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The once-bright room darkens. As the motorized drapes close, the 270-degree ocean view soon moves to the back of your mind. Projector and screen fully descend. “CRT projectors still look pretty darn good,” I thought as the homeowner flipped though some of the HD channels, giving me a taste of the projector’s abilities. The black-out drapes create complete darkness for the projector to excel, even in the middle of a sunny afternoon. The ability to get this room so dark is a testament to the work done by Sound Solutions. Just because you have drapes on a window doesn’t mean that they are going to block out external light effectively. If you have a system that has light issues and you need to get the room very dark, you’ll need a very heavy backing material on the drapes and some kind of soffet system above them. Otherwise, the light can just spill up and over the top of the curtains. Another thing that helps block light is to make sure that the drapes thoroughly overlap, so that no light spills out between them. 
After an impressive demo of this 7.1 home theater on the 110-inch Stewart Motorized Microperf masking screen, I was surprised to learn that the room contains a complete second AV system hidden on the opposite side of the screen. Above the cozy aforementioned fireplace, two wooden panels that feature wall sconces and artwork easily slide apart to expose a 42-inch NEC HD plasma. The speakers that were acting as rear channels for the projector system now become front speakers for the plasma system and vice versa. The side channels remain the same. M&K Speakers are utilized throughout this room and a Sound Solutions custom relay system has been employed so that the same speakers can be used in two completely different surround sound systems. Clever, to say the least.The plasma was installed for those times when the homeowners want to keep their spectacular ocean view and watch some TV at the same time. The plasma doesn’t have the same darkness requirements as the projector and, since it is on the west wall of the room, you can see the ocean on the horizon just to the right of the plasma and the fireplace when the drapes are open. The round couch arrangement makes watching either screen just as easy. A central oval coffee table is a convenient resting place for a drink or some popcorn. This isn’t your traditional seating with dedicated theater chairs, but it’s just as comfortable, if not more, than most theaters you’ll find. 
The gear for both systems is housed in the lower half of a huge floor to ceiling wall unit in which the speakers are also hidden behind discreet material covered doors. The power for the audio system comes from Rotel amplifiers and a Lexicon DC-1THX handles the surround sound processing duties. Inside this unassuming cabinetry beats the heart of a lion: two M&K dual 12-inch, 350-watt MX350II THX subwoofers. These secret weapons take a room which on the surface looks polished, classy and tasteful and turn it into a veritable rock ‘n’ roll studio. We’re told the owner loves to communicate with whales just offshore.Since the projector is of the CRT variety, a Faroudja VP-400 video processor (aka: a quadrupler) is used to help smooth out the picture and cure motion artifact. A multitude of Sony and Marantz equipment rounds out the main system equipment rack. The racks themselves are specifically designed by Middle Atlantic so that they are able to be pulled out easily for cleaning and maintenance and upgrading of gear in the future. On the side wall, a series of cabinet doors opens to expose a mini bar and, believe it or not, a fully operational dishwasher. No need to lug the plates and cups down to the kitchen as you can fire up the dishwasher after a two-hour popcorn munch-athon. The dishwasher is hidden behind a large sheet of solid wood paneling and is already an ultra-quiet unit to start with, so there is hardly a whisper in the room when it is operating. 
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