Outdoor Movies in the Most Lavish Outdoor Home Theater Available
An outdoor cinema can be as simple as a curtain strung between two trees — or as elaborate as Media Motion’s motorized outdoor theater: nine towers that rise on command from underground weather-tight concrete “bunkers” to deploy a complete cinema system. The main video tower holds a rigid, one-piece cast acrylic rear-projection screen measuring 11 feet high by 20 feet wide and weighing over 3,000 lb. Rear projection was chosen for its resistance to ambient light and its ability to maintain true blacks — a video projector doesn’t generate black, it creates it through the absence of light, and a sealed “chamber” interior makes that work. The projector itself generates 14,000 lumens (ten times a typical home theater projector) at 5,000:1 contrast ratio.
Flanking the main tower are two sound towers, each housing left/right speakers plus eight sub-woofer cabinets with four 12-inch drivers each — 32 woofers in total, with combined amplifier power of 8,000 watts. The center channel speaker draws 3,100 watts on its own. Six additional smaller motorized towers place surround-channel speakers strategically around the property. Total amplifier power: 22,000 watts. Structural framing uses 12-inch hi-tech aluminum alloy beams; all towers raise and lower electro-mechanically with no hydraulic fluids. An automatic battery back-up keeps the full system running for two hours if the power fails. All sources — HD DVD, Blu-ray, HD satellite, HD cable — are controlled via a wireless touchscreen panel.
“I always thought it would be fun for the client to throw a Super Bowl party for him and his buddies — hire a great caterer and just innocently place a 12-inch TV (black and white would be great) on the patio and say nothing. Then, just before kick-off, hit the touchscreen and voilà — life-sized players on the giant screen and enough sound to rival ‘Woodstock.’”
— Harvey Altman, Media Motion
Outdoor Home Theater Description
These systems are designed for dusk and evening viewing only; daytime would require six times the light output. Configurations range from a single motorized tower with an 8-foot screen and non-motorized surround speakers to the full nine-tower installation above. Pricing: $375,000 to $1.5 million depending on configuration.