The Frey Theater - Audio & Video Equipment 

Technical specifications and all that other nerdy stuff!

The Frey Theater Motorized Projection Screen and Stage Setup

Movie Posters on Wall Behind Retracted Projection Screen

Video 

The Frey Theater features a 120" motorized 16:9 movie screen mounted on the front wall of the theater room (see photo above). The screen is lowered or retracted via an RF (Radio Frequency) remote control, so it does not require line of sight to activate.  Blue curtains on either side of the screen and a carpeted plaform for the speakers help create the look of a theater stage in the front of the room.  Three framed movie posters are mounted on the wall behind the screen, and are visible when the screen is retracted (above right).

Video images are projected onto the screen using a Mitsubishi HD-1000U High-Definition 720p DLP projector (right), which is mounted to the ceiling near the rear of the theater area. The projector boasts a native 720p widescreen resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, a 1300 lumen projector bulb, and a 3000:1 contrast ratio. 

Mitsubishi HD-1000U 720p HD DLP Projector

Seen in the photo at right is a high-end Pioneer Elite DV-46AV DVD player (second from bottom unit) which up-converts a standard DVD's 480i video to 720p HD resolution, and outputs it via a digital HDMI cable to the 720p Mitsu projector.  The DVD Player was specially ordered - it has been modified for Region-Free use, and was also professionally upgraded with a 16 MB PAL Decoder chip so the deck can play both North American NTSC and European PAL DVD formats.

All Hardware in the Cabinet is connected to the Furman power conditioner (under DVD player), which features two extendable light tubes with dimmer control on the front panel.  These lights illuminate the entire front of the rack in the dark theater room, allowing the operator to easily manipulate the controls while a movie is playing. 

Also connected to the projector via a 5-port HDMI switch (top unit) is a DirecTV High Definition satellite receiver (silver box) for television viewing, and a scratch-built Home Theater PC (at right) with an AMD Athlon XP 2900+ processor and a DVR video capture card  to record and play saved video from the DirecTV broadcasts.

HDMI Switchbox, Directv Box, Pioneer Elite DV-46A DVD Player, and Furman Power Conditioner with Rack Lights

AMD Athlon XP 2900+ HTPC with Video Capture Card

Audio 

The 5.1 Surround Sound system currently installed in the theater features a very high-end Parasound 7100 surround processor (at right). This $3,000 preamp has the extra 2 rear channels required for 7.1 sound; the theater sound system will most likely be expanded to this format at some later date. 

Audio from the Parasound processor is then run through three BSR EQ-3000 equalizers (second photo down), allowing fine tuning of each of the 5 main audio channels before they are sent on to the amplifiers. One bank of lighted controls is used for each channel; currently, the upper unit's right bank is unused. These BSR EQs have blue fluorescent Frequency Analizer displays in the center of the front panel, which look awesome in the dark when audio is playing through them!

The center channel and the two rear surround channels are handled by a Carver AV-705A 5-channel THX amplifier (third photo, with red LEDs) that supplies 200 watts into 4 ohms to each speaker. Since the amplifier is currently only driving 3 channels, there are two spare channels that are available for use when the audio system is upgraded to 7.1 sound.

The two Front Main channels are driven by two Carver M-500t amplifiers  (third photo, with meters).  The Carver amps each have two huge analog VU meters on their front panel, and are setup for bridged-mono mode. This sends 700 watts of power to each Front speaker, with one amp driving one speaker!

The theater's speaker configuration boasts some very large and very loud speakers - the two Front channels drive a pair of Cerwin Vega SE-380 speakers with 15" woofers (below left photo).  Each of these massive loudspeakers can handle up to 1000 watts peak, and each cabinet weighs a whopping 95 lbs!  The rear surrounds are a pair of Infinity SM-152 speakers, also with 15" woofers (center photo below), each with a power rating of 300 Watts RMS.  All four of these speakers are 4 ohm and have an impressive 102 db/watt sound efficiency!  For the Center Channel, a Premier Audio PA-8 speaker with dual 8" drivers is positioned directly under the movie screen (bottom left photo). 

The lowest frequencies in this setup are handled by a custom-made 15" Nuonic subwoofer (two center photos below).  The driver has a 1500 watt power capability and an aluminum speaker cone. The massive speaker is powered by an internal 1000 watt RMS amplifier mounted in the back of the cabinet. This awesome sub can really shake the house foundations, pushing out powerful bass all the way down to an incredible 10 Hz!

Parasound 7100 Surround Processor/Preamp

Three BSR EQ-300 Equalizers with Frequency Analyzers

C

Carver Premier AV-705A Amp and two Carver M-500t Amps

Cerwin Vega SE-380

Infinity Infinity SM-152 and Nuonic Subwoofer

The Frey Theater Audio / Video Cabinet

Premier Audio PA-8 Center Channel

Nuonic ATAK Class Sub Closeup