Are digitally fluid environments the next conceptual leap in residential AV design? Blending physical furnishings with intelligent modelling, these spaces are reshaping room functions and futures.
Gaming, simulation and cinema are just some of the applications converging into one room ecosystem today. Add fitness, socialising and recuperation to the mix, and the trend is unleashing a wave of technological discovery. Spatial audio and premium rendering are perhaps its main hallmarks, their growth advanced by AV and control systems. But far beyond the technical spectacle, how exactly have these innovations given rise to generative and reconfigurable design principles?
Digital creation unlocks myriad possibilities for space and cost, there’s no question about it. At the same time, it also changes how functionality and form interact; physical and digital landscapes are expected to integrate as one design vision, underpinned by audiovisual systems. We’ll weigh up what this means in practice for installers, exploring how programmable environments are blurring the lines between entertainment formats. As such, integrators may need to prepare for a new normal as content delivery collides with world-building.
Market evolution
Charles Pearce, founder of multi-server platform imersU, begins: “Interactive media is pushing immersive spaces away from fixed content playback and towards adaptive environments. Projection alignment, content mapping, audio, lighting behaviour, scent timing, mirrors, cameras, inputs and user controls all need to work together. Calibration is not only technical; it is experiential. Digitally fluid spaces are slowly becoming part of premium residential design, led by the collaboration of architects, interior designers, the AV/IT community and clients.”
Charles Pearce, founder of imersU
Established in 2018 as Immersive Gym, this media system layers several inputs into a single user experience: graphics outputs, Dante, Bluetooth, HDBaseT, converters, content sources, DMX-based systems, lighting, scent, sound, and plug-and-play capabilities. Today, imersU is sought after for multi-use wellness and entertainment applications, as well as property visualisation and healthcare.
Pearce says: “The result is a space no longer defined by one function, particularly important in high-value homes where every square metre must justify itself. For the end user, imersU is designed to feel simple, intuitive and controllable from a single interface. Where these multimedia experiences have traditionally been public events, the demand for private experiences requires the production crew to be replaced with the hardware and software system.”
Production values
Nick Fichte, global business development lead for hospitality, home & yacht at L-Acoustics, similarly highlights how intelligent systems are increasingly built on pro-grade engineering and production values. Describing the spatial system in the Hyper Real Immersive Sound Space (HYRISS), he says: “Whereas a dedicated human operator positions the L-ISA spatial system in live contexts, that role is taken over entirely by the L-ISA Processor II and Anima in HYRISS. The two perform the same spatial object placement automatically, continuously, and in real time.”
HYRISS replaces the traditional stereo “sweet spot” with a fully distributed soundfield, using L-ISA spatial processing and Anima machine learning to position audio. As a result, the entire space becomes the experience, as opposed to a single listening position. “This is not something that can be retrofitted or bolted on after the interior design is complete,” Fichte insists. “The ideal approach is a true three-way collaboration from the outset: architectural design of the space first; loudspeaker layout developed in response to that architecture; then interior design completed with full knowledge of where the system sits.”
HYRISS from L-Acoustics
To this end, L-Acoustics has developed Soundvision – a professional 3D acoustic modelling platform – and cloud-based extension to share acoustic drawings with architectural and interior design teams. “Wherever you are in the room, the system adapts to deliver the same spatial experience,” Fichte continues. “That is a fundamentally live quality: in a great concert hall, the sound works whether you are in the stalls or the circle. The room performs for you, not for an imaginary person sitting perfectly still in the ideal seat.
“Programming and calibration are therefore more sophisticated than in a conventional system, but the tools are proportionally more powerful. Bringing the L-ISA Processor II into a residential context involves spatial mapping, acoustic measurement, and the creation of the Signatures the client will use day to day. It requires skill, patience, and a genuine understanding of how the space performs acoustically.”
Fichte taps into a theme that comes up time and again in the industry; the relationship between commercial and residential technology, or production and programming. According to Sony, these forces are sparking growth and ingenuity in the integrator channel. The company’s roots in virtual production have supported this progression, as seen in its work with LED volumes and real-time rendered backdrops. Other technology highlights include anti-reflective display surfaces that can double up as digital canvases, the immersive BRAVIA ecosystem, and all-new Spatial Reality Display.
Adam Dover, senior marketing manager in the entertainment company’s Europe division, says: “We often design products with a primary use in mind, typically content consumption, but integrators frequently come to us with unique client requests asking how far the technology can go. Our response is usually that we’ll explore it with them, if we think it’s possible. A lot of the time, integrators are finding incredibly creative ways to make AV technology work across different applications.”
Sony’s Spatial Reality Display, positioned for professional applications, delivers immersive experiences without glasses or headsets. Credit: Sony
Interactive media
Inspired by nature’s all-encompassing qualities, Pearce positions imersU as a platform that favours user input over passive viewing. He cites forest bathing, developed in Japan in the 1980s, as a guiding principle for the server’s sensory engagement with cortisol, movement and the immune system.
“imersU began with the observation that screens and apps did little to reflect the feeling of training outdoors,” he explains. “I found most indoor training options didn’t motivate me to train regularly. So we set out to bring that feeling into indoor fitness, developing a ‘circle of one’ immersive experience when physical and digital reality meet to influence how your senses engage. From there, it became clear the platform could do much more.”
In parallel with this view, researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK recently discovered that immersive VR cycling made participants overcome performance anxiety by tricking the brain’s expectations. “Incongruent” sensory feedback, in this case achieved through setting a high resistance on flat terrain, was found to make exertion feel less intense.
As integrators encounter fewer single-purpose rooms, imersU’s model indicates traditional playback is coming closer to dynamic delivery. “If you think about how we watch movies, it's quite dated,” Pearce highlights. “It could be much more exciting. We've added an element called SKIN, which wraps content around multiple walls or large-format displays with examples including cinema settings and beach resorts.
Viewers enjoy a football match with a penthouse SKIN wraparound. Credit: imersU
“People have got used to sacrificing a room for a function. But the cinema room, as we know, is probably one of the least used rooms once built and naturally demands a content-agnostic platform like ours - built for ongoing upgrades that support new production and delivery formats. Sightlines, room finishes and user behaviour all need to be considered together.”
Fichte adds that, when these elements are overlooked, the design community can feel estranged from home cinema. “Most have a working understanding of what it entails, and candidly, it is not always a brief they find creatively inspiring,” he says. “It is a room with defined constraints, fixed requirements, and limited design freedom. HYRISS is the opposite of that.”
Custom installers, as the front line for new advancements, are becoming known for fresh integration concepts spanning the visual and technical. Their approaches are increasingly coalescing around the high-refresh, low-latency systems now fundamental to both display hardware and software, like Variable Refresh Rates (VRR). “These have spilled into televisions, videowalls and projectors to make them like giant gaming monitors,” Dover points out. “Everything is getting bigger. Ultimately, it’s all about completely immersing yourself in those spaces.”
"Digitally fluid spaces are slowly becoming part of premium residential design, led by the collaboration of architects, interior designers, the AV/IT community and clients."
Christopher Mullins of Sony EMEA also connects this development to multi-format delivery. He says: “In the past with home cinema and residential, you only needed 24 Frames Per Second (FPS) to watch a movie. But now, people expect their displays to show everything and have the best capability; one minute you're watching movies, the next you're watching the Champions League final.
“There are also a lot of breakthroughs coming into place at the same time. We’re navigating completely modular displays of any desired size; rendering technologies capable of upscaling content towards near-photorealism; and AI capabilities accelerating user customisation at a rapid pace. With overlap happening at this rate, there’s no reason we couldn’t be looking at a rollout of unique generative experiences at home.”
Credit: imersU
Dynamic design
Considering these simultaneous advancements, a natural question arises about room design and digital experience: what does their crossover mean in practice for integrators? Pearce reflects: “The integrator becomes a key creative and technical partner shaping how the space feels. Clients expect the room to evolve; new content, use cases, devices and experiences will be added over time. That creates an ongoing relationship between the integrator, the client and the platform provider.
“This is a major opportunity to drive additional revenue through design, installation, commissioning, hardware, support and ongoing upgrades. Life is about storytelling, and digital content slots into that aspiration with the capacity to transform the space into anything you want it to be. It’s the ultimate blank canvas for a designer to flex their creativity.”
He envisions how the technology can even expand “life’s adventures” to those forced into artificial environments through illness or immobility: “One of the main questions we asked was: wouldn't it be amazing if every single person receiving cancer care or recovering could go into a space and be in a forest with scent and sound? The value is not only in the content, but in the feeling of presence.”
"The value is not only in the content, but in the feeling of presence."
On the other hand, Mullins tempers these agile systems with some logistical challenges: “You may have a display capable of showing fantastic imagery, but then the question becomes how to integrate it naturally into use. Do you really want these displays on all the time? If you have an LED wall consuming thousands of watts, that becomes an important question.”
Dynamic room environments mark the latest evolution in content delivery, moving beyond traditional channels towards hyper-personalised and realistic experiences. In audio, Dolby Atmos helped pave the way for more responsive rendering and spatial sound optimisation – including technologies like Dirac Live Active Room Treatment and StormAudio speaker mapping.
Fichte compares this direction to that of ambient lighting: “There was a moment, perhaps fifteen or twenty years ago, when this was a luxury, something only the most forward-thinking clients would specify. Today, in any serious premium residential project, dynamic, scene-based lighting is simply assumed; it’s become foundational to how we think about interior environments.
"Integrators are finding incredibly creative ways to make AV technology work across different applications."
“Audio is following exactly the same trajectory, and HYRISS is perhaps the clearest expression of where it is heading. Technology that serves that ambition is not competing with good design, but enabling it.”
Thriving 3D spaces
In addition, the migration of dynamic content from gaming engines to everyday life is becoming increasingly visible. Just as dynamic audio systems rely on room data to shape sound in real time, platforms like Google Immersive View depend on detailed spatial information to map and manipulate physical environments in 3D.
“Gaming and simulation are no longer only about a console, headset or single screen,” Pearce says. “In premium homes, they are becoming part of the wider entertainment and lifestyle offer. A racing simulator, for example, becomes more powerful when the whole environment supports the experience. The same is true for flight, sports, fitness racing, social gaming or immersive worlds.”
"Just as dynamic lighting has become foundational to how we think about interior environments, audio is following exactly the same trajectory."
The global video game industry is projected to reach $205bn – worth almost double the value of the film and music markets combined. This niche has helped drive dynamic spatial audio, employing user input to calculate sound movement rather than the multichannel layouts typical of the film industry.
As spatial systems resculpt home entertainment, domestic rooms are beginning to shake off their reputation for stasis and constraint. With audiovisual integration at their core, they’re evolving into vivid interfaces between digital and physical worlds. And with custom installers upskilling and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, dynamic content delivery shows no signs of slowing.
Main image credit: SerGRAY/Shutterstock.com