. “It’s the best screen for the
money without going into rear projection.”
He selected the Samsungs before the Sony Bra-
via hit the market. “It was the best LCD you
could find,” Shoresh says. The sound system
is just as superior with 10 pairs of speakers
and two subwoofers, which are concealed
in the cabinet, below the TV cabinet and in
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
I N T E R I O R S
An entrepreneur
in michigan builds
the sports bar
of his dreams,
complete with
numerous TVs for
watching round-
the-clock sport-
ing events.
> By B.A. Hoffman
> photography by
william butler
The owner is a longtime season
ticket-holder with the Detroit
Pistons, and a fan of the Univer-
sity of Michigan, Michigan State,
and other college and pro sports
teams as evidenced by the glazed
logos above the TV wall. The
coffered ceiling is covered with
sound-absorbing panels and puck
lighting; speakers are tucked into
the ceiling. The TVs are floated
into the wall of cabinetry instead
of being installed directly. Each
set is mounted on a retractable
arm so the installer can remove
the cabinet’s front panel to access
the TV for maintenance.
| 19
 The pool table, hand-carved in cherry, is often the center of attention during the many parties thrown by the homeowners. The
wrought-iron chandelier above, by Fine Art, has etched mica lamp shades, which are unbreakable. The coffered ceiling treatment
adds further dimension to the space, and echoes the ceiling treatment in the TV area. Players waiting for their turn can place
their drink on the area’s bar ledge, which lines the perimeter of the room.

the back wall. Even the nearby bar is tied
into the AMX control system, which feeds
from the 500-CD Escient Fireball music
server and the Escient Fireball movie man-
agement system, which stores 400 films.
“The key to the whole thing is the
[MVP 8400] AMX controller,” Shoresh
says, and the customized touchpanels. The
main wireless touchpanel, which can be
used anywhere, docks into the bar’s wall.
Since the homeowner is a big Pistons fan,
Shoresh customized the cable TV inter-
face to look just like a basketball court; the
resources numbers on the basketballs reference vari-
Builder: ous cable TV channels. “When you select a
the homeowner channel, a reference picture comes up on
Custom installer: the screen to illustrate what you have se-
Spire Integrated Systems LLC of lected,” says the custom installer.
Detroit, Mich. (spireintegrated.
com, 248.544.0072) While the sportS bar’s audio
Interior Designer: and video systems aren’t a departure from
Kimberly Designs of Bingham the rest of the home’s elite technology
Farms, Mich. (248.594.7555) —which includes seven other TVs and
a home theater—the interior design is a
very big departure. “They wanted to have
an informal, casual, and laid-back space,”
says interior designer Kimberly Corera,
adding that balance of the house is ex-
tremely formal. In the sports bar, the mate-
rials had to be easy to care for. The main-
tenance-free floor is slate with glass inserts
instead of marble or mahogany wood, so
spilled drinks don’t damage—an amenity
that comes in handy when the family in-
vites 200 people for a Christmas party.The
open layout accommodates large groups,
and it makes the bar as accessible to the
card table as it is to the area that doubles
as a dance floor. The warmth of the cin-
namon-glazed cabinetry, which wraps the
Venetian plaster walls, keeps the space from
feeling too cold or capacious.
Corera gives the homeowner full cred-
it for much of the sports bar’s look. “He
picked the size of the TVs and came up
with the design to fit them,” she says.While

20 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com


The cherry card table has a removable top to ac-
commodate poker and bridge players; the chairs
are have a maroon and beige stripe leather that
coordinates with the pool table’s bar stools.
the homeowner can discuss his extensive
wine collection with friends as they sit
and sip in front of the double-sided stone
fireplace—which divides the floor’s two
recreation areas—he can also gather with
friends for a game of Texas Hold ’Em in
the sports bar. “They love to host card par-
ties,” says the interior designer. “They’re
very down-to-earth people.”
“All of the ‘toys’ are great,” says Shoresh,
“but if the owner comes home at and wants
to turn on the TV and can’t, that’s an issue.
The key is the AMX touchpanel. There’s a
lot of technology, but it’s simple to use.”
“I would recommend [automation] to
everyone,” says the homeowner. “My wife
is the perfect example—she gets flustered
when using technology, but she can handle
any of the technology in the house. It’s so
user-friendly. People who have not expe-
rienced [automation] should learn about
it—they’ll want to have it in their home.
It’s the way of the future.”
I N T E R I O R S
Tech Talk:
THE SPORTS BAR
Controlling five TVs could have been five
times as complicated as controlling one, were
it not for the talent of the system designers at
Spire Intergrated Systems LLC, the Detroit-
based firm that specified and installed the au-
dio, video, and automation in this home.
According to Navot Shoresh, the princi-
pal/owner, the five of the TVs are controlled
by a single AMX Modero 8.4-inch touch-
screen, which sits in an in-wall docking sta- “There’s a lot of
tion at the bar but can also be removed for technology, but it’s
very simple to use.”
use elsewhere in the room. The touchscreen
includes a TV control menu that shows the —Navot Shoresh,
custom installer
five screens. “It’s an exact replica of the wall
with the TVs,” Shoresh says.
Each representation of the small screens on
the touchscreen is split into two buttons: con-
trol and swap.The control button lets the user
select the Integra DVD, the Escient media
server, a security camera, or any of the home’s
seven cable boxes. The swap button moves
whatever is playing on that screen over to the
center 70-inch Sony rear-projection TV, and
what was playing on the large screen moves
to the small screen. (The smaller screens are all
Samsung 32-inch LCD panels.) The Modero
also controls and shows the status of the secu-
rity system, the lighting, and the multiroom
audio system—not only for the sports bar, but “They wanted the
also for every other room of the home. space to be intimate
but very open for
Only audio corresponding to the video
large functions.”
program playing on the 70-inch Sony TV can
—Kimberly Corera,
be heard through the room’s surround-sound interior designer
system, which uses three SpeakerCraft AIM8
Three ceiling speakers in the front, two KEF
Ci80 ceiling speakers in the back, and a KEF
PSW2500 subwoofer installed in the cabin-
etry below the Sony TV.
The room’s rich woodwork and hard
stone floor presented a daunting acousti-
cal challenge. “The room is all hard surfaces,
so sound reflects off of everything,” Shoresh
explains. “We incorporated some acoustical
panels from Acoustic Innovations into the
ceiling to quiet things down. You can spend
so much money on equipment but you can
screw it up so bad if you don’t treat the room.”
—Brent Butterworth
> To see a full equipment list for this
project, please visit hemagazine.com.
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 21
22 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

Ranch Dressing
A palatial estate in Jupiter, Fla., gives new
meaning to the term “Cowboy Chic” with
its rustic-looking home theater.
> By “De” Schofield > Photography by Grossman Photography
O
nce upon a time, “ranch
living” conjured up im-
ages of barnlike structures
in a dusty, remote locale.
Fast-forward to 2008,
where a spectacular 20,000-square-foot
home sited in Ranch Colony Estates dis-
pels all preconceived notions of what a
home on the range should be.
One of the many highlights of this
home on the range—complete with
lakefront views and elaborate man-made
water features—is the luxurious custom
home theater. “The owner wanted this
to be a gift for his family,” says Don
Dixon of Definitive Electronic Solutions
in Jupiter, Fla. The firm also integrated
the home’s lighting and security sys-
tems, and landscape lighting and music
features. But unlike most home theaters
that are designed while the rest of the
house is under construction, the own-
ers waited to start building their private
cinema. “They did not want their home
theater to distract from or delay from
building the home,” says the custom in-
staller. About six weeks after the home
was completed, Dixon started the build-
ing process for the theater.
Dixon called upon Jeff Smith, presi-
dent and owner of North Miami’s First
Impressions Theme Theatres, an archi-
tectural and design company for private
home cinemas, to provide interior de-
HEmagazine.com
I N T E R I O R S
sign services. “We worked together on
other projects in the past, and I knew
Jeff could deliver unparalleled quality
and state-of-the-art design,” Dixon says,
adding that they only had 120 days to
complete the theater.
“Our objective was to create a seam-
less display of big picture, big sound, and
a Wild West thematic statement within
the home’s existing architectural style,”
Smith says, adding that he also had to
temper a masculine hunting-outdoorsy
theme with a laid-back, casual feel.
This screening room is one of the
largest theaters Smith and Dixon have
designed, at 27 feet in length and 28
feet wide with dual-height 12- to 22-
foot ceilings. It’s almost double the size
of most theaters, Smith says. For the rear
upper ceiling, First Impressions used the
aft portion of the ceiling for the Sky
Dome, which features a dusk-to-dawn
fiber-optic lighting scene, shooting-star
constellations and a color fade system
that morphs from sunrise to sunset. The
centerpiece of the ceiling, however, is an
elliptical, wagon wheel-like soffit outfit-
ted with special lighting effects that cre-
ate realistic sunrises and sunsets.
The ample space provides ample seat-
ing for at least 14 adults via two rows
of theater chairs that include a pair of
day bed-configured CineLoungers that
bookend the back row of theater seating.
HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 23
 I N T E R I O R S

The woodworking is rusticated

knotty pine; belt-buckle-look
trim lines the series of ovals in
the ceiling treatment. Previous
page: The fire screen and stage
overdrape/cornice are fully
automated. The draperies are
a high-nap, high-quality fire-
rated commercial velvet; each
is accented with gold boullion
fringe. Smith chose to show-
case the owners’ collection of
custom-framed, Western movie
posters along the walls.

“As the project

progressed, the client
said it was like
opening a
Christmas present
every day.”
—Jeffrey Smith,
theater designer

“The client always
wanted a Krell audio
system and couldn’t
wait to fire it up.”
—Don Dixon,
custom installer
All are clad in full-hide Nubuck Suede in
an antelope hue, and are outfitted with
hand-hewn beverage holders. “Using full
hides gives a real ranch-like feel,” Smith
says. “It really worked with the whole
genre of what we’re trying to create.”
Enter the theater through vestibules on
either side of the Stewart Firehawk 123-
inch diagonal projection screen, which
works in tandem with the Digital Projec-
tion three-chip DLP projector. “The own-
er wanted a really large screen, but we were
somewhat confined by the room’s configu-
ration and the location of entry doors on
each side of the screen,” Dixon says. When
the lights go black, a motorized projector
lift drops down from the ceiling.
“One of the biggest challenges was the
projector placement on a lift that falls be-
tween the lower-level and the upper-level
ceiling,” Smith says, adding that the resolu-
tion was presented in the perimeter soffit,
which defines the differing ceiling heights
and conveniently keeps the projector and
the lift out of sight.
The Krell free-standing left and right
tower speakers are built into the architec-
tural elements that flank the screen, and are
capped with a deer head mount instead of a
traditional capital. The Krell center speaker
is angled upward for optimum listening;
subwoofers are tucked below the screen.
To meet the owners’ request for full
sound-system concealment, Smith veiled

24 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

the speakers behind acoustically transpar-
ent grill panels. Strategically placed LEDs
spotlight the subwoofers and amplifiers
when the sound system is being used. The
result: The equipment “appears” when the
house lights go down, giving the high-end
gear a stage of its own.
A retracting fire screen that bears a turn-
of-the-century cowboy photograph lends
a touch of authenticity. First Impressions
purchased the rights to the photograph of
Billy Cramer, a professional bronco rider,
from the Wyoming State Archives, and
added sepia tones. “It’s a nod to the days of
Vaudeville when theaters had fire screens
that protected the actors in case of fire,”
Smith explains. “When the husband saw
this image, he liked it so much he asked if
we could purchase it for use in his home.”
“This is one theater that really sets the
stage for entertainment,” Dixon says, add-
ing that the owner can activate the theater
from any touchpanel in the house.“You be-
gin to hear the theme from The Good, The
Bad, and The Ugly at low volume, then the
fire screen comes down and the uplighting
comes on and the ceiling goes from day to
dusk. It’s quite an experience.”
Tech Talk:
The Cowboy Theater
The owner’s criteria for the was straightfor-
ward: He wanted uncompromising perfor-
mance at extremely high volumes, and he
wanted the equipment to carry the Krell
brand. Thankfully for installer Don Dixon,
CEO of Definitive Electronic Solutions, the
latter practically guaranteed the former.
Dixon selected Krell’s flagship LAT-1 and
LAT-C loudspeakers for the front right, left,
and center channels. Constructed of extrud-
ed aluminum up to 1.5 inches in thickness
rather than the traditional wood or MDF,
the LATs are incredibly inert, and resistant
to the resonance problems that color the
sound of most speakers.To power these mas-
sive speakers—the LAT-1s are more than 4.5
feet tall and weight 250 pounds each—the
custom installer employed three Krell Full
Power Balanced 450Mcx monaural ampli-
fiers. “Those are rated at 450 watts into 8
ohms, but the LAT-series speakers have a
4-ohm impedance,” he says.The impedance
rating is a measure of the average load a
component presents to a source of electrical
current; halving the impedance draws twice
the current. In other words, “that enables
the amplifiers to deliver a whopping 900
watts to each front speaker.” However, one
gains the extra power only if the amplifier is
capable of delivering it. Happily, this is not a
worry with Krell amplifiers.
In the rear, Dixon didn’t have space for
freestanding tower speakers. “We had to
build the surrounds and rears into the col-
umns, and most of Krell’s speakers—even
the bookshelf speakers—were too deep.
They would have really made the columns
protrude into the room.” Luckily, the slim
profile of Krell’s Resolution 4 on-wall loud-
speaker fit perfectly within the design of
the room. “Those speakers are also rated at
4 ohms,” Dixon says, “so when combined
with a pair of Krell KAV-2250 two-channel A wireless Crestron touchpanel
amplifiers, which are rated at 250 watts per control system allows the cli-
channel into 8 ohms, they’re running at 500 ent to access all the bells and
watts apiece.” That brings the power of the whistles in the theater—in-
theater up to 4,700 watts—and that’s before cluding the audio and video,
subwoofers are added to the equation. draperies, fire screen, lighting,
The system’s main subs, a pair of Krell and HVAC—from any room in
Resolution Subwoofers, combined add the house.
another 1,400 watts of power. And if you
know where to look—beneath two hid-
den access panels beneath the sofas in the
back of the room—you’ll find another
2,000 watts worth of bass in the form of
two James Loudspeaker Cinema 12 Sub-
woofers. By coupling these to the internal
structure of the riser itself, Dixon created,
for all intents and purposes, a big bass shak-
er. So why not rely on a purpose-built bass
shaker, like a tactile transducer? “I’ve always
had the sense of these tactile transducers
as being fake,” Dixon says. “I think they’re
gimmicky. There’s simply no replacement
for the impact of a true subwoofer, and
impact is what this theater is all about. It’s
so powerful, so dynamic, with such fidel- resources
ity that it will literally scare you.” —Dennis Custom Installer: Definitive
Burger Electronics of Jupiter, Fla. (561.748.
3564, definitiveelectronics.com)
Theater Designer and Ar-
chitect: First Impressions Theme
> To see a full equipment list for this Theatres Inc. of North Miami, Fla.
project, please visit hemagazine.com. (800.305.7545, cineloungers.com)
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 25
 INTERIORS
Date-Night
Getaway
A Chicago high-rise retreat provides a host of
technologically savvy surprises.
> By B.A. Hoffman > Photography By Don Kreski
T
his pied-a-terre in Chicago’s
River North neighborhood
gives new meaning to the phrase
Date Night. “We raise our four
kids in the west suburbs of Chi-
cago,” says homeowner Jon Butcher of his
3,500-square-foot Japanese-inspired high-
rise condominium. “This is where we come
to get away from our kids.We use this as our
date place.”
This is the Butchers’ second in-town Love
Shack, which boasts a 360-degree view of
the city and 3,000 square feet of outdoor liv-
ing space. “When I walked into this condo,
it was the most dramatic space I had seen in
Chicago,” says Butcher. “It feels like the city
is wrapped around you. And as soon as I saw
this garden in my head, it was all over.”
Imagine arriving in this modern, mini-
malist masterpiece after a long week at work.
You drop your overnight bag in the bamboo-
wrapped foyer and press the “romance” but-
ton on the wall-mounted AMX touchscreen.
The living room sheers close magically (and
silently), allowing you to enjoy the glowing
Chicago sunset and the intricately designed
Japanese garden comprised of bonsai-trained
Scotch pines and peaceful pools of water that
ripple amidst the boulders—all while main-
taining your sense of privacy at the same time.
As meditative Japanese-inspired music oozes
through the home’s distributed audio system,
26 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
your stress melts away. You exhale. A specially
selected cent named Damascus washes over
you as it seeps through the home’s air vents,
setting the mood.
After you grab a bottle of champagne and
two chilled glasses from the refrigerator, you
mosey onto your private city deck—a soaring
50-foot-tall space that’s equipped with a cozy,
20-foot U-shaped sectional sofa upholstered
in Sunbrella and Perennials fabric.“This is the
most dramatic place to have a cocktail in all
of Chicago,” Butcher says as he relishes the
thought of watching the city come alive at
night. After dinner, he changes the setting to
“cocktail,” which includes a play list of sexy,
hip lounge music; the lighting dims and the
room’s aroma changes to Silk Roads, what
Butcher describes as an exotic, sensual scent.
The waterfalls flow, and the shades remain in
an up position. The outside living areas are
activated for outdoor enjoyment.
Scent is an integral design element of
every living space that Butcher designs.
“When I start a living environment, my
whole deal is what kind of experience do I
want to create—not architecture or interior
design, but how do I want to feel, and how
do I want other people to feel?
“Whether the experience is tranquil,
relaxing or sensual—or playful or fun—I
take a look at what I have to work with,” he
says. This can range from music to lighting,
The suede-covered walls envelope the master suite in tranquili-
ty. The platform bed, custom designed by Richar and fabricated
by Christian Liaigre, floats in the room. J. Robert Scott fabric
bathes the linens, while a striped carpet anchors the space.
The designer created the low dresser of bookmatched walnut,
which supports a 42-inch high-def NEC plasma monitor.

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 27

 I N T E R I O R S
“I sell mood, and furniture
happens to be part of
that mood.”
—Richar, interior designer
“The aromatherapy really
changes the whole feel of the
whole house.”
—Dan Daker, custom installer
The living room is lined with
custom oak cabinetry in a
natural color. The three stools
fronting the custom 8-foot-
long, walnut-topped cocktail
table are bronze-finished
metal. “They love a very simple
clean look, so a Japanese look
is them,” says the interior
designer. “It’s all very sensual—
the scents, the furniture, their
taste in music.”
28 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT
plant life and water, which can invoke a sense
of peace and relaxation into any room. Fire
and fabrics, he says, can add sensuality and
sexiness. And then there’s aromatherapy—
Butcher’s secret design weapon.
“When I put together an environment,
my key focus is sensuality in the true sense
of the word—the senses,” he says.“For a truly
exceptional environment, you can’t leave any
of the senses to chance.”
In ancient times, people from every major
civilization infused their public spaces—
Roman baths, Asian temples, Renaissance
courtyards—with flower, spice or aromatic
wood fragrances. Butcher believes that add-
ing a special aroma to a room environment
creates mood and memories. To that end,
he infuses his scents of choice throughout
the condo with the help of AromaSys, an
automated scent-delivery system designed
by Mark Peltier in Minneapolis (Peltier has
installed his systems in many LasVegas hotels,
but this is his first residential project).
The system disperses scented oils in a fine
mist that’s distributed through the home’s air
vents every 30 to 40 seconds. “There’s such
a connection between smell and memory,”
INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
says Butcher, who has been with his wife for
18 years. “The aromas [used in the house]
are strongly associated with my love for my
wife and the experiences that we have had
together through the years. When we walk
in, we know we’re back [to us].”
To not distract from the stunning garden
and city views, the owner decided to incor-
porate minimal technology in the home—a
few flat-screen TVs, and an invisible audio
and automation system. “Our St. Charles
house has it all,” says the homeowner.“It was
the smartest house in the world at the time,
but the city house is much more simple.”
“They didn’t want to see anything,” says
Dan Daker, co-owner of MediaTech LLC in
St. Charles, who also upgraded the technolo-
gy in their primary residence.“There are only
a few visible keypads in the whole place.”
The main audiovisual components are
tucked into a built-in cabinet to the right
of the living room’s 61-inch high-def NEC
plasma monitor; 20 Boston Acoustics speak-
ers, most of which are concealed in the ceil-
ing, deliver sound; and 10 Rockustic speakers
fuel the outdoor audio system. The home’s
HVAC system, lighting, audio and video,
waterfalls, fountains, window treatments and
aromatherapy system can all be controlled via
the wireless or in-wall touchscreens.
“We customized the AMX software—
it’s called ‘capture and play’ technology,” says
Daker. This technology allows the owner
to record a specific event—lighting levels,
audio and video volumes, play lists and tem-
perature—to a specific lifestyle mode but-
ton. These lifestyle modes range from away to In the living room, top, the 25-foot-tall motorized draperies of woven wool sheers
arrival, romance, late night, theater, daytime, close automatically to protect the furniture. The designer selected Christian Liaigre
cocktails, wakeup and asleep. The owners can seating for the space. Walnut end tables flank the sofas; the lamps are fabricated
of camel leather. Since windows occupy most of the home’s wall space, the designer
even pre-set the mood before their arrival via placed Neil Goodan’s untitled sculpture of bronze tools on the ceiling soffit.
the telephone interface system.
The kitchen’s counters, above, are topped with a chocolate brown granite. The
“They can call in to activate the lifestyle
flagstone and rift-cut oak flooring, with a coffee-bean stain that contrasts with
modes—and there are 12 of them,” Daker the home’s light millwork, make an appearance here as they do in the other living
says. The window blinds can be programmed spaces. Miele and Sub-Zero appliances nestle into the wraparound cabinetry. The
to open and close with the movement of the Miele cooktop takes up residence in the island.
sun to protect the woodwork and the furni- Left: From the master suite touchscreen, top left, the homeowners can change the
ture. And in keeping with the space’s mini- music, lighting and aroma with the touch of a button.
malist, no-clutter-allowed approach, all music
is stored on the main home’s Audio Request

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 29

 I N T E R I O R S
Z1.500 Zone Music Server, which is synced
into the city condo system via ARQLink.
While the overall technology may seem
basic, there is one tiny piece of over-top-
technology in the house: Each of the 12
carefully manicured Scotch pines are kept
warm via underground heating pads.“Putting
a garden on top of a Chicago high rise is a
very ambitious project,” Butcher says. “I was
glad to pull it off because you never really
know until you pull the trigger.”
To ensure the longevity of the master
gardening of Hoichi Kurisu—who essentially
“trained” each Scotch pine for 30 years to
look like a bonsai—each root ball is heated to
55 degrees to stave off freezing temperatures.
The automation system can also turn off
the pond’s water systems, the waterfalls and
outdoor lighting.“They’re so happy up there,”
Butcher says of the Scotch pines, adding that
he’s worked with Kurisu on every home he’s
developed.“To get a garden to drain properly
and function the way it should—150 feet
above ground—is a real feat.
“After having this place for almost three
years, I never get over how shockingly beauti-
ful it is,” Butcher continues. “It knocks you
over sideways. It’s surreal to see a formal Japa-
nese garden on a terrace with a modern city
behind it. After that initial experience of the
garden, the city and the aromatherapy, I just
sigh and know that we’re back.”
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
30 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
THE TECHNOLOGY OF SMELL
When Dan Daker, co-owner of Media Tech LLC in St. Charles, Ill.,
begins to discuss this project, it sounds no different from your typical
high-end condo installation—that is if you’re not listening closely.
“The client really was looking for complete control over every-
thing in the house,” he says. And to be quite honest, it’s a setup we’ve
heard oh so many times before. “Via the AMX system, we’re control-
ling the ambient light, and the electric light. We’re controlling the
audio system and the HVAC. We’re controlling security and aromas.”
Wait—aromas? That’s a new one.
“Yeah, you guys probably don’t talk too much about AromaSys,”
Daker continues. “It’s a system mainly used in high-end retail spaces,
and in Las Vegas hotels. It infuses a highly concentrated scent into
the ductwork. It really does complete the effect of complete envi-
ronmental control, since scent has such a powerful chemical effect
on us, on our emotions.”
Even the notion of “complete control”—a phrase we’ve become
quite accustomed to hearing—is taken to the next level with this
installation. “We used AMX’s DTMF Interface to create a menu-
driven phone automation system for this project, with the owner’s
wife providing the voice.
“Say he has guests coming over and he’s not home yet, or he simply
wants to make sure that the unit is in a certain lifestyle mode when he
gets there,” Daker continues. “He can dial into the system and have
everything up and running before he walks in the door.”
In addition to the customized lighting settings and the afore-
mentioned aromatherapy system, the home’s lifestyle modes incor-
porate numerous music playlists, all of which were compiled by the
homeowner. Daker and his teamed assisted in loading the playlists
and removing gaps, and also saved their client from a prolonged
re-enactment of Groundhog Day: “The only complaint he had with
his AudioReQuest Z1.500 Zone Music Server was that each playlist
would always start with the first song on the list, even in shuff le mode.
So when his ‘wakeup’ playlist would kick in, his day would always
begin with the same song.” But Daker’s team found a workaround:
They recorded one second of dead air and saved that as the first track
of every playlist. “The result is that when you press the button, you
don’t hear anything for a second, but when the music starts, it’s not
with the same song every time. It’s a little thing, but it made a big
difference for him.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: Media Tech LLC of St. Charles, Ill.
(630.444.0011, mediatechliving.com)
Interior Designer: Richar Interiors of Chicago, Ill.
(312.455. 0924, richarinteriors.com)
Landscape Designer: Kurisu International
(888.441.5137, kurisu.com)
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I N T E R I O R S

SUBTLE
Stunning
A request for simple elegance in a businessman’s
private screening room brings creative flair and the
ultimate in function.
> By Jack Roth
> Photography by Barry Grossman Photography

I If Jeffrey Smith hasn’t seen it all

in his 33 years in the theater design
business, he’s pretty close. But when
the president of First Impressions
Theme Theatres in North Miami took
a look at the last unfurnished room
in this two-story, 12,000-square-foot
Miami home, he was blown away by
the space’s marble f loors and intricate
crown molding.
After Smith regained his composure
from having to cover up the marble in
order to build an acoustically sound
space, he set about the task of design-
ing and building a room-within-a-
room foundation for Danny and Ferne
Toccin’s private home cinema.
For custom installer Jan Vitrof-
sky, the 24-by-26 ground-f loor space
wasn’t much of a surprise. His f irm,
HED South in nearby Hollywood,
previously had installed the lighting
control system, and the audiovisual
systems for the entire home. From that
experience, Vitrofsky learned just how
selective the client could be.
That was February 2006. By August,
the design team had delivered a home
theater package that produced rave
reviews on behalf of the homeowner,
a 57-year-old retired real-estate pro-
fessional. His comments ranged from
“I’m more than pleased” to “the tech-
nology is beyond belief.”
At the outset, the Toccins’ directive
to Smith was all about understated sub-
tlety, but his design plan for the tech-
Theater designer and architect Jeffrey Smith
worked closely with Diane Sepler, the interior
designer, to ensure that the design of the home
theater complemented the home’s overall look.
The CineLounger Rodeo theater chairs boast
drink holders; the armrest of the “command
chair” contains a phone and a computer DSL
line, so the client can work in the theater.

32 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 33
 I N T E R I O R S
“All of a sudden, the ceiling
actually comes alive.
And all you have to do is
push a button.”
—Jeffrey Smith,
theater architect and designer
“When you go to the movies,
the screen is so big your eyes
go from side to side to watch
the content. One of the things
in doing a home theater the
right way is to offer that kind of
visual experience. They should
totally get immersed in the pic-
ture and get involved.”
—Jan Vitrofsky, custom installer
34 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
nology was far from simple. The design
of the 2-year-old home is elegant and tra-
ditional with modern touches. So Smith
masterminded a home theater design that
would remain true to the home’s overall
design scheme. “I was told to make the
room special and different,” he recalls,
“but not gaudy.”
Smith went for what he calls “a nearly
monochromatic, ultra-functional classy”
theater, which was fully constructed in
First Impressions’ North Miami facility
and then reassembled in the Toccin home.
For starters, the space’s original double
doors were replaced with a massive,
single-hung Noise-Loc door that leads
directly into a single-door entry. “Peo-
ple have a hard time entering a theater
through double doors,” Smith says. “A
single door creates a better sound swell.”
A f loating-f loor system now rests on
top of that beautiful marble. When the
subwoofers reach relatively moderate
levels, the room-within-a-room struc-
ture literally vibrates as a “natural butt
kicker,” Smith says.
Similarly, a plywood substrate cov-
ers the walls so that the room-within-
a-room structure fastens properly to the
foundation (multilayered plywood is
suspended off the marble with the help
of high-density neoprene pucks, which
are dispersed throughout the room). The
plywood panels—which contain a 1-inch
fiberglass core, along with sound diffus-
ers and ref lectors—also help to minimize
sound vibration.
Four existing windows are covered to
maintain proper acoustics. When stand-
ing outside the home, the theater’s “drap-
eries” look like window shades in the
“down” position.
Creative ingenuity marks two of the
room’s corners, as well. A walk-in cus-
tom cabinet doubles as storage unit for the
audio/video equipment rack; the cabinet
also includes a rotating DVD storage wall
that provides easy access to the fully con-
cealed HVAC system.
HEmagazine.com
Smith likes to say that First Impres-
sions is a “ying-and-yang” kind of com-
pany. Thus, an almost mirror image
of that corner is replicated diagonally
across the room in the form of a door
that leads to the CineBar, First Impres-
sion’s trademarked, full-service refresh-
ment area that includes illuminated candy
displays, an ice machine and a refrigera-
tor for drinks, as well as a black-and-gold
popcorn machine, which was a theater-
warming gift from Ferne’s mother.
“I spend every day in there,” Danny
concedes, adding that he’s even camped
out overnight in the space. He’s also prone
to wander into his screening room in
mid-afternoon to take in the starry night
sky above, and the dawn-to-dusk lighting
system. The fiber-optic lighting system
creates a blue sky with f luffy clouds on
the ceiling, which can transform into a
setting sun. There’s also a shooting star
and a full galaxy up there, including
Pisces, Ferne’s zodiac sign.
The color palette for the space is a soft,
soothing hue of green that’s set off with
rich millwork—all of which is anchored
by a wool-blend Greek key-patterned
rug in sage green. With the exception
of accents of honey-colored pear wood,
everything else bears the same strain of
green—from the wall paneling to the 11
fully motorized French mohair theater
seats—trademarked as CineLoungers—
that First Impressions custom-built.
“It’s a stunning, rich, sophisticated
The “money seat” of the theater is command cen-
tral and is equipped with touchscreen controls. All
decorative lighting elements can be controlled via
the touchscreen. Each light was custom-designed
with crackled acrylic to resemble rice paper, and
is housed in an antique brass metal frame. “[The
room] was plug-and-play,” says Smith. “Build it,
stand it up, check it and take it apart, and bring
it to site. We built a room that goes inside a room.
And you can’t hear a thing outside of the room.
When you walk in the room, it’s perfectly quiet.”
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 35
 I N T E R I O R S
look,” says Smith, adding that he navigat-
ed through the challenges of building this
home theater without a hitch. His biggest
lesson learned was how to keep an inquisi-
tive client informed, yet somewhat at bay.
“He wanted to know how everything
worked,” Smith laughs, remembering that
the client even climbed up a ladder to
inspect the joinery conditions.
Vitrofsky’s view is much the same:
The Toccins wanted the best. “The chal-
lenge was educating them about the f in-
est things, and having them understand
what it’s all about so they could appreci-
ate it,” he says.
A Crestron touch screen serves as the
heart of the theater’s electronics, deliv-
ering function control and connectiv-
ity. Additional Crestron interfaces in the
master suite and living room mean that
the owners don’t have to f inish watch-
ing a movie’s last scene in the theater.
A Kaleidescape audio/visual server was
selected for its ease of use, and its com-
patibility with the Crestron control sys-
tem. The Kaleidescape allows the user to
digitally store DVDs and organize them
according to preference (from movie
genre to actor names or movie titles).
A 12-foot Stewart Film screen works
in tandem with a Sony Qualia Q004R1
projector, which is hailed for its image
quality and technology. A Lexicon audio
package and Genelec speakers bring the
home theater’s audio system to life.
For the Toccins, the $390,000 pack-
age— $250,000 for the room design/
const r uct ion a nd $140,0 0 0 for the
equipment—is money well spent.
From the command center, smack
dab in the middle of the second row,
Danny maneuvers audio and video con-
trols with ease. He has his home theater
at his f ingertips, and the world at his
feet. “This is nothing I ever dreamed
of,” he says.
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
36 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
TECHNOLOGY, TOCCIN STYLE
Jan Vitrofsky, founder and president of HED South in Hollywood, Fla.,
believes far too many home theaters are built for the wrong reasons: “A
lot of people do these rooms to show off how much money they have
to spend on these sorts of things. And that’s a B.S. reason to do anything.
The goal should be, and was in this case, to provide people with pleasure
and happiness and enjoyment—it’s not a status symbol.”
Key to the pleasurability of this system is the Kaleidescape System
DVD and music server,Vitrofsky says, as well as the balanced package of
sound, control, video and content.“Kaleidescape is currently the coolest
gee-whiz product in all of the consumer electronics industry. But more
importantly, I’ve found that clients who have Kaleidescape watch more
movies—and listen to more music. And isn’t that what this is all about?
“We’re in the electronic entertainment business, you know? We sell
fun,”Vitrofsky continues. “But so much technology today is much more
difficult to operate. Kaleidescape goes to the exact opposite extreme,
making its incredibly sophisticated system very simple to operate. And
when you give the customer a gorgeous interface that works well and
is simple and intuitive, it eliminates the little roadblocks that keep them
from using their system.”
Vitrofsky strives for the same foolproof functionality with the rest of
the installation’s Crestron control system: keeping buttons to a minimum,
placing those buttons carefully, and putting a lot of attention into even
subtler details, like the palette of onscreen colors.“It’s as much psychology
as it’s programming,” he says.
But while fun and functionality are crucial, performance is of the
utmost importance. “From the standpoint of music, our objective is to
assemble a system that simulated having the talent performing for them
live in the room,”Vitrofsky says. That’s no small order, and not just any
speaker could hope to deliver such fidelity. But Vitrofsky found Genel-
ecs ideal for the job: A pair of 1037c Tri-amplified Monitoring System
speakers from the company’s professional monitoring line serve as the
center, left and right, with five AIW26 Active In-Wall Loudspeakers for
the sides and rears.
“The great thing about using powered speakers such as the Genelecs
is that you get a perfectly matched speaker/amplifier package,” he says.
“Think about it: you would never use Krell amplifiers with Wilson speak-
ers. Krell doesn’t make amplifiers for Wilson speakers. Nor does Wilson
make speakers for Krell amplifiers. Finding that perfect combination of
speaker and amp can be time-consuming. But here we have a manu-
facturer who is producing a complete solution. You get the optimum
performance because the amplifier is tweaked to the characteristics of
the speaker. That’s why, when you go into recording studios, you’ll find
them using powered speakers.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: HED South of Hollywood, Fla.
(954.929.2700, hedsouth.com)
Theater Architect and Designer: First Impressions Theme Theatres of North Miami, Fla.
(800.305. 7545. cineloungers.com)
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38 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

Light
Fantastique
Color suffuses a Hollywood star’s minimalist
home theater—to dramatic effect.
> By louise Farr
N
oted home theater design-
er Theo Kalomirakis has
learned that a snooty atti-
tude can sometimes accom-
pany the celebrities who
hire him. “They think everybody else
is below them,” he says, with a chuck-
le. So he was surprised, not to men-
tion f lattered, when on a first meeting
a Hollywood movie-star client asked
“The theater sends you right into the Katharine
Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn eras,” says Bethe
Cohen, the home’s interior designer. A custom
sofa in French blue—reminiscent of mid-century
modern design—lines one wall. “You don’t pick up
COURTESY OF FUTURE HOME MEDIA
the theater design trade by doing living rooms and
bedrooms,” says theater architect and designer
Theo Kalomirakis. “And the reason we don’t do
living rooms and bedrooms is we’ve decided as a
company, and I’ve decided as a designer, to focus
on what I know I do well so I don’t embarrass
myself by doing something else.”
HEmagazine.com
I N T E R I O R S
him to autograph a copy of his book,
Great Escapes: New Designs for Home
Theaters by Theo Kalomirakis.
That down-to-earth beginning set
the tone for the entire project. “The
client was against anything that has to
do with ostentation or showing off,”
says Kalomirakis, who designed the
nine-seat home theater around the
concept of entertaining family and
friends—not impressing industry big-
wigs. “He doesn’t care about status.
He is who he is. He’s defined by his
personality and his movies.”
After the autograph session, Kalo-
mirakis hunkered down with his cli-
ent, who asked to remain anonymous
in this story, for a lengthy conversa-
tion about style. “What he wanted to
accomplish was something that was
1960s cool,” Kalomirakis says. “So we
started throwing buzz words around:
Rat Pack. Silvery. Bluey. Cool. The
INTERIORS HOME ENTERTAINMENT | 39
 I N T E R I O R S
“(The client) wanted the the-
ater to continue from the rest
of the house, which is contem-
porary, cool, clean, and not too
many bright colors.”
—Theo Kalomirakis,
theater designer
“There’s tremendous acoustic
design and treatment that you
don’t see, and behind what
you do see there’s a lot of sci-
entific acoustical engineering.”
—Murray Kunis,
custom installer
40 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
things you associate with Elvis Presley.”
The theater, minimalist yet glossy,
fills a nearly 1,000-square-foot, free-
f loating, shock-mounted space within
a 12,000-square-foot house. Anthony
Grimani—who developed Dolby Sur-
round at Dolby Laboratories, and went
on to become director of technology at
Lucasfilm THX—designed the layout.
Gruen Construction lowered the f loor
and pushed back the proscenium wall
6 feet. “We were working in a purist
environment,” says custom installer Mur-
ray Kunis of Los Angeles’ Future Home
Media. “You couldn’t put subwoofers
wherever they would fit.”
While the rest of the residence was
under renovation at the time, Kalomi-
rakis collaborated closely with interior
designer Bethe Cohen of Silicon Valley’s
Bethe Cohen Design Associates. “The
rest of the house is very masculine, as
is the theater, but it has a warm, elegant
contemporary feel,” says Cohen. “You
get a sense of drama from the moment
you step into the lobby.”
That, of course, was Kalomirakis’
intent. “I always try to persuade the cli-
ent to break down the area into small
spaces that lead into the big space to cre-
ate a sense of anticipation, of process, of
arrival,” he says.
Columns in the lobby, foyer and the
theater itself glow from within—their
facades created from perforated, trans-
lucent metal that allows light to shine
through. “You see the light before you
see the metal,” says Kalomirakis.
The client’s favorite color is blue,
so Kalomirakis and Cohen settled on a
blue and gray palette, with stainless-steel
accents: Then they leapt forward in time
and considered that there may be a day
when the client might want to change
the room’s color scheme without chang-
ing the design.
“I brought in the idea of using Color
Kinetics, the technology that allows you
to change color at will,” Kalomirakis
says. “So the whole lobby, and the whole
theater, can be totally cool with white
HEmagazine.com
light, or it can be fire engine red, with
the lights turning green to red, or blue or
green.” The system rotates through the
entire color range in 10 minutes—or it
can connect to a CD to unleash light that
pulses with the music.
Vitralight glass panels, backed with
lacquered color, cover the walls: The
effect mimics oversized tiles. “That gave
it a very cool, antiseptic look. But it was
also a technique that has its origins from
the Deco era,” Kalomirakis adds. “The
’60s had a lot of retro elements from
the ’30s, so you can mix styles if they
are compatible.”
The main foyer, which sits just beyond
the entry lobby, serves as a focal point
and is complete with a bar and sofa for
pre-movie indulgences such as drinks and
snacks. Smoked-glass doors enclose an
air-conditioned equipment booth that’s
tucked away in the lobby area, while
the Runco projector hides in a soffit.
Past the lobby, an equipment room and
wine cellar pick up the ’60s cool design
theme. If guests decide to duck out of the
movie for a moment, a 32-inch Panasonic
plasma screen drops from the bar’s ceil-
ing, allowing them to keep current with
the film at hand.
It’s unlikely, though, that guests will
feel the need to get up and stretch their
legs. The client, who is more than 6 feet
tall, wanted seats he could lie down in.
After test-driving many models, he chose
a custom-made CinemaTech Ferien the-
ater chair in blue-gray leather. “It’s very
risky,” Kalomirakis says of selecting the-
ater seating, “because the comfort level
“It’s not a typical big Hollywood screening room
that will accommodate 30 people,” says Kalomi-
rakis, adding that the theater won one of the top
design awards at CEDIA last year. “The room is
not too big; it’s not too small. It’s comfortable.”
Perforated metal columns hide the colorful
fiber optics, and behind the wall upholstery is a
sophisticated system of acoustical treatments.
“Diffusive, reflective, absorptive panels shape
the sound and make the room sound terrific,” he
says. Gray wool carpeting in a retro design picks
up the theater’s ’60s theme.
HEmagazine.com INTERIORS HOME ENTERTAINMENT | 41
 I N T E R I O R S
All of the theater’s gear is neatly tucked away
behind one of the theater’s illuminated panels.
varies from person to person.
“In one of his visits to New York, he
came to the office to play around with
the seats and select the one he liked the
best. That [chair] is what we used.”
Kalomirakis acknowledges that he and
Cohen held several meetings in order
to establish territory. “A lot of the time
designers feel very threatened by some-
one else who does a section of the house
that they’re not involved in. And I want
my space to ref lect my ideas,” he says.
“But unless we put down our egos and
work together, the client suffers, the proj-
ect suffers. There has to be continuity.”
Both Cohen and Kalomirakis agree
that they set territory aside. And the
result? The client loved their work.
“You do a project and they forget about
you, and you forget about them, because
you move on,” says Kalomirakis. “But this
is a very special client. He sent me a card
for my birthday.”
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
42 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
THE TECHNICAL SIDE
As with many high-performance installations by Murray Kunis, president
of Future Home Media in Los Angeles, the aural centerpiece of this home
theater is its JBL Synthesis audio system, which is complete with speakers,
surround processor, amplification, and equalization. “In this case,” Kunis says,
“the Synthesis Two was perfect for the size of the room. Of course, JBL has
other systems that could have easily filled the room with sound, but we find
that the Synthesis Two drivers are smoother, and they really sweat less when
you play the system very loudly.
“There are a hundred speakers out there that sound really phenomenal
if you’re just sitting [and] listening to jazz or classical music, but if you play
an action picture through them, you’ll damage the drivers,” Kunis continues.
“This system can handle extreme theatrical sound pressure levels and still
sound really great for music.”
One interesting modification to the Synthesis Two system, though, is the
replacement of its standard subwoofers with a quartet of Triad Custom InWall
Silver/12 PowerSubs. Theater design and acoustician Anthony Grimani,
president of Performance Media Industries (PMI) in Fairfax, Calif., explains:
“JBL Synthesis makes great subwoofers, but they’re all 16 or 18 inches deep,
and my designs and Theo’s designs are all about hiding all the gear. So given
the available space, we needed a good, shallow subwoofer—shallow enough
to hide in the 7-inch gap between the decor and the hard wall.”
By why four subwoofers in a room this size? “As a theater designer, I’ve
been messing around with subwoofer placement for years, and my solution
had usually been to come in with an analyzer and subwoofers and try mul-
tiple configurations to find the ones that had the smoothest response,” says
Grimani. “And it would take about four or five hours to mess around with
all of these configurations and find the one that works within the aesthetic
confines of the room.
“Then a gentleman named Todd Welti from Harmon International inves-
tigated the same issue using mathematical modeling,” Grimani continues.
“He did finite element analysis, trying out 5,000 different configurations on
the computer. Through successive approximations he found that if you put
subwoofers in a cross-pattern, you get the best metrics of smoothness and
evenness from seat to seat.” Grimani says that when you put a subwoofer
in the middle of each wall, you effectually contradict the room’s standing
waves—those pesky variations and nulls in bass response that plague any
theater. “And despite the fact that single corner placement is the worst con-
figuration,” Grimani says, “it turns out you can also achieve the same goal
by placing them in a criss-cross pattern—a subwoofer in each of the four
corners—but the front-back, side-side pattern works the best. So that’s what
we did.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Acoustic Design/Project Manager: PMI Inc. of San Francisco, Calif.
(415.454.2087, PMILTD.com)
Custom Installer: Future Home Media of Los Angeles, Calif.
(310.966.9442, futurehometheater.com)
Theater Architect/Designer: Theo Kalomirakis Theatres of New York, NY
(877.858.4328, tktheaters.com)
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44 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
 I N T E R I O R S

mountain
masterpiece
A capacious mountain getaway, designed for family
and business retreats, is sprinkled with technologi-
cal treats that are easy to use.
> By Brooke Lange > Photography by Randall Cordero

T
here’s a certain ruggedness—
a rough-and-tumble way of
life—in Colorado that’s as
irresistible to the locals who
run the ski mountains as it
is to the well-heeled who build vacation
homes from the ground up.
While the Mountain West’s second-
home residents may be in hot pursuit of
that iconic Ralph Lauren lifestyle, most of
them can’t live without the technological
creature comforts of home—big-screen
plasma TVs, distributed audio indoors and
out, top-notch security systems, elaborate
game rooms and, of course, comfy full-
f ledged home theaters.
Such is the case of this three-story
retreat—27,000 square feet of luxurious
living space that’s wired with fine-tuned,
easy-to-use technology. “Sometimes
people overcomplicate things,” says cus-
tom installer Robert Bliss of Bliss Home
Theaters and Automation Inc. in West-
lake Village, Calif. “The key was keeping
the system simple so anyone could come
in and use the house without needing
extensive lessons on how to use it.”
Say you wander into the grand Victo-
rian-style home theater masterminded by
interior designer Jill Cole and her team at
Martinez Curtis and Associates in Marina
Del Ray, Calif. After running your hand
along the top of one of the customized
velvet theater chairs by Fortress, you
take a seat in front of the coffee table
and press “start theater” on the Crestron
touch screen. Like magic, the Henna-
red theater curtains part to reveal the
15-foot THX four-way masking screen,
and the E-Cinema projector by Digital
Projection fires up. “This is probably the
highest-performing theater we’ve ever
done,” Robert says. In addition, the
theater is designed as a room within a
room, and was extended 12 feet in length
to accommodate the required seating,
sight lines and the custom Krell audio
system, which was personally designed

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 45

 In the master suite, above, the locally crafted millwork combines with an antique Victorian bed and nightstand and a hand-carved mahog-
any TV cabinet built by Los Angeles artisan Vaughan Benz. Mecho shades tuck into a false horizontal mullion to prevent TV glare. Previous
spread: “The owner said, ‘I love the Paris Opera House.’ And that’s how the design got started,” says the designer. The 18th-century Italian
sideboard is an auction find. The mahogany coffee table, custom designed by designer’s firm, is inspired by an Italian-carved chest. Rich
damask-print carpeting floors the theater while an acoustically correct fabric blankets the walls.

by Krell’s owner, Dan D’Agostino. “He
did a fantastic job—I have yet to hear
anything better …. and if someone said
they wanted a better projector, it can’t
be had,” Robert says, adding that there
are only two residential installations that
use the E-Cinema in the United States.
This projector is also used at the Motion
Picture Academy in Los Angeles.
While technology reigns supreme in
this vacation home, so do the breathtak-
ing mountain views—which the interior
designer did not want to compromise in
any way. “In the majority of rooms, there
are spectacular views,” says Cole, adding
that the client’s wife wanted a castle-like
décor instead of the predictable log-and-
antler motif. Cole and her team infused
the interiors with lots of rich, decorative
millwork in a variety of woods—from
cherry to maple and walnut—a soothing-
and-subtle color palette, and comfortable
furniture. “Technology is important to
this homeowner, but it was also important
to make the home look like someone’s
house and not a rocket ship,” she says.
So that the owners and their guests
can enjoy a movie or a TV show in their
private quarters without the interference
of the glaring sun, Cole designed and
installed elaborate drapery systems. In the
vaulted-ceiling master suite, clerestory
windows allow the view to be enjoyed
continually—even when the draperies
are drawn. “It was challenging to figure
out a way to integrate a good place for the
TV, the fireplace, the view, and the bed,”
Cole says. While the designer considered
installing a ceiling-suspended drop-down
TV at one point, they decided upon a

46 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com


custom-carved cabinet that makes the
50-inch Marantz and its 5.1 surround-
sound system vanish when it’s not in use.
When the TV is in use, it rotates on the
custom-designed, motorized Microcos-
man lift so the program at hand can be
enjoyed bedside.
Each of the home’s nine bedrooms
enjoy a similar TV setup with surround
sound, as well as a simple-to-use two-
button light switch and a Crestron touch
screen. “People are very used to light
switches,” Robert says. “It’s not intuitive
for them to go to a touch panel.” Press
one of two buttons on any of the spe-
cially designed switches to turn the lights
on or off. Guests can access any of the
home’s music sources from the switches
as well, from XM satellite radio to MP3s
and CDs. Or consult the room’s Crestron
touch screen to access the time, increase
the bedside table’s lighting level from
20 percent to 94 percent, or adjust the
room’s temperature.
Despite the luxurious bedroom set-
tings, guests won’t feel the need to hole
up in their bedrooms—regardless of
the views, and the primo TV-viewing
accommodations. Instead, they’ll find
themselves drawn to the lower level—
a full f loor of the house that’s focused
on fun, and includes an easy-to-operate
home theater, a black-light bowling alley,
a wine cellar and tasting suite, and a game
room complete with a foosball table, a
pool table, a 65-inch Sharp LCD TV,
a pinball arcade, a professional shuff le-
board table and an Xbox 360. “There are
lots of places to play,” Cole says. “This
house is about playing.” Since Colorado’s
mountain areas can be difficult to reach
by plane and car, the owners oftentimes
host large groups of people for numerous
days. Therefore, the house is equipped
to entertain guests for longer periods of
time—not just weekends.
Let’s say the homeowner is hosting
30 clients on a blustery, snowy weekend
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
I N T E R I O R S
The rug in the guest bedroom
is also by Patterson Flynn &
Martin, and the TV cabinet is
also a custom design by Cole’s
firm, which was fabricated by
the same Los Angeles artisan.
A late 18th-century chande-
lier lends a touch of drama to
the space, as does the linen
Scalamandre draperies in a
leaf design.
“One hundred percent of the
people we brought into the
theater had the response
we expected—their hair stood
up on their arms.
That’s how good it is.”
—Robert Bliss, custom installer
| 47
 I N T E R I O R S

Touch the “cosmic bowl” button on the

bowling alley touch screen and the space
morphs from a traditional bowling alley
into a psychedelic party zone with black
lights and disco music. Score a strike and
special lights pulse in celebration. The wall
columns and carving that are visible above
the pins are painted in black-light paint so
they glow. In the billiards room, below, a
60-inch high-altitude Marantz flat-screen
displays television and movies; it also
doubles as an electronic scorecard.

and the electricity goes out. “The way

these homes become reliable is the way
we work on them properly,” says Rob-
ert of the technological work he and his
brother, George, conduct. In this home,
the strip lighting along the baseboards
will illuminate immediately if the home’s
electricity goes out. “Even if there’s a fire,
these paths will light up to lead you to the
nearest exit,” he continues. “The system
can actually save a life.”
In addition, the home is equipped
with several tons of HVAC equipment
and a backup power system. “For us,
this kind of setup is standard,” Robert
continues. “The home is fully backed
up with enough generator power that it
could fully support itself.” Most electri-
cal back-up systems, he adds, support the
core of the home—not the full home.
“This generator is so large that it can cre-
ate electricity and feed the electric grid
… the owner can get rebates from the
electric company.”
Other energy-saving technologies
include the motion detectors that are

48 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

 The gallery space, above, leads to several guest
bedrooms; some of the pieces, including the 18th-
century English chairs, were purchased at auc-
tion. The 17th-century Italian angel statuary at
the end of the gallery watches over the space. The
Crestron system eliminates the need for 776 light
switches and 43 HVAC zone controllers in the
house. “If all these existed, it would take someone
three hours to walk the property and turn them
all off,” Robert says. In the living room, left, the
lanterns are antique reproductions.

wired into the lighting system. “If the

system doesn’t detect anyone in the room,
it will cut the lights off,” Robert says.
From a human energy savings standpoint,
every lighting element, automated blind
and speaker—both indoors and out—
and all of the interior and exterior gas
fireplaces, spas, and the snow melt system
leading to the outdoor hot tub, can be
controlled while the homeowner lounges
in bed. Tracking down a loved one via
the home’s elaborate intercom system also
saves the homeowner from a lot of need-
less running around.

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 49

 I N T E R I O R S
The smaller, 120-square-foot equipment room
is fully designated to power the home theater,
while the larger technology room, at 600
square feet, is command central for the home’s
automation, HVAC and security systems. The
homeowner can access the security system
via a computer from anywhere in the world. If
someone rings the front gate buzzer, he can even
open the gate from his laptop.
“The most robust thing the Crestron
program does is the two-way intercom,”
Robert adds. Guest can converse via the
Crestron intercom system, and can actu-
ally view each other via the touch screen’s
video window. With 14 touch panels in
the home, you can have seven conversa-
tions going on at once.
“Anybody can buy a bunch of touch
panels, a bunch of equipment and install
it,” Robert continues. But our team has
the know-how to make a system of this
scale really work.”
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
50 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
THE SKY’S THE LIMIT
When the owner approached the Bliss brothers about designing his
vacation home’s technology, his goals were succinct: “He wanted extreme
automation with every possible feature—a smart home that knows when it is
being occupied and knows how to save energy when it is not,” George says.
“He wanted it wired so that it was scalable for the future.”
That’s no short order for a 27,000-square-foot house that’s wired with 96
miles of cables that support the automation and entertainment systems in two
massive dedicated equipment rooms. In fact, it took programmer William
Brewer nearly a year to program the massive Crestron control system.
Brewer recalls just one of the challenges: “The Crestron lighting system
alone required two Crestron PRO2 [Control Systems] networked together.
And because some of the 776 lighting loads in the middle of the house were
wired to one equipment room and other loads to the other, the lighting in
some rooms was controlled by two different processors. That necessitated a
complex inter-processor link so that the lights in the ‘split’ rooms ... operate
in a unified manner.”
Even in the midst of such a monumental automation system, and a dis-
tributed AV system to match, the million-dollar theater still stands out as the
home’s centerpiece. At its heart is a complete Krell sound system, consisting
of a Home Theater Standard 7.1 AV Preamp, 350Mcx and 750Mcx Full
Power Balanced amplifiers, LAT-1 Lossless Acoustic Transducers for the
LCR speakers, and a quartet of LAT-2s for the surrounds. “I’ve never heard
another audio system that outperforms the Krell system,” Robert says. “We
went to [Krell CEO] Dan D’Agostino himself and said, ‘We want the ulti-
mate audio system.’ And he came back and said, ‘here are the pieces.’”
Those pieces didn’t quite fit the original space allotted for the room,
though. “The entire room had to be extended something like 12 feet,” Rob-
ert says, not only to accommodate the fact that the owner wanted nothing
less than a 15-foot screen, but also because of acoustics.
“The master bedroom was above the theater,” George adds, “so by
extending the front of the theater and by building this as a room-within-
a-room, we were able to keep the sound from blowing into that bedroom.
There’s no such thing as a completely soundproof room, but we got as close
as you can get.”
To top it off, the room features not one, but two D-Box Odyssee Motion
Simulator systems running in parallel. But for the Bliss team, this installation
is less about the gear and more about how it’s assembled. Says George: “Our
team has the know-how to make a system of this scale really work.” Finish-
ing his thought as only a brother can, Robert adds, “Yeah, you can give me
eggs, cream, and sugar and ask me to make crème brûlée and you’ll get soup.
But give those same exact ingredients to a chef and he’ll work magic. That’s
what we do for clients like this.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: Bliss Home Theaters and Automation Inc. of Westlake Village, Calif.
(818.706.2794, blisshta.com)
Interior Designer: Cole Martinez Curtis and Associates of Marina Del Ray, Calif.
(310.827.7200, cmcadesign.com)
 IN T H E W ORLDʼS FINE S T H O M E CIN E M A S ,
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 INTERIORS

light
and
simple
A Westchester County
home with minimalist
design touts the benefits
of minimalist-looking
technology.
> By B.A. Hoffman
> Photos by Anthony D’Elia

T
his is a “less is more” story:
a tale about a home in New
York’s Westchester County
that is minimalist in décor—
and minimalist in the amount
of visible technology it showcases. But
regardless of how simplistic everything
looks at first blush, this house is robust in
the kinds of technology it embraces—up
front and behind the scenes. “My house
doesn’t have a lot in it,” says homeowner
Randi Walden. “When you have the f lat-screen television fits snugly over the
technology that we have, you need less restored f ireplace mantle. Better yet, it
in the room. I like it clean and simple doesn’t distract from the chandelier or
and comfortable so people can put their upset the space’s peaceful aura. Embraced
feet up.” by lots of ambient light with white trim,
Take, for instance, the sitting room sky-blue walls and an Art Deco-styled
outside the master suite. This is Randi’s sofa in a gray-blue upholstery, this space
domain—a place were she unwinds, reads, soothes even the most harried soul.
watches TV and movies, or works late “I had this house in my head for 15
while her husband is slumbering in the years,” Randi continues. “It’s a beachy
enclosed, adjacent bedroom. The sleek kind of look with a little bit of Art Deco.

52 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

The colors are comforting. Most of the
walls are different shades of blue.”
What’s also comforting to Randi and
her husband, George, is that the technol-
ogy is as easy to use as the home’s colors
are on the eyes. “We wanted something
simple to operate,” says George. “My
wife is technologically illiterate. And
the system is easy for me and the kids to
use, too.”
Custom installer Richard Hollander of
IVCi Home in Hauppauge, NY, started
out by designing an intuitive touchscreen
interface. “What I hear in just about every
one of our projects is ‘we want fantastic
sound, great video quality and we want
to be able to use it,’” he says, adding that
his team designed the touchscreen to be
as simple to use as an ATM machine.
“Any 6-year-old kid can use the touch-
screen and tell Mom and Dad how to
operate it.”
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
The flat-screen television in
Randi’s sitting room—which the
owners brought in from their
previous home—is one of eight
TVs in the home. Surround
sound wasn’t required by the
owner, so Hollander installed
Tannoy ceiling speakers.
Randi’s desk and computer
reside on the other side of the
TV/fireplace wall.
| 53
 I N T E R I O R S
Technology does not clutter
the small media room. The
credenza below the 60-inch
Pioneer flat-screen TV houses
a Sony BluRay DVD player, a
Cinea DVD player for encoded
DVDs, a VHS player and the
balance of the audiovisual
equipment. Because the pocket
door occupies a lot of the TV
wall, Hollander opted for Totem
Acoustic Tribe IIIs for the
front left, center, right and rear
speakers, and a Totem Acoustic
Storm subwoofer and ceiling
speakers. “They didn’t want a
dedicated theater—they wanted
a cozy media room setting and a
screen that they could see from
15 feet away that worked in the
existing space,” Hollander says.
54 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
From any Crestron controller the fam-
ily can manage any of the home’s lights,
the HVAC system, the DVRs, the secu-
rity system and the music hard drive. Any
user can control any of the automated
systems by selecting the intended room
on the touchscreen via pictures of the
architectural f loor plan. “You can pick
exactly where you are—first f loor, sec-
ond f loor—and go from there,” the cus-
tom installer says.
The Waldens are huge music fans:
Their AudioRequest music server is the
heart of their home, and it stores upward
of 8,000 songs. “I hate rap, but I like the
Rolling Stones, Steely Dan and Simon &
Garfunkel,” George says, adding that his
younger daughter shares his music tastes,
while his wife loves country. “We have
more country and western on the music
server because my wife is buying the CDs,
but we haven’t even used up 10 percent of
our capacity. All you do is open up the
drawer, f lip in the CD and it sucks in the
HEmagazine.com
info—it’s that easy.” Hollander equipped
the family of four with a quartet of wire-
less touchscreens so each family member
can roam anywhere in the house, altering
their music selections along the way.
“They’re entertainment junkies,” Hol-
lander says. “They’re the type of family
that really uses the audio feature. Every
time I’m there, it’s on.” To help the fam-
ily access their expansive music collection
easily—from dozens of radio stations to
thousands of songs—Hollander’s team
added logos of the family’s favorite radio
stations to the touchscreen’s music menu.
He even provided Randi with a full line-
up of all of Sirius’ country stations. All
she has to do is select her room of choice
on the touchscreen, and tap the radio sta-
tion logo. “He can be in the kitchen with
his rock and she can be somewhere else
with her country,” Hollander says. “It’s
that easy.”
The kids have their own DVRs, as do
the adults. Hollander set up the system so
 In the kitchen, the 37-inch Sharp LCD is view-
able at any time of day—from any seating position
at the island or the kitchen table—since the TV
is mounted on an articulating arm. The space
is floored with tumbled marble and illuminated
with two custom wrought-iron fixtures found in
an antique store. The island is topped with a
rolled custom copper; the custom glazed cabinetry
features antiqued glass fronts.
any family member can watch whatever
he or she wants in any room. “It’s about
identifying who is in the house, what
their routines are, and what they enjoy
in terms of recording,” Hollander says.
Another customized option Holland-
er’s team created for the family is lighting
control: They can select “all on” or “all
off ” on any touchscreen to turn every
light in the house on or off. “Vacation
mode,” Hollander says, “features stored
lighting patterns from the past week of
lighting use—so it’s very realistic.” They
can also override any preset scene and
manually customize the setting at hand—
such as increasing the lighting level in a
specific room.
“We’ve been in the house one-and-a-
half years and I love to go room to room
to adjust the lighting and temperature,”
George says. “And I like to check the
touchscreen to see which doors and win-
dows are open or locked.”
But there is one thing the family can’t
control: The intermittent power out-
ages that accompany coastline living,
many of which cause the furnace to shut
down. To amend that situation, Hol-
lander designed a special system for the
boiler room that works in conjunction
with the one-hour UPS backup battery.
If the electricity goes out, the backup bat- “The end result of this project
tery comes on, and a group email is sent allows our client to
out to the project manager, homeowner focus less on the
and the plumbing contractor so everyone technology, and more on
can respond immediately. “It’s an extra enjoying the experience.”
benef it,” George says, adding that he —Richard Hollander,
can monitor all of the home’s automated custom installer
functions—including power outages—
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 55
 I N T E R I O R S
The sun room, top, epitomizes the overall look of
the home—light and airy. Flooded with sunshine,
it overlooks the backyard, pool and Delancey
Cove, a Long Island Sound inlet. Instead of having
to physically visit each window to see it’s locked,
the homeowner can access the floor plan on the
touchscreen to determine which windows and
doors are open or closed (red indicates closed
and green indicates open). The equipment rack,
bottom, is tucked behind a railing. The home’s
extensive automation system keeps tabs on all
things technological. If there’s a problem with the
boiler, the system immediately notifies the project
manager and service team at IVCi.
on the Internet via Crestron’s e-Control.
“It makes me crazy when the heat goes
out and the pipes freeze. It happened in
our previous home.”
“One of the most important things
is putting in a boiler system shutdown
alert,” Hollander says, “The backup
battery goes on if the house boiler goes
out. This really prevents any disaster
situation.”
And how does the homeowner feel
about Hollander’s solution? “I love these
smart homes,” George says.
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
56 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
TECH TALK
Ask IVCi Home’s Director of Engineering Toma Lekaj what goes into
designing the sort of system that wins Crestron’s 2007 Integration Award
for Best Integrated Home System, and surprisingly enough you’ll receive
a straightforward answer:
“You have to take into consideration what the client wants, of
course—hidden, or the same function on every page, et cetera,” Lekaj
says.“But our goal is always to keep access to any feature no farther away
than two button presses.”
For a project as complex as this one, that’s not nearly as easy as it
sounds. The HVAC system alone, for example, encompasses the home’s
radiant heat system, forced hydro-air, and automated temperature regula-
tion (which is based on the current outdoor temperature.) Lekaj explains
how even the most complex lighting control applications can be simpli-
fied to two touchscreen buttons.
“When the owners are away for an extended period of time, we
wanted it to appear that the home is occupied with people moving around
during the evening, turning lights on and off until bedtime,” Lekaj says.
“So we created a two-touch system: With one touch you can initiate a
‘record’ feature, where the system takes a snapshot of the lighting condi-
tions throughout the whole house approximately every 15 minutes. It
does so for a week, and at the end of the week it starts overwriting what
it previously recorded. So it’s continuously recording a week’s worth of
activity. With another button you go into ‘vacation mode,’ and it then
plays back that weeklong sequence. It’s that simple.”
Interestingly enough, shade control wasn’t part of the system. “He
didn’t want any shade integration whatsoever,” says Hollander. “It’s not
that he was unaware of the possibilities—he just didn’t want it. We’re in
the business of making recommendations, and providing the service that
goes with those recommendations. We’re not here to force technology
on clients.”
A few years ago, that would have been a big problem for the home’s
main media room. Just imagine the television displays in the early part
of the decade trying to display anything more than the hint of an image
in the presence of such big, beautiful white walls—with coastal sunlight
pouring in from numerous directions.
“The amount of light entering this room is why we didn’t go with
a projector,” Hollander says. “And the fact that it could stand up to the
light is one of the main reasons we went with a Pioneer [PDP-6070HD]
60-inch plasma. It’s funny how things change. A few years ago we were
complaining about the plasmas because the contrasts were crushed and
images were awful.Today the image you can get from manufacturers like
Pioneer and Panasonic is just phenomenal.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: IVCi Home of Hauppauge, NY, with offices in New York, NY
(800.901.6583, ivcihome.com)
Interior Designer: the homeowner
 I N T E R I O R S
call of
the wild
Home Theater design luminary Jeff Smith collabo-
rates with a style-savvy client to create a glamorous
screening room for a South Florida vacation home.
> By “De” Schofield
B
> Photography by Grossman Photography
“Build a home theater around this,” the wife
said to First Impressions Theme Theatres’
founder and theater designer Jeff Smith,
as she handed him a sample of carpeting
that she had fallen in love with. “There
was something about it that spoke to me,”
she says. “I felt the tiger-print motif would
impart a sense of drama and elegance.”
Smith credits his client’s sense of style
as the driving force behind the project that
now serves as an entertainment zone for
the couple’s grandchildren, and a retreat
where the husband and wife can relax
and socialize with family and friends. “She
wanted something fun and informal with a
sophisticated theme that harkened back to
the glamorous, old-style traditional movie
houses,” Smith says.
The owners, an active couple with
eight grandchildren ranging in age from
4 to 22, are avid golfers. Their desire for
a warm-weather retreat away from their
home in the Northeast led them to build
a two-story, 10,0000-square-foot estate in
a South Florida golf community. “We [had
considered] including a home theater in
our vacation home,” the wife says. “It was
a toss up between a home spa or a home
theater, and the theater made more sense
because we could enjoy it as a family.”
To manage the technical aspects of the
500-square-foot private screening room,
Smith enlisted Jim Pearson, founder and
president of Creative Media Designs in
Boca Raton, Fla. “We’ve worked with
58 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
Jeff on numerous projects in and outside
of Florida,” Pearson says. “It’s a great
collaboration. Smith gives us his plan [on
paper] when it’s about 90 percent complete,
then we work together on the details to
make sure everything works.”
As with all of Smith’s installations,
the home theater was designed and built
at the company’s North Miami facility,
then disassembled, delivered and custom
installed in the home. “We begin with
the space plan, proceed with specifying
site lines, monitoring angles and aisle
spacing, then add the embellishments such
as the woodwork, lighting, furniture and
accessories,” Smith says.
Originally one large open space, Smith
carved out an 8-foot-by-10-foot vestibule
in the entryway. The dramatic design
scheme originates in the “CineBar,” Smith’s
trademarked bar in which flooring of
Absolute Black granite commingles with
dark wenge wood cabinetry—finishes that
are a precursor to what lies beyond the
doors that lead into the home theater.
“The screen wall totaled 165 inches in width, so
we fitted the main speakers at an angle flanking
the stage, and concealed a [Sonance] Ultra 2 THX
center speaker that is only four inches deep below
it,” says custom installer Jim Pearson. “Then we
tucked the drapery pockets along an angle on each
side of the screen.” The coffered ceiling is equipped
with amplified diffusion elements that are hidden
behind the gold ceiling panels.
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 59
 I N T E R I O R S
Smith and his team conjured up
a modified jungle theme with a
touch of a Moroccan style for
the theater. Crown molding is
outfitted with backlighting to an-
nounce the entryway. Next to the
popcorn machine is a two-panel
door that leads to the audiovi-
sual equipment.
60 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
An archway swagged in gold-toned
French velvet drapery provides a peek
into the theater, where tawny animal print
tones and rich, textural fabrics imbue a
comfortable, yet sumptuous appeal. A cozy
configuration of two tiered rows of pillow-
back CineLounger home theater chairs—
clad in black French velvet and caramel-
toned piping with Absolute Black granite
HEmagazine.com
cup holders—accommodates enough
seating for seven guests.
“The rest of the house is more traditional
in style and features a neutral color palette
accented with soft blues and greens,” Smith
says. “The wife’s carpeting choice clearly
states that she envisioned this space as a
destination all its own, so we suggested
more of a ‘wow factor’ here to set the room
apart from the rest of the house.”
While the 400-square-foot home theater
did not pose any spatial restrictions for the
design team, the location of a large air-
conditioning soffit in the rear of the room
created a stumbling block. Smith’s response
was to rotate the floor plan from front to
back, making the rear of the space now the
front/stage area. He took advantage of the
soffit by building the stage’s proscenium
elements around it. “This is really a cube
space with very high ceilings,” Smith
continues.“We created a place to house the
projector by building a matching soffit at
the back of the room, and then had it fitted
into an insulated thermal box and hidden
behind water-white optical glass.”
Initially, the decision to flip the floor
plan created concern about lining up the
projector and the screen. “The sight-line
issue posed a challenge,” Pearson says. “I
realized we needed a long-throw projector
for the owners to enjoy the biggest screen
possible.” The room’s dimensions required
an 18-foot throw distance and necessitated
the screen be placed high enough to be
visible from the back. “We pushed the
projector as far back within the ceiling soffit
as possible, then increased the lens port for
maximum efficiency,” Pearson says.
To accommodate Pearson’s selection of
a 123-inch Vutec Fixed Screen, the team
added proscenium elements to conceal the
Sonance THX Ultra 2 left, center and right
speakers. Meticulously detailed “columns”
along the back and side walls house the
system’s rear and surround speakers.
“The columns were created for pure
aesthetics and were detailed with corbels
to give them an authentic look,” says the
interior designer. “Our goal was that the
columns not protrude into the aisle. This
required the use of speakers that are only
four inches deep.”
To further enhance the audio effect,
Smith’s design team created base traps in
the corners of the theater, which are filled
with sound baffling material; there are also
base traps tucked into the three rectangular
areas of the projector soffit.“The base traps
act like pool table pockets in the sense that
they prevent the sound from bouncing all
over the room, and they catch as much
sound reflection as possible.” Above,
an engineered diffuser ceiling—whose
elements are hidden behind burnished
gold ceiling panels—makes the home
theater space sound “voluminous.”
Notwithstanding the myriad of detailing
in every aspect of this project, one of First
Impressions’ many signatures is its focus on
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
The side and rear wall panels,
as well as the projector soffit,
are clad in First Impressions’
trademarked AcouSuede in
black ostrich leather and gold;
each is custom-matched to
complement the French velvet
draperies with imported fringe.
The wife selected all of the
lighting elements.
| 61
 I N T E R I O R S
“Design and technology
played equally important
parts in this theater.
With First Impressions,
we were able to produce
another CEDIA Best
Home Theater Lifestyle
Award winner.”
—Jim Pearson,
custom installer
“The husband wanted
grandkid-proof materi-
als, and the wife wanted
delicate architectural
details. Achieving the
balance of the two was
the real mission.”
—Jeffrey Smith, theater
architect and designer
resources
Custom Installer:
Creative Media Designs of
Boca Raton, Fla.
(creativemediadesigns.com
800.237.9161)
Theater Architect and
Designer:
First Impressions Theme
Theatres of North Miami,
Fla. (cineloungers.com;
800.305.7545)
62 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
proper lighting, Pearson says. “This home
theater has 12 automated loads of lighting,
including cove lighting, chandeliers,
CineBar lights, and numerous stage lights.
There’s also a Hollywood light bar above
the screen and downlighting in the stage
area to spotlight the grandchildren’s karaoke
performances. Twelve loads is a lot, but it
gives maximum theatrical impact.”
The wife, in a resounding testimony
to the project’s success, says she and her
husband cannot keep the grandchildren out
of the screening room.“The 9-year-old can
be in there for hours with his Xbox,” she
says. Overall, they couldn’t be happier with
their home theater.
“We felt early on that Jeff Smith was
the best fit for designing our home theater,
and we would choose First Impressions
again if we have the opportunity,” she says.
“His expertise and creativity were certainly
impressive, but more importantly he and his
team were totally gracious and responsive
to all of our requests.”
Where the
Wild Things Are
This elaborate project epitomizes the
challenges that accommodate retrofitting a
home theater into an existing space—even
one that was designed to house a private
screening room.
“The room was designed as part of a spec
house, and they didn’t do the things you do
when designing a theater—like checking
throw distances or projector offsets,” says
Pearson. “So the location we had for
housing the projector was right at the cusp
of a long-throw projector’s capabilities for
the minimum throw distance.”
This factor created a domino effect that
shaped the entire course of the installation.
For aesthetic reasons, the MarantzVP-12S2
DLP projector was selected and moved
back (instead of using a standard lens and
positioning it in front of the soffit, Pearson
went with the long-throw lens). As a result,
the image naturally got larger, and the
proscenium size did not have to change
from the original design. Pearson and his
HEmagazine.com
team also decided to avoid the use of a
perforated screen early on, which meant
that the speakers could not be tucked
behind the screen.
“The center channel had to go beneath
the screen,” he says. “But we had to place
it in such a way that it was in line with the
second row of seating—so it wasn’t muffled
by someone sitting in the front row. And
we couldn’t raise the screen higher because
of design elements above it.” The solution
was to turn the center speaker sideways.
With most speakers, this would have led
to serious dispersion problems—especially a
speaker built to THX Ultra 2 specifications,
which call for wide horizontal dispersion
and narrow vertical dispersion. But the
custom installer’s choice of LCRs offered
the perfect solution. “The baffle that holds
the midrange drivers and tweeter in the
Sonance Cinema Ultra II LCR in-wall is
rotatable,” he says,“so we were able to turn
the speaker on its side and still maintain the
proper horizontal dispersion.”
The theater is a good example of a trend
we’re seeing more of these days: the use of
high-end integrated AV receivers in lieu
of separate surround-sound processors and
external amplification when sound quality
is important, but rack space is limited. Is this
an indication that receivers are finally losing
their second-class status? Actually, Pearson
says that they may actually be pulling ahead
of their bulkier brethren.“We went with the
Marantz SR9600 THX Ultra2 Surround
Receiver for two reasons: sound quality
and space limitations,” he says.
“The area where the equipment was
going also had to house the equipment
for the rest of the home. Plus, the receiver
gave us nine-band equalizer for any room
correction we might need to do. It had
HDMI; it had video up-conversion. It had
a lot of the features that we needed to get
the job done—features that may be lacking
in some high-end processors.”—Dennis
Burger
> For a full equipment list for this
project, please visit HEmagazine.com.
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 I N T E R I O R S

Hidden
BEAUTY
In this award-winning house, what’s new is meant to look
old. Translation: This residence is designed to resemble
a finely restored Georgian home. And that means every
ounce of technology is hidden and out of the way.
> By Brooke Lange > Photography by Terry Scott White

he clients who own er John Stumpf of Station Earth Total

this 14,000-square-
foot, two-story Georgian-
style house in Canada are, in
many ways, living oxymorons.
Their design taste is traditional, yet
they love contemporary art. So they’ve
incorporated, accordingly, modern art
into their living spaces. In addition,
they love the entertainment benefits of
modern technology, yet they don’t want
to see any technology. So they’ve incor-
porated, accordingly, technology into
their home in an invisible manner.
“They wanted a media room, but
they didn’t want it to look like a media
room at all—no theater seating, no
floor elevations,” says interior designer
Alison Knapp of Barnard & Speziale
Design Associates in Ontario, Canada.
The end result is a classically designed
home and home theater that’s loaded
with technology—most of which is not
visible to the eye. “The client wanted
the technology to be hidden and non-
existent to someone walking through
the house,” Knapp continues. “You’d
never know the house is as technologi-
cally advanced as it is—it’s all hidden in
armoires and the cabinetry.”
“Every pair of speakers is hidden in
a wall or in the ceiling, and is painted
to match the environment so they don’t
impair the design,” says custom install-
Home Technologies in Ontario, adding
that the home won a 2007 Cedia gold
award in the integrated home category.
“The wiring—more than 47,000 feet of
it—the technology [including 12 TVs],
and the time and effort blend seam-
lessly with the decor.”
Take, for instance, the 510-square-
foot media room, which boasts, says
Stumpf, “an understated Golden Age
of Cinema feel” with fully concealed
technology. The 110-inch Draper screen
cannot be seen until it descends from
the ceiling bulkhead. The Runco DLP
projector is tucked into the back bulk-
head, and the speakers are built into the
walls and are faux finished to match
the walls perfectly. The only hints that
this room is, in fact, a movie-viewing
space include the film reel hanging on
the back wall, and the eight framed
sepia tone portraits of movie stars that
the designer had custom printed.
“We were going for more of an
Old World feeling,” Knapp says of the
media room and the lower floor.
The walnut-paneled library follows
the same design approach in that the
look and feel of the space honors the
past, while the hidden technology is a
nod to the future. The antique Geor-
gian-style fireplace surround in pol-
ished black marble, the custom leather

64 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 65
 In the library, the TV lift is
equipped with a Swiss mo-
tor made by a company that
makes hospital beds. “It’s re-
ally quiet and strong,” Stumpf
says. Previous spread: Indigo
blue Venetian plaster walls set
the media room’s tone. The
sofas are customized in a deep
blue velvet; the swivel reclin-
ers are bathed in a Ralph
Lauren paisley fabric.
66 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
chairs and sofa, and the custom-crafted
bookshelves and cabinets epitomize the
owners’ love of traditional architecture
and design. Couple that with the pop-
up 42-inch Pioneer Elite plasma TV
that vanishes into custom cabinetry
when it’s not in use, and it’s no wonder
that this room has become a favorite
entertaining venue for the couple. “It’s
used a lot more than they anticipated,”
Knapp says. “It’s a very cozy place for
before and after dinner.”
Only three rooms showcase technol-
ogy in the form of fully exposed f lat-
screen TVs: the kitchen, family room
and “her” office. “This is the most
HEmagazine.com
commonly used room to watch news
or Sunday afternoon golf,” Stumpf
says, alluding to the family room’s
42-inch Pioneer Elite plasma TV.
Originally, this space was slated
to feature a motorized painting that
would slide up and down in front of
the TV, but that request was removed
from the interior design equation
when the homeowners decided that
this space would be used daily as a
TV room. “Because the room is used
so much, they wanted to leave the TV
exposed all the time,” Knapp adds.
In the kitchen, a 23-inch Sony LCD
screen peers out from the custom cabi-
 I N T E R I O R S

Antiqued Cabrian black gran-

ite graces the countertops. The
walnut plank flooring and the
coffered ceiling with beadboard
detailing is a nod to the home’s
elaborate ceiling treatments.
The kitchen’s beer tap is con-
nected to the media room’s tap.

“Our biggest challenge was how

much physical technology is in
the house, and how little
of it you see.”
—John Stumpf, custom installer

netry with glass-fronted doors to showcase

the homeowners’ extensive collection of
silver. The pendant lights on pulleys are
designed to look like old gas station lights
and are ref lective of 1920s design.
“Everything in the house is new,”
Knapp says of the custom home that’s
almost 2 years old. “But the clients wanted
everything to look old—like the real thing
with modern conveniences.”
With 190 lighting loads spread across
14,000 square feet, those modern conve- “These clients have very
niences include the Vantage control system. refined tastes, but are open to
“Because of the sheer scale of the house, new things.”
the automated lighting system is functional
R oy T i m m

—Alison Knapp, interior designer

for energy conservation and ease of use,”

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 67

 I N T E R I O R S

Columns fronting the family room’s entryway maintain a sense of classicism in the TV-exposed space. The gas fireplace here, and in several
other rooms in the house, can be controlled from a touchscreen controller. The Indiana limestone fireplace surround and the mantel bears
and antiqued finish. The French doors behind the sofa in this symmetrically designed room lead to the loggia. The contemporary painting
“Untitled” is by Graham Coughtry.

68 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

 R oy T i m m

In the wife’s office and sitting room,

shown above, the 32-inch Sony LCD
screen can be viewed from both the sofa
and the desk. The owners wanted the
main equipment rack, right, centrally
located so they can show it off.

Stumpf says. “Rarely will a lighting load

be above 80 percent. In a house this big,
the lighting system will make the light
bulbs last longer. They can run the entire
home with very little effort.”
The blinds and draperies are also wired
into the Vantage control system. Hit the
“good morning” button on the touchscreen
in the master bedroom, for example, and
the curtains open like magic. The Van-
tage control system also accomplishes the
owners’ goal of keeping walls clutter-free.
“There’s lots of intricate lighting through-
out—from pot lights to wall sconces,
chandeliers, and outdoor uplighting. In a
home that’s not done with a proper light-
ing system, you’d have a massive wall of

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 69

 I N T E R I O R S

TECH TALK Out of Sight But Not Out of Mind

According to Stumpf, the last thing his clients wanted was a dedicated
home theater: “They wanted a very tasteful room that you didn’t have to
watch a movie in—where it also made sense to sit and read a book, have a glass
of wine. They wanted an open, airy space; they didn’t want to see a projector,
and they didn’t want to see a screen. They didn’t want to see speakers.”
The biggest challenges included how to make the room sound good, and
how not to cook a projector that’s squeezed into a ceiling bulkhead. Luckily,
the question of acoustics worked itself out thanks to an architectural coinci-
dence: a protrusion in the back wall breaks up any rear ref lections and con-
tributes to a room that sounds great with no acoustical treatments.
As for not cooking the projector—a Runco CL-610LT DLP—design
became paramount. “The bulkhead around the perimeter of the room gave us
a beautiful space to work [with] to hide the screen in the front and the projec-
tor in the back,” Stumpf says. “But we really had to work with the architect
and HVAC guys and give them very specific instructions: ‘here’s what we’re
going to put in, here’s the BTU generation [a measure of heat output], and
here’s how many CFM [cubic feet per minute] of air we’re going to have to While the Plexiglas door on the rack’s backside
move over it.’ With that knowledge ahead of time, they were able to provide shows off the tidy wiring per the owner’s request,
us with a cold-air return vent so we could pump all of that heat back into the it also accommodates the delicate balance of
airflow that’s necessary to keep the gear cool.
HVAC system. So the projector runs cool as a cucumber and we don’t have
to worry about cooking bulbs every six months.”
Thankfully, not every component in the room generated so much heat. switches, which looks horrible,” Stumpf
“The owners wanted quality audio, but they didn’t want or need the volume says. “We call that wall acne or scarring.”
levels that most people would be comfortable with. They simply don’t watch The Vantage control system streamlines
action movies. They’re far more likely to sit down and watch a classic film— the lighting and automated functions into
The Bridge on the River Kwai, for example. So to go in there and blow them one keypad in each room, and doesn’t cut
out of their seats would have been counterproductive.” At 140 watts per chan- into the trim work or molding. “So it’s not
nel, the Pioneer Elite VSX-74Txi A/V receiver offers plenty of power for the an eyesore,” he says.
space, and provides great sound quality and plenty of features for the price. Looking back on the numerous chal-
But the projector wasn’t the only hot spot in the house: “Our original lenges and layered complexity of this high-
plans called for two full equipment racks for the whole-house system. We end project, Stumpf couldn’t be happier.
had to condense it down to one main rack and a very small ancillary rack “In this project, everyone clicked. And
downstairs because of design parameters. But we did the calculations, and we this [scenario] is becoming more the norm
figured out pretty quickly that it wouldn’t work in the space we had available because we are seeing architects and design-
to us,” Stumpf says. “The equipment would have self-destructed.” ers accepting [installers] more because we
“We came up with a solution, which involved running an air-condition- can make the equipment blend with the
ing branch to the rack, but, you know, a lot of people would have just put the decor, or hide it all.
equipment in, got it up and running, and then realized there was a heat issue,” “Technology guys like us are so geeked
he says. “The more you can interact with builders, architects and designers out on the gear that we often throw design
early in the process, the better because you head off a lot of those potential to the wind. We try to learn more about
problems like that.”—Dennis Burger what [clients] are trying to do and work
with them instead of trying to work against
RESOURCES
them.”
Custom Installer: Station Earth Total Home Technologies of Ontario, Canada
(519.843.3474, stationearth.com)
> For a full equipment list for this project,
Interior Designer: Barnard & Speziale Design Associates of Ontario, Canada
(905.690.2233, barnardspeziale.com) please visit HEmagazine.com.

70 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

Soul moving.
DISCOVER THE NEW TRIBE DESIGN SERIES. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT www.totemacoustic.com
72 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

MASCULINE
TO THE MAX
A homeowner, who built a private screening room for
his family to enjoy, has fallen in love with it himself.
> By B.A. Hoffman > William J. Psolka Photography
W
alk into this monstrous
2,600-square-foot pri-
vate home theater and
try to envision the kind
of person who would build a screen-
ing room of this magnitude. The space
is probably owned by a man, right,
since it’s extremely masculine in style
with polished wall-to-wall woodwork-
ing, two rows of sturdy-yet-handsome
leather recliners, and a red velvet theater
curtain with gold tassel fringe. The no-
nonsense interior design of this home
theater is confident. Bold. Refined.
Sophisticated. This is a serious space for
serious entertaining.
Even the custom-carved columns at
the front of the theater emote power.
Can’t you see two dozen Wall Street-
ers standing around in pinstripe suits,
with cigars and cocktails in hand? The
simple yet elegant antique torches that
add a touch of sparkle to the walls may
be a nod to those that were carried by
the early Olympians. The 26-foot-long
counter that stands behind the last row of
theater chairs says “let’s sit down in back
and sign the deal now.” And then there’s
the size of the projection screen.
“The client wanted the biggest
high-definition image for gaming and
sports,” says Senior Systems Consul-
tant Joe McNeill of Electronics Design
Group, Inc. in Piscataway, N.J. “He said,
HEmagazine.com
I N T E R I O R S
‘I really want to feel like I’m at a movie
theater—I want a huge screen.’” The
150-inch projection screen from Stewart
FilmScreen, which sits 18 feet away from
the front row of Murano black Acoustic-
Smart recliners, works in tandem with the
Runco three-chip projector. “He wanted
the best image possible,” McNeill contin-
ues, “and with a screen this massive, you
have to have a three-chip projector.” The
video projector’s three DMD chips and
lack of a color wheel puts more light on
the screen than the single-chip brethren.
“When Runco sells you a projec-
tor, they have guidelines on how their
products can be used,” McNeill contin-
ues. “You can’t produce a stellar picture
beyond a certain screen width.”
With a serious video projector such as
this, the homeowner has quadrupled his
clout, right? He’s the kind of guy who
has a chauffeur drive him to his Manhat-
tan office every day; the type of gentle-
man who will pay the most sought-after
interior designer to create a coliseum-like
venue for entertaining the wealthiest
businessmen in New York.
Guess again.
The owner of this gargantuan home
theater, which won two prestigious 2007
Cedia awards, is an easy-going profes-
sional in New Jersey’s homebuilding
industry. Surprisingly, he handled all of
the interior design himself. He researched
HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 73
 I N T E R I O R S
Whenever the owner hosts a
special event in the theater,
his kids and their friends man
the concession stand. “We
made the area in front of the
theater big so people can walk
around and not interrupt the
movie watchers,” he says. For
extra seating, the kids bring in
beanbags.
74 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
every single furnishing element that is used
in the home theater without any assistance
from his wife.
“We built the theater to use as a family,”
says the owner, who comes from a Soprano-
size brood.“We thought we’d go down there
once or twice a month, but we’re in there
two or three times a week.”
While he mostly watches football and
baseball with his three middle school-aged
boys, he’s been known to host the occasional
movie night for the guys, hold a Super Bowl
party or two, and entertain the extended
family—all 35 of them—after Christmas
dinner.“Sometimes the kids watch movies in
there on their own, but more often they are
in there with their Xbox. It’s nice to have it
[to use] on a whim.”
HEmagazine.com
“He was really building this for his kids
and wife in the beginning,” says McNeill.
“He didn’t really watch movies. But once
the room was installed and he tried it out,
he changed his tune. He was blown away by
having a theater of this caliber.”
From the beginning, the owner decided
to design the home theater himself instead
of hiring a decorator. “You know, too many
interior designers design what they want—
not what the owner wants, and I didn’t want
to deal with that,” he says. After looking at
pictures of theaters in books and on the
Internet, the owner and his wife decided
upon a design direction—grand and Old
World in style. “We knew we wanted an
elaborate coffered ceiling with gold gilding.
We wanted the theater that we went to as
 “I’m surprised how much time we spend together in the room,” says the homeowner. “We get pizza, do dinner down there and watch
a movie. It’s a standing thing.” In addition to the soundproof mahogany doors, which are installed with rubber seams to prevent
vibration, the theater floor is topped with a sheet of rubber padding. Four layers of sheetrock also help soundproof the space.

kids, but more ornate to match the moldings
and general theme of the house,” he says.
He found most of the interior furnishings
online—from the velvet theater extensions to
the pillows, throws, and film reel artwork.The
wall panels are wrapped with acoustical fabric
from AcousticSmart; the 7.1 chairs, also from
AcousticSmart, offer seven different reclining
positions. The custom woodworking ranges
from birch to maple and cherry, and features
a dark walnut finish. “The difference in what
you see is the hand-done gold-leaf gilding,”
the owner says.The built-in bar serves as Play
Central for the kids when they’re playing
Xbox games; the granite-topped counter
conceals the bar stool seating area from the
rows of theater seating. Two more built-in
cabinets in the back of the theater provide
storage for DVDs and all the necessary Xbox
accoutrements.
“I knew what I wanted,” says the home-
owner. “I wanted the highest screen quality
and good sound quality, but I didn’t want to “When we demoed theater, [the
shake the walls off.” owner] was stunned. He said,
“The video and audio is excellent, com- ‘This is really cool. I am going
to use this a lot.’”
bined with the sheer size of the room,”
McNeill says, adding that for any guest —Joe McNeill, custom installer
who sits in a chair at the end of a row, or at

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 75

 I N T E R I O R S

TECH TALK Behind the Scenes

The ceiling usually isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when one is ponder-
ing a home theater design, but in this case the owner definitely had plans for the
room’s lid—plans that significantly affected the selection of a few key piece of gear.
“The owner really wanted to do a beautiful, clean, uncluttered coffered ceiling,
but [the other custom installers] he spoke with told him the projector needed to
go right in the middle of the ceiling,” says McNeill. “I knew right off the bat that
this wasn’t the case: I knew we could put the projector behind the room, outside
it, with the right projector.”
McNeill and his team turned to the Runco VX-2dcx three-chip DLP projec-
tor in order to get the most detailed picture with accurate color reproduction.“We
went with the VX-2 because it comes with a variety of lenses, and the fact that
it’s a three-chip projector gave us the light output we needed to fill the 150-inch
[screen from] Stewart all the way on the other end of the room.”
Despite the fact that theVX-2 is available with Runco’s ultra-widescreen Cine-
Wide option, the homeowner opted for a standard 16:9 screen. “He wanted the In addition to housing the projector, the room
largest image possible for sporting events and gaming,” McNeill says, adding that behind the theater stores two equipment racks:
the homeowner didn’t mind cropping the picture from the top and bottom on one for the surround processor, amplifiers, and
Richard Gray’s PowerHouse, and the other for the
2.35:1 movies via the Stewart FilmScreen’s horizontal motorized masking system.
Crestron control and the Lutron lighting system.
Sound is provided by six Triad InWall Gold/4 Surround loudspeakers, two
Triad InRoom Platinum LCRs, and an InRoom Platinum Center beneath the the bar, the sound is stellar. The greater the
screen with a Triad InRoom Platinum PowerSub on either side. speaker-to-ear distance, McNeill says, the
Given the reputation of Triad’s in-wall loudspeakers, one has to ask, “why not more well-rounded the sound. “In smaller
go that route and place the speakers behind the screen?” As it turns out, the answer home theaters, the speakers are right on top
once again goes back to the long distance between the projector and screen: “We of you. That makes it seem like the sound is
didn’t want to go with a microperf screen because we didn’t want to lose anything coming from two feet away, which it is. The
from the image,” McNeill says. Microperforated screens are designed to allow greater distances here create much more of
sound to pass through thousands of tiny holes in the screen material with minimal an enveloping sound effect.”
sonic coloration. But that also means that some of the light directed at the screen And the homeowner’s reaction when
passes through rather than being reflected back, reducing brightness. “Having the McNeill demoed the home theater?
center channel that low didn’t affect us because of the great horn in that Triad “He was totally stunned,” McNeill says.
center, and its integrated tilting feature. We got the sound to the front and middle “He looked at me and smiled and said, ‘This
rows of seating and the bar with absolutely no problem. It sounds great.” is really cool. I’m going to use this a lot.’”
The room also features a Rotel RSP-1098 Surround Processor and an array Now the owner is more “into” the
of Rotel 200-watt high-current power amplifiers; PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 theater than imagined. One year later, he
gaming consoles; a complete Crestron control system; and six zones of Lutron replaced the DVD player with a Blu-ray
lighting control, all of which is plugged into a Richard Gray’s Power Company player. “There’s a noticeable difference in
PowerHouse power delivery system, which provides the system with 21 outlets’ the quality. It went from great to fabulous,”
worth of clean, isolated electricity. “It’s easy for interference to creep into systems he says.
like this,” says McNeill, “and the last thing in the world you want is one hundred “It was a lot more work than I antici-
grand worth of high-performance A/V gear plagued by hum or noise from the pated,” he says of handling the interior design
lighting system.With the PowerHouse in place, we know we’ve got the utmost in process and the architectural buildout from
isolation and protection for this sensitive gear. It’s that simple.”—Dennis Burger top to bottom. “It took more coordination
in this room than it took in the entire house.
RESOURCES
But it’s worth it. It’s a cool thing to have.”
Custom Installer: Electronics Design Group, Inc. of Piscataway, NJ
(732.650.9800; edgonline.com) > For a full equipment list for this project,
Interior Designer: the homeowner please visit HEmagazine.com.

76 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

 N TS
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© 2009 Milestone AV Technologies. All Rights Reserved. Sanus

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Systems is a division of Milestone. Sanus Systems and the

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Sanus logo are registered trademarks of Milestone.

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AV F

With Sanus Systems, you’ll always get smart design, high quality and

Make room for life patented technology. Our new, innovative products are easy to install
and easy to use, giving you more time to enjoy cherished moments
with friends and family. Learn more at www.SANUS.com.
78 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

Stylish
Streamlined
&
A Kentucky client modifies First Impressions Theme
Theatre Inc.’s showroom cinema for his own private
screening room at home.
> By Jean Penn > Photography by Barry Grossman Photography
A
single gentleman building a
three-story riverside home in
Bowling Green, Ky., decided
it would be fun to enter-
tain his friends in a custom-
built home theater whenever the Tennessee
Titans and Western Kentucky basketball
and football games are televised. A maga-
zine story about First Impressions Theme
Theatres Inc. and its elaborately designed
residential screening rooms inspired the
idea. Before long, the future theater owner
and one of his buddies found themselves
taking a detour from their Florida golfing
vacation to meet with company president
and CEO Jeffrey Smith in North Miami.
The house had been under construction
for more than a year, the gentleman told
Smith, and the space allotted for the theater
was slightly less than 600 square feet. Smith
determined that his client wanted his theater
experience to be a “guy thing,” so he sug-
gested the addition of a “buddy bar” in the
back of the room and two extra cafe tables to
accommodate overflow seating during sport-
ing events. Adjacent to the space would be
a fully equipped catering kitchen, a billiard/
game area and a gymnasium.
Smith provided a ballpark estimate of
$300,000 and promised full delivery in less
than four months—and before Christmas.
The client was happy with Smith’s proposal.
“I knew if I was going to get something nice,
it would be pricey,” the client says.
HEmagazine.com
I N T E R I O R S
Much to Smith’s delight, the client fell
in love with his company’s Art Deco-style
demonstration theater known as the Starlite
Electronic Video Theatre, and chose to repli-
cate many of its features in his private home
theater.“The form-follows-function demands
of home theater design are perfectly suited to
the fluid Chrysler car look that came out of
the industrial 1930s,” says Smith, alluding to
the style of his showroom theater.
After completing the interior design plan,
Smith’s team drew up the technical drawings.
Factors such as the video projector throw
distance for screen visibility, the appropriate
screen size for the room, and the placement
of loudspeakers for optimum acoustical per-
formance were worked into the blueprints.
Knowing there was enough of a budget
to do something special, Smith incorporated
custom-made torchères and an elaborate
ceiling treatment that’s illuminated with ice-
blue LED lighting. The color palette of olive
green and cranberry is directly woven into
the custom-made wool carpet that bears an
Art Deco pattern. Quarter-round columns
are bathed in First Impressions’ trademarked
AcouSuede, an acoustically transparent fabric;
each is topped with lacquered trim. Within
this linear trim are the concealed bass absorb-
ers, omni diffusers and strategic reflectors,
which enhance the audio presentation.
An inviting custom chaise lounge—
named the CineRodeoLounger—is front
row and center, and is flanked by matching
HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 79
 I N T E R I O R S

theater chairs, all of which are fully motor-

ized and feature double-wide arms, Black
Granite drink holders and trays. Behind
those two rows of seating is Smith’s “buddy
bar”—a marble-topped counter where
guests can sit and enjoy chicken wings and
a beer. Smith’s “sky lounge” lies beyond the
bar—an area equipped with two 42-inch-
high tables where guests can talk without
disturbing those seated in the theater. Four
hydraulically adjustable chairs, which provide
a customized sightline to the video screen
for every seated guest, can be added. The
setup encourages guests to circulate in and
out of the theater to grab a hot dog from the
adjacent kitchen. “The lights can be on 25
percent and not disturb the video picture,”
Smith says of the back area.
About $80,000 was budgeted for the
audiovisual equipment. “There was ample
room to do something special,” says Zach-
ary “Zak” Deily, executive vice president of
Definitive Electronics in Jupiter, Fla. “You
can easily get a real nice audio and video sys-
tem under $100, 000.” Definitive has worked
with First Impressions on several high-end
home theater projects. “First Impressions’
rooms look beautiful and are built around
making it sound good,” Deily says.
Thirty days after the client signed the
contract, Smith presented his elaborate
three-dimensional theater renderings. These
included the final mechanical and electrical
drawings and a contract inventory for all
furniture, furnishings and electronics—all for
a tad more than the $300,000 estimate. After
some modest negotiation with the client,
Smith closed the deal; the contract included
all of the theater’s interior construction,
interior design materials, audiovisual com-
ponents, programming (including Internet-
accessible remote programming services),
after-sales service and the full installation.
After the initial house call was made Four rows of motorized theater seating, including the chairs in the “sky lounge,” can
to measure for electrical wiring and other accommodate 19 guests. The cushy loungers with Black Granite drink holders and
trays cost about $4,000 each. Each chair features in-arm storage for blankets, gaming
specifications, the movie theater was fully
equipment and telephones. The original ceiling, more 16 feet tall, was dropped to 12
built in First Impressions’ facility. Once com- feet in front and 8 feet in back to improve the sound and to create a more proportional
pleted, it was prewired, tagged, disassembled, space. The ceiling is louvered and illuminated with ice-blue LED lighting; it also con-
and transported to its new home in Kentucky ceals the HVAC system. “Some of the louvers can be removed to access the mechani-
(leaving the baseboard and door casing to cal systems above,” Smith says.

80 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

 be finalized on site in the
TECH TALK Behind the Scenes home). Then, like a gigantic
jigsaw puzzle, the theater was
This installation, which boasts a gorgeous theater design by First reassembled piece by piece.
Impressions, and sports an impressive collection of gear assembled by After ordering the audiovi-
the Definitive Electronics team, beautifully illustrates the fact that even sual equipment, Definitive
the most prepared custom installers, working with the best of theater Audio assembled the racks,
designs, can sometimes run into unforeseen technical challenges. test wired everything and
The centerpiece of this home theater’s gear is its Digital Projec- boxed it all up for delivery.
tion dVision 1080p, a single-chip DLP projector that offers picture The design team arrived
brightness that’s comparable to a three-chip projector—but with on site after Thanksgiv-
much better contrasts and black levels thanks to its advanced dual- ing and finished two weeks
lamp/dual-color wheel design. “Digital Projection had primar- before Christmas as prom-
ily been in commercial applications—the Academy Awards and so ised. Josh Pressley, Definitive’s
forth—before entering the home market, and it really shows,” Deily project manager, arrived with
says. “They bring a commercial sensibility to the home market that the equipment, along with
we love.And with projectors that range from $6,000 to $7,000, and all programmer Alec Smarev,
the way up to $125,000 and $250,000, I know we’re going to have a four First Impressions install-
product that fits well into any home theater we do—no matter what ers and a supervisor to assem-
the budget for the room is.” ble it all. Smith coordinated
The home theater also boasts a Lexicon MC-4 Music and every aspect of the project,
Cinema Processor, the company’s previous entry-level piece, which and made all of the final
was recently replaced by the newer MV-5. “The client wanted inspections; Deily handled
high-quality gear,” Deily says. “He didn’t want to spend $12,000 on the client demo after every-
a processor, but wanted good stuff. So the MC-4 was a good fit. It thing was in place.
gave us all of the room setup and EQ tools that Lexicon is famous for The home theater, which
without breaking the bank.” was the first finished room
The MC-4’s sound is amplified by a Lexicon RX-7 Power in the house, was sealed up “The home theater is always the
Amplifier into a full complement of James Loudspeaker in-walls: a while the rest of the home’s most expensive per-square-foot
trio of 85-SDX 2-Way Shallow Depth in-wall speakers up front; and construction continued all room in any house.”

four 63-SDX 2-Way LCR Shallow Depth in-wall speakers fitted into around it. This, however, —Jeffrey Smith, theater architect
and designer
custom-made brackets in the soffits along the sides and rear of the did not prevent the client
room (these are angled downward toward the listeners). from sneaking into his pri-
Rounding out the speaker system is a pair of James EMB-1500, vate screening room several
and herein lies the project’s biggest unforeseen challenge.“The theater times before moving into the
has a little workroom behind the screen, where the subs are located. home, which was finished a
The first time we fired up the theater we found that bass was leak- few months ago.
ing from that room into the rest of the house—so you could hear “They did a nice job. I
it everywhere except in the theater.” The solution to that problem especially enjoy the Blu-ray
came in the form of custom-made boxes, lined with acoustical foam, quality,” he says of the audio
which surround the subs and direct their sonic energy forward and and video produced by the
into the theater room. “There’s no question that you’re going to run Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc
into things like that from time to time,” Deily says.“Always expect the Player.” While the client is a
unexpected. The question is whether or not you’re prepared to deal man of few words, he does
with those little surprises when they do crop up.”—Dennis Burger notice details.
“Twenty thousand dollars will
RESOURCES get you the same quality projec-
tor that would cost $30,000 to
Architect/theater Designer: First Impressions Theme Theatres Inc. of North Miami,
Fla. (800.305.7545, cineloungers.com) > For a full equipment list $40,000 a few years ago.”

Custom Installer: Definitive Electronics of Jupiter, Fla. (561.748.3564, definitiv- for this project, please visit —Zachary Deily, custom installer
electronics.com) HEmagazine.com.

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 81

82 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

Beachy Keen
A long-time Malibu resident who doesn’t watch television
turns his beach house into a flat-screen showcase.
>BY LOUISE FARR
>PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDALL CORDERO
I
nvestment banker William J. Chadwick’s
father lived by several rules: “Billy,” he
said,” You can play football or play in
a band, but you can’t be in the stands
because spectators are losers.” Little won-
der that full-grown Billy, who became a football
and lacrosse star at St. Lawrence University, has
little patience with television. “It caused me not
to be a very good sitter,” he says, alluding to his
father’s advice. “I’ve never seen ‘Seinfeld.’ I’ve
never seen ‘Friends.’ We don’t do ‘Dancing with
the Stars.’ I’ve never been into mainstream trash.”
Funny then, that Chadwick just happens
to have an abundance of flat-screen TVs in
his 11,000-square-foot home, which takes up
a considerable chunk of Carbon Beach—that
crescent-shaped white-sand setting, also known
as “Billionaire’s Beach,” that boasts some of Mali-
bu’s priciest real estate. The house blends the East
Coast tradition of walnut flooring, tailored crown
molding and custom wall paneling with a breezy
California-style open floor plan. Throughout the
lavish two-story space that’s colored in ocean
and sand hues, Chadwick, wife Cheryl, and their
three young daughters share 18 televisions—
ranging from the 15-inch Sharp Aquos LCDs
in their “his” and “her” bathrooms to a 32-inch
Sony LCD screen in the master suite.
HEmagazine.com
I N T E R I O R S
“The Chadwicks wanted to lie in bed and
see the ocean, the fireplace and the television at
the same time,” says interior designer Curtis Stal-
lard, whose International Design Group in Los
Angeles specializes in classic American design. “I
took a picture of an antique sideboard, copied
it in mahogany at 16 inches wide, and put in a
plasma lift with a 360-degree swivel,” he says of
his attractive TV enclosure.
Aside from a giant wooden dollhouse, the
focal point of the girls’ upstairs playroom, is a cabinet-
enclosed 60-inch rear-projection Sony TV
topped by three 23-inch high-definition Sony
flat-screen TVs. One can’t help thinking that this
is a rather elaborate set-up for their three girls,
who range 8 to 10 in age.
Chadwick finally comes clean: Sometimes he
does enjoy watching television. In the morning,
for instance, he multitasks by monitoring ESPN,
Bloomberg and “The Today Show” while mak-
ing phone calls.
The family has lived in Malibu for quite some
time. But Chadwick, who is also a real-estate
investor, may have made one of the canniest
moves of his life when he persuaded nearby
Pepperdine University to part with the beach
property that had housed visiting dignitaries and
high-profile professors for years. At 2,500 square
HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 83
 I N T E R I O R S
The owners removed original
walls to combine the kitchen
and breakfast rooms into
a single functional space
where they can supervise the
children’s homework or watch
the 53-inch high-definition
TV. They can access their per-
sonal DVRs from any TV in the
house. Sound—other than the
mesmerizing crash of waves
filtering in from outside—is
provided by Sonance Sym-
phony in-wall speakers. All the
upholstery in the house is from
Nancy Corzine.
84 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
feet, the house was unprepossessing. But it sat on
a 190-foot sweep of beach where 40- to 60-foot-
wide multimillion-dollar lots are customary.
When the Chadwicks began the four-year
building project, they were living in a smaller
house next door that they had remodeled. Cheryl
threw herself into overseeing details of the
sprawling new home.
Since her husband prefers to be surrounded
by space rather than clutter, the downstairs
great room is rimmed by a bar, and a combined
dining-living room space, which is vast enough
to accommodate 100 or more guests and a grand
piano. Through floor-to-ceiling windows, visitors
can peer across 4,000 square feet of deck space
and a 75-foot-long oceanfront pool. Beyond that
lie gasp-inducing vistas of crashing waves, dol-
phins and the occasional spouting whale.
“Who in their right mind would live in
a house like this with three kids, two golden
retrievers and a Fox Red lab?” Chadwick asks
rhetorically, glancing at the perfectly polished
wood floor. “It’s a noisy, busy house with lots of
HEmagazine.com
Everet Fenton Gidley
drama. But the girls know not to come through
the living room in their wheelies.” And despite
its grand scale, Chadwick finds the great room
casual enough that he can comfortably plop
down on one of the oversized sofas, upholstered
in Nancy Corzine fabric, after returning from a
sandy jog on the beach. “People remark, ‘How
can you have an 11,000-square-foot house that’s
so cozy?’” he says.
If the family does feel like hunkering down—
or if the girls refuse to remove their wheelies—
they can regroup in the adjacent kitchen-family-
breakfast room, where the children’s computers
are lined up on a built-in desk; a 53-inch Fujitsu
plasma TV resides above the fireplace.
Because the home lots on this cramped strip
of coast tend to be small, private screening rooms
are a luxury—even when neighbors include
Hollywood heavyweights such as Larry Elison,
David Geffen, and real-estate tycoon and art col-
lector Eli Broad. Still, with Chadwick willing to
be a Super Bowl spectator and Cheryl’s viewing
partner whenever she’s in the mood for an old
 Everet Fenton Gidley

“When clients ask,

‘Are you going to give
me a cheat sheet [for the
technology]?’ I say, ‘If I
do my job right you won’t
need one.”
—Patrick Calderone,
custom installer

In the playroom, the girls like

to watch as many screens as
possible as music blasts from
another room. Most of the
home’s electronics are tucked
away. “We don’t like to off-load
equipment around the house,”
says the custom installer.

The main living area, left,

combines a bar, and the dining
and living rooms. It’s perfect
for sipping cocktails to the
tinkling of the Steinway grand
piano.
Everet Fenton Gidley

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 85

 I N T E R I O R S

Everet Fenton Gidley

The interior designer

surrounded the bar’s 23-inch
Sony LCD TV with framed
art to appease the owner’s aes-
thetic concerns. A rosewood-
framed mahogany dining table
gleams with 11 coats of hand-
applied clear piano lacquer; the
8-foot-wide piece was hoisted
over the beach balcony in order
to get it into the house.

“AVX is so easy to work with,

and we are repeat customers,”
says Cheryl about the company
who installed the home theater,
right, and the whole-house
automation system. When the
children perform in the the-
ater, they use the sound system
to play music for their original
numbers.

86 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

musical, he wanted a dedicated home theater.
“I absolutely desired the highest quality with
no compromises,” says Chadwick, who spent
six months interviewing A/V companies before
hiring Los Angeles’s AVX Audio Video Experi-
ence Inc. “We’re not viewing dailies or throwing
security or telephone installation backgrounds—
are not educated in high-end custom installation.
“There’s glamour to it,” he says, referring to the
audiovisual industry. “People want their home
theaters to be the equivalent of a Ferrari.”
The homeowner had Kevin
Phoenix of Doc Aquarium
install a 1,000-gallon aquarium
in his home office, above, which
houses moray eels, stingrays,
puffer sharks and a living reef.
The wall paneling and flooring

home premieres, so the movie industry approach
of ‘Let’s throw money at it’ is silly. I relied on
AVX for advice. These guys are highly organized
and know what they’re doing.”
Project manager Patrick Calderone, who
founded AVX in 1990 with Steven Merrick,
knows clients are often taken advantage of by
companies that become unresponsive once the
job is completed—and sometimes even before.
“I’m not a salesman. I will always choose reliabil-
ity and serviceability,” he says. “The whole idea is
to simplify and not complicate people’s lives.”
Calderone, who worked his way up from
shop boy to company owner, has installed home
theaters all over the world, including manor
houses in the United Kingdom and a 200,000-
square-foot palace in Saudi Arabia. He says too
many in the industry—many of whom have
B
efore the Chadwick family settled on an are solid walnut, as is the Curtis
Stallard-designed desk, which
Art Deco style for their home theater, their
is inlaid with walnut burl. A
interior designer researched the designs of old- nautical compass medallion in
time movie houses dating from 1910 and into the floor is inlaid with walnut,
the 1940s. Leather seats with down-filled kidney as well as birds-eye maple and
pillows, by Premiere Home Theater Seating, mahogany.
were custom dyed to match the walls; fiberglass
and acoustic panels are equipped with sound-
proofing material installed under double drywall,
all of which are tucked behind a FabriTrak wall
covering system. “The blue works great for mov-
ies because it gets really dark,” Calderone says.
Soundproofing is especially crucial along this
stretch of Malibu due to the never-ending trail
of cars thundering down Pacific Coast Highway.
The theater cabinetry is Macassar ebony with a
hand-applied lacquer finish. The 9-foot projec-
tion screen is by Screen Research, while the

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 87

 I N T E R I O R S
TECH TALK
It’s funny—for a magazine dedicated to the art of custom installa-
tion, we’ve never provided a precise working def inition of what cus-
tom installation is. Thankfully, we don’t have to: We simply can point
to the work of AVX Audio Video Experience Inc. Custom installer
Patrick Calderone explains: “Some installers drape wires across the
f loor and tuck them under the carpet. [For them], it’s good enough
to get paid for the gear. That’s not good enough for us. I would lose
sleep over that—it’s just not custom.”
For AVX, cleanliness is central to customness. All AVX staff bring
to every job site drop clothes, latex medical gloves, Windex wipes
and towels. Every run of wire is well thought-out; visible dongles are
strictly verboten. Every component lacking an external control port
is modified personally. That means AVX buries IR emitters inside
the equipment: No AVX job has an IR eye stuck to the component’s
facade, Calderone says.
If such an approach appears slightly extreme, Calderone’s explana-
tion quickly reaff irms their long-term strategy: “Service calls will
kill a company, especially when you’ve got installations in Mexico,
the UK or just a few hours away in San Francisco. If the service call
ends up being a result of someone knocking an IR emitter off the face
of a cable box, that call just cost you thousands—just to re-adhere a
little plastic emitter to the face of a box,” Calderone says.
So what’s more eff icient? A service call that involves a frustrated
client, and the installer loses a day of work—or modifying a DVD
player in such a way that sometime down the road, it doesn’t meet
warranty specs and the installation f irm might have to replace it?
This approach to custom installation isn’t without its challenges,
though. It requires an intimate working knowledge of myriad prod-
ucts from disparate manufactures. And, as Calderone and his team
learned on this job, products change quickly. “For years, Sharp’s
smaller f lat-screen TVs used low-voltage, transformer-style power
supplies, which we could locate remotely below in cabinets. So [on
this project] we didn’t make provisions to have power outlets behind
the TVs. We had our wiring come in low, into a cabinet, and we
routed low-voltage cables through the wall to the back of the TV.
“Toward the end of this job, lo and behold they all had 110-volt
ports on the back. We had to come up with a solution to get 110-volt
outlets up behind these TVs, but the walls were already f inished: The
cabinets were in, the paint and wallpaper and tile were up. But hey,
things like that keep us on our toes.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: AVX Audio Video Experience Inc. of Los Angeles, Calif.
(310.445.9989, avexperience.net)
Interior Designer: International Design Group of Los Angeles, Calif.
(323.464.8478)
88 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
Both “his” and “her” baths feature 15-inch Aquos
LCDs and Sonance Symphony in-ceiling speak-
ers. Her bath, above, is clean-lined and elegant,
while his is more sporty in design.
high-definition projector is by Sony; the rear
speakers are by Sonance and the side speakers are
by JBL. The illuminated Deco-style panes on the
home theater’s side walls, copied from a now-
defunct Los Angeles theater, are custom-designed,
laser-carved wood panels; each is finished with
customized auto body paint.
As satisfying as the project turned out, it was
not without glitches. With practicality in mind,
Cheryl chose blue carpet for the theater origi-
nally, but when the carpeting arrived she looked
at it and said, “I don’t think so.” It was just too
much blue. Now the Karastan carpeting is sand-
colored and patterned with squares in gradations
of blue. Another surprise was discovering that
the Crestron automation system’s range was so
powerful that it had to be adjusted so it wouldn’t
give orders to the neighbor’s home (coinciden-
tally, AVX handled the custom installation for the
house next door, too).
F or all his distaste for TV, Chadwick is emi-
nently satisfied with his little theater. “If
you want your kids to be at your house and not
someone else’s, a theater is killer,” he says. But as
for him and his wife, catching a private screening
of Grease or Westside Story has turned out to be a
rare event. “With three girls we’re lucky if we can
get in there at the same time,” he says.
> For a full equipment list for this project,
please visit HEmagazine.com.
 I N T R O D U C I N G T H E

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90 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

A Theater
of the Senses
Technology and texture unite to foster one growing family’s togetherness.
> By Hope Winsborough > Photography by Dino Tonn Photography Inc.
he eyes want to collaborate with
other senses. All the senses, including
vision, can be regarded as extensions of the sense
of touch … They define the interface between the
skin and the environment.”—Juhani Pallasmaa,
Finnish architect and theorist
Custom homebuilder and homeowner John
Cioe would no doubt agree with Pallasmaa’s
view—particularly since his own family’s com-
fortable haven in Scottsdale, Ariz., is a testament
to the importance of sensorial experience to
matters of design.
With years of experience under his belt, the
co-owner of Lusso Homes of Distinction post-
poned building his own home until the perfect
I N T E R I O R S
opportunity presented itself—in the form of a
well-positioned plot of land boasting dramatic
vistas of the perfect southwestern peak. And it was
this view that led Cioe to create his own archi-
tectural “interface”—one that would define his
young family’s future experiences.
“I never had a need to build a home for
myself,” says the father of three children. “But
there I was with growing family. Then the next
thing you know, I discovered the site.”
The site in question is in a luxury golf
course community in North Scottsdale, and—
more importantly—it offers stellar views of nearby
Pinnacle Peak. “The home was designed and sited
with [those] views as a priority,” Cioe explains,
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 91
 I N T E R I O R S

In the great room, above, a

custom Vision Art work dis-
guises the 50-inch Sony LCD
(part of the high-definition
Sony New Home System).
The expansive living area is
well delineated with stained
wood beams.

Though designed for large

group activities, the outdoor
living space that includes
the theater, right, is equally
suited to individual screen-
ings. “I can sit here by myself
at dusk, watch a movie and
peek inside at the screen [in
the great room] and watch
my kids play,” says the owner
(or check in on them to make
sure they are asleep).

92 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

adding that the engineer staked the home at The dining room’s solid appoint-
ments, above, and symmetrical
two different angles to determine which orienta-
configuration contradict its
tion offered the best vantage point and the most casual ambiance of warm
privacy. “We discovered that by adding a partial textures and a desert palette. The
basement [that stepped-up the sightline], we could trompe l’oeil recess surrounds
capture even more views,” the homeowner says. a custom, hand-painted ceiling
that incorporates rusts and
Geographic positioning was just the beginning,
browns with bronze metallics,
however, and yet another way in which Cioe’s culled from the seating and
approach dovetails with those of Pallasmaa, who window treatments. The wine
states that “Authentic architectural experiences cellar is visible through a custom-
[consist of] looking in or out through the window, designed wrought-iron and glass
door. Should the compressor
rather than the window itself.”
malfunction, a remote device will
notify the owner immediately via

A ccordingly, Cioe’s main priority was lifestyle.

“I thought a lot about how we actually live.
We entertain a lot so there had to be a great room,”
his cell phone.

he explains. “And an open floor plan was clearly

the way to go.” Everything from the technology
to the decor—a Southwestern take on an Old-
world Tuscan style—was driven by the goal of
creating an environment that is, at once, rustic and
luxurious, kid-friendly yet elegant. Technology-
wise, Cioe’s plans called for remote access to all
things technological, including security, lighting
and drapery control capabilities.

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 I N T E R I O R S
In the kitchen, black- and
cream-flecked granite, with
slivers of brown and gold, and a
distressed-wood island topped
with a thick butcher block
center the roomy, pass-through
kitchen. The cabinets and hard-
ware coordinate with the built-
ins in the nearby living area.
“My house has been
designed and built to let
me raise my children from
toddler to teenager—while
allowing my wife and me to
entertain our adult friends
and family.”
—John Cioe,
homebuilder and homeowner
94 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
“There are certain things you have to have
in a house at a certain price point,” says Cioe.
“But the challenge is for the technology to
be unobtrusive.”
Working with custom installer Ron Koistinen
of Morgan Securities & Sound LLC in Phoenix,
Cioe says this goal was well-served. “For example,
when I fly in from my house in Rhode Island, I
call from the airport on my cell phone and turn
down the A/C, turn the lights on and adjust the
motorized drapes in preparation for arrival.” From
his point of view, certain technology—especially
the remote access—“just makes sense.”
The task of translating the family’s lifestyle
and Cioe’s technology parameters into a beauti-
ful interior appointment plan fell to designer
Kristin Hazen of Est Est Inc., who began at the
beginning—with surfaces.
“Even though the style is reminiscent of Old-
World looks, there is an airy feel,” she explains,
alluding to her use of light and warm surfaces—
such as the home’s tobacco-colored canterra
stonework and warm muted woods. On the floors,
a tumbled travertine in a multi-sized pattern pairs
with graham cracker-hued walls, establishing a
calm atmosphere.
“There’s a unity of look with the open floor-
ing plan,” says Hazen, “but with different tones
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emphasized from room to room.”The great room
is highlighted with browns and rusts, for example.
Black is highlighted in the kitchen, with reds
and golds in the dining room.
By combining formal configurations with
inviting pieces, such as the dining room’s dis-
tressed wooden table bookended by ironwork
and carved-wood, hand-painted artwork, Hazen
establishes a sense of comfortable stability. It’s the
same compelling juxtaposition echoed in the out-
door environment that is visible from every room:
a stony peak bathed in ever-changing hues and
gradations of light.
T he Cioe home is designed to promote
viewing of all kinds. In the master suite, the
bed is positioned at the perfect angle for taking
in both Pinnacle Peak and whatever movie or
TV program is showing on the 42-inch pop-up
Pioneer plasma television. A separate sitting area
capitalizes on comfort, while the expansive dress-
ing area and master bath spans more square foot-
age than the master bedroom itself—a luxurious
layout complete with a Kohler Rain steam room/
shower, twin commodes, and a commercial-grade
cappuccino machine. “When I’m in my place in
Rhode Island, [the steam room is] what I miss
most,” says Cioe.

When the homeowner positioned the master suite bed for maximum outdoor views,
above, a retractable flat-screen TV and complementary storage-laden end pieces also
came into play. Cioe believes most people spend a lot of time in the bath and dress-
ing area, so his floor plan relegates space accordingly—allowing for private water
closets and individual walk-in closets. The two areas unite in a centrally positioned
marble-topped bath and an adjacent steam room/shower that’s surrounded by
champagne gold floor-to-ceiling tile throughout. Twin arched vanities are topped
with gold-veined black marble. The enclosed shower features dual showerheads with
bench seating and steam controls.
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The heart and soul of this grand home, how-
ever, is the great room, which incorporates a pass-
through kitchen, a comfy breakfast nook and a
large living area. In the kitchen, spacious counter
space invites simultaneous use—whether for food
service during parties, evening laptop work or
color commentary during culinary activities.“John
really enjoys cooking,” says Hazen, “and the open
layout makes it easy for him to cook and interact
with the rest of the family.”
The main living area is equally inviting. “They
wanted a lot of seating for this main gathering
place for lounging,” says Hazen, alluding to the
space’s two sofas. “The kids love to run around
and play, so we gave them a way to do it—with no
dangerous edges or glass to collect fingerprints.” A
custom-made, tufted-leather ottoman easily moves
aside to create a big play zone that’s padded with
an easy-to-clean area rug. Comfort, again, reigns
supreme, thanks to stain-resistant upholstery sur-
rounding voluptuous down-blended cushions and
seat backs. A 50-inch Pioneer LCD is positioned
within easy view, and, like all the home’s flat-screen
TVs, can be programmed to display live color
images captured by any of the home’s security
cameras. Thus, the need for multiple television
screens is eliminated.
The theater functions as an extension of the
HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 95
 I N T E R I O R S
TECH TALK
Surprisingly enough, designing a covered outdoor home theater in
Arizona—where temperatures climb north of 100 F for three months
in a row—isn’t the technical challenge one might assume. According to
Koistinen, the nature of the theater does impose a few restrictions on its
use: The lack of lighting control makes it pretty much a nighttime sys-
tem, and even the summer evenings are a bit too toasty to be outdoors.
(“Nobody moves to Arizona for the summers,” he says.)
But luckily, the environment doesn’t significantly impact the equip-
ment’s performance: “You may think ambient temperature as high
as 110-plus as being extreme, but we run into [indoor] environments
more extreme than that when we start dealing with hidden projectors,”
Koistinen says. “The little niches that people want to put their projectors
into can fry sensitive electronics really quickly. So even during the sum-
mer, the Panasonic PT-AX100U we’re using outside is still getting better
ventilation than many indoor projectors.”
In this home, there’s much more to discuss than the outdoor theater.
For one thing, you’d expect a house of this caliber to feature an AMX
or Crestron control system. Instead, the lighting, HVAC, and security is
handled by OnQ. “With the OnQ system, we have the functionality that
one of those other systems would give you, but at a much lower price,”
he says. “Not that budget was the deciding factor here: The homeowner
wanted to be able to modify the programming without calling us. It’s a
sophisticated system—he can call the house via cell phone to lower the
temperature and disarm the security system. We have motion sensors so
when one of his children wakes and steps into the hallway, [it] provides
path lighting for them—and it’s very easy to program.”
While the OnQ system handles the typical automation tasks, the
home’s entertainment systems are controlled by a Sony New Home
system. “That’s a neat product—very plug-and-play,” Koistinen says. “It
comes with Wallstations that feature built-in DVD players, or you can
access the 400-disc changer in the main rack. And also it’s part of the
distributed audio system, so you can bring up whatever source you want
from any room in the house.
“The beauty of that product is you send [Sony] the specs prior to the
house completion and it comes pretty much pre-racked and ready to
install,” Koistinen continues. “That’s unusual for us since we’re used to
taking all of the components and assembling them ourselves. This was
definitely a first for us.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: Morgan Security & Sound LLC in Phoenix, Ariz.
(602.454.7200, morgansecurityandsound.com)
Homebuilder and owner: Lusso Homes of Distinction of Scottsdale, Ariz.
(480.281.1585, lussohomes.com)
Interior Designer: Est Est Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz.
(480.563.1555, estestinc.com)
96 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
great room and epitomizes the family’s outdoor-
loving lifestyle. “I could not envision a true
[indoor] home theater,” says Cioe. “With three
small kids, we just can’t be in a room that’s sound-
proof.” By bringing the home theater experience
outdoors, the family’s entertainment options have
expanded exponentially.
“They really wanted that ‘party-in-the-back-
yard’ feeling,” says Hazen. “A set-up that makes it
easy for a large group of people to enjoy themselves
together comfortably.” With its suspended theater
system nestled within a covered patio, the outdoor
home theater fits the family’s lifestyle perfectly.
“The furniture is light enough that you position
it a number of different ways,” says Hazen. “You
can swing the seating around to face the screen or
keep it grouped together for a dinner party with
concert video playing in the background.”
Cioe himself was pleasantly surprised at the
theater’s crowd-pleasing impact, especially during
the summertime and among the kids. “We can all
watch something together or the adults can enjoy
a video while the kids are playing in the pool only
a few feet away.”
Even though the home was designed with
Cioe’s young family in mind, its infrastructure
will support future adaptations. For example, Cioe
expects to add automated touch-screen technol-
ogy when the children are older. By working with
Koistinen, such structural concerns were addressed
at the outset. “Having the team in place before
you break ground is huge,” says the homebuilder.
With the outdoor home theater, for example, plans
called for installing a projector lift from the ceiling.
Thus, the home was built with the structural and
wiring support to do just that.
The interiors, too, have been created to ebb
and flow along with the Cioe gang—an achieve-
ment Hazen is most proud of. “John had a lot of
very specific things he wanted to do in terms of
technology and of comfort,” she explains, “so it
was like a puzzle. Each scene had its own challenge,
and each had its own reward.”
Philosopher Pallasmaa would surely under-
stand. No doubt such puzzles have always chal-
lenged and delighted those who value authentic
architectural experiences.
> For a full equipment list for this project,
please visit HEmagazine.com.
picture simulated To join our community, go to livinginhd.com
 I N T E R I O R S

ROMAN
HOLIDAY
Every time the owners step
foot into their golden home
theater, they feel as if they’ve
traveled back in time to their
Italian honeymoon.
> BY BROOKE LANGE

> PHOTOGRAPHY BY
RANDALL CORDERO

C
onsider this: A regular every-
day person—not a big-name,
highly-in-demand interior
designer—masterminded every
single detail of this elegant
private screening room outside of Los
Angeles. While the wife doesn’t have any
formal interior design training, she bravely
orchestrated all of her home’s interiors
from top to bottom. “I know what I like,”
Kim Banducci says. “It’s in my head, and
sometimes it’s difficult to verbalize, but I
know it when I see it.”
At first blush, the theater’s aesthetics the intricately stitched acoustic wall fab-
appear utterly simplistic with its monochro- ric echoes the stunning craftsmanship of
matic color palette and minimalist embel- the handmade gowns worn by those who
lishments. The look of the space is so easy passed through the historic doorway.
on the eye that none of the carefully crafted
architectural detailing or design flourishes
will cause any guest to do a double take—
nor do those flourishes distract from the
T he owners of this theater admit that
last year’s Roman Holiday in Italy
influenced their theater’s design deeply.
film at hand. Even the streamlined leather “Everything in Italy is in the molding and
theater seating melts into the background the details,” Banducci says, adding her
instead of competing for a second look. company provides security services to the
Upon closer inspection, however, it’s largest commercial movie theaters around
clear that the room’s visual artistry is as the world, including the Kodak Theater,
complex and ornate as Florence, Italy’s which stages the Oscars. “Italy’s streets are
famed gilt-bronze Baptistry doors. Even literally lined with marble,” she says.

98 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

 To that end, Banducci found a way to
re-create Italy’s stone-laden vias in her
screening room in the form of backlit onyx
marble panels, each of which strategically
lines the bottom portions of the theater’s
side walls. A soft light blushes through the
marble slabs, lending a romantic glow to
the space while illuminating the tiered the-
ater aisles for ease of movement.
In a nod to Italy’s richly decorated
villa and palace walls, the panels of gold-
stitched, flora-patterned acoustic fabric—
which Banducci found after scouring L.A.
Mart’s showrooms for several days—are
framed by multiple layers of gold-gilded
crown molding. Each hand-selected layer
of crown molding, as well as the perfect
arrangement of crown molding for each
area, took an untold number of hours.
“Just the chair railing itself has eight
different pieces of molding,” she continues.
After the molding company J.P. Weaver
carefully placed Banducci’s custom-cut
pieces for the baseboard design, she real-
ized the intricate detailing of the elaborate
woodworkuing was lost, so it was back to
the drawing board. “Luckily the general
contractor was patient with me,” she says,
adding that she worked with professional
colorist Phillpa Radon (who also works
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 99
 The Cineak Fortuna theater
chairs, which bear a dark
chocolate brown leather, will
be replaced by a more custom-
ized version of the same model.
The new chairs will recline
more, and the leg lifts will rise
to a higher level. In addition,
the master theater seats—those
on the back row—will feature
lumbar support.
“Kim knocked the ball out of
the park. For someone to design
a theater like this their first
time is very impressive.”
—Murray Kunis, custom installer
100 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
with Ralph Lauren) to ensure the palette of
more than 20 paints work together seamlessly to
complement all of the architectural elements.“We
created mock designs on one wall and changed
them if I did not like them,” Banducci says. “We
did not want the whole room to look the same.”
T
he owners’ beloved memories of Italy’s
grand villas and duomos came into play
when designing the theater’s “sundown” ceiling
of bronze, brown, taupe and gold. The famed
celestial ceilings in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas also
contributed to the theater’s heavenly ceiling scene.
“We didn’t want it to be gaudy,—we wanted a
classic, breathtaking look,” Banducci says. “We
wanted to be able to walk into the theater 20
years later and think that the design is timeless.”
The theater’s original rooftop design called for
each corner to be punctuated with a medallion-
like, carved-wood cornice. Banducci decided
against those concentric accent pieces in the end,
fearing they would overpower the cloud scene.
Numerous layers of recessed lighting, which spills
over much of the room’s crown moulding, cast
a warm glow on the sundown scene. The wall
sconces are from Fine Art Lamps’ catalogue.
What started out as a simple space evolved
into a much more involved design, both from
a visual and a technological standpoint. In the
beginning, the husband envisioned building a liv-
ing room-like environment that revolved around
a wall-mounted 71-inch plasma TV. Knowing
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such a setup wouldn’t deliver a bonafide theater
experience, the wife and custom installer, Los
Angeles’ Future Home owner Murray Kunis,
quickly talked the husband out of that media
room design approach.
Soon enough, with the guidance of Kunis, the
couple was learning about high-end projectors
and automation possibilities. Once they saw how
much fun they could have with the technology,
the theater system grew in sophistication. “They
love the Kaleidescape,” Kunis says of the movie
and media management technology. Kunis’ team
wrote the software for the touchscreen’s video
overlay, which allows the homeowners to select a
movie by touching the DVD title on the touch-
screen instead of having to cursor through a list.
“It’s much easier to use instead of having to
look up at the screen and use the up/down/left/
right touchscreen button,” says Kunis, a classically
trained musician who has been installing high-
end home theaters and doing Crestron program-
ming for 20 years.
“We’ve been designing THX theaters since
1991,” says the music engineer who graduated
from the University of Miami—one of the top
music-engineering programs in the world. “It’s a
given that the room has to be easy to use, a given
that it provides a theatrical experience, and a given
that it has Dolby sound that’s encompassing.”
W orking within the framework of a
425-square-foot room with an 8-foot

Regardless of the theater system’s sophistication,
it had to be simple to operate. “We’re very non-
techy people,” Banducci says, “so we had to have
a something foolproof.” Adds custom installer
Kunis: “We have to schedule a time to teach
homeowners how to use their systems. But we
didn’t have to for this theater because the family
had already figured it out and was using it.”
ceiling—one of the lowest ceilings Kunis has
worked with in a theater of this scale—was a chal-
lenge, especially when the ultimate goal of creat-
ing a “theatrical experience” translates into fitting
a 10- or 11-foot video screen into a space that’s
less than 23 feet deep—all while carefully execut-
ing the perfect seating plan to accommodate the
perfect sightline to the screen.
“The coolest thing,” he says, “is that we
were able to create a very comfortable room in
a limited space with a low ceiling for six to 10
people. The logistics of the room are very com-
fortable with no compromise of performance.”
But Kunis did more than deliver a jaw-
dropping theater system: He saved the couple’s
marriage. “When my husband was laid up after
having ankle surgery and was ordered to stay
off his foot for at least four weeks, he set up
camp in the home theater and barely left the
room,” Banducci says, adding that her husband,
a retired LAPD and SWAT Team member,
typically exercises two to three hours a day
after working a 12-hour day. Not exactly your
sit-still-for-long kind of guy. “He could recline
and watch movies and Fox News,” she says. “He
brought his office into the theater so he could
work. It was a godsend.”
> For a full equipment list for this project,
please visit HEmagazine.com.
I N T E R I O R S
TECH TALK
Ask any systems integrator how early they need to become
involved with a construction project and the answer you receive
will invariably be “before the beginning.” General contractors aren’t
custom installers, after all, so they’re often unaware of the seemingly
esoteric requirements of home theater and whole-house entertain-
ment. As a result, custom installers aren’t always afforded the luxury
of early involvement in home-building projects.
“The shell of the theater was already built by the time we were
brought in,” Kunis says, “and the ceiling height was lower that we
would have liked, so making everything f it was a challenge.” Kunis
had to f igure out how to create a comfortable line of sight, get all of
the theater seating to f it and still deliver a wide enough image. “We
wanted a 35-degree or 40-degree f ield of view, so that means we
needed an 11-foot screen. We had to f igure out how to accomplish
that with the restrictive ceiling height,” he says.
Once Kunis accommodated the line-of-sight issues, though,
the rest of the room fell in place. Fortunately, the space was fairly
deep—at 23 feet—relative to the other dimensions. “That’s important
because you lose a little more than 2 feet at the front of the room
because of the screen wall and subwoofers,” Kunis says.
The screen in question is a Stewart Filmscreen Luxus Screenwall
with an ultra-wide 2.35:1 cinematic aspect ratio. In addition, the
room is equipped with a JBL Synthesis Two Array System—a com-
plete home theater solution featuring an audio processor, equalizer,
crossover, amplif iers, and speakers. “We love the JBL Synthesis Sys-
tems because you don’t have to mix and match and try to hope that
things work together,” Kunis says. “All of the components have been
pre-engineered to work together. They all meet THX standards, and
you’re getting a complete system from the premier name in profes-
sional theater sound.”
Kunis and his team did make one slight tweak to the system,
though: “Although this is the Synthesis Two Array, we’re using Syn-
thesis One [subwoofers]. Often, in rooms that call for the Synthesis
Two, you don’t have room for bigger subwoofers. Fortunately we had
room here to upgrade to the larger series.”
But they didn’t have room to raise the ceiling or lower the f loor
since the theater is located above the garage, and the roof was already
in place. “I would like to have had 2 more feet of ceiling height, but it
wasn’t necessary in the end. Once we did the initial engineering and
f igured out the line-of-sight issues, it actually went really smoothly.
Little things always pop up, but nothing that required more than a
two-minute conversation.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: Future Home of Los Angeles, Calif.
(310.966.9442, futurehometheater.com)
General Contractor: Joseph Kearney Construction of Newhall, Calif.
(818.425.2930)
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 101
 I N T E R I O R S

Miami
LIGHT
A designer and a custom installer make a
major audiovisual installation look easy.
> BY VALERY ROCKWELL
> PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN NELSON PHOTOGRAPHY

D
ean Martin spins and shoots the bad guy out of the
saloon’s rafters. Everyone seated in the living room
applauds. Thanks to Martin, life is looking up for John
Wayne, the beleaguered sheriff in “Rio Bravo,” who
appears larger than life on the 50-inch Runco TV. The Duke feels so
close and so real that you could hand him a tequila on ice.
Actually, you are a far cry from Rio anything. Instead, you are
nestled into a luxury condo in the Four Seasons that overlooks Miami
and Biscayne Bay. The Crestron keypad and Kaleidescape movie and
music server puts you at ease and in total control of your audiovisual
universe. With so many movies, TV channels and music options to
choose from, the world is at your fingertips.
Ease of control and ease of access to countless entertainment
options is exactly what this family wanted for their pied-a-terre. But
this gathering place is not only for themselves—it also accommodates
all the CDs and DVDs they bring back from their many travels. Luck-
ily, the Kaleidescape server gobbles up more than one disc at a time,
digitizing all it ingests for future use. Loading one CD or DVD at a
time would take untold hours—time that the family would rather
spend convoying their Bentleys and Jags through South Beach.
The custom A/V system required by this CD-and-DVD-collect-
ing family is indeed complex. Plus the easy-to-use system operates
at Bentley- and Jag-like performance levels. The challenge for this
project—which was headed up custom installer David Frangioni
of Audio One Sound & Video Inc. in North Miami Beach, Fla.—
was to make all the heavy gear “light” in appearance. The custom

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HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 103
 I N T E R I O R S

cabinetry and built-ins—which were designed by

Carola Hinojosa’s Miami design firm, Hino-
josa Design Studio—house all of the state-
of-the-art Runco CW-50MCs, the Marantz
SR7500s, and the Genelec HT206B speakers
(Hinojosa also consulted with the homeown-
ers on all of the art and sculpture purchases
for the condo, as well as the wall finishes).
To maintain the residence’s light-as-air
style, the speakers could not look or feel
massive, unwieldy or tank-like even though
they play a huge, defining role in every room.
Like the Duke in nearly every frame of “Rio
Bravo,” the powerful yet subtle A/V system is
the big star of this home. Thus, the cabinetry
housing the condo’s elite A/V gear embodies
the light-hearted spirit of the Miami zeitgeist.
In addition, each custom cabinet provides the In the great room (above and previous page), automated shades protect the furniture
proper ventilation for the respective heating from sunlight. When not in use, they retreat into a tidy cluster below the ceiling soffit.
The in-wall speakers are nestled into the same soffit. The owner chose the 50-inch
issues. “It wasn’t that we were working with a Runco plasma TV. “He thought it was a good fit for the space—he didn’t want the TV
small space,” says the custom installer.“We had to be too big,” says the installer, who has handled several installations for the client.
so much that had to go into the footprint— “This high-performance system is nearly a carbon copy of their other systems.” In the
and all the cable management had to be office, below, a 26-inch Runco LCD pairs with Bay Audio 880 in-wall speakers.
factored in as well.”

104 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

 Overlooking the breakfast table, above, is a
32-inch Runco LCD screen and Bay Audio 885
in-wall speakers. “We had very limited space
in the kitchen, so we wanted the speakers to be
tight with the TV,” says the installer. “And the
ceilings are concrete, so we had to use in-walls.”
Bay Audio 880s are used in the dining room, left.

Fortunately, the installer already had

designed an exclusive computer system to
ensure every A/V detail was factored into
the home’s blueprints properly. “We hold the
hand of the project the whole way through
to make sure what we have chosen fits,” he
says. “From the beginning [of every project],
we publish all the A/V specs in detail on a
password-protected website—every piece of
gear in every room, every weight, and every
dimension.” That list even includes color
choices for equipment, such as almond, white
or black for the Crestron keypads.This allows
everyone involved in the project—from the
interior designer to the general contractor
and the electrician—to log on and work
with the custom installer’s specifications. Even
if the electrician bows out mid-project, his
replacement can get up to date quickly by
consulting the website to review the custom
installer’s equipment specs.
“No one says ‘I thought we were putting

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 105

 Each of the condominium’s
bedrooms is fully equipped with
all the available entertainment
options so guests or family can
enjoy music, movies or televi-
sion in privacy. Each bedroom
suite features carefully designed
cabinetry that becomes one
with the wall. The master suite,
shown left, is equipped with
a 50-inch Runco flat-screen
television; the space also is
equipped with surround sound
and distributed video.

“What’s nice about this system

is it’s very easy to use,” says the
installer. “They can control the
sound and video via the Internet
if they want. With multiple
sources—cable boxes, DVD,
Kaleidescape, Blu-ray—you
can go through these well-
traveled areas and have the
video follow you [everywhere]
in the 4,000-square-foot house.
You can resume the movie in
the office while you’re sending
an e-mail and looking at the
ocean. It’s a special system in
that regard.”

“With the push of a button, the

system offers incredible sound
and the picture comes to life.
Push another button and you’re
back in the living room.”

—David Frangioni, custom installer

106 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com


The homeowners wanted their family members, as well as their visiting guests, to be
able to enjoy all of the home’s entertainment options in the bathroom of each bed-
room suite. Guests can tune into the 6 o’clock news on the 32-inch Sharp LCD in a
guest bath, above, while the homeowners can finish up watching the movie at hand,
or tune in to CNN in the master suite bath, below, on the 26-inch Runco LCD.
HEmagazine.com
I N T E R I O R S
a television in that room’ halfway through the
project,” says the custom installer.
Unlike an electrician or a plumber who
directly executes the plans of the interior
designer or architect, the audiovisual details
oftentimes are overlooked. “Given that most
interior designers know little about A/V,
there’s more back and forth,” Frangioni says.
“In fact, sophisticated A/V is not something
most interior designers want to incorporate
in their room designs. Usually the request
comes directly from the client.”
T his is Audio One’s third project for the
client. “They wanted distributed audio
and video in all the rooms,” says the custom
installer. This created a challenge in terms of
achieving the sonic results the clients wanted
since the high-rise building had relatively
low ceilings and little, if no acoustic sensibili-
ties. These conditions could have resulted in
sound reverberations and sound reflections.
One way to compensate for the muddied
sound that results from this kind of scenario
is to strategically place fabrics and furniture
for sound absorption. The Marantz receiver,
for example, which allows the user to “dial
in” and make final adjustments, aided in this
goal. In essence, the custom installer attaches
a microphone to the receiver and analyzes
the room’s sound. The receiver, Frangioni
says, “learns” the room’s acoustical footprint
and makes corrections [via equalization]. And
then you can go in and fine-tune by ear,”
Frangioni says.
Much of the condo’s furniture, which
came from the family’s previous home, is by
the contemporary French furniture house
Roche-Bobois. The anchor of main living
area, however, is the custom cabinetry that
conceals all things audiovisual. As the domi-
nant architectural features in the condo, these
structures resemble miniaturized sky-scrapers
tipped on their sides. For this Hinojosa turned
to her firm’s Lebanese-born, Paris-educated
architect Bilal Barakat.
“We didn’t want [any] cabinet to look
like a big block, like a commode,” he says. To
lend a touch of lightness to the cabinet design,
HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 107
 I N T E R I O R S
each custom entertainment unit is integrated
into the wall. The designer played with the
shelving height in each built-ins’ “three verti-
cal blocks” to avoid what could have been an
“overly symmetrical or ponderous design.”
Each cabinet conceals some of the audiovisual
equipment behind metal mesh.
“We installed the mesh for the sake of
ventilation but also to give some play to the
idea of ‘openings and closings’—some varia-
tion in the pattern,” the cabinet designer says.
The center unit frames a 50-inch Runco
TV and is flanked on either side by shelv-
ing for the display of objets d’art. The look
may be delicate, but the color is strong and
powerful in a deep walnut-stained chocolaty
brown.The warm, natural grain of the cabinet
contrasts nicely with the cool Venetian plaster
of the wall behind it.
In the master suite, a large U-shaped
cabinet draws the eye toward the bed—as if
the wall unit is a mighty floating magnet that
aims to embrace you. “We didn’t want you
to be greeted by a big cabinet as you come
in the bedroom,” says the designer. The piece
features another 50-inch Runco that, this
time, overlooks the bed. Instead of walnut,
a chocolate-stained oak with satin-finished
aluminum hardware is used.The effect is sub-
tly different from the living room’s dark and
deeply rich walnut pieces. This oak is corner
cut against the grain (as opposed to flat cut
with the grain) to reveal more of the rich pat-
tern of the wood grain’s horizontal waves.
The unit in the guest bedroom shown in
this story is a sharp contrast with the others,
two of which are John Wayne macho in dark
wood. Not only is this rendition light in spirit,
but it’s light in hue—more “Dino” with its
streamlined Art Deco overtones.
With this piece’s white-washed oak and
glass shelving that’s set within a framework of
white-lacquered boards, the designer’s fasci-
nation with open/closed spaces is clear. Upon
closer inspection, however, the horizontal and
vertical grains that meet in the middle are vis-
ible. It’s a light touch in the midst of an very
serious A/V system.
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
108 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
TECH TALK
You can learn a lot about an installation from a quick glance at its
equipment list. Some speak to a cost-no-object dedication to high-end
name brands. Others are a nod to aesthetics, where “good enough”
electronics will do. What the equipment list for this installation says is
that every component was carefully and deliberately selected to suit the
very specific needs of the client.
“What I’m delivering to the end-user is a custom system,” says
Frangioni. “You can’t just put this TV here and that speaker there:
There’s a science to it.” To accomplish his science, Frangioni fac-
tors all kinds of details into his proprietary software program: room
dimensions, seating distances, number of speakers, whether or not
he’s installing front-projection, ref lections, room boundaries, ceiling
height. All of these specs generate a letter and number combination,
which directly correlates to the best technological solutions. “I didn’t
build [the program] on a product list because it would be obsolete in a
year. I built it on product parameters and then the list gets updated all
the time, based on what I’m going to use for equipment.”
The resulting system is a perfectly tailored mix of ultra-high-end
components and gear that performs extremely well at a lower cost. The
displays are all Runco LCDs and plasmas. “These displays are the best
TVs you can buy—so we didn’t spare any expense there,” he says. At
the heart of the system is the astronomically steep Kaleidescape movie
and music server. The main system in the living room also features a
trio of Genelec’s renowned HT206B Active Speakers across the front
and a pair of Frangioni Systems In-Wall Speakers in the rear.
Frangioni’s choice for surround processing might send snobbier
noses skyward, though. “I went with the Marantz SR7001 Surround
Sound Receiver for two reasons: One is space, the other is that Genelec
speakers come with their own internal amplification, so we only
needed a good, clean preamplifier with good switching control as well
as the room correction software. We didn’t use the receiver as a tuner
[nor are we] running the video through it.
“There were a lot of features that the processor did not need to
have, so going to a preamp and amplifier combo would have been
overkill,” Frangioni continues. “At a certain point you have to pick
what’s important.
By running the signal straight from the Marantz receiver’s preamp
outputs directly into the speaker’s internal amps, Frangioni was able
to craft a high-quality two-channel playback system, which is exactly
what the homeowner wanted. “It [also] allowed us to give him great
surround sound, and it left enough money in the budget for us to deliv-
er an amazing and intuitive Crestron control system.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Cabinetry: Hinojosa Design Studio of Miami, Fla.
(305.666.9794, hinojosadesign.com)
Theater Designer: Audio One Sound & Video Inc. of North Miami Beach, Fla.
(305.945.1230, audio-one.com)

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110 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT november 2008 HEmagazine.com

A THEATER
REASONS
In downtown Chicago, one family’s private screening
room gives new meaning to the term “mixed media.”
> BY HOPE WINSBOROUGH
> PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDALL CORDERO
W
hen the family of a well-
known television broad-
caster returned home to
Chicago, the city they
loved most, it was inevitable that their
new digs include a state-of-the-art
media room. Working together with
Jeffrey Smith of First Impressions
Theme Theatres of North Miami, Fla.,
the husband and wife envisioned creat-
ing a venue for home entertainment
that is as animated, theatrical and mul-
tifaceted as the city itself.
“This particular client is what I
call ‘a repeat-offender,’” says Smith,
laughing. By that he means that the
client had hired Smith once before—
in this case to help design a cozy,
six-seat home theater for their previ-
ous residence in Malibu, Calif. That
project, Smith recalls, was quite a feat,
given the long-and-narrow footprint
of the room, which formerly housed
a 30-foot-long shooting gallery. When
the family relocated to the Windy
City in 2007, they called upon Smith
once again to design a basement-
level screening room in their five-story
townhouse in downtown Chicago.
For the clients, having experienced
that “prior conviction” helped stream-
line the design and building process
HEmagazine.com
I N T E R I O R S
tremendously. More importantly, they
knew First Impressions would deliver.
“We knew exactly what we wanted,”
the wife explains. “In building this
home, we knew we wanted a larger
space—10 seats to be exact. And we
wanted it to be quietly understated yet
still have that ‘wow’ factor.”
The husband’s broadcasting back-
ground made it easy to establish what
technical capabilities were mandatory.
The clients also wanted to create a
smooth traffic-flow pattern for the
space so guests can circulate effortlessly
throughout the theater during a movie
without inhibiting the all-important
sightline of the film at hand.
What the homeowners did not
know, however, or even anticipate, was
just how much the new, more formi-
dable screening room would enhance
their day-to-day lives. Says the wife:
“It’s the ultimate luxury to be able to
go into the theater—in PJs no less—and
totally escape for a couple of hours.”
The family also has discovered that
the theater is a great place to relax even
when they are not watching movies.
Their daughters use it as a soundproof
study hall, while their young nieces
and nephews think of it as a playhouse
theater. “And my husband drags in a
HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 111
 stool and plays his guitar,” says the wife, allud-
ing to the room’s acoustic properties that
rival those of Chicago’s best music clubs. But,
she adds, their private home theater is far
more intimate than any music club.
It makes sense when you think about
it: The governing concept of home theater
is sensory excellence. It’s what makes us
appreciate the perfect, unfiltered musical tone
or the well-focused director’s cut. But this
concept extends to all activities, more or less.
Great theater design, then, recognizes that
stellar sensory experiences rely on far more “This is our second theater for
than good wiring and high pixel counts. And this client—new home,
that’s where Smith’s involvement is key. different coast.”
“We start by asking a functional ques- —Jeffrey Smith, theater architect
tion: How many people do you expect to and designer
[seat in] the theater at once?” Smith says.
“With us, form truly follows function.” The A William Morris-inspired rug pattern—along
next stage is a technical drawing that takes with the calculated positioning of panels, ceiling
trays and seating—brings a sense of movement
into consideration sightlines, viewing angles,
to this theater. The viewing audience is isolated
speaker positions, eye-to-screen distances and from any external noise, thanks to Smith’s trade-
acoustical considerations. With client input marked, soundproof door. The CineLounger the-
and approval, the next move, says Smith, is to ater chairs feature heating and massage features,
“make it pretty.” Or in other words, to make and Black Granite serving trays. These elements
draw the eye forward to the 135-inch screen.
those technicalities aesthetically appealing.

I n this case, “making it pretty” was literally

a ground-up operation.The lush Kashimar
carpet by Courisan was pre-selected by the
home’s interior designer. Smith drew upon
its palette of rich crimsons, olives and golds,
picking up hues that resonate on the walls,
ceiling and seating. The walls are covered in
Smith’s trademarked high-density acoustic
panels, which are shrouded in his trademarked
chamois AcouSuede scrim in cranberry. “It’s
acoustically transparent,” he says, noting that
the panels are trimmed in a thick, hard-edge
mahogany that permits sound diffusion.
The ceiling is broken up artistically by
“Sonically, this project is far and
recessed trays that are punctuated with beams,
away is the best home theater I
which house strategically placed, low-voltage have ever done.”
LED cove lighting. “It’s aimed at the seating,”
—Chris Batte, custom installer
Smith explains. Nickel-plated sconces bring
warmth to the room’s edges. The rhythmic
sequence of features—from the elaborate

112 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com


ceiling treatment to the wall panels and the
lighting—creates a kind of order found in
Mission-style spaces. It’s a style well-suited to
the clients’ goals: formal but not staid.
Each of the custom CineLounger theater
chairs are enveloped in full-hide, custom-
dyed leather in a cranberry hue; the serving
trays are perched atop hinged arm rests that
double as storage compartments. The formal
silhouette of the seating belies its high com-
fort potential. “They have dual motors and
[both the feet and back] can be adjusted to fit
[each guest],” Smith explains.
The room’s simple lines and luxurious
comfort are easy to admire, perhaps, due to
its “invisible” technical facility. For example,
First Impressions’ trademarked 450-lb. Noise-
Loc door seals sound in and keeps external
noise out (and can be opened and shut easily
by a child, thanks to its magical hinges). A
Marantz projector with a hermetically sealed,
commercial-quality film port lens contains
the projector’s heat and noise behind white
water glass.To further conceal the technology,
the custom installer, Chris Batte of Chicago’s
Sound Specialists, configured all the wiring
infrastructure, equipment racks and enclosures
in a separate mechanical room. With heat,
noise and equipment sequestered outside, the
technology that remains inside the room is a
single, simple-to-use touchscreen.
“The Crestron remote is so simple a 5-year-
old could use it,” says the wife.“As a totally inept
technical person, ease of operation is the most
important feature for me.” Her broadcaster hus-
band, on the other hand, enjoys the audio and
video quality. “He likes to hear and feel every
nuance,” she says, adding that after living in their
Chicago townhouse for more than a year, the
home theater is “one of the best features of our
home.”
Her other favorite spot in the house
is the roof-top garden, which the couple
built after moving in. The garden was a
very strategic addition “to get us out of
the theater every once in a while.”
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
I N T E R I O R S
TECH TALK
According to the custom installer, the secret to operating a success-
ful, efficient, knowledgeable installation firm involves a certain level
of simplicity: “As a firm, we do not have a huge line of electronics. We
have three or four tiers for each different product—processor, ampli-
fier, speakers, et cetera—because our clients are not the sort to come in
and want to demo five different sets of speaker cable.
“By limiting the number of lines we carry we can talk to a client,
find out what their needs are, what is most important for them, and
quickly select the right tools for the job and be done with it. We are
not going to force our clients to sit down and demo 10 pairs of speakers
because we already know what works well at every level.”
So when Batte realized that this particular client was extremely
detail oriented—and had uncompromising standards for picture and
sound quality—he didn’t have to put much thought into the selection
of the theater’s surround-sound processor.
“Lexicon is our top-of-the-line processor, and within that line, the
company’s MC-8 [Music and Cinema Processor] was the right fit for
this job. The processor offers an amazing level of f lexibility to adjust to
every different room and every different source that we deal with. And
you cannot deny its build quality, its audiophile grade inputs and out-
puts, and the fact that it is incredibly easy to work with. More impor-
tant than anything else, though, is its reliability. If something goes
wrong with the system, I would seriously doubt it’s the Lexicon.”
Speaker selection was not difficult, either. “In terms of speakers,
the client wanted the best we could give them, which for this room
meant the Focal-JMlab Alto Utopia Be and Center Utopia Be.” Given
Utopia’s reputation as a drop-dead gorgeous speaker, in addition to
being an audio purist’s dream, I ask Batte about the decision to con-
ceal the speakers in the cabinetry. “Jeffrey Smith of First Impressions
Theme Theatres and I traded e-mails about this,” he says. “When I
gave him the specifications on the speakers, he asked, ‘Couldn’t you
just do some in-wall speakers, or something that’s easier for us to
work with?’ And I said, ‘We’re going for the best of the best here. It
would be really nice if you could utilize these in your design.’ And his
team redid the entire room to be able to incorporate those speakers.
“No matter how great a speaker you use in a system, you have to
have a good room because the room affects the sound quality more than
anything else. But with a firm like First Impressions, you know that
they are going to make the room perfect. They laid out an awesome
design, and everything just slipped right into place. We couldn’t have
asked for anything more.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: Sound Specialists of Chicago, Ill.
(773.278.1650, soundspecialists.com)
Theater Architect and Designer: First Impressions Theme Theatres of North Miami, Fla.
(800.305.7545, cineloungers.com)
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 113
 I N T E R I O R S
Out of
Thin Air
Incorporating a theater into the vaulted ceiling area of a
two-story-tall living room requires adaptation and flexibility.
> PHOTOGRAPHY BY RANDALL CORDERO
W hen a hip, young Los Angeles real-
estate developer and entrepreneur
decided to add a home theater to
his Los Angeles-area home, he knew exactly
what he wanted—right down to the L.A.
Lakers color scheme and seating configura-
tion. How to incorporate the theater into his
existing home, however, was another question.
The owner wasn’t sure that the layout of his
home lent itself that kind of defined space.
That’s how interior designer Trayce Blake,
who has designed more than 40 theaters to
date, found herself working on a home the-
ater that was created, literally, out of thin air.
The home’s large living room with a two-
story vaulted ceiling became the inspiration.
Soon enough, Blake’s client started building
his private screening room in that unoccupied
“room” of air above the living room. Never
mind that the screen wall-to-be contained two
windows, or that the room’s parameters were
partially defined by an existing convex archway.
Then there was the theater’s targeted completion
date of six to eight weeks.
Regardless of the inherent obstacles, the proj-
ect was perfect for Blake, whose interior design
company Cinema di Cuore crafts and produces
home theaters, game rooms and ballrooms. Prior
to starting her company several years ago, Blake
designed commercial movie theaters for more
than a decade, which also included the orches-
tration of the room’s acoustical design.
114 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
> BY HOPE WINSBOROUGH
Blake is what you could label a “multi”—as
in multidisciplinarian. With a background in real
estate and commercial interior design, as well as
some architectural know-how, she brings to each
project both left- and right-brain tendencies—
offering not only hands-on utilitarian expertise, but
also empathetic artistry.According to Daniel Pink,
author of AWhole New Mind: Moving from the Infor-
mation Age to the Conceptual Age, multidisciplinary
professionals like Blake are “the sort of people who
trigger the breakthroughs.” What that means in
the world of home theater design is that Blake is as
comfortable executing complex CAD drawings as
she is designing a custom carpet or custom-crafting
the unique, archeological details that imbue her
theater spaces with character, texture and heart.
I n truth, this project demanded both logic
and flexibility—beginning with structural
concerns. “Our challenge was to house the
front equipment [three speakers and two
subwoofers] within the screen wall and still
get the longest screen-throw possible,” Blake
explains. After brainstorming with the home-
owner and custom installer Scott Aarons of
AB Audio Video in Santa Monica, she drafted
a plan to build screen-adjacent, angled walls
that would also house the system’s sound
equipment behind black acoustical sound
panels. The angled walls create a dramatic
screen-frame, and are shrouded in a deep
violet velvet and sheer gold drapery panels.

“It was really exciting to design
a theater that wasn’t red or
wine, which is so common. The
purple and gold colors make
the theater very royal
and palace-like.”
—Trayce Blake, interior designer
116 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT
The front row of Fortress theater seating accommo-
dates nine people when the arm rests are up. “The
owner wanted the colors to be like the [Los Angeles]
Lakers,” says Aarons of the 400-square-foot screening
room. “The goal was to get the best picture and sound
for the money, so we chose the best combination of
products to get us there. The end result is fantastic.”
 Another structural curve ball came in the
form of a pre-existing angled wall. “There
was a convex, arched wall on one side of the
living room that continued up to the second
floor,” Blake explains. “So we decided to add
a similar curved wall to the opposite side
of the theater for symmetry.”  The slanted
walls called for specially designed, thinner
acoustic panels—an acceptable modification
INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
“since rear walls need less absorptive materi-
als,” Blake says. The homeowner installed a
working concession stand behind one of the
“curves,” which is complete with a popcorn
maker and self-serve candy counter.
The room’s symmetry is highlighted
by faux columns covered in Sapele wood
veneers. Interspersed between the wood-
covered columns are acoustic-paneled walls
bathed in velvet chenille scrim.The wall panel
seams themselves become beveled decora-
tions when they are conjoined by Blake’s
custom-made, three-dimensional decorative
medallions. Each fabric-covered medallion
is topped with square brass nail heads. Their
impact is one of subtle, tailored modernism.
“The truth is that there are a lot of tradi-
tional aspects to the room,” says Blake.“So the
challenge was to make a ‘wow’ statement—
one that made the theater an exciting place
for [the homeowner’s] friends to be.” That
goal was accomplished through the use of
subtle—and not so subtle—surprises.
For example, a discernible sense of vibran-
cy emanates from above and below. Above, a
drop-down soffit mounted at ceiling height
is surrounded with special, flexible crown
molding made of rubber that’s faux painted
to match the Sapele wood columns. Rope
lighting tucked within the molding reinforces
the room’s curvy silhouette and suffuses the
blue-violet ceiling with a warm glow.
The theater’s most animated influence,
however, lies underfoot—a custom-patterned

floor covering that’s bright and playful from
Miliken Carpets. “The homeowner wanted a
fun, contemporary carpet pattern that incor-
porated the room’s fabrics and walls,” she
says.  Blake matched the colors using Cinema
di Cuore’s online custom carpet-color system,
which dropped her specific hues into one
of Miliken’s pre-existing commercial carpet
patterns. The carpet samples were received
within a week—and the carpet shipped in
three. Blake says she loves the end result,
which interjects a fun and film-strip-like
sense of movement into a space that might
otherwise feel somewhat staid.
“I love that [the custom carpeting] has
that bubbly, curved effect that’s already going
on in the space,” she says.
To accommodate the homeowner’s desire
for a rear double-door entry, a tiered floor
plan and the maximum number of seats,
the interior designer specified an extra-long
sofa-like piece for the front row. “They’re
all motorized with foot rests and reclining
capabilities,” says Blake of the Fortress theater
seating. Both the sofa and the three-seat sec-
tionals in the back row are covered in soft and
inviting moss chenille.
Meeting the homeowner’s demand for
a speedy completion schedule is an achieve-
ment Blake attributes to a highly refined,
streamlined level of coordination with several
key manufacturers and the custom installer.
“We were able to carry out a specific vision
and to do it creatively,” says Blake. “And in
the end, we used very traditional fabrics and
colors to [design] a very contemporary, very
transitional space.”
Orchestrating a home theater out of thin
air is a pretty unconventional goal, after all.
And creating one with a huge “wow” factor
in a limited amount of time can well be con-
sidered a design “breakthrough.”
“[I’m proud] we completed such an out-
standing-looking room in such a short amount
of time and on a limited budget,” Blake says.
“It was a nice collaboration with Scott, the
homeowner and his interior designer.
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
I N T E R I O R S
TECH TALK
According to the installer, the main technological goal for this
home theater was a bit unusual: “We wanted to make it great-looking,
but have the equipment be more on the modest side so if someone
bought the house and wanted to upgrade, they could easily do so,”
Aarons says. The original owner is still living in the home, though,
and he’s still using the gear Aarons installed, which is relatively modest
in comparison to what AB Audio Video would typically install in a
home theater of this caliber. “But it sounds really good,” Aarons adds.
“I was blown away by how good it sounds, budget or no budget.”
One of the ways Aarons kept the upgrade path clear was by
eschewing in-walls in favor of f loor-standing speakers at the front
of the room. “We left big cavities for tower speakers so if someone
wanted to put, for example, B&W 800s in the home theater at some
point in the future, there’s plenty of room for that.” Meanwhile, the
Paradigm Monitor 11 tower speakers and CC-370 center channel that
actually inhabit those cut-outs in the front wall may cost less than the
aforementioned B&Ws, but these critically lauded overachievers are
certainly nothing to scoff at.
“The choice was simple: Those speakers gave us the most sound
and the best quality of sound for the money,” Aarons says. “Since we
were using a receiver—an Integra DTR-6.6—instead of a separate
processor and amps, I needed a very efficient loud speaker. I needed
something with a whole lot of get up and go, but on a budget.”
Unfortunately, working with the back side of the home theater was
a little more tricky in terms of speaker placement because the rotunda/
entryway and refreshments room prevented Aarons from incorporat-
ing surround speakers into the wall. So he went to the ceiling, install-
ing a quartet of pivoting SpeakerCraft AIM 7 Two and aiming them
toward the main listening positions.
Not all challenges were so easily overcome, though. “The owner
wanted to be able to push the ‘welcome’ button on his [Universal
Remote Control] Home Theater Master MX-3000 touch panel
and have a voice come over the system’s speakers with the message,
‘Welcome to [our] theater. Sit down, relax, and enjoy the show.’
To accomplish that, we had to find some little OEM voice recorder
ship—basically the guts of a voice recorder—that would give us a
stereo audio output. We made that a source in the system, and used an
MSC-400 Master System Controller at the heart of a very complicated
macro to switch inputs, play the clip, and then switch inputs again on
the receiver so you wouldn’t hear any digital pops. It took us days of
work just to get that one feature working correctly.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: AB Audio Video Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif
(310.923.3984; abaudiovideo.com)
Theater Designer: Cinema di Cuore of San Dimas, Calif.
(909.437.8765, cinemadicuore.com)
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 117
 I N T E R I O R S

Comfort
Zone A former pro athlete creates the
perfect field for his growing family’s dreams.
> By Hope Winsborough
> Photography by Scott Sandler

I
n the world of baseball, shortstop is considered one of the
most difficult and demanding infield positions—requiring
equal measures of agility, range and strength. So it comes as
no surprise that a standout former MLB player like Royce
Clayton, who in 2007 earned a World Series ring during his
swan song season with the Boston Red Sox, would apply similar
skills to any post-sports endeavors.
When Royce began making plans to build his dream home
in Arizona’s scenic Paradise Valley, he did just that. Instead of the
next pitch, he focused on his growing family’s lifestyle. “After
living in Scottsdale for 14 years, we found this community where
we just connected,” says the avowed family man. Both he and
his wife Samantha Davies, a sprinter on Britain’s 2000 Olympic
track team, were drawn to the dynamic views. “We knew we
wanted to bring the outdoors in,” he says, alluding to the city
skyline to the north and the mountain peaks to the south.
Working in tandem with architect Michael Miller and cus-
tom home builder Mark McClanahan—both of whom have
partnered with Clayton in a residential property development
company, just one of the former pro athlete’s entrepreneurial
ventures—the couple envisioned a lifestyle-driven floor plan.
“We wanted a great room that was the center of everything,”
Clayton says. “And when we did that, the rest of the house
became centered on that idea.
“We really built [the home] from the inside out,” Royce
continues. “It’s very unique in that regard.” The residence’s 14

118 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 119
 I N T E R I O R S
patios and resort-sized pool with a swim-up
bar testify to the family’s passion for outdoor
living, as does the automated misting system,
outdoor rock and ceiling speakers and a flat-
screen TV in the barbecue area. Not surpris-
ingly, the great room serves as the expansive
center of the home—exactly as planned.
The scenic yard is visible on three sides
through massive glass doors that vanish into
the walls, making the great room one with
the backyard. The space also keeps everyone
connected, guests included, regardless of their
location. “A group of us can be upstairs and
look down and see the kids,” Royce says.“Or
you can stand at the kitchen sink and see the
TV. You don’t feel like you’re separated, but
you still have your space.”
Achieving such warmth and intimacy
in such an expansive home was the project’s
single major challenge, says interior designer
Bonnee Sirotkin Gruber of Taggywail Inte-
120 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
rior Design Studio. Her firm boasts a roster of
sports-celebrity clients. “Most of the home’s
rooms were huge,” Gruber explains, adding
that the couple also wanted a contemporary
design scheme with African tribal influences.
The “challenge quotient” expanded expo-
nentially when the home’s construction com-
menced. Just two months into the project,
the couple learned that they were expecting
triplets.With 14-month old Royce Jr. already
in the picture, the announcement reinforced
the necessity for ultra-child-friendly design
solutions, and the most simple-to-use home
automation technology available.
The good news, says Gruber, is that such
design solutions are much easier to imple-
ment during construction.“Getting form and
function to work together [is] much easier
than [designing within] an existing structure.”
Working with custom installer Justin Jones of
Just In Time, which Royce co-owns, Gruber
The warm but dramatic double-
staired foyer leads to the lofty
game room above, and to the
expansive great room and the
multi-patio outdoor world beyond.
The three prominent art pieces,
hand-carved from alder wood
and about 4 feet in height, were
inspired by African masks. Previ-
ous pages: Says Royce of the great
room: “We wanted our friends
and families to be able to take
their shoes off—to say ‘just enjoy
yourself.’” Each custom-made
table is crafted of alder wood
and features a different finish. In
the middle of the stacked stone
fireplace is a custom copper water
feature that’s more than 12 feet
tall. Arizona artist Gary Slater is
known for his water sculptures.
 The chandelier in the master suite, above, adds a
touch of the ornate to the otherwise contemporary
room. A bed platform helps anchor the large space.
The paneled treatment of the fireplace surround is
comprised of soft beige marble slabs, each of which
is separated by thin bands of stainless steel.
The ceiling’s mosaic work in the master bath,
left, is a combination of 1-inch square glass tiles
in iridescent copper, gold, pale purple and white.
Outfitted with a 32-inch LCD, this room has become
a favorite hangout for the children. “The kids get to
watch more tub TV than we do,” says Royce, who
expects he’ll enjoy the bubbles more often once all
four toddlers achieve bathing independence.

provided scaled drawings that pin-pointed the

optimum furniture placement for the great
room based on its dimension and the audio-
visual configurations. Since the great room
encompasses several conversational and living
areas, and a 63-inch Fujitsu plasma television,
traffic flow and seating arrangement were
high priorities for the family.
Form and function also are integrated in
the textural elements. Distressed, espresso-
stained wood floors and custom alder wood

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 121

 I N T E R I O R S
“When first meeting with the
Claytons in their other home, it
was evident that their comfort
level was in the field of beige,
gold, rust and taupe in a soft
contemporary style.”
—Bonnee Sirotkin Gruber,
interior designer
122 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT
The dining room is designed as a formal venue for large family events. The room’s lush parameters—including
rich tonal draperies and a gilt-rimmed recessed ceiling—lend a touch of Hollywood glamour to the space. The
shape of the custom-designed mesquite wood table, and that of the concave-fronted buffet, mirrors the shape
of the ceiling dome, which is faux-finished in copper and gold. Rope lighting that’s recessed into the lip lends
a soft glow to the space. The chandelier is comprised of multisized Swarovski crystals.
tables add warmth and richness—and are “The clipping of the corners was a last-
practically immune to “kid dings.” The over- minute decision,” Gruber says. “It was driven
sized, custom-designed upholstered sofas are by the diagonal placement of the furniture,
enveloped in stain-resistant microfiber; the but I also felt it would be safer for the children
leg-free silhouette adds both weight and to not have the corners stick out.”
visual impact to the space. Perhaps the warm- “Bonnee did a great job in designing
est element in the great room is the custom that carpet,” Royce says, noting its color-
area rug. “An area rug helps define a seating ful contrast with the dark wood. “She helped
group that ‘floats’ in the middle of a room,” us create a family heirloom that is [mostly]
Gruber says. “In a room this size, this kind of stain resistant.”
definition was a design must.”
Both husband and wife worked closely
with the interior designer to create a rug
design that echoed the colors used through-
out the room. The Mondrian-esque pat-
tern incorporates variously sized shapes and
I n addition to the main seating area, the
great room’s ancillary spaces—including
a bar/wine cellar and breakfast nook—
received similarly thoughtful treatment. The
kitchen chairs are upholstered in colorful pat-
lines, and its perimeter is tailored to hug the terns that resist and camouflage food stains, for
main seating group. For additional dimension, instance, and the breakfast table is distressed.
Gruber added different weaves, heights and The kitchen bar stools have heavy wood legs
piles—all in wool and silk yarns that were to prevent tipping, and the glass countertop
custom dyed for the piece. has a textured underside that lends a “wave”
INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
Cleverly tucked away in a loft above the great room, the game room offers a distinct “gentleman’s club” appeal without sacrificing its contemporary
connection with the space downstairs. The chairs in the television-watching area are upholstered in suede with extra-wide arms caps that bear a
snakeskin-like leather. Two Masaii warriors, about 5 feet tall, stand sentry at the top of the stairs.

look; beneath the glass is a layer of powder-

fine white sand that’s dotted with river rocks.
Most everything was done with four young
children in mind.“With all the options on the
market today, you don’t have to sacrifice style
for durability or safety,” Gruber says.
The family-friendly ethos extends to
the kids’ wing, which includes four separate
bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a playroom
equipped with a 42-inch Fujitsu plasma TV
and its own DVD player. On the adult side,
a chic-yet-masculine home office is surpris-
ingly conducive to work—even with the
42-inch plasma TV within easy view. “The
kids know that if the door is shut, not to dis-
turb,” says Royce.“And when the door is shut,
you can’t hear a thing.” However, Dad can
make sure the kids are OK in the playroom
The kitchen, equipped with two dishwashers and a double sink, overlooks the great room.
The bar counter, topped with Black Galaxy granite, is as conducive to hanging out as it
by eavesdropping on them via the Crestron-
is to having lunch. The open nature of the kitchen dictated that most of the alder-wood controlled intercom system.
cabinetry be tucked below the counters. The backsplash’s tile work and the stainless-steel The master suite—designed to reflect the
range hood are both custom designs by Gruber. 1920s glamour of Hollywood—boasts the
best theater set-up in the house, says Royce:

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 123

 I N T E R I O R S
“The 5.0 surround-sound system in there
rocks, and the room has the best acoustics.”
Another bonus: a comfy sofa at the end of
the bed for watching movies on the 50-inch
Fujitsu plasma. “It turns out that we enjoy
that more than we ever expected,” he says.
T he couple hasn’t had much time to
enjoy the 32-inch LCD television while
soaking in the master bath’s tub. “It mainly
gets watched by the kids these days,” Royce
laughs. But with a window overlooking the
pool area and the stunning mountain views,
it’s a private sanctuary the couple hopes to
enjoy in the years to come.
As you might expect, this athletic family’s
physical pursuits are just as important as the
quality of their sleeping quarters. The home
gym—which includes a spa area complete
with a sauna, steam shower and, of course,
a 42-inch plasma TV and sound system—is
a part of the separate two-bedroom guest
quarters that are just a short walk away from
the main house.
All in all, says Royce, the home he mas-
terminded for his growing family surpasses
his original vision, which was grounded in his
own childhood. “When I was growing up, all
the activity took place in the den. Everything
happened in, and just off, that room.”
That said, it’s clear that Royce’s remarkable
shortstop skills—agility, range and strength—
have always been driven by his love of family.
Even when he was playing ball and chang-
ing teams “my focus was on how the kids
were doing—how Samantha was doing, how
she was managing.” Now that the family is
together a lot more, Royce takes pride in the
home he’s helped create.
“The house turned out better than I
ever envisioned,” he says. “And all the com-
ments we get from our friends—how warm
and comfortable they feel when they are
here. That’s all you can ask for.” The house is
currently on the market for $12.3 million. For
more information, please contact Cathy Fassero of
Choice Real Estate Group (choicerealestategroup.
com, 602.317.4123).
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
124 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
TECH TALK
Custom installer Justin Jones of Just In Time in Scottsdale,Ariz., faced the
interesting task with this installation of crafting a seamless media experience
that flowed from one end of this 14,000-square-foot home to the other.
“We did think about doing a dedicated home theater,” he says, “but with
most of the rooms being occupied with little ones, and with the focus of
the technology being on bringing the family together no matter where they
are in the home, a theater just didn’t make sense. They’re not the types to
sit in a theater and watch a movie, anyway. They’re active. And the system
needed to reflect that.”
That’s not to say that the family wanted to live without a surround-
sound-equipped media room, though. In fact, this home has two full-blown
media rooms: one in the upstairs game room, and another in the expansive
great room downstairs.
In the game room, the biggest challenge was containing the sound: “It’s
a really modern layout, and the rooms flow from one to the other, so there
was no way to confine sound within a certain space. It’s all wide open. So we
had to go in-ceiling and bring the sound down onto the listener rather than
bringing it to them from the front and rear.” That system features Boston
Acoustics VRi595 in-ceiling speakers, an Integra DTR 10.5 THX Ultra2
Home Theater Receiver, and a Fujitsu P63XTA51US 63-inch plasma TV.
As it turns out, Integra receivers and Fujitsu plasmas are a common sight
around the house: They also form the heart of the great room’s system,
which posed different sonic challenges. “It was such a big room, with ultra-
high ceilings and even a waterfall of sorts,” Jones says. “So the challenge was
finding speakers that could project into the room and fill it with sound, even
if a lot of people were there to watch a movie, for a Super Bowl party or
the World Series.”
To that end, Jones found that Boston Acoustics’ BT2 loudspeakers pen-
etrated the air of the open environment perfectly. Although the BT-series
speakers are intended to be built into cabinets, Jones positioned them on
stands at the front of the room to ensure their breathability. At the back of
the room, Boston Acoustics VRi593 in-wall speakers create the surround
soundfield without imposing on the room’s interior. Finding space for the
surrounds was tough, though, says Jones, because “all of the windows in the
back corner of the room retract into the wall and open up the room to the
barbecue area outside, where the family also entertains. The entertainment
flows from room to room, from inside to outside, and the performance
remains the same no matter where you go. It’s the Zen house for audio
video.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Architect: Michael Miller and Associates Architects of Scottsdale, Ariz.
(480.947.3933)
Builder: Homes by Mark McClanahan of Scottsdale, Ariz.
(602.652.8044)
Custom Installer: Just in Time of Scottsdale, Ariz.
(888.985.3777; justintime.tv)
Interior Designer: Taggywail Interior Design Studio of Scottsdale, Ariz.
(480.443.3267, taggywail.com)
 Build the
BEST
home theater,
media room or
entertainment
system
possible.

NOVEMBER 2008

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126 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT November 2008 HEmagazine.com

Balancing
Act
Creative collaboration
produces a home theater
that’s truly life-enhancing.
> BY HOPE WINSBOROUGH
> PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID JASAK
an home-theater technology help
alleviate the chaos of modern
life? It’s not the typical path-to-
enlightenment story, to be sure.
But it’s one that rings true to Stephen and
Kelli Brown of Austin, Texas.
As parents of four children ranging
in age from four to 17, the Browns are
well-versed in “chaos.” Add to that the
fact that Stephen, a prominent oncolo-
gist, and Kelli, a former Broadway dancer,
kicked-off their screening room project
while they were already knee-deep in the
process of renovating a newly purchased
6,000-square-foot home. From their per-
spective, vision superseded chaos. And
their small attic office represented 170
square feet of potential.
“They wanted a modern, chic room
with state-of-the-art audio,” recalls Kyle
Griffith, who handled the custom instal-
lation of the project with Bryan Arnold
of Texas Integrated Systems/Texeleco.
(Griffith is now the director of dealer
relations for California Audio Technolo-
gies/CAT, CAT Elite, CAT MBX and
Newport Audio.)
Stephen envisioned building an in-
home oasis—a space that would help
him maximize his limited downtime. That
meant the theater had to comfortably
accommodate the entire Brown family, as
HEmagazine.com
I N T E R I O R S
well as a regular stream of guests. “With
four active children, our family time con-
sists of sports activities, meals at home
and watching movies or playing games,”
Stephen says, adding that the theater
brings everyone together. “It’s an envi-
ronment that all ages can enjoy.” When
the younger kids are in bed and the teens
are doing homework, Kelli retreats to
their home theater to take in some jazz
or blues. From her perspective, the space
is “a vacuum without time.”
To create the Browns’ mulipurpose
in-home getaway, Kyle enlisted a group
of experts to handle everything from
the system’s sound design to the custom
lighting. Together, they created a remark-
ably dynamic audiovisual system, one that
features a wide-aspect ratio screen and
seat-shaking subwoofers—all of which
are fully integrated into a compact-yet-
aerodynamic space that the family calls
“the airplane.”
E ngineering this luxury “aircraft” was
a multistep process. First-up: structur-
al issues. To deaden sound transmission,
the entire room was enveloped in Acous-
tiblok, a rubber-like mineral composite.
“After [we installed] that, whenever you
walked in the theater it felt like you were
in a vault,” Stephen comments.
HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 127

The next challenge was the room’s layout.
The configuration options for this 10-foot-
by-17-foot space were further limited when
the Browns opted for a larger projection
screen, which required an 8-foot screen
throw. The new screen is so large that it
nearly extends to touch both of the home
theater’s right and left side walls.
According to the custom installer, such
limitations are worth the trouble. “If you
have the budget, the wide-aspect provides a
more [engrossing] experience,” Kyle says.
“With the invested effort in acoustic
design,” Stephen adds, “I felt that a standard
screen minimized what had been accom-
plished with the space. Cinematic video
from wall to wall would be astonishing.”
To amp up the room’s intimacy, a lobby
was incorporated into the theater’s blueprints;
the space also is blanketed with Acoustiblok
material since it is located directly above the
master suite. “That kept all noise and traffic
outside the room,” Kyle explains. “Once you
are inside [the theater], you can fully disap-
pear—and you can do it at night without
disturbing anyone.”
The curved ceiling that draws the eyes
upward lends a sense of spaciousness to the
otherwise small space. Design consultant Jen-
nifer Griffith, who is married to Kyle, worked
with Kelli to orchestrate a kid-friendly pal-
ette of finishes and furnishings that infuses
the space with depth and texture.
The theater’s wall panels, made by Acous-
tic Room Systems, are covered in sandstone
fabric with horizontal patterns, which lend
a modern touch to the room. The the-
128 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com
“The biggest key in this room is
the lighting,” says interior design
consultant Jennifer Griffith.
Not only does it eliminate any
question of claustrophobia, but
it allows the viewer to vary colors
according to mood. The columns
are made of 3-Form resin, and
are mounted between the track
system using metal-capped towel
holders Kyle Griffith discovered at
Ikea. The LED lights are affixed
to the tracks and are mounted
inside frosted polycarbonate resin.
Custom cabinetry (below left)
houses the snack bar’s offerings,
including refrigerated beverages
and a popcorn-ready microwave.
The family’s favorite movies—
including Pirates of the Caribbean
—assume positions of honor.
ater seating by Acoustic Innovations—three
chairs up front that are combined as a sofa
with two elevated loveseats in the back—are
upholstered in a warm, distressed premium
leather. But the most important design ele-
ment, everyone agrees, is the lighting.
The Browns wanted to incorporate some
form of special lighting into the room—
including a blue hue to sate Kelli’s love of
water. The idea for the lighting system first
occurred when Kyle picked up a piece of
3-Form resin. Why not use the product to
create columns of light?
To bring the idea to life, Kyle enlisted the
help of Acoustic Room Systems’ Frank Rose
and Texas Integrated Systems’ Rod Mueller.
The trio began experimenting immedi-
ately. In the end, the red-green-blue LED
lights from Solavanti were placed on a track
and back-mounted to the wall track. The
lights were then tucked behind the 3-Form,
which was cut into columns, end-capped

and mounted nearly flush with the wall
panels.With 18 color variations programmed
into the Lutron system, the glowing columns
inject the right level of pizzazz and offset the
room’s elegant neutrality.
After using the theater for a month, CAT’s
audio engineers performed their customary
on-site calibration. “I was impressed before it
was fine-tuned,” Stephen says, “but I couldn’t
believe the sound quality after the calibration.
Listening to an HD concert is now the equiv-
alent of [experiencing] a private concert.”
Kyle christened the theater with a show-
ing of Transformers.“[The Browns] thought
we put vibration in the seats, but it was the
bass management system at work,” which
includes four subwoofers in the ceiling and
four in front. “It really shook them up!”
More importantly, says Stephen, the home
theater has met the family’s oasis require-
ments. “It’s mood-enhancing,” says Stephen,
adding that it provides a respite away from his
world of never-ending demands. “It’s a place
for me to relax and listen to music,” he says.
“The times when I just chill out in the the-
ater are my release.” That satisfaction extends
to the rest of the family. For example, Kelli
has hosted showings of HBO’s “Sex and the
City,” and the teens invite friends over for
eight or 10-hour movie-fests.
The screening room has been a major
attraction for adults, too. “Sometimes during
parties, I notice people are missing,” Stephen
says. But when he dials into the security sys-
tem, he often finds everyone in the theater—
especially during a major sporting event.
Though the theater continues to amaze
the Browns, Stephen still is surprised by its
new role in the family. “It’s neat how it has
played into our shared activities,” he explains.
“In our hectic lives there aren’t many oppor-
tunities to shut down your working environ-
ment (he cites the ever-present Blackberry as
an example). The theater is a way to do just
that—just by listening to music or watching
something enjoyable.”
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
I N T E R I O R S
TECH TALK
Custom installer Kyle Griffith—who was with Texas Integrated
Systems/Texeleco at the time of this installation—describes the rather
unorthodox origins of this home’s new theater: “It started off as an
office, like a second-and-a-half f loor, if you will. A really small space
with a very low ceiling and a 45-degree angled coffer on each side. And
they decided to turn that into the home theater.”
I ask Griffith if the unusual shape of the room presented a challenge
in designing or tuning the theater. “Actually, no,” he says; “I’ve done a
few similarly shaped rooms, although larger than this one. My biggest
concern was the width of the room. To really get everything to fit, I
knew I was going to be shoving the front left and right speakers almost
all the way into the side walls. So I was really concerned about the
imaging of the left and right speakers—getting the stereo sound right.
If you get that right, everything else falls into place.”
To help him get the sound right, Griffith turned to California Audio
Technology (CAT). The room features a trio of CAT’s C6.7 Holly-
wood In-wall Architectural Loudspeakers and eight CS4 San Andreas
In-wall Architectural Subwoofers up front; Newport Audio’s Gold
Series 8-inch rectangles for the rear speakers; two CAT amps and two
Anthem amps. “CAT is the only company I know of whose engineers
come out to the room to hand-tweak the DSPs, the processor, and
crossovers, and tune the speakers to the room. That makes all the dif-
ference in the world.
“Fifty percent of a theater’s sound quality is dictated by your room,
but if you can get the engineers who designed your speakers to come
to your room, they can eke out as much of the remaining 50 percent as
possible from those speakers in the tuning and calibration phase.”
Critical to the tuning and calibration of the space is the system’s
Anthem Statement D2 surround-sound processor, an Anthem State-
ment D2 and a Symetrix 8x8 Digital Signal Processor. “The tools that
the D2 provides a custom installer are amazing—especially the room-
resonance filters,” Griffith says. “Every room is going to have a key
resonance, where the entire room will vibrate in sympathy with the
sound. Needless to say, that’s not a good thing. But with the D2 I can
quickly figure out where the problem area is and take all of the boomi-
ness right out of the room.
“The D2 also gives you balanced outputs, which was essential
because if you’re going to come out of a preamp into a DSP—which we
needed to properly adjust the phase and timing of the four subwoofers
in the front wall and the four in the ceiling—and then from the DSP
into the amplifiers, you really need to keep that long signal chain bal-
anced to minimize noise as much as possible.”—Dennis Burger
RESOURCES
Custom Installer: Texas Integrated Systems/Texeleco of Austin, Texas
(512.292.0656, texeleco.com)
Interior Designer: Jennifer Griffith of Austin, Texas (512.394.9608)
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 129
 Bespoke
Beauty
A custom installer—who likes to see his wife in
Manolo Blahniks and has four separate fittings for
every handmade suit he has made—brings new
meaning to the concept of custom installation.
> BY BROOKE LANGE >PHOTOGRAPHY BY DIETRICH FLOETER

ustom installer Michael K.
Leader of Leader D-Cinema
Systems Inc. in Beverly Hills likes
to apply haute couture-level crafts-
manship to his custom-designed-and-
fabricated audiovisual systems. “I like to
apply bespoke tailoring to my work,” says the
man who won an audio Emmy for his work
on the XXIV Olympics for NBC.
Leader’s appreciation for the most min-
ute details of a handmade suit, for example,
is directly reflected in every A/V system he
designs and builds. “My grandfather was a
beautiful tailor and my father was an excep-
tional musician, so I bring these sensibilities
into the technology. This makes the speakers
I build very unique.”
While Leader mostly installs large-scale
Hollywood-caliber screening rooms for
movie studios, post-production facilities and
corporations, he occasionally designs a high-
end residential project. Or seven.
A case in point is this media room,
located in a Michigan home owned by a
well-known retired music-industry execu-
tive who has represented many of the world’s
biggest internationally acclaimed musicians.
Leader has designed seven audiovisual sys-
tems for this client to date.
Leader first met this client in 1992. The
client’s insatiable passion for designing the
most elite industry-quality cinema—with
a special emphasis on supreme music play-
back—piqued Leader’s curiosity so much
that he courted the gentleman for nearly two
years. It took that long to convince the client
that Leader was the right man for the job.
“He was not confident that anyone could
create the system he wanted,” he says, adding
that the potential client not only had access
to the most elite speaker manufacturers in the
world—he had experienced those speakers
first-hand, as well. “There are great speakers
made by other companies, but it would have
been impossible to meet the client’s demands
with an off-the-shelf speaker,” he says.
Twelve years and several elite systems
later, Leader, no doubt, won over his client.
“He wanted the world’s best system to play
chamber music, jazz, harp recitals, movies—
everything,” he says. “It had to be the closest
thing to the real thing.”
The first project Leader completed for
his client prior to designing this 700-square-
foot media space, which includes the kitchen
and dining room, is about 2,800 square feet
and can accommodate 200 guests. “The
Michigan system had to retain that same photographybypaquette.com/provided Bay Harbor Properties

130 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS HEmagazine.com

 I N T E R I O R S

HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 131

 The acoustical arrangement
of the front wall helps with the
room’s acoustics. Leader designed
and manufactured the custom
speakers. “We optimize the
performance of the speakers and
the acoustics of the room—we
leave nothing to chance,” he says.
“And the room itself is a physical
device.” Woven into the front
wall is a 14-foot microperforated
Stewart screen. “This screen is
recognized as the best screen and
it’s seamless.”
“The system is somewhat
relaxed due to its size and
use. But we were able to
retain the clarity and sen-
sual dimension of the music
E M M Y © ® ATA S / N ATA S
in a smaller room.”
—Michael Leader,
custom installer
132 | HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS
luster, front and back depth and dimension,
and be capable of retaining the subtleties of
all musical forms at a whisper.
“This system is on the level of a May-
bach,” Leader says. “When it plays Mozart
minuets, Led Zeppelin or David Bowie, it
performs.You’re in a concert setting.”
Not surprisingly, the client wanted the
technology concealed. “When the system is
in operation, it’s invisible,” Leader says, add-
ing that he always strives to honor the room’s
look. “I respect the architect’s work and art.
I have an understanding of what it takes the
architect to satisfy the client.”
Since the client wanted to duplicate his
previous theater’s A/V system, Leader’s work
was cut out for him. The challenge was to
duplicate the system in a smaller space.
“First and foremost, the room had to
function as a formal living and dining room,”
says interior designer Michel Laflamme, add-
ing that the client requested a more relaxed
look and approach since the space opens up
HEmagazine.com
to Lake Michigan’s shoreline.“But it couldn’t
feel like you were in a home theater either.”
In addition to designing a room with
multiple personalities, the architect had to
address the owner’s passion for finely crafted
sailing vessels, and his desire for a contempo-
rary look that complemented the Victorian
architecture. “The owner had a ship and he
wanted the room to have that feel,” Laflamme
says. “He understands the craftsmanship of a
fine boat—the beauty of subtle details.”
Luckily, the architect and installer spoke
the same language. “We were on the same
wavelength,” Laflamme says. “It can be a
real fight when working with any sound
consultant. But Michael understands that the
sound and image are the feature of the home
theater—not the equipment.”
The rectangular nature of the room is a
natural byproduct of the architect’s intension
to capture the stunning water views from
every vantage point, and to make the most of
the area’s beautiful ambient light. “The view
is to the North, so it was important to keep
the house narrow [to enjoy] the view and get
southern sun,” he says. As a result, the length
of the house runs from East to West.
The living-dining-media room is
anchored with the kitchen and the projec-
tion screen wall at opposite ends. The seat-
ing and the dining area fall in between. The
fireplace is designed as part of the room’s
focal point, while the room’s second focal
point is the water. Neither distracts from
the other, nor does the gas fireplace distract
from the 42-inch Pioneer plasma TV when
it is in use.

Cherry woodworking frames the floor
and the walls; even the kitchen cabinets are
cherry. “The owner wanted a nautical feel,”
the architect says, making note of the neu-
tral color palette. The handrails throughout
the home are also crafted in cherry and are
strategically punctuated with elaborate brass
anchors.“The owner appreciates the handrail
every time he walks by, every time he uses
that handrail or runs his fingers along it,” says
the architect.
Heavy wood ceiling beams alternate with
acoustic fabric panels. The same fabric also
frames the projection-fireplace wall, conceal-
ing the massive custom-designed speakers.
“Instead of seeing speaker grills, you see
something that’s integrated,” Laflamme says.
“That was a key thing Michael and I tried to
do—integrated it all.
“The ceiling took all of 30 seconds
to discuss—we wanted something minimal
that wouldn’t compete with the views,”
Laflamme says. The design team did most
of “the back and forth” for the front wall
design while working on the client’s first
residential project. “We went through about
100 swatches to find the right fabric,” says the
architect. Above those fabric-covered ceiling
panels is about 210 cubic feet of space, which
is treated with more acoustical materials.
Leader tested the fabric numerous times
for acoustical transparency. Thus, the treat-
ment helps eliminate floor-to-ceiling reflec-
tions, speaker-to-ceiling bounce and reflec-
tions, and controls reverberations and echoes.
Walk into this room and you immediately
know you’re in a different acoustical space.
The proof that Leader’s work sparkles in
any sized system came in the form of a com-
pliment from his client’s wife. After she expe-
rienced a smaller Leader system in another
home, “she could tell it was designed by [my]
company,” he says.“It has [fewer] speakers, but
the system retains a sense of all musical forms.
[The speakers] have impact, dimension and
space.Yet the quality is still remarkable.”
> For more images of this project and a full
equipment list, please visit HEmagazine.com.
I N T E R I O R S
TECH TALK
Why build your own speaker? That’s the question I ask the designer
of this home’s one-of-a-kind A/V system. “It means we have complete
control over performance,” Leader says matter-of-factly. “And it also
means if we’re 2 inches shy of fitting a particular speaker into a specific
space, we can re-engineer the speaker to physically fit.”
Since each precision speaker system is engineered with one spe-
cific room and one specific system in mind, Leader can build the right
amount of toe-in into the mid- and high-frequency sections to optimize
the front sound stage and imaging details. Thus, the entire enclosure
doesn’t have to be repositioned to properly aim the sound toward the lis-
tener. “If you toe-in a speaker that’s a square or rectangular box, you’ve
got all this wasted space behind the box,” he says. “With the toe-in built
in, the box remains f lat on the side and adjacent to the wall.”
The front wall of the system is dominated by a trio of Leader Cinema
Systems HRRM*3 Series speaker arrays, which boast six massive 18-inch
woofers between them and handle 15,000 watts of amplification in total.
That may seem like overkill, but as Leader explains, “Each woofer has
its own dedicated amplifier, and the system is designed to have at least
10 or 12dB of amplifier headroom above peak operating level.” Not
surprisingly, peak operating level for Leader is far beyond typical home
cinema levels. “If you want to do music at concert levels the average
level is going to be approximately 20dB higher than that of movies,” he
continues. “So, we have enough amplifier headroom to ensure that the
amplifiers are never going to clip. And because the system is so large,
the velocity of the drivers is low. It’s not the same as having an 8-inch
or 10-inch woofer cranked up. This system is effortless.” Even the rear
channels feature 15-inch woofers, which f lies in the face of conventional
surround-sound wisdom. But thanks to some creative signal processing,
Leader put those woofers to work: “The legacy of creating the surround
channel from Hollywood has always been to high-pass the content in the
surround channels—the reason being that the surround-sound speaker
systems in theaters are almost always incapable of reproducing low fre-
quencies. You’ll blow them up if you try.
“With our digital processing we extract the low-frequency content
below 100 Hz that has been filtered out and build it back up. Since
there’s energy there—just rolled off at 18 decibels or so per octave—we
can effectively restore it, going down to about 35 or 40 Hz. And because
of the way the ear integrates low-frequency energy across the spectrum,
this smooths out the midrange response. It’s quite astonishing.”—Dennis
Burger
RESOURCES
Architect: Michel Laflamme Architect of Vancouver, Canada
(604.737.2250, maldesign.com)
Custom Installer: Leader-D Cinema Systems Inc. of Beverly Hills, Calif., with offices in Vancouver
(213.359.8129, leadercinema.com)
HEmagazine.com HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERIORS | 133
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“Exceptional interiors demand
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