Former New York Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer will be watching his team take on the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl from prime seats at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Had the Giants not made it to the Super Bowl, Toomer still would have enjoyed the action, albeit from the seats in his newly renovated man cave. Designed and installed by Todd Anthony Puma of The Source Home Theater Installation & Design, the system features top-notch equipment from Paradigm, Anthem, Wolf and Screen Innovations.
Toomer wanted the space complete in time for the Super Bowl, in case the Giants didn’t make it. To save time, Toomer asked Puma to handle everything. “I chose the furniture, painted the walls, in addition to selecting and installing the equipment,” says Puma. Two weeks and $50,000 later, the 30-by-15-foot space was finished.
A big part of the process was auditioning the audio equipment. “For this room, above all else, I wanted a surround-sound system that made me feel like I was right in the middle of the action,” says Toomer. “That’s the one thing I’ve never loved about surround-sound: I’ve never felt like I was actually there. I’ve always felt like I was almost there. I don’t want almost. If I’m watching a game, I want to feel the attack.”
To get to this level of quality, Toomer visited Puma’s home to audition several audio setups. “We listened to three different systems,” says Puma. Toomer ultimately selected Paradigm speakers and subwoofers and an Anthem MRX 700 receiver, noting that the arrangement sounded “fuller and less trembly” than the other systems. Puma used the MRX 700’s room correction settings to “tune” the audio system to the room.
Complementing the 7.1 surround-sound system is a Wolf projector, 109-inch Screen Innovations Black Diamond screen and a URC MX-600 remote control. Puma mounted mirrors behind the screen to make the “colors more vibrant” and topped it off with a Screen Innovations LED Backlighting Kit. Using the URC remote, Toomer can change the color behind the screen from blue to green, red to pink, and every shade in between.
To make the experience even more dynamic, Puma tied the Backlighting System to the audio system so that when the sound becomes more aggressive, like during an action scene in a movie, the colors become more intense. During subdued, romantic scenes, the colors automatically become more subtle.
Lutron dimmers, which are controlled by the URC remote, also enhance the viewing experience. A “football” setting, for example, turns off the lights by the screen, but softly brightens the light by Toomer’s seat so that he can take notes while watching the game. Sports, movies, music and games are fed to the system by a variety of video games consoles, a high-def cable DVR, Apple TV and Marantz Blu-ray player.