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Kipnis Studios – Home Theaters for $6,000,000 US Dollars

Reporter/ Editorial Assistant: MS NGUYEN THI HA PHUONG

Photos: KIPNIS STUDIOS (Robert Wright Photography)

There are many things to talk about when it comes to home theater designs, particularly those created and built by Jeremy R. Kipnis; far more than just the price tag of $6,000,000 USD.

No! What is more interesting is to enjoy movies, television programs, and even your favorite sporting events on a giant screen with an audio system that sounds like “real life.” And, if you’re really interested in the very finest quality of picture and sound presentation, with specific attention to the experience of “fooling the senses”, then you must now become acquainted with the "Kipnis Studio Standard", also known as "The Greatest Show (Screening Room Design) On Earth!"

It is not easy to find the language to extol the virtues of such a unique home theater design (truly, a system of technologies and integrated approaches, combined). In fact, it is amazing! A work of art!!! However, it seems that 6 million US dollars is too large an amount to spend on a single home theater. With that kind of money, you could easily buy a fleet of Ferraris, or an amazingly beautiful home and property, and much, much more, I suspect. But the same details necessary to create an audio / visual system this impressive and realistic must also provide a template (and price point) for the rest of us to know and appreciate the very best, whether we can afford it or not!

Projection System Description:

Projector 1: Meridian 810 Reference Video Projection System - 4k (4,096 x 2,400P) 10 Megapixel Digital Theater  - (2.39:1 Cinemascope Projection System)

Projector 2: Sony SRX-T110 Professional Video Projector (4,096-by-2160) w/ 3D Lens  - (3-Dimensional – Real-D / Dolby 3D Projection System)

Stewart Snowmatte Viewing Screen  - 1.0 Gain Laboratory-Grade Professional Motion Picture Screen: 18 foot tall x 10 foot wide w/ 4-way automated masking.

HDTV Sources:

Blu-Ray Player 1 - Sony PlayStation 3 Gaming Console

Blu-Ray Player 2 - Sony BDP-S1

HD-DVD Player - Toshiba HD-XA35

D-VHS Recorder - JVC HMDH-5U D-VHS

Cable System: Scientific Atlanta 8300 w/ external SATA Drive (72 HDTV Hours Total)

CD / DVD / DVD-Audio Player - Mark Levinson No. 51 Disc Transport

Laser Disc Player - Pioneer HLD-X0 Hi-Vision HDTV MUSE System

MUSE HD Signal Decoder  - Sony MCS-4000 w/ Dicrete Quadraphonic Analog Audio Outputs

Lumagen Radiance XD - HD Video Scaler and Digital Noise Reduction System

Digital Audio Processing:

Theta Digital:  Casablanca IIIc  - 8.8 Channel 2x Oversampling Surround Processor

Theta Digital: Generation VIIIc Digital to Analog Converter  - 32-bit / 8x Oversampling  - Quad Balanced Audio Converter (x 13)

Amplification System:

McIntosh MC-2301 Tube Amplifiers (x 2)

McIntosh MC-2102 Tube Amplifiers (x 48)

Mark Levinson No. 33h Amplifiers (x 2)

Crown Macro Reference Gold Amplifiers (x 3)

Mesa Boogie Baron Tube Amplifiers (x 12)

Speakers:

Subwoofers: Snell 1800 THX Music & Cinema Reference (x 16)

Main Speakers: Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference Towers (x 8)

Super Tweeter Speakers: MuRata ES103A (x 10)

Center Channel Speakers: Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference LCR-2800 (x 3)

We were lucky enough to obtain an exclusive interview with the producer, designer, manufacturer, and creator of the Kipnis Studio Standard (KSS)  - Jeremy R. Kipnis  - to discuss his specific goals for each of his ultimate home theater and listening room designs, especially his own: the KSS - Ciné Beta Reference Screening Room:

World Gold: What have you taken from your love and experience of media these 40 years (since the age of four) to create the finest home and professional “Cinema and Listening Experiences in the World” for your select clients, friends, and customers?

Jeremy Kipnis: I have worked professionally in many related fields, such as: 1) large format still film photography (like 6 x 9 cm, 4 x 5 inch, and 8 x 10 inch glass plates), 2) I have designed, owned, calibrated, and programmed both professional and consumer audio / video formats of innumerable types since 1969, including video tape (1/8” – 2”), videocassette (Beta, VHS, U-Matic), SD & HD Laserdisc, CED & VHD Disc Systems, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and many other HDTV sources, 3) Extensive Computer, video, HD, 4k & 8k TV and cinema production experience as Producer, Director, Cinematographer, and Editor. Each sector of my professional career has given me a substantial capital investment of knowledge, as well as the opportunity to make even better quality installations for picture and sound reproduction than even I have become accustomed to. By loving and embracing media presentation on a daily basis, I have come to expect only the finest quality of sound and image recreation witnessed from within a beyond cutting edge home theater environment. The goal: to experience one’s favorite media, music, movies and video games as though you are there, “live and in person!”

World Gold: The idea for this KSS system design has come from where and how you have grown up experiencing some of the best live picture and sound presentation possibilities available since you were very young? Can you truly (re)produce the quality and experience of the “Live” event, which you state as your goal for your screening and listening room designs?

Jeremy Kipnis: All of my designs and the devices used therein are produced currently, but the idea actually came from original concepts beginning in the year 1979, with my first laser video and audio disc player: the MCA / Pioneer PR7820 - which has the potential (even today) to produce home theater with analog audio with amazing fidelity. In my pursuit of ultimate presentation quality, I quickly found that the surround code in a Dolby Stereo Surround Sound mix were buried in most LaserDisc and ED-Beta copies of commercial movies, and properly deciphered using a David Hafler inspired passive “Matrix Surround Decoder” – a simple decoder (based on an article assessing Surround Sound possibilities by famed audio designer, David Hafler) in May, 1980. The original main speakers were Electra-Voice: Series D set up at the Horizontal and Vertical Center position of the seating, and along with the four surround speakers: vintage Acoustic Research AR-3A (designed by audio legend: Henry Kloss, along with Edgar Villchur) arranged at the very back area of the auditorium to create a 45 degree immersive angle of direct and diffuse sound.

Regional seating was arranged so that its position allowed each of the speakers to talk directly and with uninterrupted sight lines to each member of the audience. At that time, the projector of ultimate quality was the Kloss NovaBeam - Model 1 with an 80" diagonal silver coated curved projection screen – this to reflect the maximum amount of light and thus compete with typical daylight viewing conditions.

By 1988, and after much testing and evaluation, I finally added the Yamaha DSP – 3000  - the 2nd DSP based add-on Room Simulator & Surround Sound Decoder Product of its type. This allowed for creating a system with 8.4 channels of audio. And by 2003, I was able to update and implement a unique system setup featuring a 12.12-surround audio system. Such a system required a much larger, dedicated space – double or even quadruple the size of rooms normally used for this application. Finally, in determining the relationship between the types of speakers, the size of the audience, and the overall room air capacity and dimensions in order to design and create a unique system that reproduces the illusion of reality very closely, which I built over the last six years: the KSS Ciné Beta Screening Room.

World Gold: What do your customers and clients say after you have demonstrated your KSS system design for them?

Jeremy Kipnis: Usually the response is: "It's really unbelievable! And even - Oh My GOD, Astonishing - AMAZING!” Some guests, usually women, cannot help but fall prey to the emotions created by the unique pairing of refined musical instrumentation, hand-built acoustics, and the selection of precise audio & video technologies, combined to produce a completely convincing illusion of reality.

And the single highest quality presentation one can own, today. KSS Systems provide images of HD Quality (1080P) as well as 2K (Professional Digital Commercial Cinema) and even 4K (10 Megapixels), calibrated to produce realistic image brightness and even coverage (created thanks to the laboratory standard Stewart 1.0 Gain Professional Snowmatte Movie Screen) closely duplicates the experience of “real life” for both sounds and images in real time. I said to myself, "If the majority of commercial movie theaters have such bad quality sound and picture, like we experience all the time these days, then surely I can and must go to the necessary lengths and expense required to explore and produce a superior result!” Creating a convincing illusion of reality from any available source has proven that a uniquely “you are there” immediacy of presentation necessitates the existence of the Kipnis Studio Standard as the new quality benchmark (beyond THX and IMAX)!

World Gold: So, is the KSS – Ciné Beta Reference Screening Room meant to help you sell the other smaller (lower cost) systems, or is it to convince customers that are willing to spend a large sum of money, equivalent to a system similar to your own at $6,000,000 USD, or even larger?

Jeremy Kipnis: Of course, KSS – Ciné Beta Reference Screening Room is specifically designed to achieve both of these goals during a demonstration. Because I have researched and developed the very best technical elements carefully integrated into an acoustically ideal room that has both a large size and unique shape for a home theater, I can now translate this knowledge and the experience in order to create smaller versions of KSS for clients having a more restricted budget or architectural footprint requirements. Achieving state-of-the-art sound quality is very similar to creating realistic images electronically, and also scalable, to include more or less technology to match the required performance characteristics of the theater room. Conversely, a larger room allows for more seating than a smaller theater and easily illustrates the need for customers to value size and think big much more often, allowing for the possibility of designing and building even larger installations than most might typically expect in a home theater or even a professional movie palace, like IMAX – one of my favorites!

World Gold: Your KSS system design has achieved a very high level of fidelity, with the goal of bringing the most authentic experience of the best professional movie theaters and dubbing stages in the business into one’s home. But has it met your personal performance criteria to recreate media like films, television, and video games (just the beginning) truly as though “You Are There!”?

Jeremy Kipnis: The majority of commercial theaters can only produce a quality of image and sound that represents about 20% of what that same film source could produce under ideal, laboratory projection conditions. THX certified commercial theaters along with special Academy Screenings, which are set-up to comply precisely with SMPTE industry standards, can do a bit better, about 40% compared with the same ideal laboratory conditions.

But, by expanding well beyond the normal playback standards established by DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1, and by utilizing sophisticated hardware and complex software solutions combined with sound created by the KSS Octagonal 8.8 Surround Sound Speaker Array (with 96 drivers and 48 separate amplifiers), I can now achieve a level of picture and sound quality and fidelity to reality not previously heard (or seen) by anyone outside of actually being in attendance, “live” at the event. The KSS system delivers an audio presentation, which is faithful to music but equally well suited for movies, TV, and video games, thanks to an extended frequency response ( 1 Hz – 102,500 Hz +/- ¼ db) and ultra low in-room noise floor (NR. 4dB/SPL). The system uses two different video projectors (one for 2D, and one for 3D programming) that are both 4k DCI compliant, with an amazing resolution of near 10 Megapixels (4,096 x 2,400P). Images from any available analog or digital source media are scaled and processed at 48 bits, producing a Contrast Ratio >3,000:1 ANSI CR, with an on screen Brightness >50 foot/Lamberts – all presented on a hand-made Stewart Professional Motion Picture Viewing Screen, which allows for automatic motorized image resizing at any time with the touch of a button, creating maximum immersion and presentation fidelity alongside comfort and intuitive control of your media library.

I can say that after 38 years of searching the world to find the most effective method to (re)create transparent and realistic sound and image, I feel that finally I have designed and built a screening facility worthy of the best Producers, Directors, experts of film, television, and video games, as well as those who simply love to experience picture and sound as realistically and authentically as possible.

World Gold: Thank you so much and we wish you much success, always experimenting and creating new levels of fidelity, and leading the way to many new and unique home theater creations and innovations!

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