HC Home Comfort & Cinema Magazine

Italy - September 2009

HOME THEATER
The most spectacular audio / video cinemas in the world

The Starship Of Mr. Kipnis

Jeremy Kipnis presents us with the most amazing private home theater room in the world! This is the Kipnis Studio Standard (KSS), equipped with two 4K digital projectors, sixteen HD video sources, sixteen subwoofers, fifty-six amplifiers…

by Marco Galloni - photos by Robert Wright - By courtesy of the Kipnis Studios, Redding, Connecticut

Above:  The central (center channel) speaker array - composed of three Snell THX Reference LCR-2800 Loudspeakers - along with two of the sixteen Snell THX SUB 1800 18" subwoofers. Also included (above center) is a Murata Super Tweeter!

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Jeremy Kipnis is an innovator. A genius, if you like. His genius, however, is not that of the scientist in a closed ivory tower with all its complex and sometimes illogical or bizarre abstractions. It has rather to do with the spirit of the American pioneer, of real people, accustomed to pursuing and achieving the highest goals, and of traveling to the farthest points possible. Mr. Kipnis, who makes his profession that of designer and integrator of audio and video systems, does it the hard way. Suffice it to say that where the industry standards provided for commercial audio and home theater systems specify 5.1, 6.1, even a maximum of 7.1 channels, Kipnis specifies that the sound reproduction should ideally have no fewer than 8.8 channels: that’s eight full range channels and another eight just for the low frequency sounds found in the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel. His philosophy is basically simple. It is the philosophy of more and better: increasing the number of channels, using sources and displays with higher resolution, elevating the picture and sound of a KSS home theater into the ultimate immersive experience, with more raw power, depth – width - & height, and feeling...

Here's another example: while the standard SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) prescribe projection brightness of 16.5 foot / Lamberts - the intensity used for Academy Screenings and Oscar night - Jeremy Kipnis argues that this level is insufficient to produce daylight scenes in a realistic way. The correct intensity, according to Kipnis, is at least 49.5 foot / Lamberts, over three times the worldwide SMPTE standard! There is enough here, so far, for an accusation of heresy. The fact is that the heresy of Mr. Kipnis, if we want to call it that, will convince, and make proselytizers, at least among those who have the funds available to follow him.

SPECTATORS ON BOARD

The home theater design of Mr. Kipnis is conceived like the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the starship from Star Trek. The “Best Seat in the House” (The Captain's Chair) is replaced by either a plush 5-person leather sofa (see the left photo) or a unique 4K Ultra HD Audio / Video Workstation. Unlike that Captains’ successive journeys through the universe, where the view screen played a mainly supportive role, the viewing screen in the KSS Ciné Beta is composited into a whole wall of Mr. Kipnis’ daily living and working experience as an A/V producer, engineer, cinematographer, & Ultimate Home Theater designer, with much of the audio equipment carefully arrayed to create the circular shape of the installation. He controls the system through an iPhone, used as a remote control touch-screen, allowing its owner to be the beneficiary (with near instantaneous access) of a complete world class library of High Definition audio and video media, thoughtfully and individually assembled for each KSS theater.

KSS, EXCELLENCE BECOMES THE STANDARD

The work of Kipnis Studios, which is the name of the company, is to design, integrate, install, and consult in the creation of the finest home theaters (and the best audio and video technologies) found anywhere the world over. The company was founded by Jeremy in 1969, and there is practically no area of audio, video and home theater where Kipnis Studios will not be engaged, from setting up a home theater sale to the establishment of large private and even public theaters, through to the creation or modification of recording studios and mastering facilities used in the production of film and television. Customers are scattered throughout the whole world, from New York to Rome, from Philadelphia to the island of Barbados. You will not be surprised that before he began designing equipment and theaters, Jeremy Kipnis was an award winning record producer. His competence in the field of music and sound, not just video and film, is beyond dispute!

Mr. Kipnis has defined a set of standards and criteria known as the Kipnis Studio Standard (KSS). In a KSS theater room, the size of the images is well over 10 times that of the largest consumer LCD monitors or Plasma televisions. Jeremy has a standard of realism, which he takes entirely personally. He is not content to simply increase the resolution and also to improve the contrast ratio. An image’s realism must also and first of all be dimensional: Kipnis wants images that attain a realistic size (and shape, yes… shape; read on). The screen of his personal demonstration theater creates images that are as large as 10.25’ x 24’, a 2.35:1 aspect ratio rectangle of more than 3 x 7.3 meters. On this screen, the KSS system can produce 144 discrete images per second with 10 megapixels worth of detail, and in 3D (72 frames for each eye per second – three times the SMPTE standard): you experience the perfect recreation of reality, equivalent to the vision of the best human eye. Such images are supported by sound reproduced from audio equipment that can achieve as many as 12.12 channels: seamlessly, effortlessly, and transparently!

HEADLIGHTS WITH DIGITAL 4K RESOLUTION…IN 3D

The KSS also provides for the exclusive use of the latest digital projectors (based on DCI Cinema) with 4K Resolution (4,096 x 2,160 or better), where the SMPTE standard maintains that the 2K resolution (2,048 x 1,080) is more than sufficient for most applications. DCI Cinema has the further advantage of being compatible with both mastering systems used for professional film based sources and also high-definition commercial video and television sources, such as from a Blu-ray player or even a satellite receiver or cable DVR. The latest DCI Cinema projectors also have a color space much broader than that of traditional film; the resulting saturation and gray scale are comparable only with reality. The image quality attained within a KSS home theater media room, says Jeremy, is comparable to that of the best printers utilizing the highest resolution settings and the best quality paper illuminated by sunlight! By utilizing the Duo and Quad Image Modes, the KSS home theater allows you to view four different sources in their native high definition simultaneously, and to make comparisons in real time. The viewer also has the ability to use the automatic zoom functions and masking of the screen at the touch of a button, allowing one to resize images by taking their own needs into account alongside the screen format established by the director. The subtle curvature of the screen along with the 1.0 Neutral Gain Stewart Snowmatte Laboratory Grade Screen material eliminates any hot spotting, an excess of brightness at the center of the image created by screen gain that results in uneven illumination, divorcing the audience from the illusion that they are experiencing reality. Most standard film screens are also studded with tiny holes; perforations that allow the sounds of the front speakers (located behind the screen), even those contributing higher frequencies, to cross through it. This implies the need for equalization of the front three channels heavily. Not only is the light from the projector lost through the holes, with a loss of intensity that can reach as high as 40%, but, the same adulteration and distortion affects the sound quality, equally. All of this is simply unacceptable practice for KSS. The rooms designed by Kipnis Studios use only non-perforated screens, with the audience surrounded by an array of loudspeakers that are entirely built and calibrated by hand.

Below:  The first KSS Ultimate Home Theater Room, which Jeremy Kipnis designed and completed in August 2007, immediately after application of new acoustic treatments on the walls and ceiling by Auralex. On the sofa, in the center of it all, you can see a Miniature Schnauzer named Asta, who owes his name to the dog William Powell and Myrna Loy coveted in "The Thin Man" (1936) films.

Above:  The view from the “Captain’s Chair”, which represents the “Best Seat in the House” of the internationally recognized and awarded Ultimate Home Theater Design known as The Kipnis Studio Standard (KSS). The victorian submarine model is Serial Number 1 of a vary limited hand-built replica of the Walt Disney “Nautilus” from the movie 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1953).

Left:  The Equipment Racks inside the KSS projection booth with some of the unique DSP controllable spotlights; and in front, the rear-center subwoofer array (two subwoofers), with an unusual looking media demagnetizer by the Japanese company, Furutech. The principal projector placed on top of the rack, is the Sony SRX-T110, and is capable of 4K resolutions up to 4096 x 2160p (8.85 megapixels), and presented in 3D. But in his demonstration theater (Ciné Beta) Jeremy Kipnis actually operates three projectors, the second is a Meridian 810 Reference Video System also featuring 4K resolution (4096 x 2400p) used largely for 2:35 Scope Films, and yet a third is the Sony Qualia 004 with 2K resolution of 1920 x 1080p (This last Qualia projector is about to be replaced by the newest Italian Sim2 C3X Lumis Host 2K Projector with motorized ISCO Anamorphic Lens System.)

TOP TENSION

KSS provides the standards by which the Audio / Video system is powered by a completely balanced Alternating Current (AC) network. In this way, all noise and distortion present on the high power voltage is removed at the root: the resulting sound is clean and the aural images well defined in three-dimensional space. The demonstration theater of Mr. Kipnis is fed by two giant General Electric 800 Ampere transformers carefully hidden in the nearby garden: one supplies the analog equipment, the other digital. The transformers take the 13,800 volts found in the public power supply and reduce it to 240/120 Volts for use inside households. The components are connected to the electrical panel through specially commissioned Cardas cables: 5 / 9 Solid-Copper Core Romex, as well as special Oxygen Free Copper buss bars, and each uses its own individual 40 Amp electrical breaker of aerospace construction. The cables, which are made specifically for KSS, all have the same length, to ensure a homogeneous and identical transfer of energy.

THE NUANCE – SHADE – TONE – GRADATION OF LIGHT

The standards provided by the Kipnis Studios afford an opportunity to illuminate the environment in countless ways, from polychromatic spot to monochromatic beam. You can create beautiful scenarios to be recalled when listening to music, during the breaks between one viewing and another, while viewing digital photos with friends and family... For this is not just the normal, sufficient control lighting of the type commonly used in home automation and for home theaters. The KSS Lighting System uses the DMX-512 protocol, allowing for near infinite programming control and the adjustment of subtle nuances to the lighting parameters. Even in the projection booth housing Mr. Kipnis’ projectors there are RGB LED Lights made by Chauvet especially for KSS - The Show Express Plus utilizing  DMX-512+.

ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA: A ROOM FOR EVERY NEED

Based on these criteria, the Kipnis Studios offers its customers three different types of theater rooms: ALPHA, the largest; BETA, the medium sized design; and GAMMA, the smallest. The ALPHA theater type “is designed to exceed any and all expectations about human sensory perception and all previous experiences of audio & video presentation.” Theaters of this type are equipped with no less than four Cine Alta Sony SRX-R220 projectors. Combined together, these projectors produce resolutions of between 8k (8,192 x 4,320p) and 16k images featuring resolutions as high as 35.39 megapixels. Their quality, says Mr. Kipnis, far exceeds the standard set by 70 mm films and IMAX presentations. Upon request, it is possible to bring the resolution up to a whopping 10,816 x 4,096p (aspect ratio 2.64), obtaining a recreation of the experiences lived by viewers in the glorious days of the UltraWide Super Cinerama Domes.

A HOME THEATER THAT COSTS SIX MILLION DOLLARS

The first KSS Home Theater built by Jeremy Kipnis, made in his home in Redding, Connecticut, is of the Beta type. Initially, the room was a music studio created for his father, Igor Kipnis – an internationally famous classical keyboard player of the Harpsichord and Piano - to house his large musical instrument collection. But within a few years, Jeremy has transformed it into one which, as you already know, is the largest and most expensive private home theater room in the world: worth 6 million dollars! And he is the winner of the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records for “Most Technically Complex Gaming Set-up in the World”. This is the total value. The room, which mirrors the structure of the starship seen in Star Trek (see box), is equipped with three of the highest-resolution projectors on the planet, including the Sony SRX-T110 Ciné Alta 4K projector with a native resolution of 4,096 x 2,160p (8.85 megapixels).

Above:  The plan of the Kipnis KSS Beta Theater as it is today. The listening location is literally surrounded by the speakers: there are 16 subwoofers - Snell THX SUB-1800 (hexagons blue), 8 Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference Towers (green squares), 3 Snell LCR THX-2800 Center Channel Speakers (red crosses) and 10 Murata super-tweeters (yellow circles).

The Sony projects onto a unique Stewart Snowmatte Laboratory Grade screen with unity gain. Several scalers, like the Snell & Wilcox, can simultaneously display the images of four different sources. The audio system is designed in a symphonic manner. The main part belongs to the array of 8 speakers: Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference Towers, originally designed by Kevin Voecks specifically for George Lucas and Tomlinson Holman, no less. Equipped with outboard passive crossover systems, these speakers are supported by 16 passive subwoofers: Snell THX SUB-1800 - 18" Dual Voice Coil speakers reproducing the range from 1 Hz to 80 Hz. The finishing touch is entrusted to 10 Murata super-tweeters, filling out the top end: 15k – 100k+. The speaker set thus reflects the entire structure of the modern symphonic choir, with the canonical subdivision into six voices: bass, baritone, tenor, alto, soprano, and coloratura.

To drive the enormous speaker system to a sound that is unparalleled in all the world: three Crown Macro Reference amplifiers (from 1,425 watts continuous), two Mark Levinson No. 33H monaural Class A amplifiers (2 x 150 Watt), a Mesa Boogie Baron Vacuum Tube Stereo amplifier (2 x 760 Watt), two vacuum tube McIntosh MC-2301 in Class A amplifiers, and… forty-eight (48!) McIntosh MC-2102 Vacuum Tube 450 Watt RMS amplifiers, also in Class A. The continuous power total exceeds 32 kW, with peak impulse response capability of more than 64 kW. Think about the fact that an IMAX theater usually does not go beyond 12 kW impulsive, while a theater room such as an OmniMax (the dome ceiling version of IMAX) reaches peaks of 56 kW, at most. Amplifiers are selected for their timbrel characteristics: the tubes where the sound should be clear and rich in harmonics and overtones, the solid state where it is necessary to control body and obtain punch. A KSS Beta theater design includes an impressive number of vacuum tubes numbering from 500 to 768, as in the configuration of Mr. Kipnis’ own home theater. KSS is not a set of rules rigidly determined: it provides guidelines and establishes minimum fidelity standards, under which it is not allowable to descend below. But the size and configurations of the systems and the rooms that house them can change.

BEYOND REALITY

The sound system for Mr. Kipnis, whose frequency response extends from 1 Hz and 102.5 kHz, is able to reproduce a natural sound at very strong (135 dB) volume levels that is delicate, and as close to zero distortion as possible. It goes without saying that the room is acoustically designed and treated to produce the most transparent sound possible, with wide use of extended acoustic space, decoupled spring suspension systems, and the application of special foam insulation and diffusers. Suffice it to say, every possible area of acoustic study has been encountered and dealt with, and there simply is not the necessary print space available to fully address his design criteria in more detail. Nevertheless, we believe that the above is sufficient to understand what heights of excellence the proper design of audio and video can achieve. Mr. Kipnis states that his goal is for absolute realism, the perfect representation of the world around us! But, it seems that things are different. Jeremy Kipnis went even further. One of those who heard his private room is that of David Chesky: composer, producer and co-founder of the record company that bears his name: "It's more than a live performance! More than a recording... It's somewhere beyond anything I've ever experienced before." Let the reader be under no false expectations!

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Mr. Kipnis states that his goal is for absolute realism; the perfect representation of the world around us!

Below:  In spite of its complexity, a KSS home theater can be controlled as simply and intuitively as can be imagined by remote control using a Crestron touch-screen and/or iPhone system, to name but two that are offered. In the image, Jeremy Kipnis (right) shows Steve Guttenberg, "Hi-End” journalist and veteran film projectionist, several amazing functions: the two are sitting on the sofa where the primary audience is located.