John Chance was a typical Sound & Vision reader — at least, until a year ago. That's when he turned his love of A/V gear and do-it-yourself projects into a custom-installation business. Back in 2002, this New York City fireman designed and built an addition for his house that included a home theater.

It turned out so well that he decided to become an installer. He started his business last year by putting in small systems. But recently he took on a more ambitious project: a home theater for the Traina family of Freehold, New Jersey.

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The family wanted to convert an 11 x 30-foot section of their basement into a home theater that would serve two purposes. Nick Traina, a die-hard sports fan (New York Giants and Rangers), wanted a place where he could have friends over to watch games, but it was just as important that the whole family — which also includes his wife Jennifer, 3-year-old son Nick, and 4-month-old daughter Gianni — be able to enjoy a movie-theater experience without leaving the house.

"I bought a 50-inch Pioneer Elite plasma TV for the upstairs den, and that experience told me I needed to step up my viewing situation downstairs," Nick explains. He knew he wanted high-definition and the biggest screen the room could handle. To give him both within his $70,000 budget, John suggested mounting a Knoll Systems HD282 high-def DLP front projector ($7,400) on the ceiling and partnering it with a 92-inch (diagonal) screen from Screen Research ($3,400).

The screen is designed to have speakers behind it. But unlike screens of this type from other manufacturers, the Screen Research is woven rather than perforated, which is said to allow sound to pass through it undiminished. Also, a woven screen can help eliminate the moiré effects caused by the rows of tiny holes in perforated screens.

Below the screen is a small stage, with most of the system's gear tucked underneath. "We could've put the equipment in the small room behind the theater," says John, "but if you wanted to change a DVD, you would have to get up and go into that other room. Also, Nick actually likes to see the equipment."

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Divided among three Raxxess racks, the gear runs the gamut from Denon's AVR-4806 receiver ($3,500) and DVD-2910 DVD player ($740) to an Elan Z661 six-channel amp ($820), which provides power to speakers in other rooms. One rack also includes a small vault where Nick can lock away videos and remotes.

The speakers are all from Klipsch: four KL-525-THX models ($1,000 each) for the front left/right and back surround positions, a KL-525-THX behind the screen for the center position, two KS-525-THX dipole speakers ($1,250 a pair) for the left/right surrounds, and a KW-120-THX sub ($1,250 each) in each corner of the room. "We were going to put the subs in a cavity under the stage, but I worried about the sound traveling," John says. "The bass could have carried throughout the house."

Not letting sound leak out of the home theater was a big issue for Nick, who didn't want to wake his kids if he was watching a nail-biter championship game with his friends or enjoying a movie with lots of pounding sound effects. John engineered the acoustic treatment — at $18,500, the most expensive part of the installation — with Chris Underwood of Dublin, Ohio-based Kinetics Noise Control. "My rule of thumb is, any project over $20,000 should be engineered," John clarifies.

John initially wanted to stretch fabric across all the walls and put in absorption and reflection panels, but that proved too expensive. Instead, he placed ten panels along the side and front walls and covered the back wall with 2 inches of fiberglass. To keep sound within the room, he worked closely with building contractor John Falzarano, asking him to use two layers of 0.6-inch sheetrock for the ceiling and the exterior walls, with a Kinetics rubber sound membrane between, instead of the more common single half-inch layer.

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THE GEAR

•Knoll Systems HD282 DLP projector ($7,400) •Screen Research 92-inch screen ($3,400) •5 Klipsch KL-525-THX speakers ($1,000 each) •2 Klipsch KS-525-THX dipole surrounds ($1,250 a pair) •4 Klipsch KW-120-THX subwoofers ($1,250 each) •Denon AVR-4806 receiver ($3,500) •Denon DVD-2910 DVD player ($740) •Elan Z661 six-channel amplifier ($820) •2 Furman Elite 15PF power conditioners ($600 each) •Harmony 890 remote control ($400)

John told Nick the perfect seating arrangement for the theater would be eight chairs in two rows of four, but Nick had other ideas. "We're a family of four, so I figured if another family comes over, we'd already fill eight chairs," Nick says. "I went with 10 to be on the safe side. I don't know if I'll ever have 10 screaming maniacs watching a football game down here, but I like having that option."

But John had reservations. "Some of the chairs are against the back wall, which acoustically isn't the best thing to do. But you can't be too theoretical with this stuff; you have to be flexible."

The Excalibur theater recliners ($2,200 in a group of four, $1,800 in a group of three) have tactical transducers, or bass shakers, which run off two Klipsch sub amps (housed in the room behind the theater), which in turn are connected to the Denon receiver's subwoofer output. This transfers the low bass to the chairs, making them vibrate. The rumble of a tidal wave or earthquake in a movie like The Day After Tomorrow puts viewers right in the action.

While the room's gray-and-black colors might strike some as somber, John chose them to minimize light reflections from the screen and the projector. Unobtrusively adorning the walls are eight white sconces with fan-style shades that provide low lighting before and after a movie. And the Lutron infrared lighting-control system lets the Trainas use either a wall plate or the remote control to set the lights at any level.

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Nick wanted a simple, small remote — definitely not a large LCD touchpanel. It had to be something he could operate with one hand but powerful enough to make everything happen through a complex series of macros. The Harmony 890 ($400), which is programmed on a PC and can be easily updated or troubleshot via the Internet, fit the bill.

The theater is a hit with the whole family. The first film they screened was Toy Story, and Nick's son has watched it innumerable times since. Nick was also impressed with how The Matrix and The Incredibles came alive.

Next up for the Trainas is outfitting Zone Two (the basement family room) and Zone Three (outdoor speakers by a yet-to-be-built swimming pool). Meanwhile, with a stack of movies to get through and football season underway, Nick has planned his next big purchase: a popcorn maker.

MAKING THE CONNECTION

We chronicled John Chance's adventures building his family-room addition and installing a home theater there in our July/August and November 2003 issues. But his story didn't end there. With the theater completed and his family enjoying the rewards of his hard work, John hankered for another project. That's how The Home Theater Connection — the Staten Island, New York-based company he founded in 2005 — was born. "For the last 15 years or so I've really been into electronics and A/V gear, but Sound & Vision was the stepping-stone," he recalls. "When that first article came out, so many people I didn't even know in the technology business called me up." With the phone ringing regularly now, John has gotten so busy that he recently recruited his wife, Grace, to handle scheduling and the mounting paperwork. With just 4.5 years to go before he retires from the New York City Fire Department, he's found a profession that not only pays the bills but is just as exciting as fighting fires. "I started out dabbling in small systems, but to be where I want to be, I've got to be 100% professional," John says. Since founding The Home Theater Connection, he's made it a top priority to constantly update his skills. He's attended CEDIA boot camps and is now Installer One certified. He's also certified for home theater design, installation, seating, and distributed audio by the Electronic House Expo (EHX) and for video calibration by the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF). And he's factory-trained in all of the products he sells and installs. "People want to put a Mack truck in a Volkswagen garage," says John. "We all want that jumbo screen, but you've got to work with the room size, throw distance, and all the other stuff. That's what's great about this job — helping folks work it all out so they can have what they want."

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