“Cinema Paradiso” in Newport Coast Residence Garners Best-in-the-World Home Theater Recognition

 

TUSTIN, CA – October 30, 2013 – Audio Images announced today they have won the 2013 Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) Electronic Lifestyles® Designer Award for Best Overall Home Theater, recognizing the technology integrator for its role in producing a world-class residential theater named “Cinema Paradiso.”

 

Architecturally conceptualized by world-renowned theater designer Theo Kalomirakis, the award-winning home theater was inspired by the Opera Garnier in Paris, France. Leading up to the theater, a stunning courtyard opens to a large piazza modeled after the central square in Siena, Italy. Surrounding the piazza is an entertainment “city” – five entertainment spaces, including a vintage arcade, jazz club, a pizza kitchen, lobby/bar area, and the theater.

 

“Our objective in creating any home theater is to help transport you to another time and place, to support your willing suspension of disbelief – we want to reproduce EXACTLY what the director/producer/writer of the film intended,” said Audio Images President Mark Ontiveros. “In this home, your experience begins outside the theater, where you feel you've left Orange County and have been magically transported to Italy. As you get deeper and deeper into the entertainment space and finally the theater, you are transported further from your normal experience, until you are swept away not just by the movie, but by the time, place, and emotions the film's creative team wanted you to feel.”

One way to make that happen is the theater's moving platforms and seats. Engineered and reengineered several times over, properly-encoded movies will leave the viewer feeling dizzy, moving gently to a water scene – or the earth will tremble underneath as a monster shakes the ground, taking movies to a completely different level of reality altogether.

 

In addition to watching movies, the theater features Concertino acoustic enhancement technology, which allows the environment to be transformed virtually into any imaginable performance space, with hidden microphones even allowing musicians to perform from the stage without any handheld amplification. Essentially, all 150 speakers can be turned from a theater to a concert hall with the flick of a (digital) switch.

 

Notable technical features of “Cinema Paradiso” include Steinway Lyngdorf's all-digital surround-sound system, a 165-inch width 4-way PMI2.0 variable masking screen, Concertino acoustic enhancement technology, massive sound isolating doors at the entrance of the room, and a DCI-compliant Christie Digital Cinema projector. The ceiling, floors, and walls are hung on springs to prevent sounds from traveling to the house, and the ventilation system is custom crafted to eliminate nearly all background noise.

 

The rectangular space designated for the theater had to be carefully transformed to replicate a stunning oval space capped by a large dome, offering the challenge of delivering an architectural design that would harmoniously co-exist with the acoustical design.

“But you're not going to think about,or probably even notice, – the world's best audio and video equipment, perfect acoustics, precision optics, computer automation, motion seats, subwoofer towers, testing, or high-tech engineering – you're just going to experience them all in an integrated, emotional manner,” Ontiveros noted.

All this didn't happen with one person or even one company; it took a large team of the top experts in the field. Starting with Kalomirakis, next, acoustic engineering company PMI (led by Anthony Grimani) did the initial work to integrate proper audio and video functions to the design, engineer the sound isolation shell, and design the noise control functions necessary for a room of this magnitude.

 

SH Acoustics, led by Steve Haas, then took the project forward to complete the interior acoustic systems, and oversaw the construction and fabrication of the theater. Haas was an integral part of the final acoustic and audio calibration, including integrating the Concertino acoustic enhancement system with all of the other elements of the theater.

 

All this was in tight coordination with the home's master builder, Andrew Miner Construction. 

“I just wanted to find the best people in the industry, put them on a project together, and let them be creative,” said the homeowner and ultimate visionary of the space. “I wanted to see how they would flow; what would result from the best minds all focused on making something great. And it's surpassed what any of us, I think, could have imagined. It's truly an experience like no other.”

Winner of numerous industry awards and over 12 CEDIA Awards since 2010, Audio Images was also recognized with four additional 2013 CEDIA Awards including GOLD Technical Design Home Theater Level VI ($1,000,000+), GOLD Technical Design Home Theater Level IV ($251K-$360K), GOLD Technical Design Home Theater Level III ($151K-$250K), and SILVER Technical Design Home Theater Level III ($151K-$250K).

 

CEDIA’s annual awards competition recognizes the outstanding work of the industry’s best companies, technologies, projects, and individuals. Well over 100 entries to the 2013 competition were subjected to numerous rounds of judging by electronic systems professionals, architects and interior designers. CEDIA isan international trade association of audio/visual companies that specialize in designing and installing electronic systems for homes worldwide. CEDIA members are established and insured businesses with bona fide qualifications and experience in engineering, installation, design, and service.

 

Audio Images (Henry's Audio Visual Solutions, Inc.) has more CEDIA-certified personnel than any other provider within a 250-mile radius of their Southern California headquarters located in Orange County, CA. 

 

About Audio Images 

Since 1991, Audio Images has engineered and installed award-winning audio/video (A/V) systems in residential and commercial properties throughout Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego counties, and limited out-of-state projects around the globe. With several hundred years of combined design and technical expertise, Audio Images pioneered Solutioneering™, a proprietary approach to seamlessly integrate and manage all contractors, interior designers, acousticians, lighting specialists - and more - to provide a quality-controlled, end-to-end process. Learn more about Audio Images at www.audioimages.tv.

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