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CEDIA 2010 Awards Turn over for more‌
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Pleasure palaces
They’re the best of the best: award-winning custom installs from CEDIA that’ll make you green with envy. Chris Jenkins presents the 2010 winners… Home Cinema Choice
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ach year CEDIA, or to use its full moniker – the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association – presents its Electronic Lifestyles Awards. Though the European regions aren’t lagging too far behind when it comes to impressive and lavishly presented installations, it’s hard to beat the entrants from the US zone for sheer grandiose scale. The entries are divided into categories depending on their price range and type, before being meticulously documented and judged by the most experienced professionals. Extending way beyond the world of mere home cinema into the heady realms of multimedia installations, whole house projects, hidden set ups and themed rooms, these projects can charm with their ingenuity, or amaze you with their sheer scale and audacity. We’ve picked out just a few of the more spectacular winners for your viewing pleasure here. Though few of us will be able to match the multi-million dollar scale of many of the top-end installations, we hope you’ll come away with a few ideas for improving your own setup. And there’s no harm in dreaming either...
Royal flush Here’s a home theatre that’s certainly fit for a king, or queen. Looking more like the Palace of Versailles than the average movie theatre, this lavish project was created by Future Home of Los Angeles and is a winner in the $1m-plus Large Home Theater Level VI category. Featuring staging that is large enough to host live classical concerts, the Art Deco installation calls upon the regal services of a Titan Reference three-chip DLP 3D-ready video projector, Mark Levinson audio processing, JBL Everest main three-way speakers, 18 JBL S-1800 surround speakers and a Stewart Filmscreen with vertical 1.85 masking. It’s enough to make you support the monarchy, provided you’re invited too, of course. www.futurehometheater.com
Coronation Street: The crowned heads of Europe would feel comfortable in these surroundings
Home Cinema Choice
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Sitting comfortably This state-of-the art cinema is part of an integrated home project by Aurant of Salt Lake City that required every home sub-system to be integrated with easy-to-use controls. Sources include Kaleidescape players, Vudu boxes, HD cable boxes and a DirecTV HDDVR. The 24-seat facility features a Crestron MLX2 touchscreen controller for the Sim2 C3X1080p three-Chip DLP projector, Stewart 11ft CineCurve Side Mask microperf screen, Integra DBS 6.9 Blu-ray player and Classe amplification and processing. Speakers are supplied by Wilson Audio. www.aurant.com
(Left) Water world: Perhaps not the best screen to enjoy Lawrence of Arabia on
(Below): A $400,000 install is always going to necessitate a big AV rack
Watery rave
Centrepiece theatre
This winner in the Large Home Theater Level 1 category ($50,000-$107,000), was designed to outperform the local multiplex. We’re sure it does that, but as for the underwater décor, perhaps the less said, the better…! Featuring an asymmetric curved ceiling, unparallel walls, floating screen, and specially commissioned mural, the theatre system comprises an Integra DHC-80.1 9.2-channel preamplifier/processor, Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player, 160in 2.40:1 ratio high-gain screen, and BenQ W6000 DLP 1080p projector with Panamorph fixed anamorphic lens. Integration Controls of St Louis fixed the screen so it floats on three custom-made, 1/4in steel brackets. The wall, which houses the front speakers and subwoofers, is glued, gasketed, lined and caulked in order to minimise vibration. www.integrationcontrols.com
This 15-seat hi-tech home theatre seats from Electronics Design Group of New Jersey was conceived and developed to be the centrepiece of a new home; it even has a social space for serving food and drinks. Projection technology includes a 164in 2.35 ratio Stewart CineWide FireHawk screen, threechip 1080p Titan projector, Rotel separates and B&W CT series speakers to achieve perfectly even audio distribution for all seats. Sound quality is perfected with a Binary Amplitude Diffsorber system of acoustical panelling from RPG Diffuser Systems, which uses a layer of semi-rigid fibreglass, beneath a layer of binary grating, which is, in turn, under a layer of fabric upholstery. Since it’s a winner in the Large Home Theatre Level V – $400,000-$530,000 category – there may well be a big wad of cash in there as well. www.edgonline.com
Home Cinema Choice
5 cedia It’s snow joke You’re on your skiiing holiday making your way up to your luxury log cabin high in the mountains, but it’s starting to get a bit boring snow-ploughing all the way the peak. So what are you going to do to relieve the tedium? Well, it’s obvious, really. Jump in the back and stick a Blu-ray onto your high-class travelling home cinema system. This jaw-dropping job from Engineered Environments of San Francisco quite rightly won a Special Projects award. The cabin enjoys an AV system to enable guests to view HD footage of their morning skiing, along with a projector, drop-down Stewart Filmscreen, surround sound system and selection of quality sources. The Tucker Ski Cat snow plough is no slouch itself, featuring its own cabin display and a sound system, which syncs with the one in the ski lodge. Talk about chilling out. www.engenv.com
Two choices: If a snowplough seems like an inappropriate place to watch a movie, you can dash to the log cabin and continue it there
Game on: Architectural Electronics even rackmounted the Xbox 360
Selling points
Build it and they will come
Featuring a Da-Lite Acoustical Imager 120in perforated cinema screen and a Panasonic PT-AE4000 projector, this media room is part of a winning project in the Integrated Home category, designed by Home Concepts of Calgary. It was actually designed as a showhome, with 18 zones of audio, and did the job. ‘Never before [had the client] had an audio and video system in a home that they felt would actually help sell it – until now,’ apparently. www.homeconceptsdesign.com
Another winner in the Large Home Theater Level 1 category ($50,000-$107,000), this project from Architectural Electronics of Florida required a home theatre with seating for seven and a large screen suitable for movies, sports and gaming. The front speakers are hidden behind an acoustically transparent Stewart Filmscreen 120in fixed design. The projector is a Pioneer Elite PRO-FPJ1 1080P three-chip D-ILA model. Sound is courtesy of a Sherbourn 5/210A monoblock five-channel amplifier and Triad speakers. www.aecustom.com
Home Cinema Choice
cedia 6 Any colour so long as it’s brown
Showing Enterprise There’s more than a touch of Star Trek to this futuristic installation created by Electronics Design Group of New Jersey. This winner in the Large Home Theater Level II category ($140,000-$180,000) was the result of a dilapidated basement being turned into a high-tech family space. A 1080p Runco projector and a 110in Stewart Luxus Delux MicroPerf screen, Netgear digital multimedia receiver and Genelec AIW25 speakers were at its heart. One unusual aspect of the design was the Richard Grey power conditioner needed to eliminate ground loops and deliver clean power. The comfy pod-shaped gamer seats were finished in brown to blend with the proliferation of earthy tones spread across the room. www.edgonline.com
Home Cinema Choice