High expectations and excellent delivery were the hallmarks of this Finite Solutions home cinema project.
Simon Mathieson, MD and Co-Founder at Finite Solutions, explains the background to this Derbyshire-based home cinema project, “Our clients were looking for a luxury bespoke cinema room in a large 1890s property, to be installed in an unused storage room.”
Whilst the space available was good, the team explain that the door entry located in the middle at the rear of the room wasn’t ideal. However, the clients were comfortable not having a sweet spot seat, so long as eight seats could fit in the room and performance was top notch.
There were a lot of services in cupboards in the existing room, so spatial planning and the room build design were very detailed in order to maintain access whilst ensuring a soundproof shell and a seamless interior finish. Consequently, there are numerous acoustically sealed hidden doors behind wall columns and panels to cope with all the challenges the space presented.
Simon reveals, “Ultimately, the interior design was selected based on a review of previous projects and 3D renders we produced, after which the project was signed off as a turnkey transformation for our team.”
Bringing in services for Sky and broadband was particularly challenging due to the age of the building. The heat recovery ventilation system also required drilling 100mm holes through 600mm external walls, but all was achievable with sufficient time and effort.
Simon enthuses, “The clients are truly delighted with the end result, as it is such a complete and dramatic transformation from what was an unused, old, dusty room. We left no stone unturned in terms of the technical design and calculation of angles, nits levels, sub placement etc, and along with the ISF and Trinnov calibration, we have squeezed the absolute maximum from the system’s performance. It really shows, and they now spend a lot of time in this room watching TV and sports too, when they thought it would just be for movies.”
Happy people
The clients were also particularly pleased with the Control4 system and its simplicity in controlling the AV, lighting, ventilation and heating systems. Given the age of the house, the team took extra steps with the heating and ventilation, using the exhaust air from the AV rack cupboard as a feed into the room. This can be switched to add additional warmth, or to expel externally when the room becomes too warm. This all happens seamlessly in the background, along with automatic temperature adjustment when the room is not in use.
The technology was selected following demonstrations at Finite Solutions’ show house and a supplier facility which featured two different speaker systems. The client selected Wisdom as his preferred choice. It was a tough call between Sony and JVC for projection, as both are great products, says the team, but the client had a JVC in his previous house and wanted to stick with that brand.
Simon concludes, “This was a challenging project given the shape of the room, the age of the building and the very tight tolerances we had to work to in order to fit everything in without compromising speaker placement or acoustic performance.”
However, the attention to detail shown in all aspects of the room’s build, interior finishes and the invisible integration of technology achieved absolute optimum performance from the system. Clearly very happy with the result, the client also appointed Finite Solutions to install Lutron lighting throughout this property, and a full smart home system and media room in a holiday home they are building.
Essential Kit List
Speakers: Fronts – Wisdom P4i, Sides and Rears – Wisdom P2i,
Overhead – Wisdom P2i, Subs – Wisdom S90 and Wisdom DSP amps
Projector – JVC NZ9
Lens – Palladin
Screen – Screen Research CinemaScope
Processing – Trinnov Altitude 16
Amplification – Trinnov Amplitude 16
Sources – Kaleidescape, Panasonic Blu-ray, Apple TV, Sky Q silver
Control – Control4 CORE1 and Halo remote
Lighting Control – Lutron RA2
