Pro-Install

Custom installers get given some very specific briefs, but Portugal's ProjectionDreams had probably never been asked for a Stargate-themed cinema room that offered 'a sense of mystery and movement; a mixture of sci-fi and ancient civilisations.'

Unperturbed, the company set to work, helped by its MD's knowledge of Egyptian architecture and history, and conjured up a seven-seat movie den complete with hieroglyphic wall-panels (one acting as a false door and hiding the equipment rack), pyramid-style sloping tunnelways and – yes! – a ceiling-mounted 'Stargate'.

Achieving the latter was a pain-staking process. A scale replica of the portal device from the 1994 sci-fi blockbuster, it includes 39 machine-carved symbols around its outer rim, and an inner circle of painted perspex with ceiling-mounted illumination helping to create the 'watery void' feeling. The inner ring moves via a motor, causing the symbols to lineup with the outer chevrons and the Stargate to light up and letting the owner know the cinema system, which features a Sony VPL-VW95ES projector, Onkyo TX-NR5009 AV receiver and Klipsch THX Ultra2 speaker array, is ready to rock...

The Stargate is mounted to the bespoke-designed fibre-optic star ceiling

Hieroglyphics, weird angles, a plinth-mounted statue of Khnum. It's all here...

www.projectiondreams.com