Eagle’s Nest — panoramic 210-inch masking screen glowing at the front of the auditorium.

Eagle’s Nest — tiered rows of custom leather seating facing the 210-inch screen.

Eagle’s Nest — recessed projector lens set flush into the theater's rear wall.

A Project by Audio Images

Eagle’s Nest

A reference cinema, hidden inside a landmark estate.

Pacific Coast, California

Set atop twelve ocean-view acres, Eagle’s Nest sits inside one of the region’s most significant modern residences — shaped by an Architectural Digest Top 100 interior designer. When a previous integrator’s work fell short of the home’s ambition, Audio Images was brought in to deliver something truly state of the art: a 17-seat, 11.4.6 immersive cinema later named Best Home Cinema Level III by CEDIA in 2022.

Audio Images

Our role on the project.

The room shell — concrete risers, HVAC layout, sound isolation — was already built when Audio Images arrived. Our job was to engineer a cinema-reference experience inside constraints that could not be moved, without compromising the interior designer’s vision.

We worked to build a reference-quality theater from concept to completion. We served as the technology integrator and project orchestrator, uniting audio, video, power, and control into a single quality-controlled build.

Every speaker, duct, and diffuser sits behind stretched fabric, alligator-skin wallpaper, or hand-framed inlay — the technology disappears, and only the performance remains. That discipline is what we call Solutioneering.

The clients had already commissioned a house full of extraordinary craftsmanship — a custom rug that took eight months to weave, fabric-inlaid wooden panels flanking the seating, and side walls finished in alligator-skin wallpaper. The theater had to live inside that world without breaking it.

The sound system is built for true cinema scale: nine main channels, six ceiling channels, dedicated wide channels, and eight paired subwoofers, all laid out to or exceeding the most current industry standards. A 12,000-lumen 4K projector throws to a 210-inch-wide woven screen with side masking for both 2.39 and 1.78 aspect ratios.

Behind the scenes, the harder work was invisible. The concrete risers couldn’t be altered, so bass absorbers went around them instead of under. HVAC ducts were relocated and wrapped in silencers; a stretched-fabric wall system floats six-and-a-half inches off the sheetrock, hiding deep absorbers, diffusers, and speakers behind acoustically transparent fabric. Even the projector lives in its own vented “hush box.”

The result is a seventeen-seat cinema — including two custom chaise lounges built to the exact dimensions of the poured-in-place front row — that hits cinema-reference sound-pressure levels with headroom to spare, and disappears completely when the lights come down.

Inside the Cinema

Specifications Worth Knowing

Sound

A full 11.4.6 immersive-audio layout — nine main channels, six ceiling channels, two dedicated wide channels, and eight paired subwoofers — hitting cinema-reference sound-pressure levels with headroom to spare.

Projection

A 12,000-lumen 4K cinema projector living in its own vented enclosure, throwing a bright, high-contrast image across a 210-inch canvas.

Screen

A 210-inch-wide acoustically transparent woven screen, with side masking for both 2.39 and 1.78 aspect ratios so every film fills the frame it was shot in.

Seating

Seventeen custom leather seats built to order in Belgium — including two front-row chaise lounges made to the exact dimensions of the poured-in-place concrete risers.

Acoustics

A fully engineered acoustic treatment package — deep bass filters on the front wall and interleaved absorber and diffuser modules front-to-back for even, natural sound at every seat.

Power

A conditioned, surge-protected power system with battery backup and full IP control — every component in the rack can be cycled from anywhere in the world.

Ventilation

8,400 cubic feet of theater ventilated at six air changes per hour, with plenum silencers and lined ductwork keeping the room whisper-quiet with the system idle.

Concealment

A stretched-fabric wall system floats six-and-a-half inches off the sheetrock, hiding all speakers, absorbers, and diffusers behind acoustically transparent panels and alligator-skin wallpaper.

Recognition

What the Industry Said

2022 CEDIA Awards

Best Home Cinema — Level III

Recognizing the finest purpose-built private cinemas in the world.

2022 CEDIA Awards

Life Lived Best at Home — Americas

Honoring residential technology projects that most elevate how a family lives at home.

Part of Audio Images’ record for more CEDIA home theater and media room awards than any other integrator in history. See the full record on our Awards page.

The Experience