Every now and then, Solstice gets a chance to do something huge – and when we say huge, we mean high-end, state of the art, latest-and-greatest . . .  the best of the best.

In the spring of 2009, Solstice was hired to break ground on the mother of all home-theater projects.  One of Solstice’s most valued customers (and a major figure in the Audio-Visual Industry) envisioned the ultimate home-theater – it was to be technically without equal, and at the same time completely sensitive to the historical nature of his 1876 Victorian in San Francisco’s Fillmore District.  There’s no sign of the technical wonder in the basement from outside the residence.

Fourteen feet of excavation and structural reinforcement beneath the entire footprint of the home was done by Derry Casey Construction in the early rainy months of the year – an amazing feat since the narrow site would not accomodate heavy equipment of any kind and the digging actually had to be done by hand and wheel-barrel load. At their peak, the crew was filling four dumpsters a day. Don’t try that yourself. 

This theater features 32 speakers, 9 subwoofers, a 12 foot-wide screen with side masking and an anamorphic projector lens for true 1:2.35 format, spetacular fiber-optic star-field lighting in the ceiling, and the use of LED color changing lighting recessed behind 3/4″ sheets of translucent onyx.  There are 10 seats, with the option of bringing in a rear third row for overflow.  Over 200 low voltage drops throughout the home converge in three massive panels hidden beneath the beautiful custom wood spiral staircase.

Sound isolation was accomplished by the use of 10 inches of poured concrete followed by wood framing and a a resilient channel (RC) air-gap.  Then it was three layers of 5/8^th  inch sheetrock, another four inches of sound-deadening foam, and surface treatments of appropriate diffusers, absorbers, and deflectors.  A very serious engineered acoustical buildup.

“It’s been a pleasure and an honor,” said Solstice CEO Lawrence Sweeny, “to work with so many of the top people in their fields on this project.”  Larry gave special credit to Sutro Architects for their design work and to Charles Salter Associates for consulting regarding the acoustical tuning of the theater.

(Stay tuned . . . Pictures are coming soon!)

This advanced project has been an opportunity for the entire Solstice team to flex their muscles, but you don’t need to excavate down 14 feet and have 39 speakers to have an awesome home theater experience.  Solstice has worked on every size and type of entertainment system, both residential and commercial, and we can help find what’s right for you.

This summer, Solstice installed low-voltage landscaping lighting on a 14 acre property in beautiful Sonoma County.  We created an inner perimeter around the pool, with another perimeter circling the grounds.

Project Lead was Damon Knutson, Solstice’s mean green-energy machine.  He crunched the numbers for every light and accounted for resistive losses in the wiring, insuring that every fixture would receive appropriate voltage from the stainless steel bank of transformers. 

We dug, dug, and dug some more. Sonoma was a crisp 100 degrees and sunny that August, but a strong, fresh westerly wind came up like clock-work every afternoon, so we’re not complaining.  All wiring trenches were at least six inches deep, ensuring our direct-burial lines would not interfere with any future landscaping or aggressive Easter-egg hunts.

We ran almost a mile of wire, striped, spliced, connected, fastened, water-proofed, re-buried, troubleshooted, and finally turned on the juice.

The lights were perfect.  Their design was subtle and unobtrusive, barely perceptible to the eye once installed, so that the final product did not visually intrude on the natural landscape.  And at night, they cast gentle, beautiful uplighting on selected foliage while quietly tracing the perimeter of the property, providing both safety and aesthetic appeal.

Do you have any landscaping you would like to accent?