ESSENTIAL CASE STUDY

from Essential Install April 2021

TAKING CONTROL

SMILES ALL ROUND WITH HIGH PERFORMANCE HOME CINEMA

Sound Sense delivers top performing cinema as a retreat from a busy dental practice; from molars to movies!

In densely populated areas of India, it is common to see multi-use buildings that house both businesses and residences. Sound Sense - an award-winning integration firm in Surat, has one of India’s most elite showrooms and is familiar with working in this type of structure. Sound Sense’s state-of-the-art showroom displays living and office space possibilities to meet virtually any audio, video and control need, which is then customised for each client to meet their unique requirements and budget. A local dental surgeon reached out to Sound Sense after recently completing construction of a four-story home/business (with his dental clinic located on the ground floor and residence situated on the upper three floors). He had a twofold vision for the uppermost floor – to provide a place to retreat from the long hours of the work week and to provide a place to get together with family and friends on evenings, weekends and special occasions. The client envisioned a high-end home cinema, yet they only had a room sized just under 25’ x 19’ to work within.

“Our client wanted a larger-than-life movie experience whose vibrancy was to remain isolated from the dental clinic below,” says Ankur Bhatt, founder and director of Sound Sense. “The client requested a ‘monster-sized’ screen and a high-end audio video calibrated system that well exceeded the limited budget that remained after the other construction expenses. We were able to carefully select components that allowed us to fulfill his vision while staying within the allocated budget.”

Ankur adds, “The main challenge was to meet the large seating requirement in such a limited space. After assessing the room size, screen size, speaker placement, seating needs and acoustics, we designed five rows of seating for 33 people using six or seven seats per row in non-reclining chairs. The six-seat rows were designed to accommodate the pillars on each side of the room.

“We used a discrete speaker setup with the surrounds placed in the centre of rows one, two, three and four to achieve the correct phase alignment for these rows. Diffuser panels were used in the back half of the room to add spaciousness to the sound and reduce the localisation of the surround and rear speakers.

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For subwoofer placement, we performed a room analysis and the seats were place in the optimised zone with moderated peaking and no nulling. We needed the boundary gain from the wall for the subwoofers and so we placed the two subs in the corners of the room, creating a virtual sub in the centre. This gave us the real estate we needed to place more seats.”

Ankur continues, “To address the noise isolation issues, we designed the acoustic treatments to rectify the reverberation time and solve problems related to the flutter echoes. An intricate isolation system was installed in the floor and an acoustic sheet was added behind the Milan acoustic transparent screen. We also installed a dedicated split air conditioning unit with internal thermostat controls in the equipment room to overcome the typical Indian heat whether the cinema room was in use or not.”

THE SPEAKER ARRAY

Phase Technology’s CI Custom Install 3-way inwall speakers were selected for cinema audio (9.2.4 Dolby Atmos arrangement) for their highquality sound and noise isolating properties. The tweeter and midrange assembly absorb the horizontal sound waves through Unicell Acoustic treatment to minimise interaction with the mounting wall resulting in precise imaging and clarity. The patented CI 130 uses a hybrid in-wall enclosure design that lowers the transmission of sound into an adjacent room while keeping the bass output at levels close to an infinite baffle design. With this design, a speaker with the same size rear enclosure will have bass output that extends up to one octave lower than a comparable speaker.

Ankur says, “We selected Phase Technology loudspeakers and subwoofers for this project as they brought us the superlative sound and resonance we needed for this cinema. With our experience installing Phase Tech speakers over the past few years, we can vouch for their consistency and reliability in terms of quality output and technical performance over time.”

Also included were a Pioneer SC-LX 701 (AV Amplifier) offering dynamic sound quality and an advanced equaliser per channel allowing the system to be tuned according to the room requirements with ease and clarity. Also in the mix, a Lab Gruppen IPD1200 power amp with an on-board DSP to assist in tuning each and every speaker.

The team has limited space to accommodate the number of seats needed

Essential Kit List Elan GSC 2 Rako lighting RMT500 (RF Dimmer) RMS800 (RF RS Switching: Non-Dimmable) RCM100 (Keypad) RA BRIDGE (Ethernet Access For App Control) Sony VPL-VW-45ES projector Milan acoustic transparent 2.35:1 screen, 13in wide/169in diagonally PhaseTech Speakers CI 130 X (LCR Speakers) x 3 CI 70 X (Surround Speakers) x 4 CI 70 X (Rear Surround Speakers) x 2 CI 7.3 X (Atmos Speakers) x 4 Power FL -12 (Subwoofers) x 2 Pioneer SC-LX 701 Audio-Video Amplifier Lab Gruppen IPD1200 Power Amplifier x 7 BDP 180 BluRay Player Tata Sky 4K set top Box Valrack 42U Legrand AV Furniture AV Pro Connect Cat 6 Over HDMI converter Linksys E900 Access Point

The client was hugely impressed with the result

Ankur concludes, “For this set-up, we also selected the following products for their unique offerings. A Marrantz pre-power amplifier was selected to deliver richer, sound with minimal distortion and we also selected Crestron for the automation solution as it provided the required flexibility for the customisation of the client’s GUI. The JVC UH1 projector was shortlisted for its’ many attributes; a 2000 lumen output, a compact size, 4k projection, colour accuracy and its’ value for money.

“Our memorable moment with this project was the look on the client’s face during the client demo and hand-off. The client expressed his amazement to us over the following points. Every possible variable in the room was operable from a single interface, replacing an entanglement of multiple remotes and confusion and the overall experience – distinctly crisp and powerful – was discrete and crisp in set-up.”

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