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Man Builds $1.5 Million Star Trek-Themed Home Theater (cepro.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the living-lavishly dept.

CIStud writes: This $1.5 million "Star Trek" home theater is the envy of every geek on the planet. The theater is a reconstruction of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise from "Star Trek: Next Generation" and also includes $1 million worth of memorabilia from the classic sci-fi TV show. The home theater was created by financier Marc Bell with the help from Jay Miller of Boca Raton-based Acoustic Innovations. The two started working on the home cinema in 2002 -- before construction of Bell's house even began -- and it took them four years to complete. CEPro reports: "A D-Box controller manipulates hydraulics installed beneath the floorboards, meaning the entire room shakes when anything loud happens on screen. The room also includes a JBL Synthesis sound system, which at the time of installation was only used in commercial theaters. The audio system is currently being upgraded to Dolby Atmos specifications and Bell plans to install a 4K projector. A big movie fan, Bell has had over 3,500 films digitized, which are stored and streamed through a Kaleidescape server. He also spent approximately $35,000 on a Prima Cinema system, allowing him and his family to watch films at home the day they are released in commercial cinemas. A wraparound control center surrounds the 11 custom leather chairs in the theater, eight of which recline into beds, while the doors that open into the theater are exact replicas of the Turbolift doors as seen on the TV show. When someone steps on the circular "transporter," the doors open with that familiar "whoosh" sound." Bell apparently likes to spend his money on others too. He has rented a local movie theater for every Star Trek film released in the past 25 years and has taken all of his employees, friends and their children along on opening night. The Wall Street Journal posted a video on YouTube of the home theater.

11 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. includes $1 million worth of memorabilia.. plus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    a lot of over priced electronics, custom furnishings, wood work, etc.. the essential (albeit high end) components to view hdtv/dvd/bd probably cost 75-100k, tops. not that impressive, just some rich fuck with money to burn. sorry.

  2. Man with too much money is blind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The theater is a reconstruction of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise from "Star Trek: Next Generation".

    I'm sorry but this barely looks similar to this.

  3. Hater's Gonna Hate... by Proudrooster · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Wow, why all the hate?
    This dude has a sweet home theatre room complete with a pile of Tribbles in the corner.
    Be happy for the guy!

    This is America where you can live you dream!

    If Mr. Bell ever invited me to the USS Bell, I'd gladly come aboard and take in a movie along with some pinball.

    1. Re:Hater's Gonna Hate... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I do think it is awesome.

      However, I will ask how many starving people he could have fed or provided clothes to school children or how hard his employees had to work to earn the money he took?

      I am not hating but sometimes life is not fair. My boss grew up poor and we got into a horrible argument with him yesterday. Another coworker was dating this girl who was broke and didn't have a computer to finish college. He had 2 spare laptops at home. We both argued he shouldn't give them to her as they are Macs and worth a lot. Also it was just 1 date. It got bad as we were accused of being heartless bastards.

      If I ever become rich I would prefer to donate money as my boss thinks burning money is the worst sin you could possible commit. How much better could society be if we spent the same amount of money we spent at Christmas to the homeless or disadvantaged?

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    2. Re:Hater's Gonna Hate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      However, I will ask how many starving people he could have fed or provided clothes to school children

      Well, he is feeding and clothing the people he paid for the work that went into the theater. For custom stuff like that, there are a lot of labor and crafts work that involves a lot of money going to people and small businesses instead of large corporations. Those people can still donate some of the money if they wanted too.

    3. Re:Hater's Gonna Hate... by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is it really that black and white? Spending money on toys means a bunch of people have a job creating, installing or servicing those products. I work in the videogame industry, and I have a good job because people spend money on themselves (or their kids) buying videogames. In turn, I spend my own money on lots of different things, which in turn help other people out. That's how economies function. Does it really matter what the products are?

      Moreover, charity can be money down a black hole if you're not extremely careful. The *real* Bill Gates has learned that it's not always easy to ensure charity goes to worthwhile causes or produces any sort of measurable results, improving peoples' lives, even if you're giving away billions.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    4. Re:Hater's Gonna Hate... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The 80s called. They want their trickle-down economics back.

      Trickle-down works when rich people spend money. It doesn't work when they don't. Rich people should be encouraged to spend their money as much as possible. If we take away tax havens and tax capital gains the same as any other income we can encourage them to spend money through investment instead of sitting on it to avoid taxes. It's totally worthwhile to give tax breaks to the rich, but only as an inducement to spending. Any other kind harms everyone, even them in the long term.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Hater's Gonna Hate... by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not at all. It's far better to give a man a job than a hand out.

      I have zero class envy or class hatred over this guy. The money he spent building this thing went back into the economy. It wasn't hoarded in some offshore tax haven.

      If you want the world changed, there's nothing stopping you.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  4. And he did it many years ago. by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are we recycling old stories now? This has appeared on Slashdot no less than 6 times by now.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  5. About that lighting level. . . by Salgak1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Appropriate light levels for viewing aren't appropriate light levels for film/video production. Unless, of course you want to see shadows moving in a mostly-gray environment that doesn't show any detail. . .

  6. Re: In his Mother's basement by edittard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Spending money on a house doesn't necessarily increase its value at all, let alone by the amount spent.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.