In the lush surroundings of Oud-Turnhout, Belgium, a striking modern villa which combines luxury living with a host of entertainment and wellness facilities has been equipped with a comprehensive Sonos multi-room audio system featuring Sonos Amp Multi.
Situated on a 9,500 m² estate of rolling countryside, the property includes a pool house, outdoor swimming pool, home cinema, wellness area, six-car garage and its own private nightclub and wine room.
When the home’s existing audio platform reached end of life, the new owner needed a modern, reliable solution capable of delivering high-quality audio across the entire property without compromising simplicity or ease of use. To achieve this, Belgian smart home professional, Mike Van Gorp of ‘instereo’ turned to Sonos.
Challenge
With audio required across a large number of indoor and outdoor spaces across the expansive property, the replacement solution needed to preserve the convenience of whole-home music while supporting future expansion and straightforward day-to-day control.
“The client was already familiar with Sonos, having used it in another property,” says Mike. “But this was a much larger project. We were moving from just a couple of zones to around 15 zones throughout the estate.”
The brief called for background music throughout the home, with different areas available independently or grouped together depending on how the property was being used. Audio coverage was required across living spaces, bedrooms, guest rooms, bathrooms, outdoor entertainment areas, the pool house, sauna, garage and nightclub.
Solution
instereo specified a Sonos system combining two Sonos Amp Multi units alongside Sonos Amps, Sonos Port and Sonos Move products. Existing speaker infrastructure was retained where appropriate, enabling the renovation to maximise the value of the original installation while modernising the platform behind it.
The two Amp Multi units power multiple zones of architectural loudspeakers distributed throughout the property. Amp Multi was installed neatly within a dedicated basement server room to provide a streamlined approach to powering and managing a large number of listening spaces. The system supports everyday listening patterns throughout the villa, allowing the homeowner to group zones together across the ground floor, terrace and pool areas during the day, as well as maintaining independent control of specialist spaces such as the cinema, nightclub and wellness facilities.
“Amp Multi made perfect sense for a project like this,” says Mike, who has installed Sonos products for more than two decades. “The flexibility is a major advantage. We can assign outputs exactly where we need them, whether it’s a small room requiring a single output or a larger area needing more coverage.”
Amp Multi offered a host of practical advantages. When compared with deploying multiple individual amplifiers, Amp Multi reduced rack space requirements, simplified network infrastructure and accelerated installation. The integrator estimates that deploying a single Amp Multi can reduce installation time by as much as 70 percent compared with configuring multiple separate amplifier units.
“Most of the installation time with traditional amplifiers is spent connecting products to the network and performing updates,” says Mike. “With Amp Multi, you only need to do that once. One network connection, straightforward configuration and then simply assign the outputs. It makes a significant difference.”
The product’s professional tuning capabilities also provide additional flexibility when working with third-party architectural loudspeakers. “We can manually tune each zone exactly how we want it,” he explains. “That gives us much more control over the final result and helps us optimize performance throughout the property.”
Additional benefits included reduced heat output compared with using multiple individual amplifiers, and a clean rack-mounted design that suited the villa’s dedicated equipment room.
The completed system provides intuitive, whole-home audio to an impressive residential property, giving the homeowner familiar Sonos control across a significantly larger estate than they had previously experienced. The homeowner can easily switch between individual rooms or grouped areas depending on the occasion, while enjoying a consistent user experience throughout the property.
“They’re very happy because they already knew about the Sonos experience,” says Mike. “Now they have that same familiar user interface, but across a much larger system. It works flawlessly.”
For the integrator, the project also demonstrates where Amp Multi can provide the greatest value. “In larger residential installations, you really notice the difference,” Mike concludes. “It responds quickly, grouping and switching zones across this large property is seamless, and it simplifies the entire installation process. For multi-room residential projects, it’s a product I would absolutely recommend.”