Зачем нужен домашний кинотеатр, объясняют режиссеры Valery Todorovsky и Karen Shakhnazarov, футболист Алексей Смертин, управляющий компанией "Оазис" Александр Скарятин, архитекторы Alexey Rosenberg и Карен Бальян

Passing the gallery

Interview prepared by: Pavel Portnov, Yuliya Sakharova, Nina Farizova

Magazine: Technolania N4 (82) 2004

Valery Todorovsky Film director SALON: As far as I know, you have a home theater. Do you follow new technologies in this area? - I really have a home theater, but I am not an esthete in this sense. There are people who adore the technique, understand it, can install it themselves, buy something all the time, change the columns ... I'm not one of them. I was advised two years ago what home theater should I buy. It was not the most expensive, and I bought it. Now I enjoy watching movies on DVD, because they sound different, because it looks good. I'm happy with everything. Maybe, in time, I will update it and generally treat home theaters more meticulously. But so far, unfortunately, not enough time.S:  Could you compare the image on a DVD and on a videotape? - On the disc is a different video, a different quality than on the tape. Still, this is not a replacement for this cinema. It is not even about the quality of the screen. In a large hall with a large gathering of people watch movies better. Home theater is the maximum compromise between home viewing and picture and sound quality. Someone thinks that after a while, due to the rapid development of technology, people will stop going to the cinema, they will watch movies at home. That's not the point. Getting out of the house, buying a ticket and sitting down in a large hall is a completely different feeling, no matter how good your own movie theater is.S: How quickly do you get used to quality change? - When you turn it on for the first time, you immediately feel the difference. And after you get used to it. You think that this is the only way it can be. You get used to good things quickly, as you know. And then you wonder: "How could it be different before?" Just as, for example, the emergence of widescreen TVs. At some point you realize that it becomes strange to watch an ordinary square TV. It seems that everything should be like this (he spreads his arms, smiles) - wide.Karen Shakhnazarov Film directorSALON:Is it relevant today to have a home theater and why? - This is good (laughs). Good to have a home theater. It gives you the opportunity to watch movies at home with a fairly high technical quality. And today, cinema technology has advanced so much that not just picture and sound are important, but also their quality. Technical garnish is of paramount importance. But this does not exclude the fact that a person can go to the cinema. Do not forget that the most important thing in the movie is the feeling of the hall. It is likely that over time, home theaters will make it possible to organize shows in small towns, where it is impossible to build a large modern cinema hall today, since this is too expensive. It is possible to equip a room for twenty people and watch movies with high quality discs. So this is a good invention both for the cinema and for the viewer.S: You are not afraid that the more people install home theaters, the less likely they are to go to the usual cinema? - Yes, people do not go to the cinema anyway. Mostly young people go there. Therefore, I do not think it will hurt anything. In the end, the main thing is that the movies are watched, and on which media - it does not matter, especially since we already talked about the high technical level of home theaters. Now, for example, we are making films in the modern Dolby format. Who needs all this? It turns out, only to those who go to the cinema. And now you can get no less pleasure at home.S: Do you remember your feelings from the first viewing of the movie in your home theater? - Of course, TV and home theater are two different things. Home cinema gives the effect of presence, similar to the one that you feel in a large cinema. Clearly, this is a completely different quality and image, and sound, rather than "on TV."S: In general, the perception corresponds to the very name "home theater" ... - Yes, it is quite. “Home theater” is not a fake concept, not a snag. I welcome home theaters.Alexey RosenbergArchitect What is a home theater? This is a phenomenon that today can hardly be ignored, because, as a rule, people want to watch quality cinema with high-quality sound at home. The houses that I build for my customers somehow take this into account. It must be admitted that in general the term "home theater" is rather relative. We use it to designate not only rooms equipped with screens and projectors like large cinemas, but also plasma in the living rooms, where the hosts receive guests and watch movies. Sometimes in the living room is placed the screen and the plasma panel at the same time - to watch movies or news on TV. But the essence of the problem, in my opinion, is not so much what technology is in the living room, but rather the fact that the space, which is properly built from an architectural point of view, is generally — and, as a rule, “full of holes” —not exactly corresponds to the acoustic parameters. Good sound can be achieved in a separate room, which I mentioned above. The polyfunctionality of space involves a certain compromise between architecture, decor and sound. In fact, this is expressed in the fact that the problems of acoustically unsuccessful configuration of the space or the use of "inconvenient" for the correct sound picture of materials in the interior, such as glass, are solved by adjusting the parameters of acoustic systems. At one of my objects, the home theater has been decidedly avant-garde: a projector hidden in a wooden structure like a column can project an image onto any white surface of the living room and library, including walls and ceiling ... For me personally, a home theater (or just a TV) like the thing is not the main, background. But on the other hand, if it is a background for my life, then this is an important thing.Karen Balian:Architect Usually all my customers want a home theater. As a rule, in my interiors it is subordinated to architecture. For example, in an apartment that I made at the junction of modern and art deco, the plasma panel is hidden in a niche in the corner of the living room, without in any way claiming to be the dominant role. The main actor in the living room is a fireplace, a real family hearth. It seems to me that since a modern person is overloaded with information, another “information carrier” should be presented in the interior delicately. Of course, it can be hidden in a closet, but, in my opinion, a good solution is to place the screen of a plasma or liquid crystal panel in the corner. But the opposite approach is also possible, when a screen or a plasma panel plays the role of a hearth around which the whole family gathers. I, for example, have an interior in which everything revolves around a home theater, and in the literal sense. It belongs to a young family, as you might guess, adoring the movie. I placed the plasma panel practically in the center of the open space of the apartment, slightly moving it towards the bay window. The panel is built into a specially designed rack, decorated with a huge stained glass window. Since the customer wanted the panel to be visible from almost all points of the apartment, I turned the kitchen face up to the glass partition separating the kitchen from the living-dining room space, so that family members who are forced to be distracted by washing dishes and cooking would stay included film screening process. On the other side of the stained glass pillar, on which the panel was reinforced, in the bay window, I made a corner, in the mood reminiscent of a cozy Parisian cafe. This is the one with