Home Cinema Installer London — Design, Installation & Calibration

Home Cinema Design and Installation for London Properties

Custom Controls are London’s most experienced dedicated home cinema installer, with over 25 years of cinema room design, installation and acoustic engineering across the capital. Our London portfolio spans basement cinemas in Kensington, Pimlico and Baker Street townhouses, living room cinemas in Belgravia, Chelsea and Kensington, and attic cinemas in North London and Hampstead. Unique in the EMEA – 5 x Crestron Award Winners. Dealer of Distinction.

Our London office is in the City, EC2V. Our engineers and acoustic designers are active across Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Kensington, Belgravia, Notting Hill, Hampstead, St John’s Wood, Primrose Hill, Marylebone, Holland Park, Richmond, Wimbledon, Fulham, Barnes and all London postcodes. Every room is designed, installed, programmed and calibrated by our own team, and supported by the same engineers after handover.

Home Cinema

Cinema Design

Calibration

Acoustics

Seating

Home Cinema Installation in London — The Specific Challenges

Installing a home cinema in a London property presents specific challenges that do not apply to country houses or new builds. London properties are dense — terraced townhouses, mansion block apartments and converted Victorian buildings sit immediately adjacent to neighbours, with shared walls, floors and ceilings that transmit sound readily. The acoustic isolation requirement is more demanding in London than almost anywhere else. Planning constraints on listed buildings — common across Mayfair, Belgravia and Kensington conservation areas — limit what structural work is possible. And London basements, while ideal cinema rooms, are often already in use and require careful coordination with existing services. We have been navigating these constraints for 25 years.

London basements are acoustically ideal for cinema installation — the structural mass of surrounding soil provides inherent isolation, and the depth below the living areas gives bass energy a significant buffer before it can reach any shared surfaces. We have installed dedicated basement cinema rooms across Mayfair, Belgravia, Chelsea, Kensington and Notting Hill. For London apartments where a dedicated room is not available, a living room cinema with a retractable screen or a concealed Artcoustic speaker system delivers a genuinely cinematic experience without sacrificing the room when not in use.

Attics are the third common London option, and they bring their own problems: sloping ceilings create asymmetric reflections, structure limits where a projector can hang and how wide a screen can be, and a roof is usually lighter than an internal floor, so isolation needs more thought than in a basement. Our North London attic cinema solves all three with a projector on a motorised lift, a screen in the window alcove and speakers chosen for controlled dispersion.

The Technology — What We Specify for London Cinemas

4K laser projection — Sony and JVC 4K laser projectors. Laser maintains rated brightness for 20,000 hours without degradation, ideal for London clients who use their cinema daily. Where a room is also a living space, a large OLED or LED television is often the better choice, because it stays bright and usable with the lights on. Read our projector guide →

Screen Excellence acoustically transparent screens — fixed-frame on all dedicated London cinema rooms, allowing the front speaker array to sit directly behind the screen with audio and video spatially aligned. In living rooms we use drop-down acoustically transparent screens that retract into a ceiling cassette. Read our screen guide →

Artcoustic speaker systems — modular, scalable, available in any finish to match the room’s fabric walls, capable of Dolby Atmos configurations from 5.1.2 to 13.2.14. Cabinets and grilles can be specified in any NCS or RAL colour, and Artcoustic’s high sensitivity makes reference-level dynamics achievable with comparatively modest amplifier power. Read more →

Trinnov and Anthem processing — Trinnov Altitude for our most demanding London cinema installations; Anthem MRX with ARC Genesis for mid-range. Room correction calibration is standard on every installation.

Kaleidescape — Kaleidescape movie servers on the majority of our London cinema installations, delivering lossless Dolby Atmos and full uncompressed 4K HDR. Films are downloaded to local storage before playback, so there is no buffering and no dependency on the internet connection while a film is playing.

Crestron control and lighting integration — every London cinema is integrated with Crestron control, with lighting on Crestron or Lutron. One button press dims the lights, starts the projector, selects the source and lowers the screen.

Cinema Seating and Room Layout

Seating is specified as part of the room design rather than chosen afterwards. Row positions, riser heights and the space each seat needs to recline are fixed during the layout phase, so every seat has a clear sightline to the screen and sits within the area the speaker system has been calibrated for. We supply Vismara Design cinema seating alongside the other ranges we specify, and our Hampstead cinema uses ten Cineak Fortuny seats: three motorised double sofas on the front row and four individual motorised recliners behind. In less formal rooms, such as our North London living room cinema, a wrap-around sofa with bean bags for occasional seating can suit the room better than rows of recliners.

How We Deliver a London Cinema Project

Every project starts with a consultation and a survey of the room, followed by a full design: screen size and seating distance, speaker positions, acoustic treatment, lighting circuits and the control interface. On dedicated rooms we build an acoustic model at the design stage, so treatment positions that control standing waves and early reflections are set before construction rather than guessed at afterwards. The equipment rack is pre-built and tested at our workshop before it arrives on site, which matters in London, where access is constrained and time on site is expensive.

Fabric walls conceal the speakers and acoustic treatment. Where a speaker sits behind the finish we specify an open-weave acoustic cloth chosen alongside the speaker, so it does not dull high frequencies, and any panel hiding equipment that may need future access is built removable, so a service visit never means cutting into a finished wall. The room is then calibrated in its finished state: speaker levels, distances, crossover points and equalisation are measured and set, and height channels get the same care as the main channels.

Home Cinema Calibration London

We calibrate every London cinema installation — and offer professional calibration as a standalone service for rooms installed by other companies. Our calibration service uses Dirac Live, Trinnov Optimizer and ISF-standard video calibration tools. A London cinema room that has never been professionally calibrated is typically delivering 60–70% of what the hardware is capable of.

Home Cinema Service, Renovation & Maintenance London

We provide ongoing service and maintenance for London cinema rooms we have installed and for rooms installed by other companies, covering: annual system health check and calibration review; projector laser health monitoring; Kaleidescape server management; Crestron and Lutron programming updates; fault diagnosis and repair — remote where possible, on-site when required; and priority response on annual maintenance contracts. For rooms that have fallen behind current audio and video formats, or that were installed to a standard we would not put our own name to, we also offer full takeover, renovation and recalibration. Read more about our system takeover, repair and renovation service →

London Home Cinema Projects

London cinema rooms rarely start with a blank space. The projects below cover the three situations we meet most often — basements, living rooms and attics — and each one is described in full on its own page.

Basement home cinema with Crestron touchpanel control, Baker Street, London

Case Study: Basement Cinema, Baker Street

One of our earliest documented cinema rooms, in the same Baker Street townhouse as our award-winning whole-home Crestron system — the first Crestron Digital Media installation in the UK and winner of the 2010 Crestron Integration Award for Most Innovative Control Solution. A Bowers & Wilkins CM9 speaker system, a Denon AVR and centralised Sky HD, Kaleidescape, ArabSat and Apple TV sources serve the room, all run from a Crestron 6-inch radio touchpanel that also controls lighting and heating. It reportedly has the most daily use of any cinema we have installed: the children use it every day when the family is in residence, and the clients watch films there after bedtime.

The room’s compact scale helps. The Bowers & Wilkins CM9 speakers create an immersive experience that a larger room with the same equipment would not produce, and a Panasonic 50-inch HD plasma carries the picture.

Because the room sits within the same townhouse as our award-winning whole-home Crestron installation, it draws on the same centralised sources as every other room in the house, so nothing needs to be duplicated for the cinema. Read the full case study →

TV-based basement cinema with bespoke oak cabinetwork, Pimlico, London

Case Study: TV-Based Basement Cinema, Pimlico

A compact basement cinema in a Pimlico townhouse, used for football with friends, films with the family and everyday television. A 75-inch Samsung sits in a recess in bespoke oak cabinetwork, with a custom-width Artcoustic speaker beneath it, matching on-wall rears and a subwoofer built into the cabinet below. An Anthem AVR with ARC room correction calibrates every seat, and the equipment rack sits behind a tall oak door beside the TV, so nothing is on show.

A larger projector-based system would have dominated the room, and a flat panel suits a space used as much for daytime sport and everyday viewing as for films: it stays bright and usable with the lights on and needs no ceiling-mounted projector.

The same source can be routed to the kitchen so not a moment is missed during a game, and the room seats eight, all controlled from the same Crestron iPad interface as the rest of the house. Read the full case study →

Attic home cinema, a library by day, North London

Case Study: Attic Cinema, North London

A library by day and a cinema by night. At the touch of a button the projector lowers from a ceiling housing on a Future Automation lift, the screen drops in the window alcove, electric blinds close across the double-aspect windows and glass ceiling, and the lighting settles into its film scene. Hidden Artcoustic speakers and an Anthem MRX710 AV receiver with ARC room correction deliver the sound, and Crestron runs the whole sequence from a custom iPad interface.

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.

The cinema has access to centralised sources including Sky HD and Apple TVs, distributed around the home, so recorded television can be enjoyed from the kitchen to the attic alike. Read the full case study →

Hampstead home cinema room with acoustically transparent screen and curtains, London

Case Study: Dedicated Cinema, Hampstead

A dedicated cinema just south of the Heath, designed to suit the classical interior of the rest of the house. A dado rail runs around the room with patterned fabric below and plain fabric above, and theatrical curtains dress the screen wall. Behind the finish sit nine surround speakers, two subwoofers and four Dolby Atmos height channels, with the front channels and subwoofers in a void behind a 4m Screen Excellence acoustically transparent screen lit by a Sony 4K laser projector. A fibre optic star ceiling stays lit when Crestron dims every other circuit, turning the ceiling into a night sky.

The client wanted a cinema that fitted the interior design of the rest of the home, classy and understated rather than contemporary, so the design cues came from the house itself: a dado rail around the room with different fabrics above and below, and fabric curtains on the screen wall that add a sense of theatre while improving the acoustics.

Seating is Cineak Fortuny, with three double sofas on the front row and four individual seats on the rear row, all motorised with independent footrests and headrests. The room is part of a fuller Crestron home entertainment system with iPad control and Crestron lighting. Read the full write-up →

Living room cinema with the drop-down screen lowered, North London

Case Study: Living Room Cinema, North London

A tricky window layout ruled out a fixed screen, so a 150-inch Screen Excellence acoustically transparent drop-down screen descends from a ceiling cassette in front of the speakers, lit by a Sony 4K projector. The Artcoustic 7.1.2 system uses the same SL Evolve 8-4 speaker for all seven main channels, with Architect 4-2 height channels and an Artcoustic Sub2, powered by an Audio Control AVR. Crestron controls the lighting, blackout blinds and AV from an iPad, and when the screen is retracted the room reads as a contemporary living room.

We designed the whole room, from seating and lighting to colour choices and carpet, so that it functions as a family living room by day and a cinema by night, and because the screen drops down there was no need to build a false wall for the front channel speakers.

The Sony 4K projector delivers 2,200 lumens, and the same Artcoustic SL Evolve speaker is used for every main channel so the soundstage stays completely coherent, with the front speakers sitting behind the screen when the cinema is in use. Read the full write-up →

Kensington living room cinema extension with Artcoustic on-wall speakers, London

Case Study: Living Room Cinema Extension, Kensington

A modern Kensington extension where the white, clean-lined interior ruled out free-standing speakers and the client’s standards ruled out ceiling speakers. Artcoustic on-wall front left, centre and right speakers and an on-wall subwoofer, finished to match the room, are paired with a 55-inch Samsung TV. The Denon AVR, Sky HD and Blu-ray player sit in an adjoining room, and the whole home is controlled from the Crestron app on an iPad.

The TV sends its audio to the Denon AVR for full surround decoding, so streaming services, satellite TV and physical media all benefit from the same high-quality sound, and the only visible equipment in the extension is the 55-inch Samsung and the Artcoustic speakers.

The clean lines and white colour scheme ruled out free-standing speakers, and the client’s insistence on top sound quality ruled out ceiling speakers, so on-wall Artcoustic was the answer. It shows that a high-end home cinema can be installed in almost any room without leaving a visual trace. Read the full case study →

Chelsea duplex living room cinema with Artcoustic soundbar, London

Case Study: Living Room Cinema, Chelsea

A duplex apartment in Chelsea where the brief was very high-end surround sound with the least visible equipment possible. A Samsung 75-inch QLED carries a custom-width Artcoustic soundbar, with colour-matched on-wall surrounds, an 8-inch subwoofer and an Anthem AVR with room EQ correction. The TV and soundbar sit on a Future Automation mount that pulls out and rotates, so the picture and sound can be turned to face any seat, and Crestron runs the system from a single remote.

After seeing our recent City apartment project, the client quickly settled on the approach: a Samsung Q Series TV, an Artcoustic soundbar and colour-matched on-wall surround speakers, an Anthem AVR and an 8-inch subwoofer, chosen to leave as little visible equipment as possible.

A living room cinema is a different brief from a dedicated cinema room: the performance has to fit into a space that also works as a beautiful living environment, and the modular design means the system can be scaled to suit any room. Read the full case study →

Basement home cinema room in a Kensington mews house, London

Case Study: Basement Cinema, Kensington

This basement room in a Kensington mews house had to work as a reception room by day and a Dolby Atmos cinema by night, with no visible concession to either. A Samsung 75-inch TV was chosen over a projector, because a direct-view panel holds its contrast in a room with ambient light and, at 75 inches, the screen fills the field of view at the available seating distance.

The eight-speaker Artcoustic package is built into the architecture: SL24-12 front left and right speakers in bespoke cabinetwork flanking the TV, a bespoke-width HSPL soundbar as the centre channel, a Control 3 subwoofer in the right-hand bookcase behind acoustic cloth, SL8-4 rears colour-matched to the walls and Architect 4-2 height channels colour-matched to the ceiling. An Anthem MRX-1120 AVR handles amplification and decoding, with ARC room correction calibrating the room after installation.

Custom Artcoustic absorber panels above the Chesterfield sofa, printed with bespoke artwork across three panels, deal with the rear wall reflection that would otherwise compromise surround imaging, and even the bean bag under the staircase works as a bass trap. Crestron controls the sources, sound and lighting from a single interface, so the reception room works as a cinema when needed. Read the full case study →

Living room home cinema in Belgravia, London, with plastered-in speakers

Case Study: Living Room Cinema, Belgravia

This Belgravia living room is part of a larger whole-house Crestron project, and it is our most extreme example of the invisible cinema. The 75-inch Samsung TV is the only piece of equipment on view: the Sonance 5.1 system is plastered into the ceiling, and even the subwoofer is plastered in, so there are no grilles and no visible hardware of any kind.

Sky HD receivers, Apple TVs, Blu-ray players and the Denon AVR all sit in the property’s AV hub in the basement and are distributed through Crestron Digital Media. An HDMI wall input plate lets a local device play in the room or be sent to any other room in the house, and the adjoining sitting room is a second audio zone that can be ganged with the cinema or run independently.

A Crestron TPS-6X wireless touchpanel runs the TV, lighting, blinds, heating and air conditioning, and one button press launches the cinema, routes the source and sets the room. When the TV is off and the touchpanel is put away, there is no evidence that a surround sound system exists in the room. Read the full case study →

Frequently Asked Questions — Home Cinema London

Can you install a home cinema in a London townhouse?
Yes — and it is one of our most common London project types. London townhouses offer basement spaces that are acoustically ideal for cinema installation. We have installed dedicated basement cinema rooms in Mayfair, Belgravia, Chelsea, Kensington and Notting Hill.

Can a home cinema be installed in a listed London property?
Yes, though it requires careful planning. For listed London properties we use wireless Lutron lighting control, plan cable routes to avoid damage to historic fabric, and work with conservation officers where structural work is required.

Can a London living room work as a home cinema?
Yes. Our Belgravia living room cinema uses a 75-inch Samsung TV with Sonance 5.1 speakers plastered into the ceiling, the subwoofer plastered in too, and all source equipment in a basement AV hub. In North London we have fitted a 150-inch acoustically transparent drop-down screen that retracts into a ceiling cassette, so the room reads as a normal living room when the cinema is off.

Do you offer home cinema calibration as a standalone service in London?
Yes. We offer professional home cinema calibration for London cinema rooms installed by any company. Our calibration service uses Dirac Live, Trinnov Optimizer and ISF-standard video calibration tools.

Do you service, renovate and take over home cinemas installed by other companies in London?
Yes. We provide service, maintenance, takeover and renovation for London cinema rooms regardless of who installed them, covering projector health checks, calibration reviews, source equipment and format upgrades, fault rectification and Crestron programming.

Home Cinema Installation → · Home Cinema Installations → · 40 Home Cinema Room Ideas → · Home Cinema Design Details → · Home Cinema Design → · Home Cinema Calibration → · Home Cinema Seating → · Crestron Installer London → · Lutron Installer London → · Smart Home Installer London → · Contact Our London Office →