Case studies

ARTCINEMA Concept Showroom in Krakow, Poland (5/5/2010)

By 3logic

As a leading supplier in the commercial and residential custom install market in Poland, we had outgrown our premises and needed a larger space in which to demonstrate new products and provide training. This was going to be no ordinary showroom however. This was going to be a centre of modern AV technology, unique in this part of Europe.

The brief

The location of our building is on a main highway in the southern outskirts of Krakow. The brief was to create a new building out of the old one, while keeping the old part almost fully operational. The building was not only to provide space for product launches and demonstrations, but to serve as a meeting place, and educational and visitor centre for the dealers, customers, architects and designers.

The old building.

The project started in June 2009 with the aim of having it completed before the end of the year. The issue was to complete it as quickly as possible because we needed to maintain our operations and project flow.

The solution

Having discussed our requirements with several leading architects and interior designer, the result was the ARTCINEMA concept building, or 'The Cube' as it has been nicknamed.

The ARTCINEMA concept building - a beacon of lifestyle technology in Eastern Europe.

The building comprises nearly 1000 square metres of lifestyle AV systems, integrated lighting control and security systems, office and training space, and two dedicated home cinemas with the latest CI technology. For commercial applications, we have conference room setups. We also have HD distribution throughout the building, and touchscreen control of all systems.

The front of the building comprises a glass wall, so as you approach the building you can see our showroom on the ground floor, and a gallery on the first floor. The showroom includes Image Audio speakers, a full line of LOEWE TVs products from Parasound and Sherbourn, and a selection of multimedia equipment. A short flight of stairs at the back leads to the mezzanine floor, where there is a selection of top consumer electronic devices from Harman Kardon and JBL.

The showroom on the ground floor.

On the first floor there is an open-plan home theatre area showing the Future Automation SPS-800 sliding panel mechanism for flatscreen TVs, and the Future Automation Picture Split mechanism that reveals the screen behind an amazing photo of downtown Krakow. Behind this there is a home cinema with a Runco LED projector, a Screen Research curved fixed screen, and Polk Audio THX installation speakers powered by the Sherbourn home cinema set. All control of lighting, AV and motorised products has been integrated into a touchscreen remote and Lutron light controls, and connected using Liberty Wire & Cable products.

The Future Automation SPS-800 sliding panel mechanism for flatscreen TVs.

The Future Automation Picture Split mechanism.

The second floor is dedicated to commercial applications, with a conference room including the latest presentation technology, displays and audio-video conferencing. This also doubles up as a training centre the dealers and installers.

In the second part of the building are modern offices, boardrooms, and control rooms. The offices also take advantage of the AV distribution system to show the scalability and flexibility of the systems.

The offices take advantage of the AV distribution system.

In the centre of the building is an acoustically-treated home cinema room that features the JBL Synthesis Home Cinema 7.2 audio system with more than 2kW of amp power, complementing a Runco Cinemascope system. The room also provides a Full HD experience from sources including TV, Blu-ray and Imerge AV servers. The seating was custom-built according to our design. The two front seats are motorised, with the remote control built-in, and the look and finish were chosen to match our interior aesthetics and style.

The acoustically-treated home cinema room.

The Lutron lighting control system is hidden in a wall that is covered with grass (yes, grass!) to emphasise the green aspects of the technology. This also includes different configurations of shade control using Lutron Sivoia silent shades. Lighting is also used to great effect in the showrooms areas, and is also used for self-promotion during the hours of darkness through a projection on the side of the building.

The side of the front wall is used as a giant projection screen at night, to promote the building.

An important aspect of the business was not only to show what types of product are available, but to make them readily available, so the basement of the building serves as a warehouse that can accommodate large quantities of products.

Wiring

The wiring of the building was a challenge because we had to connect the newly-wired part of the building with the existing infrastructure of the old part. Fortunately, the old part was already wired as future-proof, so we had to just link the connection points over. We used the best available products from Liberty Wire & Cable, including crimping tools and connectors which saved us an immense amount of time.

We have used the best Cat5e, Cat6 and other types of communication cable and structured wiring, but we have not forgotten about analogue wiring for RGBHV distribution and regular audio. With transmission devices that support HD over Cat5e, audio, and control commands, we could have skipped the analogue part, but we deliberately included it because we need to consider backward compatibility for ourselves and our customers.

We have made sure that the new building is future proof and has sufficient redundancy to provide the flexibility and connections to accommodate new technologies such as 3D, which we plan to demonstrate in our showroom in May 2010. Indeed being future-proof has saved our lives many times during operations, and has proven to be much more than just a marketing term to us.

Backward compatibility and future proofing were designed-in from the outset.

Conclusion

While the scale of the building and the installation was of course a challenge, we were proud to have achieved such a great result for our vendors and customers, in such a short time. The project took 6 months to complete, and the soft opening took place in January 2010. We expect to have more formal opening with international guests and representatives of all brands in May 2010.

The ARTCINEMA building lets us reach people with passion and commitment, no matter in which part of the AV industry they are involved, and we are able to deliver products in a fast and reliable way thanks to our warehousing facility.

The building will allow us to follow new directions and ways of doing business and to represent our brands in the way that they deserve. If you are ever in Krakow, please feel invited to visit us!

3logic is a privately-owned AV distributor based in Krakow, Poland.

www.3logic.pl
www.artcinema.pl