Tag Archives: Epson 8350

The “Stadium” is a Sports Afficianado’s Dream Come True

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The “Stadium” Theater is a Sports Fanatic’s Dream Come True

Theater Xtreme’s Picture-Outside-Picture (x’s 4) Brings Home the Win

This is part 3 of a 6 part series on the various packages offered by Draper, Utah’s Theater Xtreme, where single room “price-point” value solutions are the name of the game.

For part 2, The Residence, click here.
Or to return to the start of this series, you can click here for an introduction to Theater Xtreme and a solution for condo and apartment owners, called “The Vignette”.

by Richard Ravarino

The average price of NFL season tickets: $3,250.00. The average price for MLB season tickets $2,998.00.  The average price for NBA season tickets: $2,497.00. For everything else, there is Theater Xtreme’s Stadium package: Priceless!

While the center screen is projected onto a Screen Innovations Screen from an Epson 8350 projector, the flanking screens are Samsung 24″ flat panel LCD TV’s. Audio system from by Denon with Triad mini speakers (in wall surrounds) and subwoofer.

Truly, for less than the price of one “live” season of the above three pro leagues, you could put yourself courtside… Or on the 50 yard line… Or in the VIP diamond suite,  for $7,999.00. The Stadium is a sports lover’s dream come true. Not only because you can watch all your favorite teams on an 86” Dragonfly screen in ringside quality 1080p with full 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, but because you can also monitor up to four other different sporting events at the same time on an array of Samsung 24” HD Monitors, flanking the 86” screen on both sides with two additional monitors each.

At first glance, you feel like you just walked into a television studio and first inclination is to look for the producer’s desk. Once you realize, this is just pure fun and games (heavy on the games) you realize you are caught somewhere between the Skybox Bar & Grill and a Vegas sportsbook.

Pinch yourself, you are awake. . . All screens show a brilliant 1080p in sharp focus and you can easily load your NBA Season Pass across a couple of them, Tiger Woods latest round on another,  while still monitoring the NBA  on yet another and of course, the Ultimate Fighting Championship on the main screen. This system is a sports fans fantasy land.

Live game not your thing tonight? No problem. . . Fire up the Sony PS3 and let’s play some John Madden! With bone crushing hits, whistles and full play calls for each down (all in Dolby Digital), you can forget its July outside and that you are escaping the heat with the AC cranked down to 68 degrees. Sure feels like November to me! Play on Dude!

This room is brought to life by Triad’s Satellite L-C-R’s, complete with mounting brackets. Along with the Triad Mini-Omni Subwoofer and mini in wall surrounds, this system cranks it out 95 Watts per channel through Denon’s AVR-2113, making those little Triad satellites come to life.

On a side note, Denon, being the forward thinking company that they are, just added Apple’s “Airplay” to almost their entire line of AVR receivers this year. “Airplay” for the uninitiated, allows you to stream music from anywhere in your house on virtually any Apple device (iPod touch, iPhone, iPad or Mac). So there is no more shuffling through your shelves for the perfect CD, just open iTunes (or your iPod), and select that “Rage Against The Machine” playlist and you are ready to go! Unfortunately Android fans, this is just a plus for the Apple customers. You have been denied, (so far)!

Finally, let’s talk about our video system shall we?  The heart of the system is the Epson 8350 at a very easy to swallow price of $1,299.99 (ala carte) and although still just Theater Xtreme’s entry level it is still bright enough to fully enjoy in low-medium light.

Upgrades
One other item (or four rather) to address, is the video feeds to the additional screens. Although, this is shown as part of the package, it is something that should be addressed on some level with your cable/satellite provider, as each of these monitors is powered by an additional DirectTV HD receiver (usually just a $5.99 monthly lease fee, but check with your provider  for exact pricing).

The back half of the room shows a minimalist design and reveals this room as truly “a man cave”, but couches, sectionals or even bean bags would work equally as well

While I’m mentioning the DirecTV receivers, let me mention one more  BIG improvement that could be added, but it’s not cheap. In fact, it’s another $2,500, but you’d have bragging rights among all your sports buddies. Rather than just having each screen statically placed as monitor 1, 2, 3, 4 and the projector, you could install a 5 x 1 HDMI matrix switcher and upgrade the URC RF remote control system to Control 4 system.

With this new $2,500.00 upgrade, you could control your system from your iPad and just gesture which image you wanted viewed on your center screen.  So for instance, say you suddenly see the action on the top left monitor is crazy cool (over the main screen), open your  iPad and simply click that monitor on the screen and push it to the center monitor and “Viola!”,  the sound will switch along with the video and your super cool program is now large and in charge. Simply from a tap and a gesture you can switch among your five viewed programs without ever changing the channel. Later, if you get confused as to what’s where? Simply touch the HOME key and everything reverts to its original location.

Also, if you were going to place this system in a multi-media room, rather than a dedicated theater it may pay to upgrade the screen to a high gain black diamond screen, but while the price of this screen would add an additional $2,000.00 to the system, my recommendation would actually be go for the more hearty Epson 6010 for $200 more again and now you have a projector that is twice as bright, with six times the contrast ratio and 3-D for no extra charge!

Once again, as stated earlier in this series: These packages are by no means definitive. That is half the fun of going to a custom theater retailer – but if you have a basic concept in mind, you can easily build it out from there to suit your own needs.

These systems are all put together with convenience in mind and a price point for each budget. “In the case of the Stadium, we wanted our customers to be able to enjoy the big game without the $5.00 hot dog and $7.00 stadium beer. This room was meant to entertain, right down to our sports ticker”, states Theater Xtreme owner Marshall McKinnon.

And yes, above the screen there is an actual sports ticker, “Clapper” controlled in fact! Sing along with me “Clap on! Clap Off! Clap on, clap off. . . “

Theater Xtreme is located in Draper, Utah at 241. E, 12300 So. You can find them on the web at www.Theaterdesigncenter.com


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Theater Xtreme’s “Residence” Packs Punch For Penny Pinching Consumers

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Theater Xtreme’s “Residence” Packs Punch For Penny Pinching Consumers

By Richard Ravarino
Today, we continue our series on Draper, Utah’s Theater Xtreme. In yesterday’s article we examined Theater Xtreme’s Unique approach to selling home theater solutions by the room package, instead of by the box. Today we’ll be looking at their first full range audio/video home theater:

Actual unaltered picture from the ($1,299) Epson 8350 (but layered in through Photoshop, so you can see the room in the light)

The Residence
My first experience in full custom home theater was in the early 1990’s and although I don’t remember the name of the place, I remember the price tag. For a heavily pixilated laser disc image and full Dolby Pro-Logic sound, the contents of the room totaled in excess of $15,000.00 and even then, that was by no means the best, but it was the “best for a price”.

Well, today’s “best for a price” will get you Theater Xtreme’s “Residence” package ($7,999.00) and if I can say that the sound quality and video quality are overwhelming for the dollar for dollar awesomeness, the Residence’s bling and modular eye candy are equally underwhelming. The room completely lacks a single blue, green or amber L.E.D. Nor does it any corner of the room display the black polished metal of a single theater component. Nor is there a single towering monolith (speaker) visible to the eye. .. And that is the point.

This theater room, could be your mother’s theater room. The speakers are hidden out of sight and out of mind, right until the moment they are turned on and then you know right where they are. The Theater Xtreme Residence could just as easily be called the “tea room” when it is powered down and unless you look up, you would never notice the Epson 8350 projector hanging in-auspiciously above head.

This is home theater at its most simple and elegant. There is a modular couch for kicking back to read the latest from Stephen King or Tom Clancy, but with a simple touch to the only hint of technology in the entire room (the URC custom programmed, radio frequency remote control), you could just as easily be watching King’s The Stand or Clancy’s Patriot Games in full 5.1 Dolby Digital.

The “Residence” is an imagining of a living room, transformed into a theater. It’s a minimalist approach with components in the closet, or nearby.

The room is powered by a Denon AVR2313 receiver and if you aren’t familiar with this particular receiver, or even the Denon line itself: You should familiarize yourself with them. They are producing some of the finest component receivers in the industry today. Granted, nothing is going to compare with your discreet powered McIntosh or even Parasound power amps, but for a one piece solution, spec for spec, these receivers hold up against some of the best names in the industry.

And when powering “The Residence’s” Klipsch in-wall Select 2 mains and 5650 Surrounds (along with the Klipsch SW-308 subwoofer) the sound is as impressive as anything I have heard at twice the price.

Now rounding out the system are some unseen (or maybe just unconsidered) champions. The Samsung BDE-5300 Blu-Ray DVD player (one of Consumer Reports top rated BluRay players) and the Screen Innovations 100” Screen Sensations fixed mount screen.
The SI Screen is a 1.1 gain screen that holds up well in moderate light, when paired with the Epson 8350 (which produces 2000) lumens. Also black levels are fairly maintained due to the better than average gain (and the Epson’s 40,000:1 contrast ratio).

About the only negative’s to this room’s overall vision are the fact that screen itself is a fixed mount wall screen and that the subwoofer is actually in room, but these two criticisms aside, it is not as if they couldn’t be easily added, but this would add upwards of an additional $2,500 according to McKinnon and they were options he agonized over, in trying to present the best bang for the buck.

“I felt it was important to have at least a couple of my rooms come in at a family friendly four figure price point. It takes no imagination to dream up systems in excess of $10,000.00. Truly, that is the sweet spot in today’s home theater world, that manufacturer’s would love to see sold every day of the week and twice on Sunday. But the truth is most potential customers are frozen out at that level.”

That said, for less than $11,000.00 this system could include a tab tensioned Screen Innovations motorized screen to get the “theater” out of the way (when in “tea room” modality) and also the Klipsch In-Wall Subwoofer could replace the in-room sub and at either price point this theater/living room shows how much can be done, on a “shoe string budget” today, in the realm of custom home theater.

Tomorrow we will examine the Sport’s addicts ultimate theater system, The Stadium.

Theater Xtreme is located in Draper, Utah at 241. E, 12300 So. You can find them on the web at www.Theaterdesigncenter.com