Home Cinema Choice. November
2004. Reader Install
Every room presents a challenge for a home
cinema installer. True, some of the challenges are less severe,
less challenging, than others, but it's true to say that the road
to home cinema nirvana is rarely without a few potholes along
the way.
The challenge for home cinema installer Pounds with this Cambridgeshire
install was straightforward: how to accommodate a projector. The
room in question is longer than it is wide, with high ceilings.
It also incorporates an atrium, which has the effect of raising
the ceiling still higher in the middle of the room, where the
projector would normally hang. Before Pounds got involved, another
installer had been to size the job up. Their solution was to orientate
the cinema across the width of the room. This would, indeed, have
solved the problem caused by the atrium. But it could have looked
a little odd.
'I didn't want to go with this idea' says Pounds designer Martin
Redwood. 'As soon as I saw the room, I started thinking about
how we could accommodate the projector, but still have it firing
down, rather than across the room.'
The solution came in the form of a motorised lift which would
lower the projector into place when it was needed and retreat
back into a hole in the ceiling when it wasn't. It's by no means
a new idea. We've featured many installs in HCC that have used
such a system, but with a one-metre drop, this is by some distance
the biggest one we have covered. It's such a big drop that the
installers had to rig up a scaffolding tower in the room in order
to install the lift and calibrate the projector.
Truth to tell, when the lift, made by US AV furniture specialist
Future Automation, drops down, it doesn't make for the most attractive
piece of home cinema kit. There are concertina hinges on either
side to enable the structure to fold back up into the hole and
drop down when needed, while the cables are housed inside a large
spring to prevent them tangling each time the lift is raised or
lowered. But as Martin points out, how it looks is not really
an issue.
'It's not the sort of thing you would want on show' concedes the
installer, 'but as it's behind the viewing position, it's never
seen anyway.'
And while he agrees that it's a large drop, Martin claims he has
seen much bigger ones, up to 10 metres, in the States.
Epiphany moment
The owner of the system, and the house, Ewan, says he can't remember
when the idea for a home cinema room first came to him.
'It was one of those "epiphany moments" where my wife
and I were sitting around in our new house wondering what to do
with the billiard room and I thought "cinema"' he says.
'I'm fairly techie, but I had never really put a lot of money
into audio-visual stuff. I have high-end audio recording equipment
for music, but I was reasonably happy with a cheap DVD player
and the telly.'
'Was' maybe. But never again.
Having made the decision to go for the cinema, there were other
problems to overcome, as well as the one with the projector, as
Ewan explains:
'The project was challenging for everybody, since it wasn't a
new-build house and all the work had to be done without destroying
the fabric or the decoration in the house' he says. 'Also, my
wife was very keen that the whole thing didn't look like some
techie disaster, so getting the carpentry right, getting the right
heating and the right "look" to the
room was as important to her as the audio-visual component.
'Having a great builder to deal with that was very important and
Martin and the guys from Pounds worked really well with them.
Sometimes when you're dealing with multiple trades from multiple
companies it can all get out of control, but I left it to Martin
and Alex, the builder, to sort it out and I ended up with a great
system.'
The building firm in question, Cambridge-based Daniels Construction,
was responsible for the attractive cabinet housing the front speakers
and the screen, as well as the storage unit to the left of the
screen, which provides ample accommodation, even for Ewan's impressive
DVD and CD collection.
But while the two sets of tradesmen (if you can use that term
for people turning out such high-quality work) did work well together,
there was one slight hiccup that had to be overcome. Ewan had
commissioned a marble top for the cabinetry at the front of the
room. Having done all his calculations relating to the throw of
the projector and the positioning of the screen, Martin found
to his dismay that when said marble top was placed in position,
it prevented the baton at the bottom of the screen, which holds
the screen down, from dropping down the final couple of inches
into position.
The solution? A half-inch-wide groove was cut into the back of
the worktop where the baton was hitting it to accommodate the
baton and rescue the situation. Just another example of an installer
thinking on his feet.
Cable challenge
Cabling is always an issue for an installer. As Ewan points out,
this was a retrofit, rather than a new-build situation, which
always makes things a little more challenging. In this instance,
the cabling from the projector, and from the side and rear speakers
was channelled up into the roof void and from there up into a
second, higher void running over the top of the atrium. To get
from one side of the atrium to the other, one of Pounds' more
vertically-challenged installers volunteered to crawl through
the tiny space with the cables in his hand.
HCC recently heard a story of a cat that was used to carry essential
cabling through a pipeline. Maybe home cinema installers should
start packing a mog in their toolboxes, along with the fishing
rods, for cable-pulling emergencies.
If the kit itself is modest by the standards of some of the installs
we see in HCC, it's more than up to the job in hand. Says Ewan:
'We didn't go completely mad with the equipment. I wanted a great
system, but I didn't want racks of amps and processors. The room
acoustics just aren't good enough to really appreciate super high
end stuff. That said, the amp, speakers, projector and DVD player
are all excellent.'
To help the acoustics, there's lots of soft furnishings, including
a luxurious sofa, a rug on the floor, and heavy curtains to keep
out the light from the windows at the back of the room. There's
also some acoustic insulation in the front cabinet.
As well as the home cinema source material, Ewan also has all
his music, which he estimates at around 10,000 songs, including
many of his own compositions he's an accomplished guitarist
- as MP3s on a huge server in a room across the corridor from
the home cinema room. From here, thanks to some clever cabling
from the Pounds guys, he can set up play lists and drive the home
cinema amp from the computer in the other room.
The amp in question, Denon's mighty AVC-A1SR, is renowned for
its ability to handle music and movie soundtracks with equal aplomb,
and for a client like Ewan, for whom music is obviously so important,
it was a great choice. Sources include a Denon DVD-2900 DVD player,
Panasonic NV-SV120 Super VHS VCR and a Sony Freeview box.
The front speakers, all housed in that good-looking cabinetry,
are form Miller & Kreisel, with three MK S150s for front left,
right and centre, and an MK MX350THX subwoofer to help out the
bottom end. The sub is housed in the bottom right of the cabinet.
The matching speaker cloth to the bottom left is merely for symmetry.
The rear and side speakers are from Triad, a pair of IWS Bronze
in-walls for the sides and in-ceilings for the rears. The projector
that caused all the head-scratching, meanwhile, is a Runco CL710,
fitted with a long-throw lens, and firing at a StewartScreen 8'
electric screen.
There are also motorised blackout blinds for the atrium windows,
Lutron lighting control, and a Philips Pronto Pro remote control
to keep everything running smoothly.
'I was slightly concerned that I'd been a bit of a cheapskate
in not putting in
a really sophisticated controller, but the little Pronto is absolutely
fine' says Ewan.
Room with a view
Ewan says he uses the room for movie-viewing around three or four
times a week, but he doesn't keep it exclusively for movies and
music.
'Some evenings, we just sit in there, because it is still a really
pleasant room' he says. 'Most people who see the room don't realise
that there's a cinema installed. It's a testament to Martin's
design that everything is very well concealed so that the room
still looks good at the same time as functioning as a cinema.'
Though he doesn't mention it, the room also looks out onto a fabulous
garden with an unusual and very attractive water feature.
As for the room's cinema credentials, Ewan says it's fantastic.
'I'm extremely happy with the way it's been done' he says. 'It
is as good as I expected, actually, better. The thing I like most
about it is that the quality is not intrusive. I suppose this
is to do with the way that Pounds have set it up. You just sit
and get immersed in the film. All in all, it's great and I am
very, very happy with it.'
And with a room like this, let's face it. Who wouldn't be?
<BOX 1>
The Kit
Runco CL710 long-throw lens projector
Future Automation projector lift
StewartScreen 8' electric screen
Denon AVC-A1SR amplifier
Denon DVD-2900 DVD player
Panasonic NV-SV120 S-VHS VCR
Sony Freeview box
MK S150 THX front speakers
MK MX350THX subwoofer
2 pairs Triad IWS Bronze in-wall/in-ceiling speakers
Philips Pronto Pro RF remote control
Marata MCU300 automation controller
Lutron 3104 lighting controller
Automated blackout blinds
<BOX 2>
System cost: £45,000
Time taken: 2 months
Lead designer: Martin Redwood