Grimani Systems CEDIA 2018 Show Report

This is a story that happens time and time again in hundreds of rooms all around the world. It is a tale of terrific audio gear, talented people, good intentions and… terrible sound. In this particular case, Anthony Grimani of MSR Acoustics played the role of the “room doctor,” while a famous music studio played the “patient.” In the wings, a well-known composer waited to hear the outcome. Would he be able to use his new studio composition room? Or would he have to continue using headphones? It all began after composer Guillaume Roussel moved into his new studio space in Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions facility in Santa Monica, California. This facility houses many musicians, composers and sound engineers, each with their own space to create music. Roussel had just purchased more than $10,000 worth of new speakers, amplifiers and subwoofers to go along with his existing digital audio recording workstation, flat screens, keyboard and composing rig. But the problem was th...

By Todd Jarvis, Sterling Home Technologies Each year, CEDIA recognizes the best of the best in the residential electronic systems industry. 2012 was a year of innovation, creativity, and technological advancement. This year, PMI was recognized with two Gold Awards for Technical Excellence in the Home Theater category of the 2012 CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles® Awards. One of these awards (Level IV) was a project where we partnered with Sterling Home Technologies in San Antonio, Texas.    The main objective with this project was to deliver the best possible image and acoustics the client had ever experienced with minimal compromise and within a defined budget. During one of the first meetings with the client he said “I’m not looking for popcorn machines or spider man hanging from the ceiling - I want to be able to watch a movie loud enough to make my ears bleed while my wife sleeps in the bedroom on the other side of the wall.” The design of the home was 99% ...

One of our more complex projects has recently been recognized with several prestigious industry awards: the 2011 CEDIA Lifestyle Award for Home Theaters Bronze Level VII, Best Documentation, People’s Home Theater, and more recently the 2012 Electronic House Bronze Award in the Best Home Theater category ($15k+). While on the surface this project has all the beauty and glamour to win these awards, what you don’t see is all the engineering, creativity, problem-solving, and hard work that went into making it a brilliant success. Nestled just outside the western foothills of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County is the quietly posh community of Hidden Hills. Its beautiful and peaceful ambiance make it an example of small town Southern California living at its finest. The project was brought to us by one of SoCal’s premier integrators, DSI Entertainment, and was a remodel from what was originally an ill-conceived home theater with a bar and a large sliding glass window. We ...

I'm here in Dana Point, California, doing phase one audio calibration of a dedicated private cinema in the Emerald Cove neighborhood of this upscale community. This phase is all about initial configuration, testing, and debugging of all the audio components in this 7.1 channel system with eight ceiling-mounted subwoofers.  I'm also finishing up with a basic room tuning equalization and will finesse that after the internal finishing of stretch fabric and drape is completed. This room needed a rather large sliding door along the right wall in order to keep a sense of openness to the space and to reduce anxiety over claustrophobia. A motorized drape with combination of absorptive and diffusing strips will be added in a few weeks. So far so good. Caught a few small mistakes, like L-R channel reversal, polarity of back set of side surround speakers (there are two pairs for soundfield evenness), and the obligatory HDMI configuration and reliability challenges. The integrator...

In Las Vegas, Nevada, PMI partnered with installer AVAI to design a state-of-the-art screening room from the ground up, including layout and orientation of the room, sound isolation, and array of the sound and video systems. A top-of-the-line Steinway Lyngdorf digital sound system was installed which, of course, deserves a very quiet room to showcase its full dynamic performance. Meticulous noise control was imperative to keep the ventilation equipment quiet in this house which is exposed to as high as 110 degree heat in the summer. We worked with interior designers from Colours, Inc. in Las Vegas to create stunning and luxurious interior architecture that would conceal speakers, subwoofers, and acoustical treatments without affecting any of their premier performance. Even the equipment room is luxurious!    Photos by Studio J - used with permission from AVAI Uniquely, the full bar in this room was carefully designed into the acoustical characteristics...

Dateline: Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia Mongolia is currently experiencing economic growth from its abundant natural resources which include coal and copper, the mining of which accounts for nearly 60% of the country’s exports. Economic experts have reported that Mongolia is set to grow faster than any other economy in the coming years. Luxury retail brands like Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Louis Vuitton and Burberry have opened in the city’s capital, Ulaan Baatar - as have the likes of Kempinski and Westin hotels - and luxury car brands like Mercedes are filling the busy streets and highways.Ulaan Bataar’s cityscape is a mixture of new luxury and high-rise buildings surrounded by construction sites, and tons of traffic. The growing cityscape of Ulaan Baatar - the curved building on the right is called The Sail It’s within this booming environment that PMI was contracted to engineer a brand new music and film recording studio. This project started in an empty wing of an old factory b...

A few years ago, PMI partnered with Triad to launch three new home theater audio packages for customers desiring complete turnkey design + product solutions. Each package includes a fully engineered design, a set of loudspeakers appropriate for the room, and an acoustical treatment package that takes control of the speaker-room-listener interface.   This project in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia, started off as a PMI/ Triad Cinema Plus project, working with Design Media Group . The brief was to add a room into the upper area of a high-ceilinged condo penthouse - literally hanging from the roof structure! PMI designed the layout of the room architecture and specified the audio/video system. We supported the construction process and calibrated the system in its final stages. "Sonically, this room is quite spectacular, and the client is very happy," says Peter Chakales with Design Media Group. "We recently played a virgin vinyl copy of Steely Dan's ...