Theater Overcomes Glass Door, Office Space
By Arlen Schweiger
Several acoustical challenges were met in this artistically designed theater.

This is no ordinary looking theater room. And that’s probably because it couldn’t be, based on some of the homeowners’ requests.

For one thing, the owners wanted a set of glass doors to let light into the room. Not exactly a theater-friendly decision when you want a dark place to watch movies.

But part of this room would also be used as a home office, so it couldn’t be dark all the time. So those requests, along with the usual assortment of high-tech goodies that would go in such a theater, were part of the design and installation challenge for custom electronics pro Boca Theater & Automation and collaborator Cinema Design Group International (CDGi), which worked on the interior design, acoustics and cabinetry.



“We suggested a type of door which would become opaque when energized,” says Boca’s Brad Bergoine. “The placement of the doors would cause a hard acoustical reflection on the right at the ‘First Reflection Point’ so getting the room to not sound off-balance was a significant challenge, which was met with a combination of absorptive and diffusive elements provided by CDGi on the opposite wall and surrounding the doors.

“The other big design element was the owners’ need for an office at the back of the room and the desire to keep access to the rear window. The rear window was covered in a split element door set which matches the side elements beautifully.”

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