Case studies

Home Cinema and Home Automation Installation in Lahore, Pakistan (2/9/2009)

By Synergy Technologies

The brief

When we were asked to create a dedicated home cinema for Y S residence in Lahore, Pakistan, what the client wanted was not a home cinema, but a cinema in the home. The cinema we created includes comprehensive automation, and won us the award for Best Home Cinema Installation over GB£100,000 at this year's CEDIA Region 1 awards.

Front of the Y S residence, with automated Lutron lighting, externally and internally.

The 3400 sq ft cinema is designed to celebrate the golden age of cinema, and rival the very best in commercial cinemas in terms of not just the ambiance, but also the AV performance. We were also asked to provide automation around the home to control all functions, from lighting to AV to surveillance.

Not a home cinema, but a cinema in a home.

The solution

Automation in the cinema consists of an easy-to-use Crestron system that allows full control by the client, without the need for a dedicated projectionist. The client watches a wide range of Hollywood and Indian movies and wanted to be able to control the levels of centre and surround speakers as well as low-frequency and high-frequency emphasis. These controls have been provided on the touchscreen along with buttons to reset each or all values to a default setting. Furthermore, all values are set to default to calibrated settings each time the ‘Movie’ sequence is selected from the touchscreen

The 37ft wide curved screen along with a Barco D-Cine Premiere DP90 2K digital cinema projector provide a breathtaking picture and an awe-inspiring movie experience. The video source is a Kaleidescape movie server, which provides easy access to the client's complete library and excellent picture quality through a 1080p movie player.

The library of the Kaleidescape movie server projected onto the 37ft wide curved screen.

To deliver the level of sound quality necessary to do justice to the impressive visual set-up, we used the Meridian 861 surround sound processor and the Tannoy Vnet active speaker system. The Tannoy system provides full status reports back to the central control system for each speaker and amplifier in case of any faults, so that they can be rectified.

Built-in Tannoy speakers in the acoustically-treated walls.

To further improve the overall sound, the room uses acoustic treatment. Panelling has been applied to all four walls with acoustically transparent fabric, while the ceiling has been treated for sound isolation to eliminate sound leakage into the children's bedrooms situated above. Thick underlay has been used under the carpet to provide dampening, while also providing a lavish feel underfoot.

The cinema walls and ceiling were acoustically treated, and thick underlay was used under the carpet, providing audio dampening as well as a lavish feel.

A Crestron touchpanel allows full control of lighting, music, temperature, intercom and the video in the well-appointed theatre lobby, which has its own 52" LCD television, mounted on a motorised, articulated wall-mount arm. Even the powder room television shows the movie playing in the theatre, so there is no chance of missing that critical scene.

The well-appointed lobby outside the theatre has a 52" LCD TV that is mounted on a motorised articulated arm.

Since this is a cinema in a residence, it does differentiate itself from its commercial equivalents with its sense of luxury and comfort. High-tech electric recliners and love seats have been used, and designed for unhindered viewing, even in reclined positions. The cinema also boasts its own, dedicated control room, which is a separate air conditioning zone to ensure equipment reliability despite outside temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius.

To create a mood and add some drama, the domed ceiling has been painted with clouds and decorated with thousands of fibre-optic lighting tips to give a sense of the night sky. The cinema also offers pre-movie, interval and finale modes of preset lighting. The wooden columns are also detailed to highlight the striped fabric panelling on the walls.

The cinema offers pre-movie, interval and finale modes of preset lighting.

Installation

Due to the very high ceiling and heavy equipment, we had to use additional safety equipment including safety harnesses. The client wanted a screen with a 16:9 native ratio and motorised top and bottom masking to mask down to 2.35:1, so the screen height, including the framing and masking panels, would have exceeded 25.5 feet. The height available in the room between the screen-stage and the drop ceiling was just less than 25’, so we had to order a screen with an unequal masking system that had greater masking on the top. Consequently, the Cineversum Master video processor is configured to shift the image downwards when playing Cinemascope movies to correspond with the masking system. The massive electric curtain tracks required extra bracing in the false ceiling, and this was achieved through a suspended steel structure.

It was kept in mind that the speakers were to be placed behind the screen with no space from any side to take out the speakers for future maintenance. Thus the screen fabric was fitted with quick release loops at the bottom corners for future maintenance of the speakers. The speakers behind the perforated screen were raised to their platforms using winches, and a ladder structure has been permanently left behind the screen frame for servicing the speakers and subwoofers and screen masking system.

All speakers are actively amplified, and since the surround speakers are partially concealed in the wall panelling, provision for ventilation had to be incorporated. A perforated metal frame was designed and installed to achieve this while giving an aesthetically consistent look.

A customised wall-braced mounting table was built for the projector and the massive power supply in order to isolate them from the raised floor for maintenance purposes. Since the racks also had to be mounted in isolation of the suspended floor due to the quantity of wiring for the whole-house integration system, custom made racks were suspended from the top on metal rollers to allow back and forth movement. In addition, custom-designed cable managers with hinged elbows were used to ensure cable integrity at all rack positions.

Each of the front speakers and subwoofers feature digital signal processing, and the digital crossovers were setup using measurement equipment as well as extensive listening tests. The setup of the digital cinema projector was beyond our previous experience, so a qualified Barco installation engineer flew in to complete the setup and calibration of the projector using proprietary software and measurement tools and a colorimeter.

Home automation

This award-wining home cinema is part of an integrated home system which was highly commended in the CEDIA awards category of Best Integrated Home over GB£250,000.

The 44,000 sq ft Y S residence features intelligent automation and high-performance audio and video systems throughout the entire house. All 28 wall-mounted Crestron touchpanels offer complete control of all functions, from lighting to AV to surveillance. Anyone in the family can watch their choice of movie and listen to their choice of music through the distributed Kaleidescape system and the Imerge sound server, and high-performance Bowers & Wilkins speakers. Parental control has been assured with access in the children's rooms limited to a restricted selection of audio and video files. Specific alerts have also been programmed into the system to bring to notice any unwanted activities. The client himself has complete access to the wireless touchpanels and only partial access by specific personnel is allowed. Security has been assured through passwords and biometrics.

The 17" wall-mounted touchpanel installed in the home's entrance foyer gives the client a bird's eye view of the entire house, so he can promptly see the status of lighting, music, security, televisions, blinds and HVAC in any area and control any system as desired. The same functionality has been provided to him through the Internet for true remote control, anywhere in the world.

Experience from the project

The project tested our advanced Crestron programming skills and obliged us to learn many new techniques. The Crestron control system has been programmed to trigger warnings on the touchscreen in case of any faults or failures reported on the networked Tannoy Active DSP audio system, and to ensure user-friendly operation, extensive advanced controls have been provided with password protected access.

Y S Cinema featured brands

Audio Visual: Kaleidescape, Ekran Poland, Harkness UK, AudioQuest, BARCO, Harkness, Meridian, Tannoy, B&W, Mark Levinson.
Lighting: Lutron
Security: Adams Rite
Control Systems: Crestron
Other: Silent Gliss

Y S Residence featured brands

Audio Visual: Draper, BARCO, Harkness, Ekran Poland, Revel, Tannoy, B&W, Speakercraft, Meridian, Kaleidescape, Imerge, Ultralift, Rotel.
Lighting: Lutron
Security: Adams Rite
Control Systems: Crestron
Other: Silent Gliss, Audio Quest, Draper shades, Audio Access.

Synergy Technologies designs and installs audio, video and automation solutions for residential and commercial applications, and is also the exclusive representative in Pakistan for a range of world-class brands in automation, lighting control, and audio visual systems.

www.synergyav.com