Matrix Theater Wins Cedia’s Best Home Theater Level V Award

RPG Home Theater dealer Genesis Audio was approached by a client who requested a home theater based on the movie The Matrix, starring Keanu Reaves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss. Genesis president Bill Anderson and interior designer Lezlie Trujillo worked together combining aesthetics and technology to create the winning entry for Cedia’s Electronic Lifestyles Award for Best Home Theater Level V: over $900,000.

This theater, which was built as an addition to the original home, is 33 feet deep, 19 feet wide and 11 feet high. To capture the concept, Trujillo studied The Matrix, making copious notes about the movie’s setting and visual theme. She settled on a color scheme primarily made up of greens and blacks to complement the technology that was installed, creating an industrial, futuristic effect.

Project manager Tom Liebich and programmers Frank Moctezuma and Kevin Dry, who comprised the Genesis team—integrated a Runco DTV-1101 video projector that projects onto a 4-way screen by Stewart Filmscreen. Faroudja DVP-5000 video processor and Escient Power Play DVD management system complete the video system highlights. The audio system in this theater consists of a Revel surround sound speaker system powered by eight Linn Klimax mono-block power amplifiers. RPG Home Theater acoustical products enable the systems to achieve optimum performance.

All of the acoustical products are concealed behind a stretch fabric system. The low frequency acoustical response of the Matrix Theater is controlled with RPG Modex Modules. Modex is fully tested in RPG’s 24’ long, 7 ton low frequency impedance tube, one of only a handful in North America. For diffusion, RPG’s cost-effective Class A QRD® Formedffusor was used. To provide reflection control without excessive damping, that occurs with purely absorptive wall treatment, RPG’s unique diffsorptive binary amplitude Home Theater Panel was specified.

St Martin of Tours Catholic Church Vicksburg, MI

St. Martin of Tours rear view

Acoustician
Tom Lorenzen
dBA Acoustics, Inc.
(formerly dBA/GEERDES)
Fort Wayne, IN 46857
tlorenzen@dbaacoustics.com

“This new church facility (called a ‘real church’ by the Bishop at dedication, due to the successful blending of classical and contemporary design) is an octagon shaped structure (over 100’ wide/long) utilizing an angled ceiling which reaches a height of 48 feet at the peak (not including cupola).

St. Martin of Tours side view

Computer modeling indicated that this highly angled ceiling in the rear would create very long reflection times (echoes) back into portions of the seating area. The volume of the space (265k ft3) also dictated that absorption (other than from the minimally padded pews and carpeted floor) would also be required to keep the mid-band RT60 times around 2 seconds. Additionally, a wood ceiling with exposed laminated beams required the use of a “wood-look” absorber that would have to be stained to match the rest of the ceiling. Fortunately, RPG now provides their Topakustik® slotted wood products, which can be provided with the required amount of absorption vs. frequency. The project was successful due to the collaborative design among the architect, acoustician, and RPG.”

St. Martin of Tours rear view closeup

Architect
Bill Barnard
Project Leader
The Troyer Group, Inc
550 Union Street
Mishawaka, IN 46544
whb@troyergroup.com

“Saint Martin of Tours Catholic Church desired a church sanctuary that would reflect their parish as well as the depth of the Church tradition. The size and scale of unobstructed views of this 900+ seat sanctuary required the unique structure and shape that was the result of the schematic design process.

Tom Lorenzen at dBA Acoustics determined the concern with the acoustical performance and the need for an absorptive surface. With the Topakustik product, we were able to provide the church with a cost effective solution to the aesthetic need for a wood ceiling and the practical need for acoustics. The ability of this product to blend in with the bottom of the structural wood planks allowed us to selectively integrate the sound absorption within the decking without a distracting change in appearance. The resulting looks, sound performance and budget will continue to please parishioners for years to come.”

Widescreen Review’s Reference Holosonic™ Spherical Surround™ Home Theatre Laboratory, Temecula, CA

Panoramic View of WSR Home Theater Laboratory

Perry Sun, Managing Editor & Gary Reber, Editor-In-Chief
Widescreen Review

RPG Diffusor System’s acoustical design and treatment of Widescreen Review’s (WSR) Reference Holosonic™ Spherical Surround™ Home Theatre Laboratory has proven to be one of the vital contributing factors to the fantastic sonic performance that we have been able to achieve. From the aid of the Room Sizer software, to the installation of the VariScreens™, to the implementation of the Skyline® Diffusor “Acoustical Cloud” drop ceiling, and finally the installation of the Home Theater BAD panels , every element of the RPG acoustical design approach has been integral to our objective of a no-compromise sonic experience. The RPG system has been extremely effective in taking room acoustics out of the listening impression equation, simply enabling us to enjoy the music or a movie soundtrack.

Front View of WSR Home Theater Laboratory

The RPG system enabled us to apply effective room acoustical treatment to optimize our equidistant approach to full-range loudspeaker placement and the integration of a height channel to achieve a flat-response Holosonic Spherical Surround environment. Over the past few years, hundreds of enthusiasts and respected industry figures have had the opportunity to experience the Holosonic Spherical Surround home theatre for themselves. The consensus has consistently been that of a particularly high-quality audio presentation, attributable in no small part to the efforts of Peter

Front View of WSR Home Theater Laboratory

D’Antonio and his company. A home theatre where variables due to acoustic aberration are virtually non-existent is truly a wonderful scenario, one in which our work in reviewing audio equipment and movie and music software for our magazine becomes straightforward, unfettered, and, in a rather interesting way, simplified. In other words, our special listening environment affords an almost unique opportunity to fully expose the sonic intimacies of recorded sound, or the audio attributes of the gear used to reproduce them. “

RPG Invited to Lecture at ASA in Nashville
The Abstracts for Dr. D’Antonio’s invited papers follow. For further information please visit our library at or contact RPG.

If you can’t take the room out of your mix, you can’t take your mix out of the room!

Peter D’Antonio (RPG Diffusor Systems, Inc., 651-C Commerce Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20774, pdantonio@rpginc.com)

The key issue in any recording studio is transferability- the ability of a mix to transfer to other listening environments outside the studio. For a mix to faithfully transfer to a wide range of acoustical environments, it must be created in a room with minimal acoustic distortion. The music industry is very aware of electronic distortion; however, the audible effects of acoustic distortion are only now being fully appreciated. The four forms of acoustic distortion are modal coupling, speaker boundary interference response, comb filtering and poor diffusion or a sparse spatial and temporal reflection density. These phenomena will be explained and methods to minimize them will be suggested.

Shape Optimization: Good looks and acoustics too!

Peter D’Antonio
(RPG Diffusor Systems, Inc., 651-C Commerce Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20774, pdantonio@rpginc.com) ,

Trevor J. Cox
(School of Acoustics and Electronic Engineering, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, United Kingdom) and

Steve Haas
(Jaffe Holden Acoustics, 114A Washington Street, Norwalk, CT 06854)

One of the challenges in the architectural acoustic design of museums and other public spaces is to develop contemporary scattering surfaces that complement contemporary architecture in the way that statuary, coffered ceilings, columns and relief ornamentation complemented classic architecture. Often acoustic surfaces satisfy the acoustics, but may or may not satisfy the aesthetics. One approach that has been successful employs a combination of boundary element and multi-dimensional optimization techniques. The architect supplies the desired shape motif and the acoustician supplies the acoustical performance requirements. The optimization program then provides an Arcousthetic surface, which simultaneously satisfies the architecture, the acoustics and the aesthetics. The program can be used with diffusive or diffsorptive surfaces. Photos of installations using these acoustic tools and a description of the design of the National Museum of the American Indian will also be presented to illustrate the usefulness of these devices and their impact on architectural acoustics.

A new seamless, smooth, interior, absorptive finishing system.
Peter D’Antonio (RPG Diffusor Systems, Inc., 651-C Commerce Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772, pdantonio@rpginc.com)

Architects and acousticians have sought a field-applied, absorptive finishing system that resembles a smooth plaster or painted drywall surface, since the dawn of architectural acoustics. Some success has been achieved using sprayed cellulose or cementitious materials, but surface smoothness has been a challenge. A new approach utilizing a thin microporous layer of mineral particles applied over a mineral wool panel will be described. This material can be applied to almost any shape surface, internally pigmented to match almost any color and renovated. It is currently finding application in many architectural applications, including museums. A recent installation in the New Pinakothek Museum in Munich will be illustrated.

RPG seminars accredited by AIA Continuing Education System
RPG now offers four AIA/CES accredited seminars on various aspects of architectural acoustics.

The Next Generation of Acoustic Finishes, Shapes and Services
   ( AIA/CES AF1011 1 LuHour )
Participants learn how recent innovation and technology has resulted in a much broader variety of architectural finishes, shapes and services that solve age-old acoustic problems in the built environment.

Acoustical Diffusor Design/Computerized Shape Optimization
   ( AIA/CES DD1011 1 LuHour )
Participants learn the basic theory and history of sound diffusion as well as why sound diffusion is so essential in critical listening environments. A variety of methods, materials and products for diffusing sound will be presented.

Minimizing Acoustical Distortion in Critical Listening Spaces
   ( AIA/CES AD1011 1 LuHour )
Participants learn how sound reproduced in a critical listening room can be affected, positively or negatively, by a room's architectural surfaces prior to it arriving at the ears of a listener. A variety of methods, materials and products for minimizing the negative distortion of the reproduced sound are presented.


Desktop Acoustic Auralization of Architectural Spaces
   ( AIA/CES CA1011 1 LuHour )
Participants learn how recent innovation and technology in computer modeling has resulted in a reliable method for predicting the quality of a room's acoustics prior to its construction. Basic theory and examples of its application in practice are presented.

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Recent Completed Projects
Included is a partial list of architectural, home theater and project studio completed projects.