Introduction
This is the personal home theatre of Stephen Singh, one of the co-founders of Home Theatre by Design. In early 2000, after years of research and study dating back to the early nineties, Stephen took the challenge not only to design his dream home theatre, but to design his entire house!

This gave Stephen the opportunity to create a room to his specific dimensions and locate the theatre as far away from the bedrooms as possible.

Room
Measuring 5.5m wide, 7.5m long and with a 2.8m high ceiling after the room was sunk four courses. After promising his wife that the theatre was the last room to be completed after painting the rest of the house and landscaping the front and rear gardens, it gave Stephen more time to research his design and carpentry requirements. Having obtained a large number of authentic theatre chairs dating back to the 1950's he knew almost immediately his theatre had to be based on a traditional theme.

More importantly, he knew that even with plush screen curtains, tiered theatre seating and high end audio video equipment, it would be nothing without treating the room acoustically. This meant making use of sound absorbers and diffusers to minimise room reflection. However Stephen felt he could not get any support from Perth's major audio video stores on where to source acoustic treatment. It was stated he use heavy curtains or carpet to cover the walls!

After scouring though the telephone book and internet for weeks Stephen managed to track down a local supplier of commercial acoustic sound treatment. The entire front wall of the theatre is covered with sound absorbing bats. The side and back walls are a combination of absorption (sound bats) and diffusion (rear speaker columns and angled wainscotting). The wainscot is angled so that all reflected sound is directed to the floor.

Every seat on every tier is calculated to maximise the room response. This involved dividing the room into odd fractions and recognising the peaks and nulls of all given sound frequencies. Once this has been established, all equipment and seats, including screen and speakers are placed according to the room's frequency response and sight lines from all seats. Using the fraction system once the room was divided into segments, the optimal placement of the component rack was determined. The components are housed in their own recess to the rear right hand side without taking space from the room. The 40mm thick solid core door with commercial sound seals mirrors the placement of the component rack.

The room took six months from start to finish, with all work except electrical wiring being completed by Stephen himself.

Calibration
To calibrate the room Stephen used an SPL sound meter from Radio Shack and an Audio Calibration Disk. This allows the user to accurately balance the sound output from each speaker. As Stephens' theatre has fourteen seats and three tiers, this had to be done several times from different seating positions. To achieve professional sound quality and allow all guests to enjoy the same experience, this must be done correctly.

Accurate video calibration was achieved by using a DVD specifically made for this purpose. Professional test patterns are run through the projector, where adjustments can be made to correct any irregularities. Moving and still images are displayed, so adjustments can be made for the slightest detail. Verdict
Stephen and his wife entertain friends and family quite often. This is one residence where guests always arrive on time or early, as no-one wants to miss the start of the feature presentation. There is no better way to get friends or family together, then to enjoy what is visually and audibly near perfection.

On many occasions guests have commented on how they much prefer to watch movies at the "Paramount Theatre" than a large multiplex. Stephen's theatre also doubles as a demonstration theatre for potential clientele and a training room for himself and his business partner.

Equipment
At Home Theatre by Design, we do not stock electrical components in a warehouse or store room, so we are always able to source the very latest components. This is very important in any industry where products are updated and new lines released.

Lighting
• This room has a multitude of lights. There are lights placed to shine onto the curtains when closed and placed after each tier of seats. From each tier there are also lights recessed into the floor, providing just enough light to manoeuvre around the room. Also there are lights which showcase the many DVD movies in Stephens' library.
• All of the light banks are controlled by a Lutron wall pad. This allows multiple scenes to be programmed and selected with the touch of a button.
Audio Video Components
• At Home Theatre by Design our business is to design and craft custom home theatre's. We do not sell or stock audio video components. However we are able to source the very latest audio and video components.
• When choosing an amplifier or receiver, the size of the room, type of speakers and necessary multi-channel decoding need to be established. At Home Theatre by Design we try to work with only a few specific product lines. We know which products work well with each other and how to achieve the most from them separately and as a complete system.
Audio
• x1 Yamaha DSP-AX-1 amplifier.
• x1 Optimus 2 channel power amplifier (250 watt) for transducers.
• x3 M&K 150 THX SS monitors.
• x2 pairs of M&K 55 tripole surround speakers.
• x4 M&K V-75 II subwoofers.
• x1 Sunfire 2700 watt True subwoofer.
• x1 Sunfire Signature subwoofer.
Video
• x1 Davis DPX-16 DLP projector.
• x1 110" custom matt white screen.
• x1 Rank Arena monitor.
• x1 Sony DVD player DVPS-7700.
• x1 Pioneer LD/DVD combo player DVL-909.
• x1 JVC S-VHS player HR-S5700AM.
• x1 Phillips CD-Player CD618.
Miscellaneous
• x4 custom made transducers.
• x1 Lutron 4 bank lighting control.
• Monitor speaker cable and interconnectables.