Admit One Gold Winner, Tomb Raider Inspired Home Theater

Combining the homeowners’ love for all things Egyptian with their passion for movies, this “Tomb Raider”-inspired home theater is straight from the catacombs. With the couple’s yearly trips to Egypt, it was also important that electronic systems contractor Admit One make the theater look authentic, not gimmicky.

With a focus on incorporating the audio and video elements into the themed structure of the room, Admit One set out to accomplish what would become an intricately executed theater. Given that this theater was built on top of a garage, the company had a set footprint to work with, but also had some noise considerations to overcome. A neighboring home 15 feet away from the theater’s exterior and a busy street at the end of the driveway dictated the need for audio to stay inside the theater and noise to stay out. Admit One’s use of double Sheetrock, Green Glue, staggered studs, insulation and an independent HVAC system accomplished this goal.

Without a lot of space to work with, Admit One had to exercise some creativity to hide the technology in the room, allowing the themed elements and AV experience to be focal points. The constructed a custom hush box to house the Runco 3-chip VZ-22 projector and anamorphic lens, which provides a picture-perfect image that is one of the room’s few anachronisms. A gargoyle sits vigilantly perched on top of this unit, further adding to the room’s primordial vibe. Painstakingly custom-built and hand-painted columns and beams engraved with hieroglyphs are designed to resemble 4,000-year old stone. This “stone” accounted for most of the room’s acoustic anomalies. To counteract these, Admit One chose the powerful JBL Synthesis Hybrid Array Two system and tempered the hard tomb detail with soft cotton core material on the walls throughout the room.

“This themed theater is one of the most intricate spaces we’ve ever done,” says Admit One. “We consider this theater to be the complete package, not only in the sense that you transcend into another time dimension when you walk into the room, but also due to the top-tier A/V selections and technical design.”

All visitors to www.electronichouse.com during the month of May will not only be able to view all the
winning installations, but they will also have the opportunity to participate in the first annual Electronic House Homes of the Year Scavenger Hunt, with great prizes awarded weekly.