My Cinemascope home cinema was built as an extension to the rear of an 1865 Victorian Villa in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand. I named it the “State” in remembrance to the art deco State theatre which once proudly stood at the entrance to the Village of Devonport . My cinema was built at the rear of the house and connected to the house by a breezeway. The construction is timber frame with exterior weather boards. Double sound GIB Board walls and ceiling are held away from the timber frame with resilient channel. Green Glue was used between the two layers of GIB on the walls and ceiling and everything is insulated with sound batts. Concrete floor construction overlaid with a floating timber floor. The raised stepped seating also floats over the timber floor and none of the timbers are anyway attached to the concrete slab.

The breezeway leads into a small foyer with French doors out to the garden. The foyer houses all the equipment behind cupboards and the projector is installed in one large one above the equipment.

The projector noise is isolated from the cinema from this vented cupboard and projects through a port glass.

Screen wall with cutouts for the three front Klipsch THX speakers, above two ceiling mounted HIGH speakers when using DSX Audyssey. Front side walls show cavity with removable panels where main curtain recesses behind.

Schneider Anamorphic M lens mounted on a Cineslide infront of the Mitsubishi HC9000 which has resently been replaced by the e-shift JVC RS65.

The entrance to the cinema foyer is via the breezeway which is connected to the dining area of the main house. Down three stairs to the foyer which houses all the projection, automation and sound equipment behind closed doors. The foyer has three sets of doors which lead to the garden. The STATE sign is engraved on Perspex and lit with RBG LED strip lighting that slowly changes colour.

All the equipment is housed behind a wall of cupboards in the cinema foyer adjacent to the back wall of the auditorium. The projector and lighting DMX are housed in a large vented cupboard above the AV rack. Two sets of separate stairs lead into the auditorium on either side of the cabinetry.

The style of my cinema is modern, this I modeled from the 1958 Odeon Cinema Auckland City where I was once a projectionist. The size of the room (6M long x 4M wide) lends itself to a minimal “modern design” without too much decoration, it’s timeless and helps create a space which looks much larger than what it really is. The colours I used are dark burgundy walls and midnight blue/black ceilings. Carpets are dark chocolate brown and the wall panels are avocado green. There are four wall panels on each side wall and these are made of MDF with warm white LED tucked in behind each panel. The main curtain is crushed Velvet almond colour, which is lit by RGB LED top and bottom. As the curtain opens it disappears at right angles into the side walls, complicated yes but it does work, plus it allows for a larger ScopE screen. The curtain lighting can be set to automatically change a multitude of colours, slowly dissolving from one to the other over a period of 1.5 mins. With this setup I can do all sorts of “old fashioned” real cinema like presentations, overture, and entr’actes, colour changes and re-create the drama before the main feature. The masking is set with three auto stops, 4:3, 16:9 and 2:37 ScopE and when that is activated the anamorphic lens, sledge and stretch all happen simultaneously. Everything is operated from the ipad at the comfort of my own seat in the back row. This seamless presentation makes the magic of cinema really come alive!

All speakers (Klipsch THX ) are concealed in the ceiling and walls as I didn’t want boxes showing to detract from the clean lines. Two Velodyne subs and two Clarke Synthesis (under two rows of seats) make up the 9.4 sound. There are three rows of stepped seating each containing four seats making a total of twelve high back tip-up seats. The screen is 140” AT scope screen with the three fronts in behind. Above the screen on the ceiling are two high speakers which really add a big sound stage, all this is powered by the Integra DCH 80.2 & DTA 70.1.

The cinema took almost twelve months to build and most certainly was a real labor of love. There were very little changes from the original designs which were planned six months before the build started.

The fitout:

145” acoustic 2.37 scope screen.
Automated side masking Goelst 6200 - 4:3, 16:9 & Scope
Goelst 6200 Electric Curtain track

Oppo BDP-95 x 2
Lumagen Raidiance XS
JVC RS65
Schneider Anamorphic “M” lens
CineSlide

Integra DTA-70.1
Integra DHC-80.2

Backstage speakers 3x ea KLC-KL7800 THX
Surround speakers 4x ea KLC-KS7502 THX
Presence speakers2x pr KLC-CDT5650C
Clarke Synthesis 2x TST429 Platinum Transducer + Monoblock 5.3 Amp
2x Velodyne Subwoofers V-SCIFIC SUB
1x Velodyne V-SC1250E AMP – 1250 watt

Murray Thompson
Director Rapallo
www.rapalloav.co.nz

Gallery rating:

(5.0) (28 ratings) Show ratings

Gallery rating:

(5.0) (28 ratings) Hide ratings

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Comments (25)

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Comments (25)

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pacman9270  » Dec 31, 2012 12:51 AM

Great job on the build!

RapalloAV  » Nov 07, 2012 02:54 PM

No I dont charge but I wish I could after all the money the cinema cost me

wes  » Nov 07, 2012 12:36 AM

Whoa it looks like a commercial theater, do you charge for movies Superb job I love it

rpatt  » Oct 16, 2012 02:11 AM

Well done. You have great taste.

s_inman  » Sep 18, 2012 07:01 PM

Looks brilliant! Well done.

Blu-Velvet  » Sep 18, 2012 06:02 PM

Beautiful home theatre! Looks better than most of today's commercial cinemas! (And probably sounds better, too!)

Blu Titan  » Aug 22, 2012 01:10 PM

Looks awesome!

J.Seb  » Aug 22, 2012 10:38 AM

I am lost for words sir, you certainly know what you were doing here. I also took a look at your website and there seem to be many interesting articles, just bookmarked it and will go through them in the future. All the best!

Badas  » Aug 21, 2012 10:52 PM

Welcome to the club Murray. Glad to see you here. You have done a lot for Kiwi HT over the years. Ta Dono

ontiger  » May 01, 2012 10:18 AM

Very sleek. I wish I had the ability to make my home theater half as clean looking. I almost wouldn't want to take movie snacks in... almost.

racer59  » Mar 21, 2012 12:45 AM

I have see many HT photos on numerous forums. This BY FAR is the best I have seen. I'm not a fan of the art deco theaters or themes. This, for me is close to perfection! Enjoy your great theatre.

Madmacfun  » Mar 20, 2012 04:42 PM

Nyce work m8te, clean & timeless!

RapalloAV  » Mar 20, 2012 01:06 AM

Yes Tony (703) from BullsEye Calibration NZ spent some time with my JVC RS65 on the weekend and calibrated to rec.709 reference standard, the results are very pleasing indeed. Most projectors are always out, if one uses a professional calibrater it is well worth the effort, the image will improve and look much more natural.

wkang  » Mar 19, 2012 06:43 PM

Awesome setup. A lot of love was spent on bringing your vision to life. Well done!

lswope00  » Mar 19, 2012 10:50 AM

Very nice I'm a big integra guy myself.

703  » Mar 19, 2012 03:03 AM

I had the pleasure of doing some critical picture evaluation with Murray the other weekend with the new JVC RS65 projector setup and the experience is simply first class!

sonic_debauchery  » Mar 18, 2012 11:38 PM

Very Nice! Excellent throughout!

RapalloAV  » Mar 18, 2012 10:47 PM

The monitor is used for viewing exactly what is screening in the auditorium, just like a port glass in a projection room.

Televue  » Mar 18, 2012 10:27 PM

Very nice home theater!!!

namtab69  » Mar 18, 2012 10:18 PM

amazing setup! what is the monitor used for? htpc? 10 from me

Heavytoka  » Mar 18, 2012 09:55 PM

Highly Impressive

kevon27  » Mar 18, 2012 09:13 PM

This is "Home Theatering" at its finest.. Bravo

rkolinski  » Mar 18, 2012 09:09 PM

All I can say is "WOW" and you easily earn a 10 for a really beautiful home theater!

B.Hulk  » Mar 18, 2012 08:50 PM

Awesome!!!! 10+++

ilikemytoys  » Mar 18, 2012 07:45 PM

Extraordinary job! You've captured the HT experience wonderfully. Brilliant and thanks for sharing.

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