Movies In The Office?
Ad Firm Installs HighTech Screening Room
by Travis McGee

     GSD&M, one of the world's largest advertising firms, recently installed a high-tech theater at its Austin, TX-based headquarters. The theater is primarily used to screen the films of its clients, which include DreamWorks, among many others.
      When GSD&M initially considered building the theater, GSD&M Avid engineer Jason Blair looked to Dyer Electronics, a local systems contracting company and his former employer, to help with the planning. Blair worked with Dyer audio/video/automation designer Kyle Griffith for three months on designing the room before construction began roughly a year and a half ago. Initially, Roy Spence (the "S" in GSD&M) suggested a THX-certified screening room that would fit 45-50 people. However, because of spatial constraints, the theater was eventually scaled back to seat approximately 23.
      A major challenge Griffith and Blair faced was sealing the theater off from the rest of the office space to prevent sound from leaking out. Offices surround the theater, and a computer lab is directly on the other side of the rear wall.
      "I got on the phone with M&K, and talked over what I wanted to do with them," Griffith said, 'We originally put in four MX-5000s behind that wall. We actually built them into enclosures like coffins around the two sets of subs to keep it focused in the room, and attached them to the wall. They were lined with acoustic foam. We double-stacked two subs, and then on top of the two subs we had SS-5000s. "
      To further seal off the room, Griffith wanted to lower the ceiling, which was almost 18 feet high. it was eventually cut down to approximately 12 feet floor to floor, above which a sheet rock barrier with insulation behind it was installed. Once the ceiling grid was put in, rubber supplied by Acoustic Innovations was installed above the ceiling tiles (the ceiling itself is metallic with rubber seals). All in all, there are four different layers of protection in the ceiling. The same type of protection covers the walls of the theater as well.
      Regarding video, Griffith and Blair decided early on that widescreen presentation was a must. "One of the things Jason wanted for the theater was beautiful video that would knock your socks off," Griffith said. "We also decided that we wanted it to be a widescreen image, we didn't want to go with the standard 4:3. Most of DreamWorks' movies are 16:9, so GSD&M decided that its primary use of the theater would be as a screening room. Thus we went with the 16:9 screen."
      Before the project was finished, California Audio Tech was hired to ensure the sound quality reached-and exceeded-expectations. CAT custom-built speakers to match up with the dimensions of the theater. "They came down, looked at the room, took some measurements of the room, built a custom center channel that was angled and mounted so that it would primarily hit the seating area all the way to the front and the back without a problem," Griffith said. "In the end, they actually sent a team of engineers with several different measuring programs and they actually tuned the room, changing the crossovers on all the speakers accordingly, setting the levels, getting everything perfect and locking it into memory."
      After CAT put the finishing touches on the system, Griffith blasted Stevie Ray Vaughan in the theater, and was blown away. "It was so phenomenal, I had to go check to make sure the center channel was off three times because I was sure it was on," he said. "Since then, all the rooms I do now are pretty much CAT rooms. We start with the concept that we're going to do CAT from the beginning, and the biggest thing I can tell other guys like me is to have someone come down and engineer. It makes all the difference in the world. They come in and they know exactly what they want, exactly what they're looking for, and they have the meters to test it and prove it."
      Although Dyer Electronics is by definition a residential dealer, Griffith said that since the GSD&M project, he has done a large amount of commercial work, including several other projects for GSD&M including fixing the other board rooms in the GSD&M complex and installing a Pioneer video wall in the lobby. He added that because of the evolving technology, the line between residential and commercial is beginning to blur. "I think the commercial companies in our town and other towns are getting lazy and fat. So a lot of the good residential dealers are able to compete on their turf, partially because things like HDTV make it pretty similar to going in and doing a conference room. Projectors are projectors are projectors, its not that complicated once you understand the basics. So our business is leaning more and more towards the commercial side."

Travis McGee is assistant editor of Systems Contractor News