The Challenge...

The client had decided to add an extensive basement under a substantial Victorian home. The space was divided into a play area and a more formal TV watching and cinema area with a bar. A utility room and guest bedroom were also added.

The home cinema was quite rightly the centre of the installation. Beyond the Invisible were engaged to provide the lighting design and control, and the design and implementation of the home cinema and entertainment systems.

The client wanted the space to be as flexible as possible and both for casual TV watching as well as movie nights. This meant installing a plasma screen as well as a projector.

To maximise the projector screen size an electric drop down screen was installed. Due to structural steel work this was surface mounted.

The plasma screen was installed at 90 degrees to the projector screen in custom cabinetry. Because of this the system is set up to automatically reconfigure the speakers used depending on whether the client chooses to watch the projector screen or TV.

The cinema is used extensively by the family for watching sport and movies and also for gaming on a Wii. A special gaming port was added at the front of the room allowing the family to plug in the games console of their choice to play on the big screen. To add that little extra something a butt kicker was installed under the sofa. This literally shakes the sofa in time to the explosions and low frequency effects. Not only is it great fun it also increases the illusion of volume meaning that the system is less likely to disturb anyone in the room above.

The equipment was chosen carefully to maximise the client's budget. In-ceiling speakers from US specialist Triad where used for the surround sound system. This were combined with a small but perfectly powerful subwoofer from Sunfire - another US specialist. For the projection system we chose a high definition projector from Planar which sits neatly on the ceiling. Amplification comes from Marantz's SR8002 cinema processor and amplifier which provides the necessary power for all of the speakers in the room and ensures the system is ready for the latest Blu-ray high definition sound formats. For now Marantz's excellent DV7001 DVD player is used as the disc player which upscales DVDs to 1080p HD quality.

The MX3000 colour touch screen remote control ensures that the system is childs play to use.

We also designed the lighting for the area together with a system for the rest of the home. Please see our Whole House Entertainment portfolio for more details of these elements.

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Specification