SYSTEMS AND ROOM DESIGN
Ambiance Systems
Clifton Park, NY

There were many requirements for a small space in this upstate New York vacation home. The owner wanted an extreme home theater experience, but he didn't want a dedicated theater room; he wanted it in a 24x17-foot den. There had to be two TV options: one for casual sports viewing on weekend afternoons and blowout theater experience for nights at the movies. And after the credits rolled, there could be no evidence of a TV or projector. "The challenge was set," says Ambiance Systems president Marc Leidig.

So Ambiance devised one motorized system that would raise a 61-inch plasma display from the built-in cabinet and another that would drop a 110-inch projection screen from a seam in the slatted wood ceiling. The two screens share the some space, so Leidig and crew crafted a relay system to time the movement of each; that way the screen wouldn't drop on top of the plasma display when it was in place. True to the owner's wish, 'When they're both retracted, there's virtually nothing there," Leidig says.