Nick Tzortzatos is happy to be talking about a recent home theater installation, which is not surprising, seeing as he is the owner of Manhasset, New York-based Home Theater of Long Island. After all, it’s right there in the name.
“We’ve kept the name ‘Home Theater’ because that’s the roots of where we started,” says Tzortzatos, who is one of the partners who started the company in 2006. “We never changed the name, although I am getting some pressure from the team to change it to ‘Home Technologies of Long Island,’ but I’m a little bit stubborn. Besides, we get a great deal of clients and walk-ins that come to us because they’re looking for a great home theater, and then, once they find out we do everything else, naturally, the project expands to the rest of the house.”
That is how Home Theater of Long Island got this most recent project, which is a previous home theater client who moved into a new house, and, although indecisive about some things, there was one thing he knew for certain:
“He knew that he wanted a home theater that was dedicated and that was something special,” says Tzortzatos. “We were able to do something dedicated in his other home, but it wasn’t nearly at the level of what we were able to do this time. He was more budget-conscious at the last house, and for this house, we got him at a good time, where we were able to design something special.”
Starting From Scratch
For this project, the dedicated home theater was slated for the basement, but it would not have the space all to itself. The theater would have to share the space with a home gym and a laundry room. The dimensions for the theater were established before the Home Theater of Long Island team arrived, but the build had not started yet, leaving room for some improvements.
“He had his architect sketch out what he wanted down there, so they did give us enough room, but we did take a little bit more than what was allotted,” explains Tzortzatos. “I brought in Richard Charschan and Mark Sorin from AcousticSmart to do the theater design, and they were able to engineer the room and show him what it would look like with virtual drawings. That’s when he was able to make the little changes as far as color and number of seats. AcousticSmart made it very easy for the client to pick and choose what he wanted because it can become overwhelming at a time when they’re making all these decisions. Once you put it in a virtual drawing, it makes it a lot easier for us to set a realistic expectation of what this room is going to look like.”
The room is based around a Sony BRAVIA 8 projector, which is paired with a Display Technologies acoustically transparent 150-inch screen. Sound for the 13.2 Dolby Atmos room is provided by in-wall B&W speakers for the front, surround, and height channels, along with two JL Audio in-wall subwoofers placed in the front left and right corners. A Sony STRAZ7000ES AV receiver handles the processing.
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The BRAVIA 8, however, was not Tzortzatos’s first choice. “I wanted to originally go with a Sony BRAVIA 9 projector, but it was not in the budget,” he says. “I am a big fan of Sony projectors, and the BRAVIA 8 was the next best thing. There are no windows in the space, so we were able to take advantage of the lumens on the projector, which are absolutely remarkable compared to Sony’s last-generation model. Plus, there was the laser factor and the fact that he doesn’t have to change a bulb out. One of the main complaints about his original theater was that we would have to change the bulb. We told him this is good for 20,000 hours, and he was very pleased with that.”
The client is big on streaming and video games, so the only video sources are an Apple TV and a gaming console. There is a Lumagen Radiance Pro 4140 video processor in the chain as well. Kevin Miller from ISF TV did the video calibration.
The home theater — as well as the rest of the house — is controlled by a Savant system, with Savant wafer downlights and LED tape lighting from KLUS, a Savant partner. A fiber optic ceiling enhances the look of the room.
Finishing Touches
There are two rows, four seats each, of theater seating provided by AcousticSmart, with a row of four bar seats behind them. Along the back of the room, the speakers are not the only things built into the wall.
“The client wanted a fridge and a concession stand in the theater that he could not be talked out of,” says Tzortzatos. “So, the compromise we had was to put the concession stand and the fridge in the back of the room and carve out some space out of the laundry room so they could be recessed into the back wall. This way, it doesn’t take away any space in the theater.”
Fortunately, a rack closet already existed in the basement, with one rack devoted to the home theater and another rack dedicated to the rest of the home.
Finishing touches include sound-permitting perforated posters on the wall, with additional posters outside the room, leading viewers along a velvet rope to the tufted door.
Coming Attractions
Although Home Theater of Long Island has completed the home theater, there is still work to do in the rest of the house — namely, installing motorized shades throughout. Tzortzatos figures that all the work should be wrapped up within a month, but he knows he will be back for another project soon.
“He’s building a pool house from scratch, and he is going to want that house to interact with the Savant system in the main house,” concludes Tzortzatos. “He’s going to put an outdoor TV out there, along with an outdoor sound system. We’ve gone over the plans, and as long as we have our conduit going into the main rack, we can work with the landscaper or whoever he’s got doing the build.
“It’s going to be an amazing project.”
For more information, visit https://www.htoli.com/.
