Paradise Theater - A Tale of Two Cinemas

Malibu Malibu Luxury Private Cinema by Paradise Theater “To me it’s all about the ability to have these really beautiful, shared experiences. If you watch a great movie together it’s a great shared experience.” shares the owner who first contacted Paradise Theater in 2015 when planning his Five Shadows residence in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and upgrading a Media Room in Malibu. A cinema story that started long before. He sought a shared experience from the start when he and his father assembled a 2 channel system that the whole family enjoyed. “I think that is why cinema is so interesting to me” he explains, “We used to listen to an album like we were watching a movie, right?”

Looking to create an experience worthy to be shared the owner recognized the advantages offered by the Paradise Theater’s ‘Excellence Always’ process and team approach. He recalls “I had the opportunity at first in Malibu to say, okay, this is something I’ve always enjoyed, let’s do it the right way. Let’s do it with engineers.” That process, developed and continually refined by Paradise Theater involves gathering and synthesizing all conditions, concepts and criteria with a holistic approach that ensures an optimum outcome in any scenario. These engineered designs are then implemented with a team of trusted partners who bring their core expertise to every detail. To assure realization of that Excellence, Always value and promise, the entire project is completed under Paradise Theater’s watchful quality assurance. For many, this contemporary cinema in Malibu would represent the culmination of a successful cinema journey. A destination worthy of a private cinema connoisseur and a room they utilize every day they are in residence. But for the owner, the journey had only begun.

Teton Village 5 Shadows Teton Village Private Cinema by Paradise Theater Truly a connoisseur of the finer things, the owner approached every detail of his home in Jackson Hole Wyoming with a discerning eye. The home featured a private cinema from the start, but with space planning prior to meeting Paradise Theater, the project was bumping up against some square footage restrictions. The owner’s experience in Malibu however, whetted his appetite for private cinema performance. “I was excited,” the owner explains, “ It’s been a long journey, a long quest for me to find a group of partners like [Paradise Theater] to indulge, to get the right acoustic environment constructed.”

Solving those aforementioned space restrictions without compromising performance allowed the Paradise process to shine. Paradise Theater President, Ryan Brown explains, “the PT process takes all the guesswork out of getting the desired results.” Brown credits his team of designers and engineers for creatively conserving vital space. “We needed to balance noise, space, and ventilation without redundant penetrations of the acoustic envelope. Our team pulled off a miracle!” A feat that did not go unnoticed by CLB Architects, Sam Ankeny who relates, “what’s interesting are the layers of separation and isolation, the amount of technology, and the amount of sophistication behind the scenes. What looks simple, is anything but simple.” A fact the owner compares to his 1973 Porsche 911 which has been on Leno’s Garage and named one of the top six restored, modern Porsches in the world. The car even features a rare technique reserved for race car conversions. The owner shares “Porsche race people, true connoisseurs, have come to see my car and drive and say there is something really amazing about this car!” He concludes, “there’s this unbelievable attention to detail, but then it gets covered up!”

Interior designer Philip Nimmo speaks to the impact of aesthetics saying, “Theaters used to be an event location, an environment elevating to those experiencing an event. They [the family] use it daily.” A high bar was thus set for the team, a design to elevate the audience every time. Pulling it off, says Nimmo, “was possible due to excellent collaboration between Paradise, CLB and, (specialty builder) Fantastic Theaters.” Nimmo concludes, “it really was a collaborative project.” Brown agrees, “It takes everyone’s best. Creativity, attention to detail, integrity of construction, quality assurance. Everyone on the team delivered!” The owner’s pursuit of excellence ultimately motivated him to “supercharge” both cinemas with a PRO Audio Technology “power plant”. The Wyoming cinema system boasts 58 channels of amplification and just shy of 40,000 watts! “I’ll never forget tuning the theater,” remembers the owner. “We got to 133 DB with zero distortion!” It wasn’t all about playing loud however as PRO’s Paul Hales reports, “The room is almost too quiet! The high frequency drivers are so sensitive, and the room is so quiet that the softest high frequencies can be heard.” Brown adds “It is very satisfying when we conduct our Performance Verification. We test for background noise, acoustic accuracy and ambience. When the results are like this room, it means everyone did a great job!”

The owner shares about the experience in his theater, “It just transports people. Both the video and the audio experience are fantastic. When a person hears the audio in my theater, they haven’t heard anything like it before. The video performance is very film-like. Then there is the aesthetic quality. It’s a beautiful design, when people come into the theater, they like being there. It’s aesthetically a very pleasing place.” I had the opportunity to enjoy a private showing of Five Shadows. The owner, the consummate connoisseur of living well, playing the part of an inspired docent, shared the many singular details of his finely crafted abode. After suitably building my anticipation, I was invited to enter the cinema itself. Hours later, after reveling in and celebrating the aesthetics, sights, sounds, and extensively curated Kaleidescape library I realized our client had treated me to one of his “particularly beautiful, shared experiences.”