In this blog we are featuring two systems done by our Charlotte team. In both cases, you would never know a surround system or full-fledged home theater are hiding, waiting to make your favorite game or movie a ton of fun!
The first one features a downtown Charlotte condo. The client did some renovations to their home and chose Jake Tepper of Audio Advice to help out with the audio/video. Jake used our favorite whole house music system, Sonos, for the audio side. The expert techs on our Charlotte team ran speaker wires all over the condo with nary a sheetrock cut to get music throughout the space. I must say, that feat is particularly impressive in a condo. The main theater is discussed in another blog, but the space had a secondary TV viewing area in the keeping room where a discrete 55” 4K TV was hidden behind some beautiful cabinetry. A wireless Sonos Playbar was used for this system, coupled to the wireless Sonos Sub. The cable box and Apple TV were remotely placed in another room with once again our techs getting the wiring to the TV spot. Full control of the system is through a Universal remote control, custom programmed for ease of use. As you can see from the hidden and cabinet open pics, this one turned out great.
I wonder where the system is?
Sony 4K TV with a great Sonos Playbar- notice you don’t see any wires either!
Bass is provided by a wireless Sonos Sub tucked into a corner
Have you ever been in a totally hidden home theater? Many times we use the technique Todd Smith deployed here to hide a bank of windows for a screen wall, but its pretty seldom you cannot even tell there is a home theater present from inside the house!
This home in Charlotte had a spare room that was perfect for a home theater, but had a window wall right where the screen should be. Todd’s solution, turn a lemon into lemonade and make it appear from the outside of the home there were blinds in the closed position, but from the inside, a great front projection home theater system! In this home, a shadow box was built around the window frame, then the screen wall went right on top of it. This is a great solution we have used many times which works out really well. Plus if you sell the house and the new buyers do not care for a theater (yes, they would have to be totally nutty, but you never know) you can easily restore the window wall.
An overhead view of the concept design
The screen wall concept
The challenging window wall
What would become the very cool theater entry door
The entrance to the stealth theater
This theater used a Stewart screen, Sim2 Crystal projector, the B&W CT series of theater speakers, an Integra receiver, with a Universal remote for complete control. You don’t see any of the gear in this two row theater.
Theater door open
Door closed
The really trick part came on the door to the theater. Since it is in an upstairs bonus room, you are walking down a long hall to get to it. The client wanted it to look like the hall ended with a nice set of built ins, so you could have a really neat surprise when you walked into the theater. Todd worked with the contractor to come up with a door that looks like a bookcase! It’s really pretty trick!
Where there once were windows, we now have a great screen wall
As you can tell, the experts at Audio Advice can make your home theater dreams come true, even if it seems like the space may not work. Just let us get our imaginations running and you’ll really be surprised at what we can do!