If you want an outdoor theater that doesn't require dragging the equipment out of the basement to, say, the beach of your multimillion-dollar retreat in Hawaii, you might enjoy a screen that rises up out of the ground. Engineered Environments of Alameda, California, created such a design for the Maui vacation home of a retired software executive. The house was built into the side of a hill overlooking the ocean; a lanai is on a lower level and beyond the lanai is a pool and then the beach.
The executive, who would spend about US$800,000 for his indoor-and-outdoor audio-video system, wanted an outdoor environment where his guests could sit poolside, have drinks and watch the sunset, and then watch a movie or a football game without having to go inside.
Greg Jensen, Engineered Environment's director of engineering, designed a setup in which a 20-foot-wide custom Stewart Filmscreen is hidden beneath a 6m teak bench that runs along the side of the pool nearest the beach. The bench is watertight, and the screen is further protected from the elements by a 1.2m concrete bunker. The projector, a Digital Projections Mercury 5000HD, drops from the roof of the cabana across from the pool. The cost of the screen was US$50,000; the projector was US$20,000. Total cost of the Dolby Digital 7.1 theater: US$175,000.
Of course, you can't watch it until it gets dark.
But there are always those two 37-inch Sony plasmas in the lanai.
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