The New York Times-20080124-First the Dimming- Now for the Movie

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First the Dimming, Now for the Movie

Full Text (260  words)

EVEN though home theaters are often dark, there is that moment when the movie stops, or is paused, and some light is needed. But what kind of light?

When James Biber, an architect and partner at Pentagram, the international design firm, was asked to design a home theater in a house in Montauk, N.Y., his first thought was anything but typical home lighting. Because the theater is in the basement, it shouldn't imitate an ordinary, windowed room in the house, and so I looked for inspiration elsewhere, he said. That elsewhere turned out to be Radio City Music Hall, where the lighting is hidden in the arches facing the stage.

The home theater, which takes up 350 square feet in a 1,500-square-foot basement, had to have soundproofing and dimmable lights, and the client wanted seating on the floor.

Once Mr. Biber designed the shape of the theater, with telescoping rectangles that become larger in size the closer they are to the screen, he installed the lamps: 600 low voltage five-watt frosted xenon lamps from Radiant Lighting Solutions, attached to strips. The lights are sold as a system (strip, connectors and bulbs, but not the transformer) at $32 per linear foot.

Because there are hundreds of them all around, spaced two inches apart, the light is very even and very soft, he said. On the dimmest setting, they keep the theater from being completely dark, which people tend to dislike.

It's something about feeling the room, he said, even if you get light off the screen.

[Illustration]PHOTO (PHOTOGRAPH BY PETER MAUSS/ESTO)