Register |
Europe's leading residential technology trade magazine | Register |
|
|
 |
|||
|
Case studies Grand Designs Throughout: State-of-the-Art Home Cinema and Multiroom Sound System (2/3/2004) by Patricia Ljungberg The owners John Flood and Eleni Skordaki. John is Professor of Law and Sociology and Eleni is a banking lawyer. The Property A Victorian terraced house in East London, comprising sitting room with an open-plan kitchen/dining area, upstairs living room, office, en-suite bedroom. Introduction In London's East End hides an ultra modern Victorian terraced house with a state-of-the-art home cinema and multiroom sound system. The owners John Flood and Eleni Skordaki have achieved their goal, which was to transform their Victorian terraced house into a modern nest. With their love for music and movies they wanted to equip the house throughout with a state-of-the-art sound system. When you enter the house you are welcomed by music which instantly fills you with a sense of warmth and hospitality. A huge open-plan space encompasses a living area a kitchen and dining space, while sliding glass doors make up the entire back wall to reveal a magnificent Bali styled garden. A staircase near the front door leads you past John's study and into the main bedroom, which is monastically simple and quite serene. The bathroom is divided from the bedroom by an aquarium, which leaves a truly calming and stunning impression. The entire house is equipped with speakers and every single corner of the house is filled with music. When John and Eleni had to choose their equipment they were very concerned whether they could find high-end speakers that didn't compromise the look of their interior. They contacted Bob Hobson from Prestige Audio who has had many years of experience working with clients who demand high quality in both the sound and aesthetics. Having found an installer they felt confident in, and comfortable with, they were presented with the perfect solution in Artcoustic loudspeakers. The choice was made because of the extremely high-end sound performance, clarity and dynamic not seen from any other speaker of that size and not least for the aesthetic design. The Artcoustic speakers have been strategically installed through out the home, and appear as artworks until your ear passes them and you notice that the piece on the wall you thought was a painting is actually a speaker. Each speaker has a unique artwork, chosen by John and Eleni, from Artcoustic's vast collection of digital prints. John and Eleni also had a set of personalised speaker screens made. They gave Artcoustic a couple of their own photographs and these were then printed and made into fronts. The speaker screens/artworks are easily changed and new ones can be added to their collection, allowing John and Eleni to transform the appearance of their speakers whenever they wish. Living room/cinema The living / cinema room has a Clear Pix drop down screen from Screen Research, a pair of Artcoustic DF65-50 for left and right channels, a pair of Artcoustic Diablo Minis as rear surround speakers and a Diablo Subwoofer. This multi-function set-up enables Eleni and John to have a full-blown home cinema in their living area, and when entertaining guests, play music and hide all signs of a highly advanced cinema set-up.
The Ambience lighting comes from Artemide light and can be programmed for 100 different colour modes.
The Diablo Minis are used as rear speakers, shown here without front covers. The Diablo subwoofer delivers low and even frequency throughout the entire house. Which is remarkable considering its size.
Housed in the specially built storage wall are: Sony Video Projector VPL-HS2, AVT-3700 imageMAX Video Scaler, Toshiba Video Cassette Recorder V-855B, Nakamichi DVD-10s, Sony Compact Disc Player (5 disc changer) CDP-CE375.
The Artcoustic DF65-50 loudspeaker features well on the wall above the African sculpture from Guruve. The artworks on the speaker fronts are from Artcoustic's own art portfolio. The artist Claire O'Hea has created an exclusive range of artworks for Artcoustic.
Kitchen and dining area As you enter the front door, you step down into the incredibly stylish yet welcoming living space. Further on to your right is a shower room made from glass blocks and beyond is the kitchen that allows daylight to flood in from an impressive and beautifully built glass roof. The kitchen is very functional, with an extremely stylish glass top central cooking island. Glass fronted cupboards lit from within and pale grey terrazzo floor tiles gives a feeling of space and air.
The painting of Eleni and John's two dogs fit perfectly with the more minimal choice of screens for the Artcoustic Diablo monitor speakers.
The kitchen is another favourite hang out for John and Eleni and it was important that they had excellent sound quality in the kitchen dining area too. The kitchen is from Mobalpa, and appliances from Miele. Bedroom, bathroom and chill out room The bedroom features a pair of Diablo monitors, with a set of prints from a special selection of photographs from the Getty Images Gallery. When music fills the bedroom a special light is activated which changes colour with the music. The Bedroom has an ensuite bathroom divided by a beautiful aquarium.
In the chill out room special blue glass has been put into the wall to give a Mediterranean feel and ambient sounds flow from the Artcoustic loudspeakers. The screens chosen for this room are by Clair O'Hea from the Artcoustic art-portfolio.
The Artcoustic speakers in the bedroom, bathroom and chill out room are powered by two Denon UDM30 integrated CD, radio and amplifier units. The Denon units are connected to the main system in the living room / cinema.
Equipment list Living room: Kitchen: Bedroom: Bathroom: Chill out room: Patricia Ljungberg is the Marketing Director at Artcoustic. Artcoustic Screen Research Prestige Audio
|
|
|
home
| use our newsfeeds | subscribe
to newsletter | submit
a link |
advertise
| link
to us  Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of all articles, advertisements and other insertions in this website, the publisher accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions or incorrect insertions. The views of the contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher or the advertisers.
|
Home
