Gortenburg Theater—One Man’s Dream

April 27 2022

With the task of having to complete the project in only six or seven weeks, the expectation was that this theater in Leawood, Kansas was to be the very best—to “blow away” the owner.

THE COVID CHALLENGES

Our Midwest dealer, Echo Systems, provided the design for the project and acted as the general contractor, coordinating all of the different subcontractors involved. Building the theater during Covid made it that much more challenging. Indeed, the homeowner was particularly sensitive to people moving about the home.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS TO MEET

Initially, the client was looking to upgrade the video and acoustic portions of his home theater, which was in the basement of his residence. There was an existing audio system in place, which he was pleased with. But when Echo Systems took him around the country auditioning other theaters, he heard an audio system that he thought was much more impressive. So he decided to make some audio improvements of his own. This is where StormAudio came in.

The homeowner agreed to replacing the existing processor with a StormAudio MK2 ISP.16… but with the expectation that it had to make a substantial difference or he was going to be very disappointed. Needless to say, the difference the StormAudio processor made extremely pleased the client.

STATE-OF-THE-ART

A highlight of the Gortenburg Theater is a $680,000, 182-inch Samsung Wall, which replaced a $60,000 Sony 5000 projector. Other products in the upgrade include a Kaleidescape Strato; AudioQuest top-of-the-line power conditioning and interconnects, and video and audio cables; Cinematec seating and acoustics; a StarField Ceiling; and Wisdom Audio speakers.
Wisdom developed a speaker specifically for working with the Samsung Wall. This project features that product—the very first horizontally configured, line source, center-channel speaker. The center channel cannot be brought down to ear level and it’s above the screen. So, Wisdom purpose-built a custom center channel to work in this application.

A DREAM COME TRUE

All of the acoustic setup in the room targets the client’s seating position, which is off center. There were particular challenges to really get everything dialed in. Indeed, he wanted it perfect for a one-person experience. Thus, Echo Systems designed most of the technology to suit his specific needs in a very much focused and out-of-the-ordinary way, so the challenges in this project were many.

The million-dollar Gortenburg Theater is a dream come true and the client’s expectations had been exceeded. He was truly “blown away” and excited about his new theater.