Pro-Install

This plush cinema room occupies the former attic-based 'servants quarters' in a 19th century manor house. Yorkshire installer Bespoke Home Cinemas was asked to deliver an AV experience 
fit for a lord...

Size and layout presented initial challenges. Support pillars for a dormer window along 
the left-hand wall needed to be removed, and 
the length of the room was more than required 
for the desired twin-row seating, and would have resulted in less-than-optimal placement for 
rear surround speakers. To overcome this, the 
rear wall was brought forward with concealed custom-made cabinetry, providing space for 
the cinema's kit rack, surround speakers and Sony VPL-VW550ES 4K projector – the latter housed 
in an air-cooled hushbox to reduce sound leakage, and firing into the room through an aluminium porthole ring. Meanwhile, the intrusive support pillars were replaced by cantilevered steel beams tethered to an RSJ eventually hidden by the 
seating stage.

Further work, following CAD designs to ascertain correct speaker positioning to hit reference level volume across all seating positions, saw the 
screen-end also given a makeover. A baffle 
wall was constructed to house the fixed-frame 
projector screen, Artcoustic LCR speakers, and 
– at floor level – two subwoofers (each with a quartet of 10in bass drivers). The finished speaker array is 7.2.4, run by a Dirac EQ-enabled Arcam AVR850 receiver and Arcam P429 four-channel power amplifier.

The Sony projector delivers 4K HDR movie playback from a Sony UBP-X1000ES player to the cinema's 3.6m-wide screen; the installers used the PJ's lens memory function to switch automatically between 16:9 and CinemaScope visuals.

For the final design, the structural roof beams became an integral element in the room's aesthetic, fitted with lighting troughs to incorporate downlighters and RGB uplighting. Doors, walls, ceiling and cabinetry are all acoustically treated 
and wrapped in a dark fabric. Automation of the system (via a Control4 processor) includes preset lighting scenes, including 'intermission' lighting when a film is paused.

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Installer Info

Bespoke Home Cinemas
www.bespokehomecinemas.co.uk

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Kit Checklist

Sony: VPL-VW550ES 4K HDR projector
Display Technologies: 3.6m-wide 2.37:1 ratio acoustically transparent screen
Sony: UBP-X1000ES 4K Blu-ray player
Arcam: AVR850 AV receiver; P429 power amplifier
Artcoustic: 3 x Spitfire SL 16-8 (front LCR); 4 x SL 4-2 (surrounds); 4 x Architect 4-2 (height); 2 x Performance 4 subwoofers; 2 x PA750 subwoofer power amplifiers
Control4: EA-3 home automation processor and lighting control

Behind the screen sits the LCR speaker trio – Artcoustic's Spitfire 16-8 models feature 16 midbass drivers and eight tweeters to reach an amplifier-friendly claimed sensitivity of 101dB

Bringing forward the rear wall enabled prime position of rear surround speakers, and allowed the Sony 4K projector to be concealed in its own temperature-controlled hush box

Preparation work included reinforcing the roof, constructing a raised floor for the seating row, and front- and rear-wall cabinetry