The owner wanted his new cinema to have it all: the biggest screen possible, state-of-the-art audio-visual quality, beautiful materials and luxury finishings.
Detail was everything, right down to sourcing leather upholstery from the tannery that supplies Aston Martin. An exquisite space, the cinema provides the perfect atmosphere for any big-screen occasion.
Cinema Room Interior Design and Lighting
We commissioned a special acoustically transparent, stretched-fabric wall to create a unique, undulating sawtooth visual effect in the room.
The fabric wall is striking and tactile, and conceals 15 speakers as well as the acoustic treatment panels. Dramatic LED strip-lighting helps emphasise its textures, and dispels the need for central lights. This gave us scope to commission a stunning star-field ceiling. Each star is precisely positioned to avoid the speakers and cabling above the ceiling, and prevent unwanted reflection on the screen.
The cinema’s Lutron lighting is integrated into the home’s Savant Pro control system. As soon as video content starts to play, the lights automatically dim, leaving low-level illumination from the stair lights (except during daytime viewing).
Achieving the perfect lighting conditions also meant removing an external window to block out natural daylight. We installed a fake window in its place—complete with double-glazing, a motorised Lutron blind and integral LED lighting—to preserve the aesthetic balance of the property’s exterior.
Ultimate Home Cinema Visuals
As the owner likes watching movies and sport with friends and family, the cinema needed to provide outstanding visuals for daytime and evening viewing. We achieved this by installing an acoustically-transparent Screen Research XLR3 screen, and a high-brightness Digital Projection 4K laser projector.
We commissioned Vizbox Enclosures to build a bespoke ventilated cabinet to house the projector, placing the fans outside the property to eliminate noise in the room. We also reinforced the ceiling to support the weight of the projector and its cabinet. Motorised side-masking allows the screen area to automatically change with the video source’s aspect ratio; and to close entirely to protect the screen when not in use.
The cinema’s Lumagen Radiance Pro video processor delivers high dynamic range (HDR). It also allowed accurate ISF colour calibration for each video source. As with the lighting, all equipment is integrated into the intuitive Savant Pro system. With one touch of the Savant Pro app, the family can set the perfect conditions for the occasion—whether it’s everyday TV, a big match, playing the games console, or watching a film from one of the cinema’s dedicated movie sources.
The tiered seating Cyberhomes designed and built gives everybody in the room an unrestricted view. People in the front row get an extra level of luxury as they can stretch out and relax in the comfy loungers.
Acoustic Treatment Ensures Impressive Audio Performance
We installed a Dolby® Atmos® 7.1.6 system, consisting of 15 James in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, and four James subwoofers.
Optimising the cinema’s acoustic performance meant calculating the required amount of reflection and absorption, and the right number of bass traps. We then brought in acoustic treatment specialists Desmond and Sons to implement our specifications. Given the sound pressure levels such a powerful system can create, we advised the building contractor on how to achieve sound isolation from the rest of the house. This included an acoustic isolating door (made to recording-studio standard) and designed to match the other doors in the home.