From Studio To Cinema

When Ben, a merchant banker from the Big Apple, moved to Chicago’s leafy North Shore, he wanted a place to relax with his family and enjoy the finer things; his collection of Japanese art, his wife’s tranquil sculpture garden and, of course, a state of the art home cinema installation.

Ben’s house is a fascinating adaptation of an original 1920s building by the contemporary architects Grunsfeld Shafer and a prime example of their expertise in medium size residential projects. The only problem was, it had a recording studio, where Ben wanted a home theatre. It was time to call in professional installers to transform what was originally a stable from a studio into a multimedia entertainment room.

Mike Bernhard, ProLine, Chicago

Mike Bernhard of Chicago-based ProLine prefers to describe himself and his company as ‘integrators’, but he was more than happy to project manage the new cinema and indeed the automation of the rest of the house too. Business is booming for Pro Line and its 12 employees are kept busy, but this large, L-shaped room presented a unique challenge for Mike and plans were drawn up with both Ben as the client and the architects that would redesign the space.

Rather than a dedicated home theatre, Ben wanted a more flexible ‘media room’ with an integrated high-end home cinema. He wanted a room in which he and his wife, or more frequently, his eight kids could come and watch movies and TV or play video games and shoot pool. This called for conventional furnishings, flexible lighting and panelling that could accommodate an entertainment system and 7.1 speaker system.

Soundproofing the room was not an issue because during its previous life as a recording studio the walls had already been insulated with an acoustic blocking material to prevent sound leakage into the house. The high ceiling offered plenty of room to sink halogen lighting, while Mike paved the floor with cork tiles that would provide a sonically reflective surface, but one that would be more yielding than wood or ceramic flooring.

The deep orange of the cork also compliments the lustrous varnished finish of the ash panelling that provides the unique feature of the room. Elegant and geometric shelving lines three of the walls from floor to ceiling and accommodates all of the speakers and electronics. The carpentry is superb and could easily have been specified to hide all of the equipment, but Ben prefers to see his Genelec speakers. Hence, six of the seven speakers and both subwoofers are in full view. An acoustically perforated six-foot Stewart screen that fits perfectly in its panelled alcove conceals the remaining centre channel speaker. The electronics, meanwhile, are housed in a low cupboard below the screen.

Ben had a good idea of what he wanted in the room – a high-end home cinema and music system – but left it up to Mike to choose the actual equipment he would use. ‘It’s always preferable if the client gives me a free rein to specify a room’, says Mike, ‘Because I am very aware of the latest AV products on the market and which models will suit the job best’. Mike had just returned from the CEDIA show in Minneapolis for this interview and was full of stories of new product launches.

One area where both Mike and Ben agreed straight away, however, was the branding of the speakers. Genelec are widely used in professional recording studios around the world and are highly respected in the installation industry too.

A lot of Ben’s favourite movies had their soundtracks mixed on Genelec speakers – all of the Pixar titles for example – and many of his favourite musicians too, so it’s not surprising that Genelec’s home theatre speakers are equally faithful when it comes to reproducing movie soundtracks.

In this installation we have three HT-210 monitors across the front, with four AIW-26 speakers acting as rears and centre rears and two HT-S4 powered subwoofers positioned beneath the screen. ‘For timing, power, dynamic range and accuracy, you really can’t beat a complete Genelec system’ insists Mike.

All of the Genelec speakers are active so there’s no need for separate amplification. This simplifies the electronics somewhat and the Arcam DVD player, Hughes HD satellite receiver and games console fit comfortably in a low Middle Atlantic equipment rack to the left of the screen, while the B&K processor and Genelec crossover boxes are recessed in another Middle Atlantic rack on the right. The DVD player and processor in this case are by Arcam and the satellite box is a high definition model that can feed a 720p signal to the projector.

The projector Mike chose is a Runco VX-5000CI DLP model mounted on the ceiling about 10-feet from the screen. It’s an HD Ready model compatible with Ben’s satellite receiver that can throw a 720p high def image onto the six-foot screen – perfect for HD sports channels and all set for the forthcoming HD DVD and Blu-ray movie releases.

Installers always take great pride in their wiring, and in this room, you find any trailing cables. ‘The floor to ceiling cabinets made it very easy to run the speaker cable behind them and the false ceiling hides the rest of the wires’ explains Mike. The projector uses a long HDMI lead that runs all the way to the Arcam processor. This is a relatively new video connection that carries a digital video and audio signals through a single cable. Its small plug lends itself conveniently to this kind of installation as it can pass through smaller holes than DVI or component connectors.

The lighting is integrated into the same system and controlled using the same AMX master controller that Ben uses to operate the home cinema. Spotlights installed strategically around the room are all linked via Lutron’s HomeWorks automated lighting system. This popular solution allowed Mike to program each of the lights to create a number of preset ‘scenes’. For example, when Ben and his friends are playing pool or reading, all of the lights illuminate the room fully, but if you select ‘movie’ mode, the lights dim at the back and extinguish at the front.

With all of the equipment in place and programmed into the AMX control unit, all that remains are the final tweaks to the system and calibration of the room. Ben’s wife provided the finishing decorative touches – the rare autographed movie prints on the walls and family photos etc – and also helped improve the acoustics of the room. With all of the hard, flat surfaces, the system could sound overly live or bright, but soft furnishings like the six-seater sofa and thick rug help absorb the high frequencies and balance the tone back to neutral.

Finally a demo of Mike’s completed masterpiece would be the proof in the pudding. Master and Commander is the perfect test disc in this situation thanks to it’s lively and brilliantly mixed DTS soundtrack. Even in this very large room, the Genelec speakers manage to fill the space with ease, enveloping the seven seats in a convincing soundstage. On board HMS Surprise with Russel Crow, you can hear waves breaking seamlessly on all sides while cannon fire cracks with visceral impact and without stretching the system at all.

This beautiful old house has already seen some dramatic changes in its time, but thanks to Ben’s vision and Mike’s expertise, this once redundant recording studio has suddenly become the family’s favourite room.

Equipment Used:

UPPER LEVEL FAMILY ROOM

• (1) AMX MVP-8400 8.4" MODERO VIEWPOINT TOUCHSCREEN REMOTE
• (1) AMX CB-MVPWDS CONDUIT BOX FOR AMX MVP-DDS
• (1) AMX MVP-DDS IN-WALL DOCKING STATION FOR MODERO VIEWPOINT
• (1) AMX NXA-WAP200G WIRELESS ACCESS POINT
• (1) AMX NI-3000 INTEGRATED MASTER CONTROLLER
• (1) AMX VSS2 VIDEO SENSORS
• (1) RUNCO VX-5000CI DLP PROJECTOR
• (1) RUNCO CEILING MOUNT FOR VX-5000CI PROJECTOR
• (1) STEWART ACOUSTICALLY PERFORATED 66" X 118" SCREEN W / MASKING
• (1) HUGHES HR10250 HIGH DEFENITION SATELLITE RECEIVER W / TIVO
• (1) ARCAM DV79 DVD PLAYER
• (1) SONY SLVN900 VCR
• (1) B&K REFERENCE 50 SURROUND PROCESSOR
• (3) GENELEC HT-210B 2-WAY ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKERS
• (4) GENELEC AIW-26 IN-WALL 2-WAY ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKERS
• (2) GENELEC HTS4B POWERED SUBWOOFERS
• (2) FURMAN PL PROD II SURGE PROTECTOR
• (2) MIDDLE ATLANTIC AXIS RACKS
• (2) ACTIVE THERMAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 2 RACK MOUNT