by Steven Castle — last modified June 01, 2011
JBL Synthesis Sports-Themed Theater
Say you're an avid sports fan and you want the biggest and loudest theater possible. Check. Home system design and installation company Audio Video Interiors (AVI) of Middleburg Heights, Ohio, will tune up a rockin' JBL Synthesis speaker system
that will make you feel every bone-crunching gridiron hit. Say you want the best HD video possible, with superwide CinemaScope capability and the ability to produce an image that will pop even when the room lights are on? Check. AVI will mount Digital Projection's monster Titan Reference 1080p projector with an anamorphic lens to produce those superwide pictures. On the other end of the room will be a 14-foot-wide Stewart Filmscreen CineCurve display to show those CinemaScope movies in all their glory. Say you want a multi-screen theater, but don't want to compromise on the size of a big screen...
No problem there, either. AVI will utilize Crestron's powerful DVPHD video processor that can produce up to eight separate images to display simultaneously on one screen. And if you think that's cool, you've seen nothing yet. When there's a great play or a break in the action, this sports fanatic can pause the DVR and use the telestrator feature to diagram a play on screen—just like John Madden and other sports analysts do to explain what's happening at certain times.
By pressing a TELESTRATOR button and running a finger or stylus over a Crestron touchpanel, he can overlay the image with one of his own. This “annotation" feature comes with Crestron's DVPHD, and AVI just had to write some programming to get it onto the Crestron touchpanel as an option.
System Credits
- System Design & Installation
Audio Video Interiors, Middleburg Heights, Ohio - Architect
Strollo Architects, Youngstown, Ohio - Builder
James Dunlap Construction, North Lima, Ohio
That's sweet. But even sweeter is the ability to watch several games at a time—on one screen. AVI provided the theater owner with a number of different presets, so he can watch just one game on the big screen, or go to two screens as large as possible or four sources with one screen larger, or more.
In the multi-window mode, the audio comes from whatever is being displayed on the window in the top left, called Window 1. If the homeowner wants to switch the audio to another window he can just switch the sources on Window 1.
And what great audio it is. According to Jason Spence at AVI, the JBL Synthesis system is a hybrid of sorts, using the K2 S9900 front-channel floorstanding speakers placed behind the screen and three pairs of S4Ai in-wall surrounds, all located behind some of the fabric squares the make up the sides the theater. Six Synthesis subwoofers were also installed to fill the room with serious bass thumps.
For the amps that drive the speakers, AVI opted for four 3-channel No. 533H amplifiers from premier high-end line Mark Levinson - along with the Mark Levinson No. 502 preamp - and added oomph with 800-watt subwoofer amps from Synthesis. Nothing against the Synthesis amps that in many cases are used with the JBL speaker package, but “with the Mark Levinson electronics, the dynamics and amplification really stand out in clarity of the sound," says Spence.
After all, the owner wanted the biggest and best theater. AVI worked closely with the architect for speaker placement in the cubist wall design, and some of the rectangles conceal acoustical treatments to help tame the sound. To top if off, an iSky fiber-optic starfield shines down on the room's occupants. With everything else going on in this room, we wonder if they notice.
by Steven Castle — last modified June 01, 2011
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BMXTRIX posts on June 01, 2011 21:46
I will say that I like this theater a lot more than the last one with the balcony. I mean, I liked the look of that last one a lot, but it misses out on being a theater and won on being expensive.
This one is all about doing a solid theater! Definitely like that.
The 'sports' theme is obviously not about the room itself which seems to be kind of art deco style. Maybe not your thing, but I like the layers and the use of directional lighting, good acoustical control, and indirect lighting throughout the space.
JBL Synthesis is also a pretty reference level setup without a stupid amount of cash outlay. I mean, it's a lot of money, but not mentally insane money... for some.
The DVPHD is, on the other hand, ridiculously expensive. Like MSRP of about $17,000!!! Yeah, you may want to read that line again.
Still, if that's what floats your boat, it's cool, and allows for up to 4 simultaneous broadcasts to be shown at once.
The 'upper left' thing... I don't know if I love that. I probably would have let them just choose which window to listen to on the fly.
Anyway, that's me being a rentitive Crestron programmer.
I like that room, and perhaps the only change I would make may not even be a change, but it is hard to tell from the photos...
I would like to have had the rows of seating curved in a bit towards screen center and there appears to be NO seating dead center of the seats, which means no true 'center' seat for the room.
The use of a 14' wide curved Stewart scope screen with Digital Projection HD projector and motorized anamorphic sled is all top shelf for both quality and performance. Great choices!
I'm happy with what I'm seeing in this one.
This one is all about doing a solid theater! Definitely like that.
The 'sports' theme is obviously not about the room itself which seems to be kind of art deco style. Maybe not your thing, but I like the layers and the use of directional lighting, good acoustical control, and indirect lighting throughout the space.
JBL Synthesis is also a pretty reference level setup without a stupid amount of cash outlay. I mean, it's a lot of money, but not mentally insane money... for some.
The DVPHD is, on the other hand, ridiculously expensive. Like MSRP of about $17,000!!! Yeah, you may want to read that line again.
Still, if that's what floats your boat, it's cool, and allows for up to 4 simultaneous broadcasts to be shown at once.
The 'upper left' thing... I don't know if I love that. I probably would have let them just choose which window to listen to on the fly.
Anyway, that's me being a rentitive Crestron programmer.
I like that room, and perhaps the only change I would make may not even be a change, but it is hard to tell from the photos...
I would like to have had the rows of seating curved in a bit towards screen center and there appears to be NO seating dead center of the seats, which means no true 'center' seat for the room.
The use of a 14' wide curved Stewart scope screen with Digital Projection HD projector and motorized anamorphic sled is all top shelf for both quality and performance. Great choices!
I'm happy with what I'm seeing in this one.
