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Widescreen
Review's New State-Of-The-Art Reference
Theatre At New Facility
This is Part IV of a series of articles on
the design, development and execution of a
new state-of-the-art Reference Home
Theatre Laboratory at WSR's new office
facility in Temecula, California (north of
San Diego, southeast of Los Angeles) that
serves as Widescreen Review's and Surround
Music.net's review laboratory. Part I
appeared in Issue 48. Part VII will
conclude in Issue 53 (October 2001).
When I set out to create a "reference"
home theatre experience, wherever I
turned, the words "home theater" were
stamped on products or services. It seems
that everything in consumer electronics is
being packaged as new "home theater"
products. (Though most companies don't use
the traditional "re" spelling used by the
motion picture industry since its
inception.) Yet, ironically, relatively
few consumers, and for that matter,
designers, engineers, and marketers of
consumer electronics, have been inside a
home theatre architecturally and
acoustically engineered for optimized
cinematic picture and music playback. So,
when the opportunity was presented I set
out to build from scratch a home theatre
room and system that represented my
philosophy and experience developed and
gained over four decades in seeking to
create an experience with all the
emotional excitement and impact of "real
life."
The Room
What follows is an exposé that
covers the points of consideration that
went into the design and implementation of
that dream as realized in our new
Reference Holosonic™ Home Theatre
Lab.
Our dedicated theatre measures 26 feet
deep x 21 feet, 8.6 inches wide x 13 feet,
11.9 inches high, or approximately 8,000
cubic feet in volume. These dimensions, as
previously discussed, were derived from a
tested formula based on sound acoustical
principles (see Part III, Issue 50).
Architecturally, the entire home theatre
room and the rear-projection room were
constructed with the complete
QuietZone® Noise Control System
build-materials package from the Owens
Corning Science and Technology Center
Acoustical Design Division (see Part II,
Issue 49). This is a tested and scientific
approach to home theatre architectural
design that is the best system I have seen
and worked with to date. An important
component to the success of the QuietZone
construction is the integrated
implementation of Industrial Acoustics
Company's acoustic doors that support the
high STC-63 rating for the theatre
construction. IAC doors are the best
acoustic doors made and the subject of
conversation by everyone who experiences
our new home theatre laboratory. These
doors, along with the Quiet Zone
construction work - shutting out noise
potentially entering the theatre and
sounds in the theatre from leaking into
the other areas in our new facility. It is
important to remember that, at least a
STC-60 rating is recommended to assure
that the room will support maximum dynamic
range.1 Of course, the HVAC system needs
to be absolutely noise-free when in
operation to insure the room will perform
as specified.
Finally, the acoustical design approach
taken for the theatre uses RPG Diffusor
Systems' VariScreen® and Skyline®
acoustic treatments to provide an even
sonic character throughout the room so
that the six principal speakers plus the
two .1 LFE subwoofers see essentially the
same acoustic environment to optimize the
experience heard at the sweet spot or "the
chair" listening position in the room. By
achieving an even reflected energy around
the room, problems caused by too much or
too little reflected sound are avoided. In
our approach, we used all the tools in the
acoustical palette, namely absorption,
reflection and diffusion in the design of
our critical listening room. The end
result is a room that supports the fullest
resolution of nuances in playback - both
picture and sound.
You can find this complete article in
Issue 51 of Widescreen Review
Magazine.
Click here to view issue 51 in the back issue section. |
then "Add to Home Screen"