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Suburban Philadelphia Home - September 2003 - page 3  With a large blank space waiting for a creative installation, Platt brought the idea of creating as much drama as possible with the theater. The drama starts as guests descend a beautiful spiral staircase from the first floor of the home to the basement theater’s lobby. In this lobby, there is to be an actual candy counter, so one can load up on soda, popcorn and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups before a screening of “Rocky IV.” The client loved the idea and green-lighted the $250,000 budget.The implementation of the room, including the acoustics, was outsourced to another firm, which blueprinted the designs and created the decorative acoustical treatments, sofets and other accoutrements. Seating was a big issue for the clients, so four rows of four Irwin Marquis seats were chosen. The way the room was designed allowed high-performance AV gear to be unobtrusively installed, since it was to play second fiddle to the overall design of the room. The client, who very much has a taste for the finer things in life, worked with Platt to choose AV gear that left little to be desired.  Platt believes the audio element of the system is more important than some AV installers give it credit for. Too often, designers jump at selling a 61-inch plasma screen before they consider the effect of audio in a theater. Platt muses, “If you turn off the sound when watching a movie, for example, and a woman gets into a car, you don’t know if she is on a date or being kidnapped. The sonic cues and dialogue in a film do more than we always think in controlling our emotions when watching a movie.” This is why Platt convinced the client to invest in the lauded Wilson Audio CUB II loudspeakers, Wilson Audio’s WATCH center and Dynaudio Contour side and rear speakers for a 7.1 surround system. A pair of Mirage subwoofers are integrated with the Wilsons in order to add an unmistakable low-end presence in the room. Electronics include Krell’s Theater Amplifier Standard power amp, Krell’s HTS 7.1 channel AV preamp and B&K's Reference 2220. All audio and video cables, including the prewire cable, are by Transparent Audio and Monster Cable. Sources include a Sony HD100 for satellite and HDTV reception and a Pioneer Elite DV37 for DVD-Video and DVD-Audio playback. The video system included a Sharp Vision DLP projector, but it is being currently upgraded to a SIM2 DLP projector with the new Mustang II chip set. The screen is a Stewart Filmscreen Grayhawk that is 123 inches diagonally on a 16x9 aspect ratio. Control of the system is done via an AMX touch-screen remote system that was programmed by Soundex for the client.The final result of the theater speaks for itself in the photos, but the client describes his remodeled basement as his “parallel universe” where he can go to leave Philadelphia without an airplane ticket. He and his family use the room to watch their beloved Philadelphia sports teams and primetime TV broadcasts, but above all, they use it for watching movies. With room for 16 people and in the tradition of the openness found in the city of brotherly love, there is always room for guests at the client’s house. Whether Donovan McNabb is scrambling for a 22 yard gain up the gut or “Moulin Rouge” is beaming in on the satellite in HDTV, this theater room has more sought-after seats than the Kimmel Center during a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth. See complete equipment list below...
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