Grimani Systems CEDIA 2018 Show Report

Calibrate it All! Is it worth doing a specialty audio calibration in areas of a residence outside the dedicated theater? Absolutely!  Getting the spectral balance, bass management, and time synchronization of audio systems tuned for each and every environment is a pretty simple and cost effective way to upgrade the sonic experience. You can get good dialog clarity, smooth bass, and a reasonably good spatial rendition with an hour or two spent in every space. You do need to have some digital EQ functionality in the system, and that is getting pretty easy these days. I am not talking about auto-EQ, which I contend still doesn’t work right (unfortunately). I mean some number of bands of EQ for each channel that you can adjust while monitoring an analyzer application running on a laptop. That function is available in a number of multichannel amps (Sonance, Ashly, Powersoft, to name a few), in a number of receivers and decoders, and of course, as stand-along EQ devices placed b...

In Deep Thank you for reading the high level article, now we will go into a detailed explanation of this project. This blog expands on the details from the " Home Theater Has Come Out of the Cave " article. The integration firm responsible for building this masterpiece is  Audio Images  of Tustin California. Our designs and engineering is only as good as the implementation and AudioImages came through on every detail. The Room Shell The physical issues that needed to be dealt with to accomplish these goals dictated a few design solutions: Sound Isolation The room had to be decoupled from the Great Room that is located directly above it. This prevents the sound leakage from disturbing the adults. Decoupling loosely means to build resilient wall and floor-ceiling structures with little to no connections to the house’s framing structures. The purpose is to limit every contact point that could mechanically transfer sound energy and interfere with daily use ...

This client was referred to us by the integrator, who completed this installation about 10 years ago. The room was a dedicated three-row home theater in an upscale neighborhood of Detroit. All the gear was state-of-the-art for its time - from the studio-grade speakers, to the professional HD video projection system. But the surround decoder finally gave up the ghost after several years of faithful service. The client heard that Dolby Atmos® was the latest thing, so he sourced a new processor. He expected it to be an automatic upgrade, but wasn’t aware that he also needed to add speakers for the Top and Wide locations. At any rate, it was time to install, configure, and tune the system for the new processor. I took the job and carved out two days - right before Christmas - for a quick jaunt from my temperate San Francisco Bay Area home to frigid Detroit. (Who doesn't like a little cold for the holidays?) While planning the trip, I found out that the system didn’t include any ...

Working on another great project with Karl Mautner and Integr8 in China , Anthony Grimani flew to Shanghai to do the final calibration on a world-class home theater. The home is marvelously appointed with the finest materials. Located next to an indoor lap pool, the theater is a fusion of classical and Chinese design form, and is dressed with Cine-Living fabrics. The Triad Cinema Plus speaker package is driven by a set of Theta Dreadnought amps, all controlled by AMX. The system includes a 16 channel Ashly digital audio processor to fine-tune the nine speakers and 12 subwoofers. An awesome dual-stacked Runco  D-113d projector lights up the 180” wide 2.39 screen. Wow! World class! While in China, Tony also met with several AV technology, design and architecture press, including Insider and LP - click the links below to see these articles.   http://www.evolife.cn/html/2014/75365.html   http://dh.yesky.com/hometheater/336/35896836.shtml#top

Anthony Grimani was on the road this month, training distributors, integrators and commercial contractors in Denmark, Sweden and the UK on Acoustical Tuning Techniques for home theater, featuring MSR's Dimension4 line of acoustical tuning modules.  More than 100 enthusiastic trainees attended sessions hosted by HTP in Copenhagen, Elektronik in Stockholm, and Anthem AV in East Sussex, England.  According to Tony, "Both groups had lots of great questions and many stayed long after the training to soak up as much knowledge as they could. They were even tweeting what they learned after the session!"

KTVU in Northern California recently implemented a remodel of its newsroom, going from a closed office space to an open environment. While this kind of space is more collaborative, it can also be pretty noisy as the sounds of each department blast through the air and bounce off the walls, floors and ceilings. In this space, loud police scanners, raging phones, and live broadcast monitors created a noise level that negatively impacted working staff's concentration. When enough was enough, Jim Haman, KTVU's director of broadcast operations, contacted MSR's engineering division, PMI, to see what could be done. "We're certainly familiar with acoustic baffling in studios and announce booths, but within a larger room with multiple sources of sounds, it was more complicated to find a single solution," explained Haman. "Scanners, audio from computers and overall room noise was combining to a level that was affecting individuals and their tolerance...

Our client has a large self-storage unit for his collection of classic cars and wanted to add a top-of-the-line 2-channel audiophile environment to the space. The storage space is approximately the size of a small airplane hangar, and is located next to the Monterey Regional airport that services major 737 carriers. As you can imagine, jet noise and audiophile music could have been a combustible combination. PMI Engineering was hired to design a complete sound-proofed room, and MSR supplied specialty sound isolation materials along with a Dimension4 Symphony acoustical tuning system. The end result was music to the client's ears!     For more info on MSR's innovative acoustical solutions, please visit our website .

At the 2014 International CES we participated in the Elite Home Entertainment Experience, lauded as an "over-the-top, killer home theater demo experience" by reporter John Sciacca from Residential System s magazine!   MSR supplied a Dimension4 Symphony 550 acoustical tuning system to control the room's internal acoustics. PMI engineered the room acoustics, optics, room and audio system layout, and screen specifications. In a matter of a day and half, our group created a world-class private screening room inside a basic ballroom of the Venetian congress area.   In partnership with the fine people from Triad Speakers, ADA, BitWise, Digital Projections, Screen Excellence, D-BOX, Fortress, Kaleidescape, PPC, and Torus Power, we set up the speakers, lighting, video, programming, source material, etc. Great picture, great sound, motion seats, easily controlled; a dream come true for any discerning AV client. We ran demos every 15 minutes and peo...

An audiophile family dedicated the living room of their single-family home in San Jose, California to the pursuit of high-quality sound and picture. They had already purchased top-of-the-line electronics and loudspeakers, and after attending a presentation by Anthony Grimani at Century Stereo last fall, decided it was time to upgrade the acoustics of their listening room. Anthony measured the space, ran acoustical tests on the room, and determined the needed corrections and upgrades. MSR supplied an acoustical tuning system mainly composed of Dimension4 Symphony modules and coordinated the installation.    This is one of the first installation of MSR's new Eclypse Drape - it has the look of a rich velour fabric, but is actually acoustically-transparent fabric on top of blackout vinyl with thick strips of flannel absorptive material. This drape provides the correct balance of absorption and diffusion, while avoiding the common effect of ...

PMI and integrator Audio Images won five of the top awards for Home Theater Technical Design excellence at this year’s CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles® Awards, more than any other company in this year’s Home Theater category! Winning the Best Overall Home Theater and a Gold Technical Design award (in the $1M & up category) was an opulent theater that is part of a drop-dead gorgeous entertainment wing of an extravagant estate in Irvine, California. In addition to a state-of-the-art home theater, the entertainment wing includes a pizzeria, nightclub, and vintage arcade. A monumental project like this needed an equally monumental team which included TK Theaters (designer) and SH Acoustics (engineering design). This project was also featured on HGTV’s “Million Dollar Rooms” where Theo Kalomirakis gave a personal tour of this amazing space. Click to read the full story on this project.  Click here to see the HGTV video. Winning a Gold Technical Design award (in the $251-...

With this Newport Beach, California project, the client wanted a dedicated home theater that could open up into the rest of the house for a variety of entertaining options. They wanted a rustic look to match the rest of the entertainment area of their waterfront property, evoking a comfortable feeling with a soft, light décor. In the lifestyle uses of the room, sometimes it would be open for entertaining and sometimes it would be closed down for private screenings. A large opening with sliding door was a huge challenge for the sound isolation and the acoustical reflections in this room. A door system was designed with acoustic absorbers built into the panels and seals all around the frames. The room had limited height so the sight lines had to be very carefully studied. A layer of resiliently suspended sheet rock was added to the concrete structure in order to reduce standing wave resonances. Structural posts in the right concrete wall were enclosed in resilient wall structures and c...