Home cinema install: XXL entertainment

This impressively proportioned home theatre features high-end hardware from Barco, Arcam, Kaleidescape and Triad, and could easily 
fit all of The Waltons with seats to spare. To add 
to the cost-no-object feel, it partners an adjacent billiards room and ten-pin bowling alley, all brought under the control of the owner by a Control4 automation system.

It's a basement conversion, somewhere in one 
of London's well-heeled neighbourhoods. Richard Reid, managing director of installer AONYX, explains: 'The top end of London’s residential 
real estate market is in a bit of an arms race 
to provide customised living experiences, and centre-piece amenities like this movie theatre 
make a statement.'

Helping to make that statement are the 18 seats across three rows, 4.1m-wide projection screen, and almost totally invisible hardware installation – the in-ceiling models in the 7.4.4 speaker system feature RAL colour-matched painted grilles, and the projector 
is discreetly housed in a hand-built enclosure.

'The most important thing, however, is that the room and system is always reliable and easy to 
use, and that’s why we chose to install Control4,' says Reid.

Blank-slate brief
When the project started AONYX was presented with a concrete shell and a brief to simply 'create 
an amazing cinema.' The finished room features stretched fabric walls that hide acoustic treatments and in-wall speakers, a false wall at the front accommodating the screen, LCR speakers and two 
of the system's four subwoofers, and a nearby kit-rack housing a 12TB Kaleidescape 4K movie player, Apple TV streamer and Panasonic DP-UB9000 UHD Blu-ray player.

Delivering the bigscreen image is a high-performance Barco Balder projector, a laser-based model claiming a 7,000 Lumens output – ideal to both work well with the sizable projector screen 
and get the best from HDR sources. Completing the 
AV lineup are Triad on-wall, in-wall and in-ceiling speakers from its Platinum, Silver and Gold series, and Arcam amplification and processing.

AONYX beefed up wireless networking in this subterranean space with professional-grade gear, ensuring sufficient bandwidth to support the devices of multiple guests in addition to the AV system. Because this is probably the sort of cinema your friends will want to shout about on Instagram...


Installer Info

AONYX
www.aonyx.co.uk


Kit list

Barco: Balder CinemaScope 4K HDR projector with EN44 long-throw lens
Projecta: 24.1m-wide fixed-frame 2.37:1 acoustically transparent screen
Triad: 3 x OnWall Platinum LCR; 2 x Triad InWall Silver/6 Monitor; 4 x Triad InCeiling Silver/6 Monitor; 2 x Triad InWall Gold/4 Surround; 2 x InRoom Platinum Sub (subwoofers); 2 x 700 DSP subwoofer amplifiers
Sonance: 2 x R12SUB subwoofers; 2 x Sonamp 2-750 MKII subwoofer amplifiers
Arcam: AV860 processor; 4 x FMJ P349 power amplifiers
Kaleidescape: 12TB Strato S 4K player
Apple: Apple TV
Panasonic: DP-UB9000 4K Blu-ray player br /> Control4: EA-5 system processor; 7in wall-mounted touchscreen; SR260 remote
Furman: Rack-mounted power conditioner


The 4.1m Projecta screen is 'Scope ratio, ideal for a diet of Hollywood blockbusters. The partnering Barco Balder PJ provides automatic aspect ratio switching


The transformation from a concrete shell included a new coffered ceiling and stretched fabric walls. In-ceiling speaker grilles are colour-matched


In between movies, the cinema owner can kick back with a game of ten-pin bowling. Lighting and entertainment are all under the Control4 system

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