Over the last 10 years, video walls have become standard in many commercial spaces. After seeing a video wall in a bar, one Laguna Beach, Calif., beach-front homeowner took things to the next level by requesting a replica of the display in his family’s home theater.
Matt Kindle, president of local technology integration firm eHome Lifestyle Inc., accepted the challenge without hesitation and began designing the 3×3-panel, 138-inch display around 10 Sunfire speakers and subwoofers, the logical choice of audio to enhance the massive set-up.
“This was the first time we’d done anything like this in a home,” says Kindle. “After receiving and accepting the homeowner’s request, I immediately started researching how to build the display. I knew that I wanted to use Sunfire for the theater whether the speakers were in-wall or exposed, so the primary goal was to find a TV with the very thinnest bezel possible. That’s how I came across the 46-inch NEC displays; the bezel is roughly 4MM thick. We installed nine of the displays to create an extraordinary visual solution.”
Beyond the 138-inch LED display, Kindle installed enough speakers and subs to fill the room with full-bodied, crystal-clear audio. With five Sunfire XRS3 Ribbon Speakers along with a Sunfire TGA7401 400w x 7 amplifier, two Sunfire Subrosa subwoofers and two 2700w Sunfire Subwoofer amplifiers, viewers can feel the boom no matter what they are watching.
“This theater is by far one of the most amazing sounding theaters that I’ve ever heard,” says Kindle. “The quality of the sound is just insane! Having two of the Sunfire subwoofers really rocks the whole house.”
To ensure that the theater not only looks great, but is also extremely user-friendly, Kindle built the system around the ELAN Entertainment and Control platform. Kindle pre-programmed the ELAN platform to create unique user settings within the display.
Photo
“Any family member can watch their designated DirectTV box, Apple TV or Blu-Ray on the big screen,” says Kindle. “We then set it up so that the viewer can easily change between screens. They can watch one thing with all nine screens displaying one large image, or can squeeze the image onto four of the displays, creating a 2×2, 96-inch image.”
The other five screens surrounding the compacted main display each have small DirecTV boxes attached to the back, so they can simultaneously play different channels around the compact main display.
“Through ELAN, I was able to make it so simple to operate the display,” adds Kindle. “One button turns it on. One button turns it into five different displays where you can easily select a source for the video and audio. Depending on which source you select, that’s what you hear! Additionally, we created ‘daytime’ and ‘nighttime’ buttons to automatically adjust the brightness of the video wall to reflect the specific time of day; viewers always have a perfect, high-quality picture.”
The home theater is not the only extraordinary aspect of this beachfront home. Kindle also installed a robust A/V systems built around the ELAN Entertainment and Control platform. The system features Vantage lighting control; 12 Aprilaire thermostats; 12 zones of shade control; 17 zones of audio through an ELAN S1616 controller and Niles Audio indoor/outdoor speakers; a GE Concord security system connected to 16 Cameras and 4 Holovision keypads; Pentair Pool and Spa Control; and, of course, theater controls.
Through ELAN, wherever the homeowner is in the world, he can monitor and operate each system within the home through the intuitive ELAN App on any mobile device. With the App, the homeowner can even check up on his children to see what they are watching on each of the nine displays in the Sunfire-enhanced theater, while also giving him the ability to remotely change the channel and audio input.
“This is the kind of project I just love to take on,” says Kindle. “The homeowner gave me the keys and let me run with it. He trusted me to build and develop the best solution for this space, and the family couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”
