A Swimmingly-Good Home Cinema

The centre piece of the project, the home cinema was extremely important for the family, but it presented particular challenges as it was to be located in a disused swimming pool in the basement.

When it came to designing the home cinema, the swimming pool room provided some good height for us to plan in the desired number of rows of seating and deliver the required space to install the Dolby Atmos surround sound system. The height of the space also meant we could locate the projector at the optimum position to deliver a high-performance experience partnering a Screen Excellence Discovery HD 16:9 screen.

However, the room also presented challenges as the space is a multi-function entertainment area with a bar and pool table, the fun hub of the home, so the project needed to be constructed with care.

These challenges where overcome in no small part because at Cyberhomes we are not only expert in luxury AV and smart home systems, but we also do all our own building work.

The shape of the room and the need to provide the multi-function use required, meant we also needed to address the placement for some of the rear channels in the surround sound system.

Fortunately, today’s high-performance AV systems (this cinema enjoys a 7.2.4 system powered by Sonance speakers) coupled with our own expertise, means with careful planning and calibration, we can get a fully immersive result no matter what the challenges are.

The family can enjoy content from SkyQ and Apple TV systems and there is also a convenient spot below the projection screen to plug in the family’s games console.

All these entertainment options are served up by the Epson projector carefully installed just behind the rear row of cinema seating. Power is nothing without control and this space enjoys the attention of AV specialist Anthem with an MRX1140 processor.

Talking of control, every aspect of the room can be bought easily under the spell of every user via a hand-held Control4 Neeo smart remote.

Other challenges in the space included an exterior door and two skylights in the cinema room which were to remain in use. Naturally we needed to control the amount of light in the room when the cinema is in use, so we installed Lutron automated blinds.

Delighted with the result, the customer says, “Life is so much easier and more comfortable with Control4! We love the convenience of being able to control everything in our house remotely. The ability to set multiple lighting scenes allows us to create the perfect backdrop for each situation. The home cinema provides endless enjoyment with amazing sound and impressive image quality.”

The look of the home was of course just as important as how it would perform. At Cyberhomes, as well as carrying out our own building work, we also deliver interior design schemes, another rarity in the UK market, which allows us to not only produce high-performance projects, but also create spaces that chime with the aesthetic ambitions for the property. Taking the lead from the customer and following the design cues of the rest of the home, we created a harmonious result in the cinema in step with the home.