One of the most complicated projects I have ever designed was the A/V and control system for this 165' custom built luxury yacht. The vessel had 27 TV's, 19 rooms of sound, 25 satellite TV boxes all controlled through 16 iPads spread throughout the ship. In addition to all of the traditional technological challenges a system of this size would pose  the system had to also be configured to meet Coast Guard safety regulations. The project took four years to complete and was one of the most challenging projects I have ever been apart of. 

When the owner of a local Mercedes Benz dealership contacted me to update the feel of their service drive I had no idea the project would grow to the scale it did.  

Originally we started with six 55" Samsung commercial displays configured to operate in video wall mode (one big picture), but by the time we were done the client had expanded the project to a whopping eighteen displays! It was just the statement piece that the owner was looking for to bring a little wow factor to his service drive.

This project required some out of the box thinking. Our client really needed a TV in their new Master Bedroom because his wife had a medical condition that often left her bedridden for extended periods of time with chronic pain issues. TV was one of the few distractions that helped her get through the day. The problem was the bedroom was surrounded in large windows and there wasn't really a good place to put a TV that was easy to see from bed and didn't block the beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. The Lewis team swung into action, and we were able to work with the general contractor to design a cavity in the attic that allowed us to install a motorized lift that pulled the TV into the ceiling when not in use and dropped the TV into position when they wanted to watch TV. All the client has to do is press the "Watch TV" button on the custom programmed universal remote. Once pressed the TV turns on, and drops into position. When they press the off button the TV turns off then retracts back into the ceiling allowing totally unobstructed views from the Master Bedroom windows. 

Most of the time when I am asked to design a theater room its in a dedicated seperate room in the home that has good control of lighting and acoustic conditions. This wasn't the case on this unconventional theater room project. My client asked that we design a state of the art theater to be used as the primary TV in the great room. Furthermore the client did not want to be forced to sit in the dark to enjoy his theater.

We were going to need a lot of light output to combat all of the ambient light in the room. So we started with a commercial grade 10,000 lumen HD Sanyo projector that we placed on a custom built Drapper ceiling lift. The projector drops 15 feet from the ceiling when in use. Then retracts back into the ceiling when the media room is off. 

To further improve the viewing experience we integrated Lutron motorized shades that move into position on the east wall and skylight to reduce the ambient light in the room by about 25%. This helps the picture look sharp during bright summer days, but also reduces the heat load of the room keeping the ambient temperature more comfortable.

The next step was the screen. The client wanted a big picture, but we couldn't use just any screen because most screens require nearly complete darkness to work effectively. So we called our friends at Stewart Film Screen in California and they set us up with a screen made of their proprietary FIreHawk G3 material that is engineered to diffuse ambient light and focus only the light coming from the projector itself. This technology was key in getting the high performance picture our client desired.

With all of these vaulted ceilings getting good sound was going to be tough, but we had just the tools for the job. We installed an Anthem Statement D2 A/V processor that uses Statment's world class A.R.C room correction and calibration software. The software takes a detailed acoustic image of the room and then adjusts the sound and time alignment to remove the majority of the ugly audio anomalies that a room such as this adds.  We paired the Statement processor and amplifiers with a reference accompaniment of Paradigm Speakers.  Deployed in the theater are (2) Paradigm fifteen inch subwoofers (4) Paradigm S8 Studio Reference tower speakers and a matching center speaker. Once everything was setup we ran the A.R.C. calibration software and boom, audio nirvana was made in the least likely of rooms.