For most of us, waiting for a plane at the airport is more of a nuisance than an opportunity. But that wasn't the case for Gordon Shackelford, owner of the Fairfield, Iowa-based custom-installation firm Absolute Home Theater & Automation, who turned a random meeting with some old acquaintances into a fairly substantial custom installation. During a 2-hour layover in the airport lounge, he sketched out the preliminary details of the couple's new media room and dedicated home theater on a cocktail napkin.

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"It was totally random that I bumped into them and that they were building a house about an hour outside Iowa City," Gordon recalls. "I used to work as a photographer for the husband, who runs an event-photography company. Reconnecting in the airport gave us time to discuss what they had in mind for their home."

There were several key elements to the project. One was that the wife and her interior designer, Lisa Lindley, had very strong opinions about how they wanted everything to look. Also, the couple wanted a dedicated theater as well as whole-house audio.

"The owners and I sat down and decided to make the installation as flexible as possible by putting in all the wires they might ever use," Gordon explains. "There's a lot of Cat-5e in there, and it's wired in such a way that it can easily be adapted to their needs." The primary demarcation area is in an equipment room behind the theater, with panels that allow the phone outlets to become network/Internet outlets, and vice versa. "It gives them a lot of flexibility."

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One of the most interesting aspects of the installation is the whole-house audio system, powered by eight Sonos ZonePlayer receivers wired to in-ceiling speakers. (Read our review of the Sonos system.) The husband says he originally heard about the Sonos system from his son, who described it as "a bigger and better iPod." The sound quality, he says, "met my expectations, and it put a variety of music at my fingertips. I like the ability to turn zones on and off according to our needs."

All of the ZonePlayers are in a custom-made cabinet to the right of the Sony 50-inch rear-projection HDTV in the media room. In essence, the Sonos receivers act as wireless distribution amps for each of the zones: the daughter's bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room, the sun room, three outdoor areas (a patio, a garden grotto, and a courtyard), and a kitchen area outside the home theater. All the rooms in the audio system are wired to Sonance 623TR ceiling speakers ($255 each), while the outdoor areas have SpeakerCraft OE8s ($215 each) mounted under the eaves.

"Even though the Sonos system is wireless, we set the house up so it could be hardwired," Gordon says. Each of the ZonePlayers is controlled via a wireless Sonos controller. Also, since each receiver basically acts like a wireless extender, it makes the home's wireless 802.11g network extremely robust. "You can go anywhere — even outdoors in the yard or courtyard — and get an extremely strong signal," explains Gordon.

While the media room's A/V system isn't particularly elaborate, making the electronics dovetail with the constraints imposed by its striking design presented some challenges. For one, the wife and interior designer made it clear what they felt would and wouldn't work aesthetically in the space. And the unusual layout — as well as the use of materials such as stone, tile, and slate — made placing some of the gear, particularly speakers, unusually tough. Compromises would have to be made — and not necessarily by the designer or the wife.

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Media Room Gear

A. Sony KDS-R50XBR1 50-inch SXRD rear-projection HDTV ($3,750) Denon DVD-1920 universal DVD player ($360) Dish 622 HD DVR satellite receiver ($500) Polk Audio XRt12 Reference XM Satellite Radio tuner ($300) Denon AVR-2106 surround sound receiver ($699) B. Eight Sonos ZP100 ZonePlayer wireless audio-distribution receivers ($499 each) C. Two Sonos CR100 wireless zone controllers ($399 each) Universal Remote MX-850 Aeros remote control ($399) Universal Remote MRF-300 RFX RF receiver ($200) Five Sonance Ellipse ceiling speakers ($500 each) B&W AS-300 subwoofer ($350) D. Middle Atlantic equipment rack and fan ($1,250)

"The wife is a graphic designer, so she and the interior designer really went to town on some of the design elements," Gordon says. "Also, the design is very open. On the main floor, you can basically stand in the kitchen and see across the dining room into the media room, into the openings to the two master suites, and down the stairway into the open sun porch."

Gordon's idea of on-wall speakers was vetoed because the wife didn't want anything behind the TV, where a series of family portraits hang. In-walls were also rejected, both because of the room's stone walls and the wife's and designer's mandate that no speakers mar the room's décor. So Gordon was forced to place the three Sonance Ellipse front speakers high up in the 13-foot ceiling, and the two SpeakerCraft AIM 7 surrounds in a rear wall.

"With the ceiling speakers, we sat there with the wife and interior designer, with the contractor up on a ladder literally moving them a quarter-inch by a quarter-inch, while they argued about where they should go," Gordon recalls. "The husband and I both knew that ceiling speakers weren't going to be optimum for surround sound. But he said that we should give way here because we'll do better in the theater."

Both the gear and the TV would have to fit in the custom cabinetry that curves around from the front of the room to become the room's sofa. Since hanging a plasma set was out of the question, the homeowners decided on a Sony 50-inch SXRD HDTV.

In a cabinet to the right of the TV, a Middle Atlantic rack holds the system components (see the gear list, at right). The eight Sonos ZP100 ZonePlayers are also in the cabinet, two per shelf, along with a B&W AS-300 subwoofer behind a door in the bottom. When the homeowners want surround sound, they open the subwoofer compartment. System control is handled by two Sonos CR100 wireless controllers and a Universal remote.

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Gordon says the homeowners' decisions about the home theater were influenced by all the things they didn't like about their friends' installations. "They had friends who had been overwhelmed by technology and underwhelmed by how difficult it was to use what they had. Both home-owners are very intelligent and knowledgeable in their fields, but they're definitely not technocrats."

While the finished theater looks beautiful, here performance trumped design. The projector is a $28,000 Faroudja 1080p HD model that's basically a three-chip JVC HD-ILA projector tweaked and calibrated by video guru William Phelps. Gordon says the couple had a friend with an LCD projector, "and they hated it." So Gordon had them come to his house, where he was able to demo several projectors. "We went back and forth between the Faroudja and less expensive single-chip models, and they preferred the HD-ILA projector."

Since the home theater is directly below the media room, Gordon knew he'd have to keep sound isolated within it. There's acoustic insulation in the floors and ceiling, both the upstairs plywood subfloor and the theater ceiling have rubber backing to isolate vibrations, and the ceiling consists of 6 inches of poured concrete. Acoustic panels throughout the room tame off-wall reflections. "When the theater is ripping pretty well, you can get the vibe of it upstairs, but if the sound is below 60 dB, you won't hear it there at all," Gordon says.

The husband went with a panamorphic projector lens, but opted for a 16:9 fixed screen rather than a 2:35:1 one. "I talked to him about how we have 1,080 lines of vertical resolution, and if you have a 2:35 picture, you're going to lose some of that," Gordon recalls. "I explained that if you have a 16:9 screen with a panamorphic lens, you can watch 2:35 and get full resolution, but you'll have bars on the top and bottom, and he said he didn't care. So there's a movable panamorphic lens in front of the projector and a 100-inch Stewart Studiotech fixed screen on the wall."

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Home Theater Gear

A. Faroudja 1080p HD projector ($28,000) B. Stewart 100-inch Studiotech screen ($2,750) Faroudja DVP1510 HDTV processor with DVD drive ($12,000) Dish Network HD ViP211 satellite receiver ($500) Rotel RSP-1068 surround-sound processor ($1,700) Denon AVR-1506 surround-sound receiver ($349) Jeff Rowland MC-6 6-channel power amp ($15,000) ATI AT1506 6-channel power amp ($2,000) Marchand XM9 active crossover ($850) C. Three Huff One speakers ($5,000 each) D. Four B&W DS6 S3 on-wall surround speakers ($400 each) E. Two Huff Sub One passive subwoofers ($4,000 each) F. Two Huff SP active subwoofers ($3,000 each) Furman PF-Pro E line conditioner ($400) Universal Remote MX-850 Aeros remote control ($399) Universal Remote MRF-300 RFX RF receiver ($200) G. Middle Atlantic equipment rack with fans ($2,500) H. Four Cinematic "Casablanca" theater chairs ($17,000) I. Six Media Specialty Resources acoustic panels ($2,400)

That the homeowners had speakers custom-made for the three front channels might seem unusual, but speaker-builder John Huff lives in town, and Gordon uses Huff's wares in his own home theater room. "My friends are always blown away by how John's speakers sound," Gordon says. The speakers — which are visually striking with their highly figured bird's-eye maple cabinets — use ceramic woofers and ribbon tweeters.

Huff One speakers handle the left, right, and center channels, with the left and right speakers on 26-inch stands and the center speaker above the screen, angled toward the seats. A pair of cylindrical Huff Sub One passive subwoofers sit to the outside of the left and right speakers, while two Huff SP active subs are located in the rear of the room. Four B&W DS6 S3 on-wall speakers are used for surrounds. The decision to go with a different brand for the surrounds was strictly budgetary — the homeowners didn't want to spring for custom surrounds.

Although the wife and designer weren't as involved in the layout of the theater, they weren't completely absent from the decision-making process. For example, they dictated that the powered subs go in the back of the room. "They didn't want two more 12-inch drivers in the front," Gordon says. Surprisingly, neither the wife nor designer have complained about the lack of grille cloths on the front speakers. (Yet.)

Also unusual is the theater's amplification. Four of the six channels of a Jeff Rowland MC-6 amplifier, two per speaker, are bridged for the left and right front speakers, while the remaining two channels power the passive subwoofers, with Marchand XM9 active crossovers sending frequencies below 80 Hz to the subs. An ATI 1506 six-channel amp handles the four surrounds and the center speaker. (Gordon bridged two channels for the center speaker to ensure that dialogue is always intelligible.) The Middle Atlantic rack, hidden behind a door next to the screen, holds all the gear. (See the list, at right.)

Four Casablanca theater chairs from Cinematic make up the front row of seating, while four more generic — but still comfortable — theater-style chairs sit behind them on a riser. The homeowners use a Universal Remote MX-850 Aeros control and MRF-300 RFX RF receiver to operate the theater but recently decided to upgrade to a Crestron control system.

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Listening to a client is the most important thing an installer can do," Gordon says. "At the beginning of a job, I elicit as much information from my clients as possible so I can determine their comfort level with technology and establish a good idea of their true budget."

He also feels it's important he be able to show his clients a variety of options. "The more they see and understand, the better their comfort level and the more empowered they are to participate in the process," reasons Gordon. "These people trust us, and it's our duty to give them true value for every penny spent."

Based on the husband's reaction to the installation, that appears to be exactly what happened. "We're extremely satisfied with Gordon's work and the performance of the systems we chose," he says. "Communication was a bit of an issue in the beginning. Since Gordon's been in the business for a long time, he tended to speak in a language we didn't understand. He was going on certain assumptions initially, but it was pretty easy to remedy."

The husband feels that the home theater makes up for whatever tension was caused by the negotiations over the media room. "In the media room, I wasn't involved in 98% of the decisions, but I was involved in 98% of what went on in the theater," he recalls. "It helped when we were dealing with the media room to know that I was going to get my blow-out room downstairs."

Absolute home theater & Automation
904 South 2nd Street
Fairfield, IA 52556
641-469-3352
absolutehta.com

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