# Dr. Who Meets Star Trek in Sci-Fi Theater



## Steve Crowe

*Dr. Who Meets Star Trek in Sci-Fi Theater*

By Lisa Montgomery
*This far-out home theater doubles the pleasure of its sci-fi theme.*


It's hard to believe the original plan for this theater was to cart in the owners' existing 60-inch TV and put in a small surround-sound system. The owners felt the setup would be perfectly adequate for their newly finished bonus room until they met with the custom electronics professionals (CE pros) at Gramophone, Timonium, Md.


After showing them what was possible, they saw the light, says sales manager Jeff Hudkins. Soon, the basic plan grew into a theme theater, complete with controllable colored LED lighting.

 


It's mainly Star Trek inside the 23-by-30-foot space, including wall designs with views of space and the Enterprise. The entrance to the room, however, is fashioned after the British TV show, Dr. Who. The two themes complement each other well, says Hudkins. We made the 8-by-4-foot entrance look like Dr. Who's Tardis, the telephone-booth style time machine he would use to go backward and forward in time.


Just as Dr. Who would, the owners step through the Tardis to be transported to a new worldthe sci-fi theater. To emulate the Tardis in flight, occupancy sensors set off a swirling light show and an audio clip from the Dr. Who show.


As it does in the Tardis, colored LED lighting plays a big part in the portrayal of the sci-fi theme in the theater. Wall sconces, cove fixtures, and twinkling fiber-optic ceiling lights all contribute to the effect. The owners can choose from any of five preset lighting scenes, or tweak the color, pattern and intensity of the lights individually from a wireless Crestron touchpanel.

* Click here to continue. *

* Click here for photos. *


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## BIGmouthinDC

100 inch 16:9 screen in a 3 row theater?


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## Blasst

Very well done! No doubt the first and second rows would be the better viewing spots. A 100" screen does seem on the small side for a three row setup for some of us, while it fits the bill for others.


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## HDGTX

Beautiful theater!

IMO the screen is way too small for a room that large, maybe a ten foot or wider scope screen would some huge WOW to the feel.


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## GPowers




> Quote:
> Originally Posted by *HDGTX* /forum/post/18949021
> 
> 
> Beautiful theater!
> 
> IMO the screen is way too small for a room that large, maybe a ten foot or wider scope screen would some huge WOW to the feel.



Same though here, the screen is too small?


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## JustBusiness

Agreed, screen is a little small for such a large room, but, I LOVE the theater. I wouldn't worry about the screen, since my seat would be in that first row with the two over sized ottomans, and wrap around couch. The title should read "Star Trek meets Dr. Who meets sexy", Toss down a TaunTaun fur blanket, and an ice bucket with some champagne = ultimate swingers theatre! /sarcasm, although I do think the theater has a sensual feel to it.


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## premiertrussman

Agreed, the murals on the side walls are larger than the screen...Maybe they spent too much on the rest of the room and ran out of money for a larger screen...


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## JSevison

That T.V. @ the time is the 2nd biggest tv they make. It cost $50k. Its a Ronco Tv. The only TV bigger then that is a 144" made by Panasonic which was $100k. They spent over $700k to do this theatre room. They spent over $350k of that in electronics. The T.V. looks small in the pictures but when your sitting in that room its quite nice. The picture is amazing. Ask me how I know all this, I was one of the workers that did this theatre room.


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## JSevison

To make it even better ( this is for those who think they ran out of money). They built this theatre because the one they had before they felt was to small because friends didn't have seats to watch football. They had the money, trust me. The t.v. is perfect size for the room. When you look at the pictures think of it like this " Objects are bigger then they appear".


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