September 17th, 2008
Amnet Technology Solutions Wins at CEDIA
2008 Best Hidden Installation Overall Winner and
Silver award for 2008 Best Hidden Installation Technical Design
Our objective was to seamlessly integrate 21st century technology into a room modeled after a 17th century Irish castle. The technology needed to be invisible and not interfere with the aesthetics of the room.
The room’s centerpiece, a quarried natural limestone arch over the main window, provided a perfect place to hide the Stewart 110” motorized screen. The screen silently appears in the arch when needed and blocks natural light and is auto masked for different aspect ratios.
The speakers needed to be high-quality, but invisible. In-wall installation and speaker fabric were not options due to the specific architectural wood design of the room. We overcome this challenge by creating custom-engineered speaker compartments that sit behind the hand carved wood coffered ceiling grills and disguise the speakers yet allow sound through. The sound is precise while keeping the speakers completely hidden. In addition, two subwoofers were placed along the wall and then built to look like 17th century tables.
The projector also needed to be completely out of site; however the customer did not want the projector to be motorized. We custom-engineered a projector compartment into the coffer ceiling that aligned with the screen center and only the projector lens was drilled through the coffer face, therefore becoming unnoticeable.
The compartment has a hidden access door and a thermostatically controlled vent to the outside.
Working up front with the millwork designer allowed the dimensions and placement of the coffered ceiling to be such that very high quality image and sound were achieved while all components were out of site. An ISF certified video calibration was done upon completion.
The system is controlled using an AMX touch screen which gives one-touch access to the perfect viewing environment. Seamlessly, the lights gradually dim, the screen and projector silently come to life and the 7.1 surround sound bring this room to life. When the movie concludes one button brightens the lights, hides the screen and shuts the projector down.
Planning and commitment to the overall vision transformed this beautiful room into a technology rich, functional space for the whole family to enjoy.
