Achieving the best audio for your home cinema

Home Cinemas allow you to truly experience films in the way the filmmakers intended. Through audio and displays, you can immerse yourself in the comfort of your own home. The audio is especially important to do so, so the quality of your speakers is paramount to the feel of your room.

We recently sat down with Paul from Artcoustic to tell us more about how important audio is and how to make the most of it through your home cinema.

Who are Artcoustic?

They are a specialist Danish speaker brand that design and manufacture award-winning speakers for private homes and commercial spaces. They influence our auditory senses, with products to complement every environment thanks to a fully customisable modular format that emits superior, true, and uniform sound, elevating the auditory experience to new heights.

How should audio make you feel?

Audio can be used by directors to manipulate their audience and prolong their emotions and can affect their subconscious. It’s incredibly powerful when used correctly, and especially when used so subtly that you don’t notice that it is there but will always be noticed if it’s wrong. Images show you what is happening, but sound gives the context.

When designing a home cinema how do you approach putting the sound in?

Look at the room itself and the space, not what is going in. Look at the door and window positioning, where they want the seating to be. Ensure that the building foundations are correct before doing anything.
This gives you the best starting point to figure out the number and size of speakers needed, what amplifier to use, how many subwoofers, what display is best.

What makes audio sound best?

This varies from room to room. Speaker angles will always depend on the seating position which changes from room to room. From this, the speaker dynamics are important. Some speakers won’t work in certain distances and dynamic ranges, so they are able to advise on which are best.
Subwoofers are also key. Ensuring they are in the correct place, has enough low frequencies and is loud enough for the room and that it has enough outlets for the speakers so that the sound isn’t compromised.

Artcousics and Indigo Zest

We love working with Artcousic for cinema room projects. We work in very similar ways, starting to access the current room and calculating what products and features would work best to make the most of the space, ensuring that no two cinema rooms are alike. Working out these key features towards the start of the project allows us to build the foundations of the project. Seating position, number of speakers, Subwoofers, the rough position of speakers and then we can work through the processes to make the most of your space!

Find out more about how we built our showroom here or check out the full interview with Paul below!

Top ways to secure your home with Control4

Keeping your family safe whilst in you are in the house as well as when you are away is paramount to all homeowners. There are many options available to do this. Armed alarms, security cameras, access control and door entry solutions to name a few. But making it work seamlessly for you and your family whilst managing all these options via multiple apps and buttons can become complicated and time-consuming. Here we look at the options from Control4.

Integration into Control4

With Control4 there are endless possibilities for integrating a security system into your home. With so many devices to choose from, no matter the size or amount of buildings/land you’re looking to secure, you can!

Being controlled by Control4, it’s even easier for you to have simple control of your system! Alarming, monitoring, and adjusting your home from the dedicated touchscreen or control points placed throughout your home or using the mobile app on your phone. Wherever you are in the world, you are in control!

Home Security Features

With the number of devices compatible, there are many features you can make the most of to protect your home.

Alarms & Alerts

Control4 can alert you and raise the alarm if any “security zone” changes state. (For example, if a door or window is opened). This is done through notifications to your mobile app or through the touch interfaces placed throughout your home, which automatically detect when you’re home and change to the security status screen when arming or disarming for ease of use.

Intercoms

Intercoms are an integral part of your security! Not only to allow deliveries or guests to notify you that they are out the front of your property but can also be used to make announcements throughout your home (For example, announcing that dinner is ready). Control4 makes this easier than ever to use these. Through their touch interfaces or mobile app, you can view live feeds of your front door, communicate with visitors and even let them in all through one, easy to control system.

Door locks and Sensors

Using SMART Locks and Sensors compatible with Control4, we can automate your home, so you know exactly when something opens. Each lock, door, and sensor are marked with an icon that shows the locked/unlocked and open/closed states, as well as a battery indicator. Meaning from your touch interfaces or mobile phone, you can see the current status of your home.

Cameras

If you have security cameras, you can view their video feeds on your touchscreen, TV, or your Control4 app. Cameras can be installed anywhere you would like to monitor activity. From outside entrances and interior rooms such as a baby’s room. You can also use more cameras to give multiple angles of the same location to make sure the area is fully covered (for example in your garage).

Mockupancy

A type of “occupancy simulation.” Control4 can keep track of all lighting, blinds, and video entertainment while you’re at home so that when you are away. Control4 can simulate those behaviours to make it appear as someone is home. To an outside observer, it will look just like you’re home, watching your favourite shows and turning lights on and off at the expected times.

Control4 is an amazing way for you to add security to your home and so much more. At IndigoZest, we are a Diamond Level Control4 dealer within the UK, so get in touch today to find out how we can help give you control of your home!

Journey towards your Home Cinema

The IndigoZest showroom at the Sky House Design Centre now has an exciting new addition: a purpose built immersive cinema room experience. Our new home cinema demo suite was designed, installed and commissioned by our team at IndigoZest and features some of the finest home cinema products available on the market. Creating a home cinema that delivers deep, immersive visuals and detailed, huge sound is no small task.

In this blog we want to bring you along on our journey of designing, building and commissioning a home cinema just like the one at our show facility. When you are ready to bring the full cinema experience into your home, you can be confident IndigoZest have the expertise, understanding and most importantly – passion to deliver.

Consultation

When deciding on which room to use for your home cinema it is important to consider the size of the room, the shape of the room and the height of the ceiling. Typically, when we are creating a home cinema, we create a ‘room within a room’. This allows for the room to be sound proofed and limit the spread of sound ‘leaking’ into adjoining rooms as well as ensuring optimal speaker placement and viewing angles to be created for all viewers.

Depending on the size of the space available and the customers’ requirements for number of seats/viewers we will begin to plan the seating layout and types of seating required. There really are no limits to the seating configurations that your home cinema can have. We have installed home cinemas with sofas, bean bags, full cinema seats and any combination of each.

During the design stage it is important to consider the type of viewing that will take place in the home cinema. For example, a home cinema that is intended solely for viewing films will likely have different seating considerations than a home cinema that was being designed for viewing sporting events as well as films. For example, if the cinema was going to be used for viewing sporting events we might want to consider a bar with bar seating towards the back of the space to go alongside the more comfortable sofa style seating at the front of the cinema.

Another important part of the design process is understanding the budget for the home cinema. The IndigoZest team have implemented home cinemas on a wide range of budgets and will be happy to advise on realistic budget expectations.

Lighting can make all the difference to a space, and a Cinema room is the perfect place to encompass every mood from dynamic, ambient and party type scenes. We take time to plan how the space will be lit and the ambience required.

We can get as creative as you like!

In our showroom cinema suite we have colour changing pixel LED linear lighting lined within the acoustic panels, Orluna downlights & uplights beautifully lit to create pools of lights and perfect scallop effects, as well as built-in shelf lighting and striking pendants. These are then combined to create various scenes that can be grouped and integrated into your movie viewing experience.

The control of the home cinema is another essential part of the discussion and IndigoZest are the experts in delivering simple, effective control solutions for any and all rooms in the house – including the home cinema. We are able to showcase both Control4 and Crestron control solutions that completely simplify the set up at the touch of a button. Your experience begins from the moment that you step into your new favourite room.

Calculations and conceptual design

Based on all these design considerations we will create detailed plans for the room including the technical aspects such as speaker specification and placement, screen placement/size, projector placement and specification as well as all other essential technical details that work to tie the home cinema together.

The delivery of content also requires consideration, from streaming movies to watching the big game to your favourite netflix series.

We can also demonstrate the magic of a Kaleidescape media player. Curated from studio masters, Kaleidescape movies are delivered to your private cinema with the highest video quality available, and pure, lossless reproductions of the original motion picture soundtracks, giving you a better experience than some commercial cinemas in the comfort of your own home and as the director intended.

This will offer premium home cinema viewing like no other.

The design stage culminates in full technical drawings of the space including viewing angle diagrams, audio design diagrams as well as full 3D renders so the homeowner can visualise the space.

Final design & build

The initial build stage is where we begin creating the ‘room within a room’ structure as well as creating the framework for any other design features that are to be included. The reason to create a sub structure within the room is to ensure vibrations caused by the cinema audio system do not pass to the main structure meaning audio may be heard in other rooms around the house. This means that not only does the sound of the home cinema not leak into other spaces in the house but it also ensures the audio inside the home cinema can be tuned to give the best possible listening experience to the viewer.

It is during this phase of construction that other design features are considered such as bulkheads around the top of the room for lighting, any recessed shelving or speaker locations and of course the screen location.

It is also essential that the projector location is designed perfectly for a crisp, sharp and immersive picture. Projectors can be hidden and revealed using automatic mounts, if this is the case then the substructure will be built to accommodate any mechanisms being used.

Once the substructure is in it is time to start making sure the cabling is in place. Cabling is at the core of what we at IndigoZest do. We are experts with all aspects of cabling and a home cinema is no different. When the home cinema sub structure is still accessible, we ensure that all cabling is installed.

Firstly, video sources must be cabled to the projector location to ensure the signal path is flawless. As the home cinema can have multiple sources we will carefully design the control rack to cater for the requirements and of course deliver a simple, intuitive control solution for users.

Audio cables are routed to speaker locations from the control rack where amplifiers are located. There are many options for home cinema sound with a huge amount of choices of speakers, amplifiers and configurations of speakers. Whether the system design calls for a 5.1, 7.1, 7.2 or full dolby atmos, the cabling will be installed to allow for this and ensure the signal paths are not affected by any power cables running alongside audio cables.

It is during the cabling stage we will ensure any lighting cables are installed for the lighting design. As mentioned, LED light profiles can make for striking features in home cinemas, so cabling needs to be considered for any lighting that may be being installed in the room. Any floor lights or ceiling downlights are also cabled ready for connection to the control system.

As with all we do at IndigoZest, we design systems to be future ready and adaptable should there be the requirement to adjust or expand the system at a later date.

Calibration & commissioning

The final stages of home cinema installation include installing seating, installing the source technology, connecting speakers, lighting and installing all acoustic treatment panels.

Acoustic treatment panels are designed to control the audio waves in a space and limit audio reflections, refraction and reduce reverberation. This is essential in making sure the viewer is hearing the audio from the speakers as it was meant to be heard and not hearing the room with sound bouncing off hard surfaces or structures.

Once the actual installation of all elements is complete the final stage of the setup process is the tuning and configuring of the system. As with all finely tuned machines, the home cinema must be carefully and precisely configured to ensure the user is getting the absolute maximum from their system.

Part of the final commissioning is the tuning of the audio system. Highly sensitive microphones are set up at key listening positions and sample audio is played to carefully analyze all frequency responses. This is used to tune amplifiers to make sure the final cinema sounds incredible.

The projectors are also tuned to provide optimum performance and the best possible viewing for the user. The IndigoZest team are experts in this field and know just how to get the very best performance out of the various elements of the home cinema. Once all tuning and configuration is done, the IndigoZest technicians make final tweaks and ensure the control solutions are ready for the big unveiling.

Relax & Enjoy

Once the home cinema is complete, you will have the chance to sit down with IndigoZest and have an in depth introduction to your new home cinema. This introduction will give you all the tools needed to enjoy your new home cinema.

Now it’s up to you to get the family together, choose the film and settle in for a truly cinematic experience in the comfort of your own home.

Got more questions about Home Cinemas or to book a demo in our test suite, contact us today or message us on Instagram!