BY USING insulation, homeowners can create a media room that sounds
great inside but will not bother family or neighbors in other parts of the

building.

Make the media
room soundproof

THERE ARE many decisions to
make when planning a media
room, but the two most important
relate to sound.

Whether you’re more likely to
listen to Bach or Bon Jovi, you
must design the room so your
equipment produces the best
possible sound. Just as important
is how you plan to keep the sound
from travelling to other parts of
the house and bothering those vho
may not share your musical ta :tes.

Combining electronic equipment
with gocd interior design and noise
control is a real juggling act for
most homeowners. That’s why
‘Michael Rosenberg started
Soundecision, 2 Toronto firm that
provides media room consulting,
design and installation services.

Recently Rosenberg was asked
to design a media room in a luxury
condominium unit as part of a
renovation project. It presented
the challenge of creating a great
sounding system that didn’t
disturb the neighbors above, below
or beside the unit.

The floor was raised by four in-
ches, and a fiberglas stop blanket
was installed under the new
plywood floor. Fiberglas batts
were also used around the speakers
in the custom-built wall cabinet.

Builders and renovators con-
cerned with noise control strive to
achieve a high STC (sound
transmission class) to keep noise
from travelling from one room to
the next. Many use fiberglas batts
and boards as standard compo-
nents in party walls and ceilings
when building multi-family dwell-
ings. The products, properly in-
stalled, provide a significant in-
crease in the STC.

Working with his clients and
Toronto interior designer David
Margulis, Rosenberg created a wall
unit that looks terrific but also has
several hidden features. The
speakers, for instance, are installed
in the cabinet.

They sit on concealed spikes and
are wrapped in insulation to pre-
vent sound transmission.

“If you have a speaker that's
sitting on the floor, you'll notice
the bass sounds travel through the
floor,’’ says Rosenberg. The spikes
and insulation eliminate this pro-
blem but don’t influence the sound
coming from the speaker. The cab-
inet also has a section that slides
away to allow convenient access to
the back of the equipment, in case
adjustments are necessary. And it
has lots of storage and bookshelf
space.

The media room serves as the
nerve centre for a sound system
that extends to the entire con-
dominium unit. Each room has

19 - Friday, November 25, 1988 — North Shore News

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built-in ceiling speakers, and each
room has individual vclume con-
trols.

Rosenberg says the wiring
system is similar to electrical wir-
ing, and should be installed at the
same time as the electrical wiring
when renovations are taking place.

This client wanted a complete
electronics package, consisting of a %
television set, a hi-fi VHS video
cassette recorder, a receiver with ~
signal processor, a dubbing
cassette tape deck, and a compact
disk player. This particular set of
electronic equipment cost about
$6,000; installation of the wiring
for the entire unit cost about
$1,500 and the cabinet cost about
$4,000.

Lighting in a media room is im-
portant, too, for optimum televi-
sion viewing. The condominium

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28” MTS STEREO
DIGITAL MONITORIRECEIVER

FO -< _
AS
MODEL HVAGSi

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See Pian
Paga 20

“Ho! Ha! Ho!

Merry Christmas!

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