Can you convert a garage into a cinema room in Cheshire?

Yes — and it is one of our most common Cheshire project types. A standard double garage in Cheshire is an excellent cinema room footprint, accommodating a 3.8m screen, four rows of seating and a full Artcoustic Dolby Atmos system. The existing concrete slab provides acoustic mass and the detached structure means no sound reaches the house. We have completed garage cinema conversions across Hale, Alderley Edge, Knutsford and Wilmslow.

How much does a home cinema cost in Cheshire?

A Cheshire garage cinema conversion with 4K laser projection, Dolby Atmos and Crestron integration typically starts from £35,000–£50,000 including construction. A higher specification garden cinema or dedicated room with Trinnov processing, Artcoustic speakers and Kaleidescape typically starts from £60,000–£100,000. We provide detailed, no-obligation quotations for all project sizes.

Do you offer home cinema calibration as a standalone service in Cheshire?

Yes. We offer professional home cinema calibration for Cheshire cinema rooms installed by any company. Our calibration service uses Dirac Live, Trinnov Optimizer and ISF-standard video calibration tools.

Do you service and maintain home cinemas installed by other companies in Cheshire?

Yes. We provide service, maintenance and repair for Cheshire cinema rooms regardless of who installed them — covering projector health checks, calibration reviews, source equipment updates and Crestron programming. Our Didsbury base allows rapid on-site response across all Cheshire postcodes.

Can you build a garden cinema room in Cheshire?

Yes. Garden cinema rooms are one of our most popular Cheshire project types. A purpose-built or converted outbuilding in a Cheshire garden offers acoustic isolation advantages that internal rooms cannot match — no shared walls, no sound transmission path to the house, and the freedom to operate at reference volume at any hour.

Home Cinema Installer Cheshire — Design, Installation & Calibration

Award-winning home cinema design and installation across Cheshire and the North West. Garage conversions, garden cinemas, dedicated rooms and whole-home integration since 1998.

Custom Controls are Cheshire’s most experienced dedicated home cinema installer, with over 25 years of cinema room design, installation and acoustic engineering across the North West. Our Cheshire portfolio is one of the most extensive in the country — from double garage cinema conversions in Hale Barns to dedicated garden cinema rooms in Knutsford, basement cinema rooms in Wilmslow and whole-entertainment-complex builds in Prestbury. We are five-time Crestron Integration Award winners and specialist home cinema designers and installers, based in Didsbury, Manchester.

Cheshire is ideal cinema country. The county’s large detached properties, generous garden footprints and separated outbuildings offer acoustic isolation opportunities that urban properties rarely provide. A double garage in Alderley Edge or a garden studio in Knutsford — properly converted — delivers a cinema room performance level that surpasses most dedicated purpose-built rooms in smaller properties.

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Calibration

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Seating

Treatments

Types of Home Cinema We Install in Cheshire

Garage cinema conversions. The double garage is Cheshire’s most common and most successful cinema room format. A standard Cheshire double garage — approximately 5.5m × 6m — is an excellent cinema room footprint. It accommodates a 3.8m acoustically transparent screen with a front speaker void, four rows of reclining seating, a full Artcoustic Dolby Atmos system and a properly tiered floor without any dimensional compromise. The existing concrete slab provides acoustic mass; the garage door, retained externally, conceals an insulated acoustic wall inside. Our Hale Barns garage conversion and our luxury Cheshire garage cinema are both reference projects for this approach.

Garden cinema rooms. For Cheshire properties with space for a purpose-built garden structure, a garden cinema room is the acoustic ideal — no shared walls, no sound transmission path to the house, complete freedom to operate at reference volume at any hour. Our Knutsford garden cinema — with two glass walls managed by motorised acoustic curtains — is the definitive Cheshire garden cinema reference. The room performs to a level that most internal cinema rooms cannot match, despite its unconventional glass-walled design.

Dedicated basement and internal cinema rooms. For Cheshire properties where garage or garden space is not available or not desired, a dedicated internal cinema room in a spare bedroom, study or basement delivers a full cinema experience without the construction complexity of an outbuilding. We model every internal room acoustically before specifying equipment, ensuring the system performs correctly within the dimensional and structural constraints of the space.

Living room cinema systems. For Cheshire properties where a dedicated cinema room is not the priority, a living room cinema system with a retractable screen, premium Artcoustic soundbar or in-ceiling speaker system and Crestron one-button operation delivers a genuinely cinematic experience in the everyday living room. When the screen is retracted, the room is normal.

The Technology — What We Specify for Cheshire Cinemas

4K laser projection — Sony and JVC. Laser maintains rated brightness for 20,000 hours — critical for Cheshire outbuilding cinema rooms that may experience temperature extremes, where lamp degradation in a cold garage environment was always a significant maintenance issue. Read our projector guide →

Screen Excellence acoustically transparent screens — fixed-frame on all dedicated Cheshire cinema rooms. The front speaker array sits directly behind the screen with audio and video spatially aligned. Read our screen guide →

Artcoustic speaker systems — our primary Cheshire cinema speaker specification. Modular, scalable and available in any finish to match the room’s fabric walls. Read more →

Trinnov and Anthem processing — Trinnov Altitude for our most demanding Cheshire installations; Anthem MRX for mid-range. Room correction calibration on every installation.

Kaleidescape — Kaleidescape movie servers delivering lossless Dolby Atmos and full uncompressed 4K HDR. Read our guide →

Crestron and Lutron integration — every Cheshire cinema is integrated with Crestron and Lutron. One button press dims the lights, starts the projector, selects Kaleidescape and lowers the screen.

Home Cinema Calibration Cheshire

We calibrate every Cheshire cinema installation — and offer professional calibration as a standalone service for cinema rooms installed by other companies across the North West. Our calibration service uses Dirac Live, Trinnov Optimizer and ISF-standard video calibration tools.

Home Cinema Service & Maintenance Cheshire

We provide ongoing service and maintenance for Cheshire cinema rooms we have installed and for rooms installed by other companies. Our Cheshire cinema maintenance covers: annual system health check and calibration review; projector laser health monitoring; Kaleidescape server management; Crestron and Lutron programming updates; fault diagnosis and repair; priority response on annual maintenance contracts. With our Didsbury base, we provide rapid on-site response across all Cheshire postcodes.

Cheshire Case Studies — Home Cinema Installations

Garden Cinema, Knutsford, Cheshire

One of the most celebrated cinema rooms in the Custom Controls portfolio — and the one that most consistently surprises visitors who expect a glass-walled garden room to compromise acoustic performance. Two full glass walls are managed by motorised Tempo Wave acoustic curtains that close completely when the cinema is in use, transforming the glass-walled studio into a fully treated acoustic space. Sony 4K laser projection on a 3.8m Screen Excellence acoustically transparent screen, Artcoustic 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos system, Trinnov Altitude 16 processing and Kaleidescape source. The room seats eight and is used almost every evening.

Luxury Garage Cinema, Cheshire

A double garage conversion demonstrating what the format delivers at the highest specification level — Sony laser projection on a 3.5m Screen Excellence screen, Artcoustic 9.2.4 Dolby Atmos speaker system, Trinnov Altitude 16 processing, six Cineak reclining seats in two rows on a tiered platform, and full fabric wall treatment in a bespoke dark navy fabric. Crestron and Lutron integration means the cinema is a single button press from standby. A reference project for what a Cheshire garage cinema delivers when the specification is taken to its logical conclusion.

Garage Conversion Cinema, Hale Barns, Cheshire

A double garage conversion in Hale Barns combining a cinema room, bar area and storage at a more accessible budget level — demonstrating that a properly specified garage cinema does not require a premium budget to deliver a genuine cinema experience. Sony 4K laser projection, Artcoustic 5.2.2 Dolby Atmos system, Anthem MRX processing and Crestron integration. Used by a family of five as their primary entertainment space, with children’s use on weekend afternoons and parents’ cinema evenings after bedtime without any sound reaching the house.

Prestbury Entertainment Complex, Cheshire

A purpose-built garden entertainment complex in Prestbury incorporating a dedicated cinema room, games room with pool table, bar and terrace — all in a single building at the end of the garden. The cinema room seats eight in stadium seating, with a 3.2m Screen Excellence screen, Sony laser projection and Artcoustic 7.2.2 Dolby Atmos. The Crestron system manages the transition between all room modes from a single iPad, with the whole complex also accessible from the main house.

Cheshire Areas We Serve

Alderley Edge · Wilmslow · Prestbury · Knutsford · Hale · Hale Barns · Bowdon · Altrincham · Bramhall · Poynton · Macclesfield · Nantwich · Chester · Tarporley · Northwich and all Cheshire postcodes. We also work across Greater Manchester, Lancashire and the wider North of England.