The client for this beautiful looking install didn't have to look too far when he was seeking out an installer to put the system in for him. Because the client in question, Roger, is a successful house builder and Smartcomm had already pre-wired and installed AV systems for several of his company's new-build houses.
"From what I had seen of Smartcomm's work, I knew they were up to the job" says Roger. "I had no need to call in anyone else."
A few weeks prior to the work beginning on the property, Roger called in Smartcomm managing director and system designer Steven Worrell to talk through his requirements. This, of, course, is an ideal situation for a home cinema and multi-room installer, as it's much easier to make plans and run all the cabling before the walls and ceilings go up and the floorboards go down. Even so, with the multi-room system covering the entire ground floor, and the garden, plus several rooms upstairs, and two home cinemas to cater for - the main system downstairs, and a secondary one in the kids' playroom up at the top of the house - there was a lot to think about.
"We sat down and talked about what Roger wanted for himself and his family" says Steven. "Simple things like where the home cinema system was going to go, what other rooms he wanted TVs and audio in, what sort of cabling was needed throughout the house, the lighting. In fact, all the things that go into a well-planned home cinema and multi-room audio system."
"All the time we spent at the beginning talking through what we wanted to do was really important" adds Roger. "A lot of hard work and thought went into the planning and I think the whole job was easier because of that."
Leave it to the experts
Roger knows what makes a good house, but he doesn't pretend to know a great deal about home cinema kit, so he was happy to let Steven take the lead in advising him on what he needed.
"Roger told me that the home cinema room would be used for listening to music as well as watching movies, so we went for a Denon 3805 amplifier" says Steven. "It's a very good all-rounder and there's nothing better on the market at the same price point."
The DVD player is also from Denon, 3910, which, in addition to DVD-Video, can also handle DVD-Audio and SACD discs. The system also includes a Panasonic Nicam VCR for playing back Roger's collection of videos.
The only hitch came when a decision had to be made about the display device. Roger was torn between a projector and a plasma screen. The projector would be great for big movie presentations, but as this would be the main TV room in the house, Roger was not sure whether he wanted to black the room out every time he wanted to watch the news or a soap opera. In the end, he did the sensible thing and went for both. The 42" Hitachi plasma serves up everyday fare for causal viewing, then when there's something special to watch, one press of the button on the Crestron remote control and the Vidikron DLP projector fires up, the projector screen drops down in front of the plasma, and it's Showtime.
"It's the prefect solution" says Steven. "You rarely find that people want to watch everyday TV programmes on a big projector screen, so the plasma is great for that. It's also great for those occasions where you want to enjoy a movie, but you don't want to close all the curtains and dim the lights."
The projector fires at an 80in. Screen Research ClearPix, THXcertified, motorised projection screen. When it's not needed, the screen rolls up into its housing, which is concealed in a void in the maple cabinetry (with walnut inlay) that was custom built to house it, along with the plasma and the front three speakers. The speakers are all from Artcoustic, Diablos for front left and right and surrounds, with a Multi centre channel speaker and a DFS75-55 subwoofer. Roger was sold on them as soon as he saw them in Smartcomm's High Wycombe showroom.
These attractive and great-sounding speakers are wallmounted and so discrete in their appearance. Roger comments, "to look at them, you would never know they were speakers, not even the subwoofer." The screen is acoustically transparent, so it has no effect on the performance of thespeakers when it drops down in front of them.
Automation everywhere
Lighting is controlled by an iLight lighting system, while the home cinema room has a Crestron touch-screen remote to make it all nice and easy to use.
The multi-room audio system is from Living Control, and in addition to the TVs in the main home cinema and the play room, there's another 42" Hitachi plasma in the master bedroom, and a 17" Philips LCD in the kitchen. Even the front gate to the property has a video entry control system.
Roger says he enjoys watching almost anything on the system, but when pushed, he lists the massed battle scenes in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King as his favourite moment.
"The kid's movies are great too, things like Shark Tales and Finding Nemo" he says. "The colour reproduction on those movies is just fantastic."
And since the install was completed, Roger says he and his family have had lots of use out of it.
"We use this room more than we do the main lounge, and we probably have the cinema fired up on the projector two or three times a week" he says. "The whole experience is just great, even better than we hoped it would be. We can just shut the door, sit down as a family, and enjoy it together. It's nice when you spend money on something like this and it turns out to be even better than you thought it was going to be. We love it."