PRESTIGE AUDIO

PRESTIGE AUDIO DIGS DEEP AT SPRING PONDS

Joe Carri, Commercial Director at Prestige Audio, provides the detail on this impressive project which recently picked up the Smart Building Award for ‘Best Home Cinema Over £50K’.

The property is a new build that stands on the grounds of the client’s former residence. The old house was demolished to make way for a four-bedroom family home spread across three floors. The property is 850² meters including a double garage and basement. The basement has a wine tasting room, games room, utility area and a dedicated cinema. The ground floor holds a kitchen with adjoining breakfast and family room, a study and a media room. The property also has landscaped grounds (6 acres) with a patio area where a NEAR exterior audio system has been installed.

The customer says, “Now that we have moved in, the results are impressive. Our cinema is ‘epic’ and outperformed our expectations. The result exceeded the performance of the demo systems we listened to. We use the cinema room regularly and love the space. We added another mini cinema in our living room with a motorised TV that disappears in the wall when not in use.

“To top it all off, we added a state-of-the-art outdoor music system that surprised us by the way it performed. The Control4 smart home system is easy to use. It controls our heating, lighting, electric blinds, music, TVs and gate entry, security cameras and outdoor music system.”

THE PROJECT DETAILS

For the cinema, a full demonstration session at Pulse Cinemas gave Joe the chance to explore priorities and arrive at a plan that suited the property. The cinema needed to be able to showcase multi-channel, (Dolby Atmos 7.1.4) but also stereo output and in cinema mode needed to have loud and punchy bass. Added to the plan were some acoustic treatments and a star-scape ceiling. Prestige carried out all of the works installing the stud work to house the speakers and support the wall fabric as well as the acoustic treatments.

The first part of the design was ensuring that all eight seats would have unrestricted views of the screen. This resulted in specifying a four-metre screen due to the available space. The screen has automated masking as the clients likes to switch between different sources regularly which include Sky Q, Apple TV and a Kaliedescape system. All of this is done automatically at the video selection stage, via customised programming.

Joe explains, “A BenQ PCL50KH was the projector preferred by the client, balancing performance and budget. The projector was also married to a Lumagen Video Processor allowing for significantly faster switching between sources. It also allows for fine tuning and more accurate video calibration on colour contrast and is better for HDR too. We also had the BenQ ISF calibrated.”

The speakers were set out by Dolby laboratories recommendations apart from including two subwoofers, instead of one and doubling up on the side speakers.

Joe explains, “We installed 2 x sides speakers on both left- and right-hand walls (one for each row). Additionally, the right-hand wall is further away from the listeners than the left, because of the inclusion of a bar area, but we had more than enough delay in the processor to accommodate this.”

The Media Room AV remains completely hidden until needed

Lots of measurement and calculations were of course used to make sure the cinema was optimal right throughout the process, (including Dirac Live) however Prestige Audio are big believers in experienced eyes and ears to take a project from ‘correct’ to really bespoke. Once the cinema was ‘finished’ Prestige Audio spent an entire day tuning it to suit the customer.

When it came to client demo time, the team did a two-channel demo, without all the calibration and then with, just to underline how their expertise had taken the system to a different level.

Joe explains, “The Audiophile in the family got up and walked up to the middle of the screen to see if the centre channel speaker was on, it wasn’t, he smiled! That’s why we do what we do!

“Then a full cinema demo with content they knew well. This really was the ‘mic drop’ moment in the cinema install, the look on their faces was exactly what we had been striving for, they loved it. When they first came into the room, they said that they only had a few minutes for us to show them the cinema, as they had to be elsewhere. Close to an hour later, former appointment forgotten, they were still in awe and enjoying what we had created.”

THE REST OF THE HOME

The team also created a multi-function media room with a 5.1.2 audio system and large screen TV (65in Samsung 4K OLED).

Joe explains, “The biggest issue we had to face in this area was that the client wanted all the AV hidden away. But unlike many media rooms, where even if the equipment is ‘hidden’, you can still tell that it is there, this room had to look just like an ordinary living room when not in use and leave no trace of what is available if and when the family want to use the AV. The customer was really happy with the final result, you cannot tell there is a 5.1.2 audio system partnered with a 65in TV available at the touch of a button.”

On the exterior audio, Joe enthuses, “This area of the project delivered what we believe is one of the best exterior audio systems in the UK. The clients had a very specific idea of what the audio systems should sound like with lots of power, plenty of controlled bass and an even level throughout. Again, we were able to open their minds to systems and designs they were not aware of. We offered good, better and best options. With the client choosing the best option, we used the NEAR brand to build a three-zone exterior audio system worth and extra £20K on the project.”

The home also has Lutron automated window treatments and lighting throughout. Lutron’s QS Sivoia blinds were specified. This was to tailor to the many different sizes required, ranging from half a meter up to over three meters.

Whole house audio visual systems were also installed providing viewing and audio entertainment in many zones. Currently, the

The cinema get loads of use, for movie time and party time too!

video distribution feeds seven zones, with an additional feed going out to the cinema rack, allowing UHD sources from the central rack to be displayed. Various sizes of Samsung QLED TVs have been fitted across the zones. Sources here include Sky Q, two Sky Q mini boxes, Kaliedescape and Apple TV. Audio distribution is provided by two Control4 eight zone matrix amplifiers. This feeds 13 zones of audio directly driving Origin Acoustic speakers in all areas except hallways, the media room and the cinema.

The Control4 system also extends offering automated and manually controlled access to all the homes’ functionality right across the property. A ubiquity Wi-Fi system covers the whole house offering reliable performance at the budget the client wanted for this part of the project.

Prestige Audio prestigeaudio.co.uk Essential Cinema Kit List

Cinema Room

• Control 4 – 7in In Wall Touch Panel

• BenQ PCL50KH • Cinamorph Cylindrical Lense • Screen Research 3.8 m Wide Motorised

Side Masking 2.35:1 Projection Screen 4K weave

• Apple TV 4K • Kaleidscape Strato 6TB • Blustream UHD Video over IP Receiver

• Maestro M9

• BGW VXi8.8

• James M1000 Subwoofer Amplifiers • 3 x James QX806BE LCR Loudspeakers • 6 x James 52Qow LCR Loudspeakers • 4 x James QX320 Height Loudspeakers • 2 x James M122 Subwoofers

• Fortress Seating (Matinee Chaise Longue/

Matinee Cinema Seat) External Speaker System • Control 4 EA-1 Control Processor

• 10 x Near LB8T all-weather Loudspeakers • 2 x Near 10in Subwoofer – In Ground

• 2 x Near 7XL Power Amplifiers (70v Line) • Outdoor Wireless Access Point

Media Room

• Samsung Q950 65in QLED TV • Future Automation Split Motorised Cover • Blustream UHD Video over IP RX

• Blustream Audio return Balun Set

• Kaleidescape Strato Player • AudioControl Concert AVR 9

• 3 x Sonance LCR .5S

• 2 x James 62 ASX

• 2 x Paradigm CI Elite E80-R • Paradigm Seismic 110

Control4 delivers the automation element of this wide ranging project

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