Attic Home Cinema — North London

Projector Home Cinema in a North London Attic

This Crestron-controlled attic home cinema installation in North London showcases a lot of what we do well: everything is hidden away until required, allowing the room to transform from a library and reading room into a cinema at the touch of a button. A hidden projector screen in the window alcove drops down as the projector lowers from the ceiling on a Future Automation lift. The cinema has access to a host of centralised sources including Sky HD and Apple TVs, distributed around the home in addition to the cinema, so recorded television can be enjoyed from the kitchen to the attic alike.

A Room That Changes Function

The brief was a room that works as a library first and a cinema second, with no visible compromise to either. By day the attic is a reading room, lit by retro squirrel-cage bulbs and daylight from the double-aspect windows and glass ceiling. By night the same room becomes a cinema, and the change happens without anyone touching a piece of equipment: the projector descends, the screen drops, the blinds close and the lighting settles into its film scene. When the film ends, the whole sequence reverses and the room returns to its everyday state.

Delivering that transformation depends on treating the room as a single design rather than a collection of products. Projection, screen, speakers, lighting, blinds and sources were all specified together, so every element could either be concealed or be made to earn its place in a library. That combination of home cinema design, calibration, lighting control and Crestron programming runs through each of our core services.

The Attic Challenge

Attic cinema rooms present a specific set of challenges that make them genuinely interesting to design, and this one solves each of them. The sloping ceiling creates asymmetric reflections that a rectangular room does not. Structural limitations often restrict where a projector can be mounted and what screen width is achievable. And the acoustic mass of a sloping roof — typically thinner than an internal floor or wall — means that sound isolation requires more careful thought than in a basement installation. Here the lift sets the projector position, the window alcove takes the screen, and the loudspeakers were chosen for how they behave in an asymmetric space.

Concealed Projection on a Future Automation Lift

The projector is mounted on a motorised Future Automation lift that lowers it from concealment within a custom-built ceiling housing when required and retracts it completely when not in use, leaving the ceiling clean and the room fully functional as a living space. The screen is equally discreet, dropping down in the window alcove only when a film is playing. A visitor who does not know the cinema is there will never find it.

As with every lift we install, the housing, cable route, ventilation and service access were agreed at the drawing stage. More on Future Automation lifts →

Artcoustic Surround Sound

Hidden Artcoustic speakers provide outstanding audio, with the front channels concealed behind grilles under the projector screen and in-ceiling speakers handling the rear channels. A substantial Artcoustic subwoofer is easily hidden from view while delivering genuinely impressive bass. The speaker package addresses the acoustic asymmetry of the sloping ceiling by specifying speakers with controlled directional dispersion, focusing sound at the listening position rather than relying on even room reflections for imaging.

Anthem MRX710 and Calibration

The speakers are powered by a critically acclaimed Anthem MRX710 AV receiver, which handles surround decoding and room correction for the whole system. Anthem’s processing is among the best available below the Trinnov tier, and its ARC room correction measures and corrects the frequency response across the listening positions. The system was professionally calibrated alongside the projector itself.

We calibrate every cinema system we install; it is a mandatory part of the handover, not an optional extra. Speaker levels, distances, crossover points and equalisation are measured and set in the finished room, which is especially important in an attic, where the sloping surfaces modify every sound that enters the space. More on our calibration service →

Lighting, Blinds and Crestron Control

The home cinema is enhanced by mood lighting controls, easily selected and adjusted using an Apple iPad. This custom-designed iPad interface allows source selection alongside room calibration and lighting scene recall. Electronic blinds close at the touch of a button across the double-aspect windows and glass ceiling, creating the right viewing environment instantly. Retro squirrel-cage bulbs retain a warm glow even when dimmed to minimum levels.

Crestron manages the room entirely, with the projector lift, screen, lighting and audio all triggered from a single button press. Window coverings are written into the same scenes as the lighting circuits, so a cinema scene dims the lamps and closes every blind together, and the off scene reverses the whole sequence. More on Crestron lighting and shading →

Frequently Asked Questions — North London Attic Cinema

Can a room serve as both a library and a cinema?
Yes. This North London attic functions as a library and reading room during the day, with the projector and screen fully retracted and concealed. At the touch of a button, the projector lowers on a motorised lift and the screen drops down in the window alcove, transforming the room into a cinema.

What acoustic challenges does a sloping attic ceiling present?
A sloping ceiling creates asymmetric sound reflections that a conventional rectangular room does not, and the thinner roof structure typically requires more careful sound isolation than a basement installation. This room addresses both with directionally controlled Artcoustic speakers and careful acoustic design around the roof structure.

Can a projector be completely hidden when not in use?
Yes. This installation uses a motorised Future Automation lift to lower the projector from a concealed housing only when needed, retracting it fully out of sight afterwards — leaving no visible evidence of the cinema system in the room.

Which AV receiver powers the speakers?
The Artcoustic speakers are powered by an Anthem MRX710 AV receiver, which handles the surround decoding and was professionally calibrated to the room alongside the projector.

Home Cinema Installation → · Home Cinema Installer London → · Cinema Acoustic Design → · Artcoustic Speakers → · Future Automation Lifts → · Crestron Lighting & Shading →

Project Gallery

The images below show the attic in both of its roles. The first shows the room set for a film, with the projector screen dropped in the window alcove, and the second shows the lighting scheme with its retro squirrel-cage bulbs dimmed to a warm glow. The third shows the custom iPad interface used to recall lighting scenes, select sources and run the cinema.