Accompanied by Angus Murray, Project Director of New Wave AV, EI visited this high-performance and very luxurious home theater project.

For 18 years, New Wave AV has been focusing on designing and installing home technology, overall home audio-visual systems, and dedicated media and theater rooms. The company was founded by Kevin Whysall in 2003, and Angus joined a few years later. The team is located in Sevenoaks, Kent, and is mainly engaged in high-end residential projects in the southeast of England.

For this project, Angus explained: “The customer initially contacted us to discuss some of the problems he encountered with the performance of the movie theater he installed. This led to an email exchange, which provided many ideas and suggestions for the customer to review. Three A month later, the client informed him that he was moving and wanted a professionally installed theater room, and asked us to put together some preliminary design and cost calculations."

Angus added: “When we are asked to quote a new theater room, we always put together the technical design files to understand the performance standards that the room we are looking for. This allows potential customers to understand why. Specify the project and introduce the design and detailed work required to deliver the room. After the release, we discussed the speaker range with the customer, which led to the revision of the proposal and the designation of a higher speaker range."

For this project, a rendering of the room was also made to ensure that the client can imagine the appearance of the room after completion. The decision to proceed was made within a week of the initial proposal, which is impressive.

The initial introduction was for a reference cinema room with Dolby Atmos sound effects. The client wanted to achieve two rows of seats, and he knew very well that he wanted the audio to be truly impactful. During the project, the brief did not change significantly, and most of the design elements were confirmed in the first on-site meeting-the biggest change was the decision to "dig out" the front seats. The customer has already studied audio engineering, so he knows very well that he wants a reference level of audio performance. The room was designated 9.1.4 to ensure an immersive experience, which was achieved by using a Trinnov Altitude16 processor with Procella amplifiers and speakers.

Angus said: "Procella was chosen because of the level of performance they can achieve and their tradition in DTS and BAFTA. The P815 is designated for the front left, center and right channels, which means that these speakers alone require six power amplifiers. Channel. Four subwoofers (two behind the screen and two behind the rear seats) ensure the required bass performance and minimize the potential problem of zero bass in any seating position."

The client is a true movie lover, so Kaleidescape 4K movie server and 2.40:1 Cinema Build Systems acoustic transparent shielding screen were appointed. The Sony VPL890ES laser projector is specified for its performance, brightness and lens memory. The client wanted to be able to easily control every element of the room, so the team chose Control4 to control all AV sources and Lutron lighting. Specify DALI lamps to ensure smooth dimming as low as 1%.

Angus believes, “The movie theater actually starts with the seats, because this determines most of the room design, so we discussed with the client how many seats are needed and what configuration to use.

"Cineak was chosen because of the flexibility of its product range and the quality of its fit and finishes. Due to space constraints, the design of the rear row has limited inclination, and there are no armrests between the front seats to provide a more modern and relaxed appearance. ."

Room treatment and fabric wrapping are based on Cinema Build Systems Halo products. Angus explained that this allows the team to hide all absorption and dispersion panels and even adjust the processing level midway through the project. Each panel uses adjustable white tape for backlighting, while the safe uses RGB and TW tape for lighting, so you can fully control the colors in the room. Challenge wise, Angus revealed, “The room’s ceiling is very low and the gap is small. This caused many technical problems, including creating a suitable height difference between the seat rows. This was done by digging out a 150 for the front seats. Millimeter-deep "pits" are achieved by equipping the rear seats with a 150 mm seat platform. The lack of suitable ceiling clearance means that surface speakers must be specified for the four Dolby Atmos channels and must be used when the tube is not used. In the case of lights, sufficient task lighting is achieved.

“The specified speakers are deep, so this means that all four walls must be built before acoustic treatment and fabric wrapping. We used Cinema Build Systems Space Frame to achieve this construction,” Angus explained.

The room originally had two unsightly radiators that were in the wrong position, so they were removed and the MVHR system was installed. The system is programmed to enter boost mode when the projector is turned on to ensure the proper amount of air exchange during room use. "This system uses 7 x 4 channel power amplifiers, so the hub room must be properly ventilated.

The BTU is calculated and the appropriate extractor is installed. In addition, an IP PDU is installed to ensure that the amplifier is only turned on when in use. The PDU also adds a temperature sensor. If determined in advance, it will be emailed to New The Wave team reaches the temperature. Angus continued, “Performance goals and low ceilings mean that every design decision is critical to making the room work as required. Any good theater room starts with a good design, and this room is no exception, so the design is in line with Dolby And CEDIA's complete cinema specifications. We have a series of software solutions that allow us to carry out these designs, such as CEDIA Designer and Cinema-Tools. These applications ensure a certain degree of predictability in the final performance of the room.

"The customer's focus is performance above all else. As avid movie fans and gamers, we must ensure that the room is suitable for all applications. The laser projector ensures that bright images are captured quickly and on time, and the masking screen means that the projected image is always in the correct proportions Kaleidescape 4K movie server, PS5, Xbox Series X and gaming PC (configured with 2.40:1 output) means that he never lacks content. To ensure the performance of the room, Trinov was invited to calibrate the audio system, and the Sony projector was powered by Independent ISF calibrator calibration."

What does Angus think about a part-time job that he likes so much? "To be fair, there are a lot of people in this room vying to be your favorite part. The audio performance is excellent, which means that we have had a lot of fun in the process of actually trying to push the calibration of the system. Having said that, I may be most satisfied. It is how the room design uses two contrasting fabrics and backlit Halo panels combined together.

"For the client, this room is always audio-related, and he wants to make sure it has real impact and performance. He is a super movie fan and has downloaded more than 190 movies in the six weeks of his stay!

• Cinema Build Systems 3.5m wide-side masking AT screen

• 3 Procella P815 LCR speakers

• 6 Procella P8 surround speakers

• 2 Procella P10SI subwoofers

• 4 x Procella P5V Atmos speakers

• 7 x Procella DA2800 4-channel power amplifier

• Trinnov Audio Altitude 16 AV processor

• Kaleidescape Strato 4K movie player

• Kaleidescape Terra movie server 24TB

• Cinema Build Systems Space Frame & Halo Frame System

• Control4 EA1 and Neeo remote control