Design Solutions

The Robb Report of April 2007 focused on the Ultimate Home Tour. The Theater that won the prestigious award was designed by Marla Sher of Los Angeles for her design of a theater in Brentwood, California. In the article, Sher states "The biggest challenge was hiding all the sound equipment".

While that may have been her biggest challenge, S2 offers cost-effective and easy solutions to tackle this problem. Our award winning Stealth Acoustic speakers are not only hidden in the wall, the actually are the wall. The speakers are constructed with a facade of gypsum board and slot between wall studs. We use a placeholder during construction and only mount the speakers when the dry wall is about to go up. The gypsum boards fit around the speakers and when the taping is complete, no sign of the speakers are visible. This revolutionary product can be used in any room, with any application including full 7.1 surround sound theater room. The sub woofers act the same way and can be make "invisible" using the same technique as the other speakers.

Our now famous Monster Remote uses RF to access components. All the stereo equipment can be hidden and in fact, can be placed in another room all together. The only time a client would ever have to access a component would be to load a DVD or a CD.

ITG partners with Interior Designers taking care of all the audio/visual needs no matter how small. The room design we leave to you of course.

Call us to see how we can help you create an environment that no other can rival!

The Robb Report Article

French Adaptation
by Andrew Myers
Photography by Cordero Studios
03/01/2007
Déco details for an L.A. home theater.

Maybe something Déco," Joel Mendelsohn remembers suggesting to designer Marla Sher for the basement of his house in Brentwood, Calif., a low-ceilinged catch-all used for storage, watching sports and the occasional poker party. He and wife Sheila wanted the multipurpose space transformed into a home theater—but not just any home theater. While Mendelsohn’s directive was casually given, it was anything but. Art enthusiasts, the couple had visited an antiques show and cottoned to the Art Déco furniture and decorative objects from the 1920s and ’30s, a style noted for its celebration of movement, as conveyed by sweeping curves, chevrons, steps, zigs and zags.

Designer Marla Sher studied the Art Déco period for this theater in Brentwood, Calif. "My interpretation is luminous stone, glass, wood, metal, luxurious fabrics and leathers," says Sher. Antiques include a Majorelle buffetand a pair of plaques. A hand-forged grille below the Stewart Luxus Screenwall screen conceals two ATC Concept subwoofers.

Fortunately Sher is a quick study, with an emphasis on study. "I didn’t know much about the period," says Sher, who proceeded to immerse herself in design and reference books. To produce rooms combining original pieces and custom work, she looked to period exemplars for guidance. For example, the elevator doors in New York’s Chrysler Building inspired laser-cut brass with inlaid wood for automated sliding doors inside the theater; lighting fixtures and decoration based on designs by early-20th-century French master metalworker Edgar Brandt were used throughout.

No-holds-barred Art Déco drama starts on the stairs—black-granite tread, backlit alabaster risers, a starry ceiling lit by fiber optics and reflected by Venetian plaster that continues down the walls—and finds foundation in the anteroom’s book-matched red onyx floor. Flanking the doors, next to a bar with shagreen panels by Jules Leleu, are two custom six-foot sculptures, sentinels guarding the show-stopper: a mini–movie palace with lambskin walls delineated into diamond patterns, pilasters with gold-leafed capitals and shafts in burl walnut and backlit alabaster (inspired by the period designs of Theo Kalomirakis), and original pieces such as the buffet, stamped Majorelle, and two inlaid-mahogany plaques. Front speakers are hidden by the side wood baffles, subwoofers by a decorative grill based on a Brandt design, and cove molding flanking the movie screen acts as extra baffling. Add Sher’s custom upholstered pieces—the curved armchair and ottoman, the tiered sofa with pull-out drink trays below the cushions, and a wool-and-silk carpet with palm motif—and the cosseted, film-watching cocoon is complete.