What goes into a home cinema?

Products for a recent home cinema installation in Scarva

‘What goes into a home cinema?’

We laughed about this question in the office recently after an answer our systems designer Jordan gave to a potential client at the Selfbuild Extend & Renovate Show in Lisburn. 

Someone asked ‘what speakers would you put in my home cinema?’. 

Jordan responded ‘I don’t know’. 

That wasn’t Jordan being rude - he genuinely couldn’t say. 

The products we choose for a home cinema depend on a lot of factors. Its size and shape, the location of seating in the room, whether there’s space to hide devices behind walls or in the ceiling, and primarily, what exactly you want from the space. 

Home cinemas can’t be one-size-fits-all. It might be a cliche to say that our home cinemas are bespoke to each client we work with, but they are. 

Epitome Living is design-led, meaning that we take as much time to understand our clients’ lives as we do specifying products. We aren’t wed to working with the same brands for every project. Instead, we pick products based on what’s going to work best in any given space.

Thankfully the client Jordan spoke to appreciated the answer he received. Others may have been put out. But if you trust the professional to know what they’re talking about, you’ll end up with a much better solution for your unique ask. 

If your home cinema installer hasn’t really got to know you, then you’re setting yourself up for disappointment when the home cinema that’s installed isn’t quite what you hoped for. When an installer focuses more on doing ‘what’s right’ when it comes to technical standards, rather than holding those in balance with your priorities, that’s a bad sign.

We’re not talking here about throwing the best practices manual out the window because a client has a particular idea about what should be done. We’re talking about genuinely taking the time to make the right engineering design choices to complement a client’s lifestyle. 

We’re one of the only home cinema installers in Ireland to have two of our team members take CEDIA’s RP22 course on immersive audio design - technical excellence really does matter. 

The technically excellent rooms we design don’t have to give up our clients’ aesthetic preferences, however, or create too many compromises for us or for them. Being a design-led installer means that you never have to see the maths it takes to create your dream space if you don’t want to. 

We’ll advise you in that way as best we can about how your home cinema can perform to its best. But if you feel strongly about something, that informs how we design your space - maths or no maths considered. We’d say to stay clear of installers who swing too far either way when it comes to design or technicality - there’s room for both on collaborative projects. 

Our advice on this note is to get your installer involved as early as possible in the process. At that point we’ll be able to manage your expectations about what can be achieved. Collaboration starts with communication. 

Creating excellent home cinema projects is about balancing performance and aesthetics. You can’t copy and paste a cinema room from one home into another. Even if it was incredible in the first home, it might not translate accurately into another space. 

Fundamentally, home cinemas should be:

• Immersive 

• Quiet

• Clean (visually and acoustically)

• Comfortable

Colour palettes, acoustic treatments, hardware, and personalisation all factor into these principles. And each element will be different for each client depending on their dreams and budget (we’ll break each element down further in future blogs).

At the end of the project, every element of the installation should lead to a high-performance experience that outshines a commercial cinema. Any popcorn spillages are your responsibility though…

It might be seen as pedantic to care so much about the placement of speakers and which is right for which job, but these things matter for helping you create spaces where seamlessly elegant technology improves your life. 

If you’d like a trustworthy, design-led home cinema build experience, we’re here to help at info@epitomeliving.com. Otherwise, keep an eye on our blog for more on what we’d choose for our own dream home cinema project (there might just be something fun coming later in the year).