When Moscow-based integration company Artinstall was selected to create a private home theater for a residence in Siberia, Russia, the company had a number of objectives to meet. Not only was the highest acoustical performance required, but the space itself needed to reflect the minimalist style featured throughout the rest of the home. When it came to control over the theater's complex electronics, the homeowner wanted a single control device with an intuitive and sleek interface.

"To meet the homeowner's need for a single control device, we decided to utilize an iPad since it could serve a number of other purposes as well — providing our client with the most bang for his buck," said Anton Usanov, CEO of Artinstall. "With an iPad at the heart of the system, the decision to utilize RTI for system control was an easy one. Not only would the company's RTiPanel app provide our client with extremely fast response times, but RTI's Integration Designer software would make it simple for us to provide him with a completely customized interface as well."

Artinstall built the home theater around a JBL Synthesis^® 7.2 multi-channel system. Providing a minimalist, metropolitan look, the JBL speakers feature customized grills made of metal rods and are covered with acoustically transparent cloth to make them almost invisible. HD video is provided via an Integra Blu-ray™ player and delivered by a JVC 3D projector onto a sound-transparent Stewart screen. In addition, the theater features a Lutron^® GRAFIC Eye^® lighting system, Atlona switcher, and Dune IPTV tuner. All electronics are housed under the screen in three professional Middle Atlantic rack systems.

The home theater's control system center's around RTI's XP-8 control processor, which offers an abundance of advanced control interface options, such as two-way RS-232, routable IR, relay control, and Ethernet control. For the theater, the XP-8 controls the Lutron system over IP using a two-way driver; the JVC projector and Atlona^® switcher via RS-232; and the Integra Blu-ray player, JBL A/V processor, and Dune tuner via IR.

The homeowner interacts with the system using RTI's award-winning RTiPanel app on a single iPad^®. In addition to providing complete control over all components, the app offers unique features such as full two-way feedback, dynamic scrolling lists, a completely customizable user interface, and more. For the homeowner, watching a movie, adjusting lighting brightness, or selecting a backlighting color for the room is now as easy as picking up the iPad and tapping a button.

"The homeowner is very impressed with the simple and intuitive management of the entire system, the minimalist design that is in harmony with the rest of the home, and the single control device that handles all these complex electronics," adds Usanov. "Next, we’re looking at adapting the iPad interface to the rest of the house to create individual interfaces for each of the other rooms — with Integration Designer, this couldn't be easier."