Pro-Install

The owner of this cinema room has an extra reason to love it – last year it was crowned Best Home Cinema in the £40,000-£100,000 category in the CEDIA Awards. Completed by London/south coast-based pro outfit Pyramid AV, it features native 4K projection and a state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos speaker configuration.

It’s the first dedicated home cinema room that Vince, its owner, has had: 'Like many others, we’ve had others rooms with AV kit installed – but nothing on this scale.' It's part of a self-build property, where the space for a cinema was one of the first areas to be created. 

The room has six seats spread over two tiers, with each one getting uninhibited line of sight to its centre-piece – a 130in, 2.37:1 projector screen that acts as the canvas for a Sony VPL-VW520ES 4K projector.

It's a largescale theatre then, and has the audio to match. A 9.1.6-channel Dolby Atmos Artcoustic array, fed by high-end Trinnov processing and established with guidance from Dolby in the US due to the cinema's angled ceilings, handles soundmixes from the associated 4K BD, Sky Q, Apple and Amazon sources. Power comes from Rotel amplifiers.

The setup is controlled via a wider Control4 network that marshals other zones in the property. 'This was the right choice for us,' says Vince. 'We have AV across the house and a single remote – or smartphone – allows us to control just about every device we have.'

Vince wasted little time in putting his new room to the test with some choice demo favourites. 'Pacific Rim was one of the first we sat and watched. It’s FX-heavy – visually and sonically – and delivered a seat-shaking experience.

'The amount of detail you can hear and the way the sound moves around using Atmos is just incredible. Nic [Pyramid AV MD] has delivered perfection to one of his fussiest customers!'

Sci-fi makes up a large part of Vince's viewing – he ranks Oblivion, Interstellar, Inception, Gravity and Everest as his five film favourites. 'Oblivion in 4K looks and sounds incredible,' he tells us.

Music is getting a lot of play, too. 'Blu-ray audio sounds amazing. As a 1980s' music fan, sticking on some remastered Simple Minds or Tears for Fears brings out so much from these classic albums – they sound so different to vinyl or CD. I think that’s an often overlooked feature.'

Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons are now marked in the diary for movie viewing in the new room. 'But,' says Vince, 'the system is just as good for normal TV viewing – boxset binges are handled in comfort! The quality of the technology, environment and acoustics makes for a truly awesome experience.'