Project Information
Project
Family Cinema & Entertainment Room
Location
Lightcliffe, West Yorkshire
Interior Designer
Sally O'Connor
Category
Dedicated Home Cinema
Movie Server
Kaleidescape
Projection
Sony 4K Laser
Audio System
Meridian Digital Active Cinema
Surround Sound
5.2 Meridian system
Blinds
Lutron
Control
Control4
This Project was Created Using:
A space for the whole family.
From the outset, the client was clear that they didn't want a traditional cinema. There would be no rows of tiered reclining seats and no room designed solely around watching films in complete darkness. Instead, they wanted somewhere the whole family could come together. A room for watching sport with friends, having a laugh with karaoke, spending time together and, when the mood took them, settling down to watch a film properly.
That decision shaped the entire project.
The challenges
This room was never about chasing a specification sheet. The client understood from the beginning that choosing a relaxed sofa layout rather than conventional tiered cinema seating would have an effect on absolute surround-sound performance. That was a conscious compromise. The priority was to create a room the family would genuinely use rather than an acoustically perfect cinema that only came alive for the occasional film.
That meant we needed to engineer the AV system around the way the room would actually be lived in. The cinema design still considered viewing positions, speaker coverage and sound-pressure levels in detail, but everything ultimately had to work around the furniture and interior rather than dictating it. That is also why we placed such importance on the quality of the loudspeakers themselves.
Rather than increasing the number of channels simply for the sake of it, we opted for a high-quality Meridian 5.2 system capable of delivering excellent performance from a relatively simple layout.
What we designed and installed
Meridian Audio
The heart of the room is the Meridian digital active loudspeaker system.
Three Meridian DSP640.2 in-wall active loudspeakers were positioned across the front soundstage behind the acoustically transparent projection screen.
This allowed the left, centre and right channels to originate directly from the image while remaining completely hidden.
Two Meridian DSW600 active in-wall subwoofers were also positioned behind the screen, delivering the low-frequency performance required for both films and live sport without placing large subwoofer cabinets around the room.
The original engineering demonstrated that the DSP640.2 front speakers were capable of exceeding 105dB across the designed seating positions, giving us considerable performance even though the room itself wasn't being arranged like a conventional cinema.
For this project, quality mattered more than simply adding more channels.
A room for more than films
The brief was broader than cinema from day one.
This was intended as a space where the family could come together to watch football, rugby or another major sporting event, get the karaoke going, entertain friends or simply spend an evening together.
The occasional film still needed to feel special. But the room couldn't become unusable the other 90% of the time. That is why the large, relaxed sofa arrangement became such an important part of the design. It changed the room from a dedicated screening space into a proper family entertainment room.
And importantly, the client understood the compromise that came with that decision. We weren't pretending a sofa spanning several listening positions would behave exactly like individually located cinema seats.
Instead, we designed the best-performing system around the room they actually wanted.
A second tier without cinema seating
For bigger sporting events and evenings with friends, Sally O'Connor's interior design introduced a clever alternative to conventional tiered seating. Behind the main sofa is a bar with an additional row of stools.
That effectively creates a second viewing tier when the room is full without turning the space into a traditional cinema. It is one of the details that makes the room work particularly well socially.
The family can use the sofa every day, while friends can sit behind at the bar during a big match or event with a clear view of the screen.
The bar itself also houses drinks refrigeration, meaning everything needed for a long evening in the room is close at hand.
Low-level lighting around the bar allows drinks to be prepared without flooding the room with light or compromising the picture.
Sony 4K laser projection
For picture, we specified a Sony VPL-VW790 4K laser projector.
The projector was paired with an acoustically transparent screen, allowing the main Meridian loudspeakers and both subwoofers to disappear completely behind the image.
That arrangement is particularly important in a room like this.
When the screen is on, the sound feels connected directly to what is happening on screen.
When the room isn't being used as a cinema, there is very little visible audio equipment to disrupt the interior.
Kaleidescape
For films, the room was equipped with a Kaleidescape Strato S 4K movie player. Kaleidescape gave the family a dedicated high-quality movie library rather than relying entirely on conventional streaming services.
It also fitted the wider brief well. Sport and everyday content could still come from the usual television sources, while Kaleidescape provided the higher-quality option when they wanted to sit down and properly watch a film.
Control4 brings the room together
Control4 provides the control layer for the cinema.
Rather than having separate remotes for the projector, processor, movie player, lighting and wider home systems, the room operates as part of the same Control4 smart home installed throughout the property.
The original cinema specification used a Control4 EA-1 controller and NEEO remote.
This meant the client didn't need to understand what equipment needed to switch on, which input needed selecting or what order things had to happen in.
They simply selected what they wanted to watch. The automation handled the rest.
Control4 brings the cinema equipment together behind one simple user interface.
Integrated Cinema Lighting
Lighting plays a major role in how the room feels. Rather than simply switching everything off when the projector comes on, we used architectural LED lighting throughout the space.
LED strips highlight the ceiling detail, architectural beams, wall panels, steps and bar, with additional plaster-in fittings integrated into the room. That allowed different lighting scenes to be created depending on how the room was being used.
For a film, the room could become much darker. For sport with friends, the bar and architectural lighting could stay at a comfortable low level. For karaoke or general entertaining, the room could become brighter again.
The lighting therefore became part of the versatility of the space rather than simply part of the cinema specification.
Lutron Automated Blinds
Another important part of controlling the room was daylight.
The room contains windows and glazed doors, all of which were fitted with automated Lutron blinds.
These were integrated into Control4 so the blinds became part of the same room experience as the AV and lighting.
When the family wanted to use the projector during the day, the room could be darkened without manually going around closing individual blinds.
Likewise, when the cinema wasn't being used, the blinds could open and the room could return to being a much lighter family space.
This cinema forms part of the wider Control4 smart home we installed throughout the property, which is featured separately within our portfolio:
Designed with Sally O'Connor
The finished room owes a lot to the collaboration between the technical design and Sally O'Connor's interior scheme.
The slatted illuminated ceiling, dark wall panelling, bespoke sofa, bar, integrated refrigeration, architectural lighting and carefully controlled palette give the room far more character than a conventional black-box cinema.
Our job was to make the technology work within that environment. Not fight against it.
Speakers and subwoofers disappeared behind the screen. Lighting was incorporated into architectural details. The Lutron blinds controlled the daylight. The rack equipment remained out of sight. And the room still felt like an interior rather than a piece of AV equipment.
Engineered around real life
The original cinema engineering considered viewing angles, speaker coverage and performance against recognised THX and SMPTE guidance.
But this project is also a useful reminder that technical perfection is not always the same thing as the right design.
The client could have chosen rows of individually positioned cinema seats. They didn't want them. They wanted to sit together as a family. They wanted friends around for sport. They wanted karaoke. They wanted somewhere comfortable enough that people naturally gravitated towards it.
So rather than trying to force the lifestyle around the cinema specification, we engineered the cinema around the lifestyle.
For this room, that was the correct compromise.
The Finished Results
The feedback from the client was excellent. And looking at the finished room, it isn't difficult to see why. It is a genuine show-stopper of a space. But more importantly, it gets used. The main sofa makes it somewhere the family can actually relax together. The bar stools create an informal second tier when friends arrive for sport.
The fridges mean nobody needs to keep leaving the room for drinks. The low-level lighting keeps the atmosphere without affecting the screen. Lutron blinds deal with the daylight. Control4 makes everything simple to operate. And the Meridian system gives the room the audio quality we wanted without turning it into a speaker showroom.
Films are only one part of what this room does. And that is exactly what makes it successful.
**It isn't a cinema the family occasionally uses. It's a family room that happens to deliver a very serious cinema experience.**
Technology Summary
Project
Family cinema & entertainment room
Audio
Meridian 5.2 digital active system
Front Speakers
3 � Meridian DSP640.2
Subwoofers
2 � Meridian DSW600 in-wall
Theatre Interface
Meridian 271 Digital Theatre Controller
AV Processing
Anthem AVM 70
Projector
Sony VPL-VW790 4K Laser
Screen
Acoustically transparent projection screen
Movie Server
Kaleidescape Strato S 4K
Control
Control4
Blinds
Automated Lutron blinds
Lighting
Control4 / architectural LED lighting
Interior Design
Sally O'Connor
Additional Seating
Bar stools forming informal second viewing tier
Bar
Integrated drinks refrigeration and low-level lighting
Equipment
Dedicated cinema rack
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Planning a Home Cinema in Yorkshire?
Inspire Audio Visual designs and installs dedicated cinemas and family media rooms throughout Yorkshire and across the UK. Not every cinema needs rows of reclining seats or the maximum possible number of surround channels. The starting point should be how you actually want to use the room. From there, we can engineer the projection, audio, lighting, blinds, control and interior technology around you.
**Because the best cinema room isn't necessarily the most technically extreme. It's the one everyone wants to spend time in.**
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