April 2009

Not many home theatres have sliding walls on both sides. In fact, it’s perfectly possible that this one, in the well-heeled Florida neighbourhood of Boca Raton, is the only room of its kind anywhere.

Of course, home theatres aren’t supposed to have sliding walls but, as Brett Virgo, CEO of installer Sono Imaging, explains, this room serves more than purpose: “The space the cinema now occupies was formerly a rear-facing patio – a typical Florida feature – with a sliding door and a beautiful view out over the backyard. The challenge was to build the room so that the view was maintained – which meant having a sliding glass wall along one side, with another one in parallel to act as an entrance from the hallway.”

Between the glass and the false walls that line the theatre, Virgo and his business partner Jim Milsap have left a 2-inch gap to give the space acoustic isolation, while the side panels themselves have been designed to offer a degree of absorption, and the rear wall has been dry-lined with a vinyl-based soundproofing material. At the opposite end of the room, Sono Imaging specified a high-gain Vutec Silverstar screen to combat the possibility of natural light coming into the room – another issue not typical of home theatres

It all adds up to an unusually demanding acoustic space – but one easily tamed by a Genelec active loudspeaker system designed and tuned in collaboration with audio consultant Michael Chafee. The system comprises a pair of HT312B 3-way speakers as left-right enclosures, a 1038B as centre speaker, an HTS4 sub for low frequencies and in-wall AIW25 panels mounted in the ceiling for surround effects.

“In a room such as this, the room response controls that are built into Genelec active speakers allow a degree of control that is extremely useful,” comments Chafee, and few who have heard the Boca Raton system in action would disagree.

“It was our interest in sound that got us into this business, and as soon as we started working with Genelecs we decided that we would settle on them,” adds Virgo. “With Genelecs, we can guarantee the performance of what we install.”

Because of its unusual construction, the cinema has a significantly more ‘live’ acoustic than most. While this might frustrate the purists, it suits the owners, who find that the presence of a little reverberation makes conversation easier – rendering this, perhaps, a more comfortable space to spend time in than many acoustically ‘dead’ spaces. And, of course, if a new movie turns not to be as much fun as expected…you can always open the side wall and fire up the barbecue.