Shades-Drapes from Sound Ideas Home Theater on Vimeo.

Pairing motorized shades and home automation creates a convenient way to raise and lower the shades in a single room or the whole house.  It also enhances the safety and security of your home. Press a button as you leave to lower all the shades and restrict the view into your home when you are not there. Place the shades on an astronomical clock to raise and lower themselves at a specific time of day.  

The following video is an example of a few shading solutions we did for clients.  In it you will see some examples of shades, drapes and roman shades in action.  In future videos we will showcase each individual style and go into more detail about it. 

Lutron Shades & Drapes from Sound Ideas Home Theater on Vimeo.

 First we removed the old TV.  That left us with this giant opening.  The width of the cabinet allowed for a 65″ flat panel, but we needed a way to mount it.  We also needed to cover all the empty space below the TV.

Next we built a false back and painted it black.  We installed this inside the cabinet to mount the flat panel. 

Then we designed a new front panel and matched the existing cabinet’s paint to achieve this fantastic final result. Some cabinets require a lot of work, some require only a little. If you are ready to upgrade your TV, let us look at modifying your existing cabinet to acommodate it.

After the layout design is completed, the rack is ordered with custom face plates for each component to give the finished product a polished look. Before we take the rack to the jobsite, we assemble it in our shop, install the gear, and test the equipment and the system design to make sure everything is working.

A custom cabinet like this makes installation and servicing easier, looks great and makes the gear easier to access and use for the home owner.

All this gear requires a lot of space and a lot of wire and cable.  A cabinet, built ins or shelves in a closet would not be sufficient.  A custom rack like this one from Middle Atlantic is required.  The gear can be properly organized and as for the wire and the cable – well, see for yourself.

The upfront investment in a rack system pays off in the end when it come time to service the equipment or replace a component.  Everything is clearly labelled, wire is easy to disconnect, gear is easy to remove, and re-installtion is a snap.

This retrofit installation was rather unique.  The room was large, open, and awkward making the TV placement difficult.  After a couple of designs involving a large custom cabinet to the right of the fireplace to house the TV, it was finally decided that the best place for the TV was over the mantle above the fireplace.   The cabinet idea was kept but redesigned to become bookshelves with cabinets underneath to hold the AV gear.  The builder removed stones creating a pathway for power and AV cabling.  Once the cabling was in place the custom bookshelfcabinet was installed.  The TV was mounted with a tilt mount bracket to provide a better viewing angle.  A receiver, Blu-ray player, DSS receiver and Klipsch subwoofer were installed inside the cabinet.

The client wanted better sound than the TV provided so along with the subwoofer a pair of KEF 6000 ACE speakers were mounted to either side of a 55″ LED TV.  This provided big sound to match a big picture.  An RTI universal remote controls this system and the house wide audio system.  No matter how difficult the installation there is always a solution.

I’ll never tell!

Designing a home theater is a collaborative effort between the home owner, the electronic systems contractor (Sound Ideas), the builder, the architect and the interior designer.   The home owner has an idea of what they want their theater to look like and works with an interior designer to create the concept.  Then the builders, architects and Sound Ideas are brought in to turn that dream into reality.  We work with the architect and builder to make sure the design and constuction of the room provides the optimal speaker layout for great sound, and that the seating design allows for the biggest screen possible and the best viewing angles.  We also work with the interior designers to come up with acoustical panels that fit the design of the room and provide the necessary sound absorption and reflection.  All the electronic components are chosen with great care to provide the home owner with the best audio and video while maintaining the integrity of the original design.  It is quite a thrill seeing the project go from an idea to the finished theater, and nothing beats the look on the client’s face the first time they sit in their new theater and watch a movie. 

Over the years we have worked with many different builders, designers, and architects.  We would like to say thank you to the ones involved in the two theaters featured in the article as well as all of the others we have worked with down through the years.  Thank you all and here’s to many more years of making dreams come true.

    

  The first step was to run cabling and power to all three TVs and then layout the bracket pattern.   

Once all three TVs were hung and the speakers mounted, we installed the AV gear: a surround receiver, a Blu-ray DVD player and 3 Direct TV satellite boxes.  We used a RTI T3V and a ZRP6 to control the system.  With the T3V, the client can change the channel on any of the TVs and switch the audio to any of the TVs without any crosstalk or inteference.    

The final result - command central for the ultimate sports fan!