Do you install home cinemas outside the UK?

Yes. We have completed cinema installations in Dubai, Nigeria, Portugal, France, the Alps and beyond. Our pre-build methodology means every system is fully assembled and tested in our UK workshop before shipping.

Luxury Home Cinema Installation

Q: How much does a home cinema cost in the UK?

Custom Controls home cinema installations range from £50,000 to £1 million. This covers the full scope — design, acoustic specification, projection, audio, Crestron and Lutron integration, seating and professional calibration.

Q: What room size do I need for a home cinema?

A meaningful dedicated home cinema can be achieved in a room as small as 4m x 5m, though 5m x 7m or larger gives significantly more flexibility for screen size, seating rows and acoustic treatment.

Award-winning home cinema design, acoustic engineering, 4K and laser projection, Dolby Atmos and IMAX Enhanced. London, Cheshire, Dubai and worldwide. Since 1998.

There is No Substitute for the Real Thing

A great home cinema is not about having a large television and a soundbar. It is about creating an environment — a room designed from the ground up where every element, from the shape of the walls to the position of each speaker, exists to serve a single purpose: the most immersive, technically perfect film and audio experience it is possible to create in a private home.

Custom Controls have been designing and installing home cinemas since 1998. In that time we have built rooms that range from intimate four-seat screening rooms in London apartments to an 18-seat IMAX Enhanced cinema in Dubai — one of the finest private screening rooms in the world, with a 6.4 metre projector screen, a 13.2.14 Dolby Atmos speaker configuration, and a construction budget of £750,000. Every project between those two points has been approached with the same rigour: acoustic design first, technology in service of the experience, and an uncompromising standard of finish.

We are five-time Crestron Integration Award winners and have received industry recognition for our cinema installations across the UK and internationally. Our portfolio spans dedicated basement screening rooms, garage conversions, loft cinemas, dedicated new-build cinema suites and living room cinema systems. What they share is a level of design, engineering and finish that sets them apart from anything produced by a company that treats cinema as a secondary service.

Acoustic Design and Calibration — The Foundation of Everything

Two elements separate a genuinely great home cinema from one that is merely technically impressive: the design of the room it is installed in, and the calibration of the system once installation is complete. Everything else — projector, screen, speaker brand, amplifier — performs within the limits that these two elements set. Get both right and even a modest equipment specification will sound and look extraordinary. Get either wrong and no amount of hardware quality will compensate. Our acoustic design process begins before a single piece of equipment is specified. Room dimensions, speaker layout, isolation requirements and acoustic treatment are all designed using acoustic modelling software and documented in full construction drawings — giving the acoustic contractor a precise specification rather than a rough guide. Our calibration service completes the process — using Trinnov Altitude, Dirac Live, Anthem ARC and ISF-standard video calibration tools to set every system parameter to the specific room it occupies. We calibrate every system we install. It is not optional.

Our Portfolio — A Selection of Projects

We have completed home cinema installations across London, Cheshire, the Home Counties, Dubai, Nigeria, Portugal, France and beyond. A small selection:

IMAX Enhanced Cinema, Dubai — 11m x 7m room, 6.4m projector screen, 13.2.14 Dolby Atmos, 18-seat capacity. £750,000. One of the finest private screening rooms in the world.
Home Cinema, Dubai — 3.5m projection screen, 17-channel Artcoustic audio system, Anthem amplification, SIM2 Lumis 3DS projector. Room designed from scratch for optimal acoustics.
Home Theater, Dubai — 5m+ curved screen, Artcoustic cinema speaker system, Sony 4K projector, star-effect ceiling, Crestron lighting integration. Eight-seat capacity.
Trinnov Home Cinema, Africa — £250,000 world-class installation featuring Trinnov Altitude processor, one of our most technically ambitious projects.
Home Cinema, Hampstead — Classical design for a ten-seat room in north London. Fibre optic ceiling, fabric-covered stud walls, Crestron lighting and full Dolby Atmos.
View the full portfolio →

Design

Calibration

Treatments

Seating

Theatres

Cinema Ideas

The Process — How We Build a Home Cinema

Every Custom Controls home cinema begins the same way: with an honest conversation about the room, the budget and the experience the client is trying to create. Everything else follows from that.

Stage 1 — Consultation and Brief

We visit the property — or meet at our London or Cheshire office — to understand the space, the brief and the budget. The key questions at this stage: Is this a dedicated room or a dual-purpose space? Is the room already built, or are we designing from scratch? Is sound isolation to the rest of the property a requirement? What is the seating capacity? What level of finish is expected? Is integration with a broader smart home system required?

We do not use a standard product package or tiered pricing menu. Every cinema we build is bespoke, and the specification is determined by the room and the brief, not by a catalogue.

Stage 2 — Acoustic Design

This is where most home cinema installations — and most home cinema installers — go wrong. Acoustics are not an afterthought. They are the foundation of everything that follows. The shape of the room, the dimensions of the ceiling, the position of the speaker array, the angle of the rear wall, the choice and placement of absorption and diffusion panels — all of these decisions must be made before a single piece of equipment is specified, because equipment choices depend on the acoustic environment they are going into.

We design our rooms using acoustic modelling software, and we produce full construction drawings — including stud wall specifications, cavity depths for concealed speakers, acoustic underlay and carpet specifications, and damping requirements for walls, floor and ceiling. These drawings go to the acoustic contractor and joiner as a precise specification, not a rough guide.

The three acoustic principles we design around are: minimising room modes (the standing waves caused by parallel surfaces that produce bass unevenness), controlling early reflections (the first sounds to arrive at the listening position after the direct signal, which blur imaging and reduce clarity), and optimising reverberation time (the decay of sound after it stops — too long and the room sounds muddy; too short and it sounds harsh and fatiguing).

Stage 3 — 3D Renders and Client Approval

Before any construction begins, we produce photorealistic 3D renders of the completed room — showing the seating arrangement, screen position, wall treatments, ceiling design, lighting and soft furnishings. Clients see exactly what they are getting before a single wall is opened. Changes at render stage cost nothing. Changes during construction cost considerably more.

Stage 4 — Construction Management

We manage the construction phase — coordinating acoustic contractors, joiners, plasterers, electricians and soft furnishing suppliers. We can work with our own trusted trades or alongside the client’s existing main contractor.

Stage 5 — Equipment Installation

Once the room is complete, the AV equipment is installed. Projector, screen, amplification, sources, rack equipment, control system, lighting — installed and cabled to our standard, which means concealed cable runs, proper strain relief, labelled terminations and a rack build that can be opened and understood by anyone who needs to work on it in the future.

Stage 6 — Calibration

Calibration is where a home cinema becomes what it was designed to be. We use professional calibration tools — including Dirac Live, Trinnov Altitude processing and ISF video calibration — to set speaker levels, distances and equalization, optimise bass management, and calibrate display settings for accurate colour reproduction and correct gamma tracking.

Stage 7 — Handover and Support

We provide a full demonstration of the completed system, a written guide to operation, and ongoing support. Our proactive remote monitoring means we are aware of any issues before the client is. We are still maintaining cinema installations we completed in the early 2000s.

The Technology — What We Specify

Projection

We specify 4K laser projectors from Sony, JVC and SIM2 depending on room size, ambient light levels and budget.

Audio

We design and install Dolby Atmos speaker systems as standard for dedicated cinema rooms. Speaker brands we regularly specify include Artcoustic, Steinway Lyngdorf, Bowers & Wilkins Custom Theater and Origin Acoustics. For amplification and processing, we specify Anthem AVM and MCA series for most installations and the Trinnov Altitude processor for our most technically ambitious projects.

Source Material

For clients who want the absolute best, Kaleidescape is the definitive answer — a movie server that stores and plays back films at full uncompressed Blu-ray quality, with lossless Dolby Atmos audio that streaming cannot match.

Lighting and Control

We integrate all cinema lighting with Lutron lighting control — allowing scenes to be recalled automatically when a film starts, pauses or stops. Cinema control is integrated with Crestron on most of our installations.

Types of Home Cinema We Install

Dedicated Cinema Rooms

A room designed exclusively for cinema — acoustically treated, light-controlled, with fixed seating and a large projection screen. Read more about our design process →

Home Theatre Rooms

A dedicated room designed to the standards of a small professional theatre — tiered seating, full acoustic treatment, premium speaker systems and the highest-specification projection and display. Read more about home theatre installations →

Living Room Cinemas

A high-quality AV system integrated into a living room or family room without the full acoustic treatment of a dedicated space. Typically built around a large flat panel display or a short-throw projector, with a premium soundbar or discreet speaker system.

Basement and Garage Conversions

Some of our finest cinemas have been built in basements and garages — spaces that offer the natural acoustic isolation and light control that above-ground rooms rarely provide.

Golf Simulator Rooms

A growing number of our clients combine a cinema room with a golf simulator — a motorised impact screen, 4K projection and Crestron integration allowing the room to switch between functions at the touch of a button. Read more about golf simulator installation →

IMAX Enhanced

IMAX Enhanced is the highest residential cinema certification available. We have designed and installed IMAX Enhanced certified rooms. Our Dubai IMAX cinema — 6.4 metre screen, 18 seats, £750,000 — is widely considered one of the finest private screening rooms in existence.

International

We have installed home cinemas in Dubai, Nigeria, Portugal, France, the Alps and beyond. Read more about our international service →

Home Cinema Installers by Location

Inherited a Home Cinema That No Longer Performs as It Should?

A significant proportion of our work is renovating and recalibrating cinema rooms installed by other companies — or rooms we built years ago whose calibration has simply drifted over time. Speakers age, projector sources drift, soft furnishings change a room’s acoustic absorption, and equipment that was current when installed gets left behind by newer audio and video formats. We take over existing cinema rooms, fix what is wrong, upgrade what has aged out of date, and fully recalibrate to bring the room back to the standard it deserves — backed by ongoing remote monitoring so problems are caught early. Read more about our system takeover, repair and renovation service →

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a home cinema cost in the UK?

Our home cinema installations range from £50,000 to £1 million. This covers the full scope — design, acoustic specification, projection, audio, Crestron and Lutron integration, seating and professional calibration.

What room size do I need for a home cinema?

A meaningful dedicated cinema can be achieved in a room as small as 4m x 5m, though 5m x 7m or larger gives significantly more flexibility. Ceiling height matters — a minimum of 2.7m is preferable.

What is Dolby Atmos and do I need it?

Dolby Atmos is an object-based surround sound format that adds height channels to conventional surround sound. For a dedicated cinema room, Atmos is now the standard we recommend.

Do you design the room as well as install the equipment?

Yes. We cover the complete process — acoustic design, 3D renders for client approval, construction management, AV installation, calibration and handover.

Can the cinema be integrated with my smart home system?

Yes. We integrate all cinema installations with Crestron and Lutron as standard — a single button press dims the lights, lowers the screen, warms the projector and queues the source.

Can you take over and fix a cinema room installed by another company?

Yes — this is a significant part of what we do. We assess the existing room and equipment, identify what is causing it to underperform, and carry out the rewiring, reconfiguration, upgrades and recalibration needed to bring it up to the standard the room deserves.

Home Cinema Installation