Invision has officially opened its new Reference Home Cinema, a facility that its customers can use to demonstrate an immersive audio-visual experience.
Two VIP demonstration days were held at the new UK facility in Segro Park in Bracknell, Berkshire, purpose built to feature the cinema plus a presentation space, and offices and a warehouse for a partner company.
Along with a number of integrators, I attended one of the VIP demo days and was pleasantly surprised by the facility. The first cinema in Europe to feature DTS:X Pro audio technology, the reference cinema creates a truly immersive viewing experience.
Using an 11.4.8 speaker layout paired with the DTS:X Pro technology, the sound came from all angles to create the 3D immersive sound.
Ian Mulry, manager of technical sales and customer support at Invision took the lead on this project. He explains: “Specifically, we’ve got a front height centre speaker and a top speaker, or the ‘voice of God’, which are all included in the DTS:X Pro layout. We also put in front and left sides which bridge the gap between the left and right screen channels and your surround channels, so it gives you a much smoother pan when you have a moving object around the room.”
DTS:X Pro builds on the 3D audio abilities of the DTS:X audio technology by increasing the number of available channels from 11 to as many as 32.
Mulry continues: “The idea of using Trinnov Audio’s unit to give more channels is to give a much better spatial resolution when you’re listening to the audio in movies. You can’t pinpoint a speaker’s location, you’re only getting a sense of the object that you’re seeing on the screen within the room.”
Trinnov Audio’s Altitude32 surround sound processor powered a total of 26 Procella speakers in the cinema room. While the two companies have had a great relationship for many years, Mulry chose to use Procella speakers with the Trinnov unit because of the uniqueness of the speakers.
Trinnov Audio's Altitude32 surround sound processor
“Procella speakers are unique in the fact that they are all voiced exactly the same,” claims Mulry. “It doesn’t matter which speakers you use in a room, you can mix and match any cabinet, and they will all be voiced exactly the same.
“In the room, we’ve used P815s at the front, P6s above the screen, P6Vs as our bed channels and P5s in the ceiling. All of those speakers are voiced exactly the same, so you get the same tonal range on every speaker, even though some are bigger than others. They are just a great all-round speaker package for cinema.”
Used for training purposes, the speakers can be discreetly illuminated at the touch of a button to show integrators the speaker layout in the room. A unique feature in a cinema demo room, the idea was Mulry’s who said: “It has been hard work making it work but it does work really well.”
He states: “It’s used for education purposes; when we have dealers in there that want to know about speaker layout and where you should and shouldn’t put speakers, we can show them. I am able to switch a particular speaker on and off when we’re talking about it."
The acoustic treatment of the room was designed by Audio Data Labs in Sweden. Mulry explains: “The floor is hollow and filled with insulation with six-inch gaps between the floorboards for bass trapping. There are Helmholtz absorbers in the ceiling front and back, either side of the bass trapping.
“We’ve got diffusion all around the walls in the form of laser cut wings. And we have diffusion on the ceiling. There is absorption on the walls in the first third of the room and we’ve absorbed the baffle wall as well.”
On the day, Gerben Van Duyl, director of Procella Audio in Sweden, gave a presentation about the speaker layout within the cinema. He also praised the team by adding: “Invision joins a rare club with their Reference Home Cinema, I can only think of one other such facility in the world, and that is the CEDIA HQ reference cinema in Indianapolis.
“The professionally engineered acoustics, the state-of-the-art immersive speaker system, this is the very best in home cinema technology. Now UK dealers and their clients can experience next generation private cinema in a beautiful modern facility, just half an hour from Heathrow. Well done Invision.”
Sales director for Trinnov Audio, Arnaud Destinay, was also happy with the launch of the new project, saying: “The Invision cinema provides UK dealers with a world-class home cinema demonstration facility that gives the audience an exceptional audio-visual experience. It is the first in Europe to support the latest audio formats including DTS:X Pro – it truly is a cinema to be amazed by!”
“We couldn’t be happier with our new cinema,” concludes Mark Taylor, Invision’s commercial director. “It gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the very best in sound and vision technology to our clients and it allows them to gain a clear vision of exactly what they can achieve with their projects. We look forward to welcoming many more guests to our exciting new facility.”
Tech-Spec
11.4.8 Speaker Layout
Home Cinema Modules Sirius Seats x 5, 3 x New Era
JVC DLA-NX9 8K e-shift Projector
Luxul XMS-1208P Switch
Luxul XAP-810 Access Point
Middle Atlantic Slim 5 Rack
Pioneer UDP-LX500 Blu Ray Player
Procella P815 Home Cinema Speakers x 3
Procella P18 Subwoofer x 2
Procella P15 Subwoofer x 2
Procella P6 Surround Speaker x 3
Procella P6V Surround Speaker x 8
Procella P5 Surround Speaker x 5
Procella DA2800D Amplifier x 2
Procella DA5000D Amplifier x 2
Procella Room Acoustic Treatment
RTI T4x Remote
RTI XP6S Processor
RTI iPad Control
RTI ZM24 ZigBee Antenna
Screen Innovations 175” Zero Edge Pro Woven 2.35:1 Ratio Projector Screen
Trinnov Altitude 32 Processor x 1
Trinnov Amp 8 Amplifier x 2
WyreStorm 20M Optical HDMI Lead
Room acoustical design by Audio Data Labs in Sweden
Lighting designed by GHS Special Projects