WOW!house, the annual showhouse staged at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, marks the first time L-Acoustics’ HYRISS spatial audio system has been specified for a designer showhouse.
Nucleus, the UK residential AV integrator behind the project, returned to WOW!house after presenting a media room at the 2025 edition. This year, the team set out to design a room in which audio would shape every element of the experience: narrative, atmosphere and visitor interaction alike.
Russell Sage Studio partnered with Nucleus to develop the concept around the idea of memory for a space called The Momentarium: a circular, cocooning interior in which visitors lift objects like letters, photographs and small heirlooms from a set of bespoke drawers and chests, while each object cues a corresponding sound and atmosphere. Two pieces of music were written for the room by Krishna Jhaveri and Sanaya Ardeshir, composers working in L-ISA Studio.
The room sits at the close of the visitor journey through WOW!house. Seating is a custom curved banquette under a sculpted plaster ceiling; fabrics are layered in soft hues; lighting, by John Cullen Lighting, is built into the architecture; scent is provided by Jo Malone London.
Audio, video, lighting and shading are orchestrated as a single layer through Crestron, so that when a drawer is opened it changes both the soundtrack and the room’s entire atmosphere.
“We wanted to push our media room further,” says Durgesh Sinh, Founding Director of Nucleus. “Our aim was to show what happens when technology is considered from the start, as part of the architecture, the interior, the lighting and the acoustics, all at once. The room had to use sound to do something we hadn’t done before in a designed space.”
A conventional 5.1 or 7.1 surround system was incompatible with the design brief. Channel-based audio ties sound to fixed speaker positions; the Momentarium needed sounds that move with the listener as the room’s state changes.Nucleus, having previously experienced HYRISS at the L-Acoustics showroom in Highgate, specified it for the project.
HYRISS — Hyperreal Immersive Sound Space — is L-Acoustics’ architectural integration of three of its professional technologies into a single platform for residential, hospitality, workplaces and marine spaces: L-ISA for object-based source positioning, Ambiance for room acoustic transformation and Anima, the engine within the L-ISA Processor II that adapts content for the space and the moment.
A single HYRISS-equipped room can switch between cinema, spatial music, live concert reproduction and ambient soundscape without any hardware changes. That adaptability is what allowed the Momentarium to function as a memory-trigger environment in the first place: the same loudspeakers and processing that reproduce a film soundtrack can, a minute later, place a fragment of music behind the listener’s shoulder.
“We have known L-Acoustics as one of the most respected names in professional audio for many years,” Durgesh adds. “Their technology is used in some of the most demanding live, cultural and experiential environments in the world, which made bringing that level of performance into a residential design context particularly compelling. We chose HYRISS because we wanted the room to go beyond conventional surround sound or a standard home cinema format. The idea was to create a room where sound could become part of the storytelling.”
Russell Sage Studio’s interior had to remain visually unbroken. Acoustically transparent fabric, specified with Nucleus, conceals the loudspeakers. Sony displays provide visual content where required, selected for colour accuracy and restraint rather than dominance in the room. Every system in the room is controlled and orchestrated through Crestron.
“What inspires me about Nucleus is their ability to translate complex technology into something elegant and intuitive,” says Russell Sage. “They treat sound, light and control as architectural tools, not add-ons. That mindset allows us to create spaces where technology enhances the atmosphere rather than interrupting it.”
The Momentarium is built around 17 X4i coaxial loudspeakers and supported by 12 SB6i subwoofers. System drive is handled by two LA1.16i amplified controllers, with a single LC16D and two LS10 network switches managing signal distribution throughout the room.
At the heart of the processing chain sits an L-ISA Processor II alongside a P1 processor for Ambiance, delivering the object-based audio spatialisation that defines the space.
Processing is handled by the L-ISA Processor II, the core of every HYRISS installation, which runs the Anima engine to adapt the room’s acoustic behaviour to each scene.
That both specialists chose HYRISS as the technical foundation of their WOW!house room is the project’s most useful demonstration. Russell Sage Studio’s recent work includes Lilibet’s Mayfair, the reimagining of Le Gavroche for Matt Abe at Bonheur, Ardbeg House on Islay, Glenmorangie House in Tain and current projects across five 5-star hotels and three members’ clubs.
Nucleus’ portfolio spans ultra-prime London residences and multi-building estates. For an audience of design professionals who specify rather than buy, the Momentarium is HYRISS in the hands of the people they trust, in a room they would have specified themselves.
“Sound had to cocoon the room, create movement, support the visual content, and help transform the overall atmosphere,” says Durgesh. “HYRISS is what makes the room different. It allows the Momentarium to become more than a beautiful space with AV integrated. It’s a room that can shift, tell stories and create a lasting emotional response. That was always the core ambition of the project.”
WOW!house 2026 runs from 2 June to 2 July 2026 at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London, open to the public Monday to Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm. The Nucleus Immersive Room by Russell Sage Studio is included on the show’s twice-daily guided tours.