Our Services
KYD offers three main service levels, each with specific physical and perceptual performance targets. Each level – Essentials, Red, and Black Label – includes comprehensive testing during and after construction and installation. KYD’s testing deliverables include bound Reports discussing and graphing actual performance achievements vs. those targets.
A breakdown of our scope by service level is immediately below followed by a graphic showing how they compare in specific areas.
The Essentials design service was developed for individuals who value the benefits of employing science-based acoustic design techniques and architectural principles into the design of their private theater, but have a limited budget. Based on our extensive experience over the past two decades, we have synthesized our process down to this essential, must-have set of deliverables and packaged it into a fixed-fee that makes our design and acoustical engineering affordable.
The Essentials package comes with all the core acoustical engineering elements you would expect from Keith Yates Design, but without the deep customization you’d find in the Red and Black packages.
- Please see the product matrix for the specific list of the elements included in the essentials package.
KYD Red service is our most popular offering. Its breadth of engineering and proprietary modeling provides extraordinary sound quality, exceeding that of typical studio performance, for home theaters and media rooms that are custom designed for clients who want to create an immersive entertainment experience in their homes, offices or studios.
While the Essentials package includes all of the minimum elements for a superb sensory experience, the Red package is more robust and includes custom elements, particularly in the Design Development and the Technical Development phases delivering a truly rare experience that’s tailored for the nuances and shape of your entertainment space. Please see the product matrix for the specific list of the elements included in the Red package.
Black Label projects are truly a work of art and incorporate our broadest engineering and design scope to achieve a rarefied level of performance and perceptual immersion, complemented by an extraordinary execution of a customized interior design. Due to their scope and scale, KYD only takes on a few Black Label projects annually. In addition to their expanded design and engineering, Black Label includes exquisite customizations in fabric, lighting, intricate millwork, carvings, castings and luxurious embellishments. Black Label projects are suited for larger spaces or special venues with unique architectural elements that require the absolute highest level of technical precision to achieve perfection in creating an entertainment space.
The design elements included in Black Label project, such as noise and vibration modelling to achieve NC5 noise levels (quieter than any recording studio), provide a profound refinement of sensory immersion, involving development of the room down to the very bones, including the most minute details of each and every sub-element and component. At this level, we perform at our highest level in each scope phase to ensure that the final performance is beyond your expectation of absolute perfection.
Services
Services
Unforgettable entertainment experiences don’t start with quality audiovisual equipment.
Unforgettable experiences start with research of each client’s needs, specifications of the space available, and a deep understanding of physics and architecture. Without appropriate planning and a science-based process, even the best audiovisual equipment will merely provide an average experience. Our clients know that without understanding how each element of a room’s design affects the other elements, it’s impossible to promise the magical experience of a theater, with precision engineering from the bones of the room structure, through the acoustic and visual optimization of every seating position in the space.
Our design services are especially attractive to homeowners, architects and AV integrators who have outgrown rudimentary, non-science based home theater solutions and who are ready to enlist a qualified engineering team to take responsibility for the final quality of the total experience. KYD specifies not only the projector, screen type and size, audio equipment, seating type and location, and interior finishes, but also the larger-scale, physics-driven issues, including details of how the venue and related spaces should be planned, sized, arranged, framed, isolated, insulated, sheathed, acoustically treated, heated, cooled, lighted, serviced with clean power, furnished, and, importantly, tested and calibrated.
Process and technology
At KYD, we use a proven design process for creating outstanding results for our customers. Over our 25 years of experience, this process has evolved to yield superbly engineered and optimized spaces that deliver the highest level of immersive and sensory-rich entertainment experiences. Our design process parallels the process of any experienced architect or contractor, making us ideal and complementary partners whether you are building a new home or creating an experience in an existing space.
We don’t keep secrets from our clients or use terminology without a full explanation. As our client, you will know exactly what stage we are in, what we are doing, and how it will affect the final outcome of your experience.
Phase 1: Schematic Design (SD) or “Napkin CAD”
In the SD stage, we conduct an extensive client interview and assess the site to form the initial design concept. Initial measurements, client usage expectations and site specific conditions are considered within sound physics and architecture principles to determine the room’s basic design configuration.. Based on the client’s preferences and the space available, we create a basic sketch of the design as well as come up with budget estimates. The SD includes basic placement of the elements in the room, planning for line of sight, interior design and for proximity to exits and amenities. Follow up client and architect meetings are integral to refining the room’s basic size, shape, relationship to adjoining areas, architectural theming and layout of major interior features.
The culmination of this stage is approval by the client, the construction team and KYD of the venue’s size, shape, architectural theme and layout of major interior features.
Phase 2: Design Development (DD)
During the DD phase, the SD is transformed into a precise CAD design of each and every element in the space. The DD stage includes lighting guidelines, electrical design, technical power system pre-design, isolated envelope configuration, heating and ventilation systems configuration, interior design, and room renderings.
The DD stage includes specifications and configuration of major technical elements, brands and makes of everything comprising the space, including audiovisual equipment, flooring, paneling, finishes, special constructions required, theming, etc. During this stage we have a large range of flexibility in working with the client to discuss the implications of choosing specific components and how that will affect the quality of the final experience. At the conclusion of this stage, we meet to review and approve all of the specifications of the design.
Phase 3: Technical Development (TD)
At this stage, we use advanced, industrial–grade computer modeling and simulation to determine the optimal layout and design of the space, as well as the variations in the potential components to place in the space. Our use of science-based software tools combined with extensive experience in home theater design allows us to accurately predict how equipment will perform in real life, long before we even get to the specifics of the architectural drawing.
The technical development stage integrates the specifications of all of the elements of the room, taking into account the science of how each component will affect the overall psychoacoustic sensory experience. In this stage, KYD conducts acoustical modeling and auralizations, performs BassCAMP™ low frequency optimization, interior acoustic treatment, playback layout optimization of A/V components relative to room geometry and seating location, A/V component specification, control room development, HVAC system design, technical power system design and noise and vibration modeling. At the completion of this stage, we provide individual reports for each of the above scope items and a graphed prediction report summarizing the acoustic output modelling and BassCAMP processes.
Phase 4: Construction Drawing (CD)
The CD phase is the creation of the final drawings and documentation supplied to the client’s construction team who will implement the job. The CD includes all of the specific details of the space, including dimensions, materials and the finalized makes and models of every component in the space.
KYD CAD drawings and documentation lead the industry with their attention to detail, color and isometric realization to enable exact execution of category specific design techniques by construction teams worldwide.
Phase 5: Construction Administration (CA)
The CA phase ensures that every element is implemented by the contractors precisely according to design specifications. During the actual construction, we send a highly trained administrator on site to ensure that that our CD phase is executed to plan, and if any substitutions are proposed, they are done with full supervision and approval of a KYD team technical professional.
During CA, the team performs white and black box testing, calibration, equipment noise testing, acoustic materials and fabrics testing.
Phase 6: Testing and Calibration (TC)
During the testing and calibration stage, KYD uses more than $100,000 worth of the most advanced, sensitive and accurate test equipment including Bruel and Kjaer devices, to optimize and calibrate all speakers, subwoofers and loudspeaker management components and confirm the results of the computer modeling. A calibration report and certificate of compliance is provided at the conclusion of this stage.