Dedicated Home Cinema Room, Derby

An Underground Dedicated Cinema Room with Sony 4K, Artcoustic SL and Crestron Control

This dedicated underground home cinema room near Derby was designed around a single clear objective: the best possible picture and sound quality for the available space and budget, with no compromise on aesthetics or ease of use. A Sony VPL-VW1000ES 4K projector, a Screen Excellence Enlightor 4K acoustically transparent screen, a full Artcoustic SL speaker system and Crestron whole-home control deliver exactly that. This installation was selected by Artcoustic as their Install of the Month.

Sony 4K Projection and Screen Excellence

The Sony VPL-VW1000ES was, at the time of installation, one of the finest residential 4K projectors available — delivering a native 4096 × 2160 resolution image with exceptional contrast, brightness and colour accuracy. It projects onto a 3.8m (150″) Screen Excellence Enlightor 4K acoustically transparent screen, chosen specifically for its optical compatibility with 4K projectors and its acoustic transparency, which allows the entire front sound stage to sit directly behind the screen in a custom-built false wall. The room is underground, which removes the challenge of ambient light entirely and allows the projector to operate at its full contrast capability.

Artcoustic SL Speaker System

The speaker package is built around Artcoustic’s SL range — a system designed for flush installation and finished in black to blend with the dark room interior. The front stage comprises three Artcoustic 180-43SL speakers and two 180-43 subwoofers, positioned in the false wall void behind the screen. Four Artcoustic 40-30SL on-wall speakers — just 67mm deep — handle the rear and surround channels, finished in black and mounted at the correct height and angle for optimum surround imaging. The system is driven by a Pioneer Elite home cinema receiver, providing high-quality amplification across all channels. The result is a front sound stage of considerable quality and a surround presentation that places the listener at the centre of the audio field.

Installation

Design

Calibration

Treatments

Seating

Acoustic Design

The false wall, built by our own carpentry team and finished in acoustically transparent fabric, conceals the front speaker array and allows the room to be tuned without visible acoustic treatments. The underground location provides natural isolation from external noise — a significant advantage in dedicated cinema design — and the dark interior finishes and fabric-covered surfaces contribute to the room’s acoustic neutrality. The combination of a well-designed speaker system and a carefully considered room environment produces a result that consistently outperforms rooms with more expensive equipment in less considered acoustic spaces.

Crestron Whole-Home Control

The cinema is integrated into the home’s wider Crestron control system, with the room managed via an iPad running a bespoke Crestron interface. One button press starts the projector, selects the source — Sky HD, Sony 4K Blu-ray, Apple TV — and adjusts the room environment. The Crestron Digital Media system handles 4K video distribution throughout the home, allowing the same sources to be enjoyed on 40″ screens in guest bedrooms with identical simplicity. The system is designed to be used by guests as easily as by the homeowner.

The Result

A dedicated underground cinema room that delivers a genuinely theatrical experience in a domestic setting. The combination of Sony 4K laser projection, a Screen Excellence screen and an Artcoustic SL speaker system in a well-designed acoustic environment produces picture and sound quality that rewards the most demanding content — and a Crestron control system that makes using it as simple as it should be.