September 2007
Belgian installation company Mitra opens new luxury demo room
Belgian home theatre installation company Mitra have recently built a new state-of-the art demo room to complement their two existing demo suites, in their headquarters based just outside of Antwerp.
Actually the term ‘demo room’ does not really do justice to the outstandingly luxurious theatre they have created.
Mitra’s design brief, drawn up by owner and managing director Rik Hellemans, was to build one of the best home theatre demo rooms in Europe, in terms not only of sound and vision but also interior design. As a result, the attention to detail has been meticulous.
Work started on the demo room in February and the total build time was around two months. Carpentry was sub-contracted and the rest of the installation was done by Mitra's specialised team.
The vision Rik and his son Kim had was for a showcase not only for all the home theatre equipment, but also for luxury interior design and finishes. For a streamlined effect, all the technical and service side of the system was required to be hidden from view.
The room was a completely new shell, but the layout of the space was fixed. One of the design considerations was to hide the entrance door, and to install air-conditioning within the limitation of the less than ideal ceiling height. They overcame this problem by building a lower ceiling over the existing ceiling but leaving a 500 mm gap around the perimeter. The air-conditioning ducting was then installed in the space behind the lower ceiling and blows out cooled air around the perimeter gap.
One of the advantages of this approach was that there was the space behind the lower celing to have a large air intake, which means the air-conditioning system is almost silent. The system extracts at floor level and in keeping with the design philosophy the vents are hidden.
The entrance door was hidden by creating a small vestibule with a simple curtain and placing motion sensors at the entrance so the door and curtain open and close automatically.
The task of providing the audio in such a prestigious facility was left to Finnish pioneers of active monitoring Genelec Oy. As Kim Hellemans, explained “Genelec was ideal for this installation for a number of reasons: their monitoring systems are designed to be extremely flexible so the speakers can be adjusted to suit the room acoustics. This means everybody listening in the home theatre room can enjoy excellent sound.
The large range of Genelec monitors also meant that we could find a system that was perfectly tailored to meet our needs. Finally, the reliability of Genelec monitoring is well-known.’
The screen used was a top-of-the-range acoustical transparent Screen Research-cinecurve, chosen because of its ability to easily handle all formats including Cinemascope™.
The room has a Middle Eastern feel, with the front row seating of enormous crushed velvet cushions, large enough to lie back on. The rows behind have individually-controlled reclining leather seating. Tasseled lanterns hanging from the ceiling, carved wooden soffits and walls finished in crushed velvet add to the exotic effect.
The client feedback to this state-of-the-art theatre has been fantastic. Everyone who has been fortunate enough to experience a demo, has been very impressed in all aspects of the room. In fact, Mitra’s investment of nearly € 400,000 has been more than justified judging by the number of home theatre projects they have on the go and in the pipeline.
Equipment list:
Video:
Runco VX-44d 1080p 3chip DLP
Screen Research Cinecurve Cinemascope: 4 meter wide curved (2.35 aspect) with masking Acoustically Transparent
Audio
Classe SSP-600 Balanced Surround processor
Genelec 3x HT324A Fronts
Genelec 4x AOW312 Surround
Genelec 1x HTS6 Subwoofer
Sources
Classe CDT-300 DVD
Toshiba HD-EX1 HD DVD
Kaleidescape Player-1 network video player
Video Server
Automation
Crestron Pro2 Processor
TPMC-8X Wifi Touchpanel
Vantage Q-link Lighting system
Seating
Cineak Fortuny Deluxe
Intimo Acoustical panels
Actually the term ‘demo room’ does not really do justice to the outstandingly luxurious theatre they have created.
Mitra’s design brief, drawn up by owner and managing director Rik Hellemans, was to build one of the best home theatre demo rooms in Europe, in terms not only of sound and vision but also interior design. As a result, the attention to detail has been meticulous.
Work started on the demo room in February and the total build time was around two months. Carpentry was sub-contracted and the rest of the installation was done by Mitra's specialised team.
The vision Rik and his son Kim had was for a showcase not only for all the home theatre equipment, but also for luxury interior design and finishes. For a streamlined effect, all the technical and service side of the system was required to be hidden from view.
The room was a completely new shell, but the layout of the space was fixed. One of the design considerations was to hide the entrance door, and to install air-conditioning within the limitation of the less than ideal ceiling height. They overcame this problem by building a lower ceiling over the existing ceiling but leaving a 500 mm gap around the perimeter. The air-conditioning ducting was then installed in the space behind the lower ceiling and blows out cooled air around the perimeter gap.
One of the advantages of this approach was that there was the space behind the lower celing to have a large air intake, which means the air-conditioning system is almost silent. The system extracts at floor level and in keeping with the design philosophy the vents are hidden.
The entrance door was hidden by creating a small vestibule with a simple curtain and placing motion sensors at the entrance so the door and curtain open and close automatically.
The task of providing the audio in such a prestigious facility was left to Finnish pioneers of active monitoring Genelec Oy. As Kim Hellemans, explained “Genelec was ideal for this installation for a number of reasons: their monitoring systems are designed to be extremely flexible so the speakers can be adjusted to suit the room acoustics. This means everybody listening in the home theatre room can enjoy excellent sound. The large range of Genelec monitors also meant that we could find a system that was perfectly tailored to meet our needs. Finally, the reliability of Genelec monitoring is well-known.’
The screen used was a top-of-the-range acoustical transparent Screen Research-cinecurve, chosen because of its ability to easily handle all formats including Cinemascope™.
The room has a Middle Eastern feel, with the front row seating of enormous crushed velvet cushions, large enough to lie back on. The rows behind have individually-controlled reclining leather seating. Tasseled lanterns hanging from the ceiling, carved wooden soffits and walls finished in crushed velvet add to the exotic effect.
The client feedback to this state-of-the-art theatre has been fantastic. Everyone who has been fortunate enough to experience a demo, has been very impressed in all aspects of the room. In fact, Mitra’s investment of nearly € 400,000 has been more than justified judging by the number of home theatre projects they have on the go and in the pipeline.
Equipment list:
Video:
Runco VX-44d 1080p 3chip DLP
Screen Research Cinecurve Cinemascope: 4 meter wide curved (2.35 aspect) with masking Acoustically Transparent
Audio
Classe SSP-600 Balanced Surround processor
Genelec 3x HT324A Fronts
Genelec 4x AOW312 Surround
Genelec 1x HTS6 Subwoofer
Sources
Classe CDT-300 DVD
Toshiba HD-EX1 HD DVD
Kaleidescape Player-1 network video player
Video Server
Automation
Crestron Pro2 Processor
TPMC-8X Wifi Touchpanel
Vantage Q-link Lighting system
Seating
Cineak Fortuny Deluxe
Intimo Acoustical panels