First Impressions Theme Theatres, Miami celebrates its 34th year in business this month. Housed in a 32,000-square-foot manufacturing and office complex, complete with a 24-seat demo theater and CineLounger Showroom, the company creates hybrid, individually tailored, end-to-end theatre solutions globally for CEDIA dealers.
Founder and principal, Jeffrey W. Smith, C.A.S., worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for several years before starting the company in 1975 as a specialty architectural and interior design firm. Its beginnings were in creating media rooms around Kloss Nola Beam Projectors, building night clubs, yacht interiors, and set designs for TV’s “Miami Vice.” In 1985 the first CineLounger, the company’s line of patented luxury motion seating sold commercially through AV dealers around the world.
A complete transition into private cinema development and construction happened in 1990, and the company has installed over 500 high level personal cinemas in some of the most opulent residences around the world since then.
“It’s been a wonderful ride, running an inspiration to installation design-build firm and receiving countless flattering client and dealer testimonials is very gratifying and a personal high for me,” founder Jeffrey Smith, C.A.S., said. “It will be very interesting to see what our theaters will look and function like over the next 34 years.”
