When a new Kansas City luxury home, featured on the 2024 Kansas City Artisan Home Tour, was purchased, one unfinished room offered endless possibilities for the new homeowners. Originally designed by homebuilders to be flexible – potentially for a gaming room or home theater – the new homeowners had a clear vision of what they wanted: a cozy, high-performance entertainment space where they could enjoy movies and sports with family and friends; more specifically their grandkids.
To transform this vision into reality, the homeowners enlisted the expertise of Robert Wheeler, a seasoned integrator and chief strategy officer at Modern Power and Control. With decades of experience delivering custom AV and home technology solutions, Wheeler was uniquely qualified to create a space that would meet both the aesthetic and functional needs of the family.
“These homeowners have an incredible DVD collection,” said Wheeler. “It’s rare to find a collection like this in the digital age and they wanted a space where their grandkids could experience these timeless films, many of which are not available through streaming services.”
The theater was situated just off the lower level of the house by the living room and wine room area, necessitating a design that combined luxury with warmth and comfort. With expansive windows in the living room area offering views of the pool, ambient light posed a significant challenge. Additionally, the room measured 27 feet in width by 22 feet in depth, requiring a unique solution that would support ample seating while still ensuring an exceptional viewing experience, even when daylight streamed through.
“They also wanted the ability to have the room bright enough to watch the Kansas City football games with the doors open and sunlight coming in,” added Wheeler.
To address these unique challenges, Wheeler selected the Epson QB1000B 4K Laser Projector as the centerpiece of the home theater system. The Epson QB1000 produces a stunning 4K HDR picture with an incredible 3,300 lumens of color and white brightness1, making its superior brightness a critical factor in the decision and ensuring optimal image quality even in a room with significant ambient light.
“A few key reasons we chose the Epson QB1000B projector was its outstanding brightness and clarity,” Wheeler explained. “We needed to project a 158-inch diagonal image into a space with ambient light and still have it look great, and this projector checked off all the boxes – large image, high-quality picture and brightness.”
Additionally, the Epson QB1000B’s ability to switch between aspect ratios via a simple remote control was a standout feature for the family. This capability allowed for a seamless transition between 16:9 aspect ratio for sports broadcasts and 2.35:1 for widescreen movies, eliminating black bars on the edges of the screen to provide a more immersive viewing experience.
To ensure consistency throughout the home, Wheeler’s team integrated the theater system with the rest of the property’s Savant smart control system. From lighting to AV, everything is accessible via a smartphone app or matching remotes across rooms.
Projecting onto a Stewart Filmscreen FireHawk acoustically transparent screen, Wheeler said, “I’ve paired Epson projectors with Stewart Filmscreen screens for years and it’s a winning combo every time. We’ve tested other screens, but nothing compares to the performance we get from this pairing.”
Because the room was located beneath the home’s garage, it presented significant acoustic challenges. Concrete construction led to excessive echo, which Wheeler addressed with a combination of spray foam insulation, QuietRock sound-dampening drywall, and strategic lighting placement.
“We’re also licensed electricians, so we could precisely position lighting to avoid reflections or hot spots on the screen, which are details a typical installer might miss,” Wheeler noted.
All speakers and subwoofers were flush-mounted to maximize space in the room, making it ideal for larger family movie nights with grandkids.
Since completion, the homeowners have spent countless hours in their new theater. One of the first things they watched was an F1 race, and the performance blew them away.
“The Modern Power and Control team is highly knowledgeable and has been very professional throughout this entire process. We couldn’t be happier with how the theater turned out, it’s become one of our favorite spaces in the house,” said Todd Fugate.
For this Kansas City couple, the Epson QB1000B isn’t just delivering a beautiful picture, it’s bringing generations together through movies, sports and entertainment, all in the comfort of their own home.
“The performance of the Epson QB1000B has been exceptional,” added Fugate. “The image quality is consistently impressive, regardless of lighting conditions, and the ease of switching between content formats enhances every viewing experience. This space is everything we hoped for and more.”
The full home theater room AV setup includes:
- Epson QB1000B 4K Laser Projector
- Stewart Filmscreen FireHawk acoustically transparent screen (1.3 gain)
- Klipsch flush-mount speakers
- Integra receiver
- JL Audio subwoofers
- DMF lighting solutions
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