Seán Holland spoke to Hassan Alajmi, director at Labiib Solutions, about a spectacular home cinema room in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia.
When the homeowners of this home cinema were researching who to choose to integrate their room, they came across Labiib Solutions, a prominent integrator in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
One of the key roles of an integrator is guiding the homeowner in the right direction, pairing the client with the right technology to suit the client’s needs but also to suit the needs of the space. The level of equipment often depends on the client’s budget. Alajmi worked extensively with the client to find the perfect fit for the room before ironing out the details of the home cinema.
Alajmi notes that in his experience the true cost of a home cinema can often come as a surprise to a client. To deliver a system that meets their perceived idea of cost would often result in disappointment further down the line. A balance has to be struck between explaining the true costs of quality systems and making sure, as the integrator, you work within the confines of a budget to deliver as good an experience as possible.
The resulting Dolby Atmos capable cinema room, in this case, is a brilliant showcase in innovation and optimising space. The room features three rows of seating. There are two tiers with four individual seats each. There is also a curved sofa on the back wall that can seat an additional four people.
Artnovion panels add sound absorption and diffusion as well as adding a sleek aesthetic look to the room.
One challenge of the space was a low ceiling height of 3m. To fit the seats in comfortably without compromising the view of the screen the team at Labiib used a trick to place the projector into an open space in the ceiling so the back row’s vision would not be impaired by the projector.
The projector itself is a JVC RS-3000 8K e-shift home theatre projector paired with a Panamorph Paladin DCR lens which fires onto a 200-in screen from Screen Innovation with a 2.4 aspect ratio. The main challenge of the home cinema room was in the back wall. The curved sofa had to fit to its contours and to do this Labiib used a custom stretch fabric.
At the heart of the system is an Anthem AVM 70 AV processor. Audio was provided by Artcoustic loudspeakers in a 9.2.6 configuration. Twelve SL series units from the Architect and Diablo ranges were installed alongside three Spitfire 12-6 arrays and paired with a Sub 2 subwoofer. The Artcoustic speakers may be small with just 7cm of depth, but they provide a powerful sound and were the ideal choice for hidden speakers. Speakers are powered by a pair of Anthem amplifiers: and Anthem MCA 325 and Anthem MCA 525, while the sub is powered by an Artcoustic PDA1000 digital amplifier.
To conceal the speakers a small piece of the wall is broken off and the stretch fabric is used to cover it. Alajmi likes to stick with products he knows to give a reliable experience and become an expert in that product. He says: “Artcoustic is favourable to us and favourable to the client, a lot of the products we use are good partners to us.”
Labiib provided the customer with a range of options for content playback which includes an Apple TV 4K and Sony UBP-X700 Blu-ray player.
Networking was handled with Luxul kit and homeowners can also access WiFi in the space. Labiib installed a Luxul XAP-810 AC1200 dual-band wireless access point, a Luxul XGS-1008 8-port Gigabit switch and Luxul XWR-1750 wireless router.
The room is integrated through Control4. A Control 4 EA3 entertainment and automation controller was installed which manages the audio, projector controls, lighting, as well as all connected devices. The homeowners access control with a Control4 SR260 Icon system remote and four Decora wired keypads.
All equipment is kept safe and sound with a SurgeX SEQ-1213i surge protector and power conditioner.
The installation required a lot of work, but Alajmi is very pleased with the final result, which is a truly modern home cinema room.
Tech Spec
Apple TV 4K 32GB
Anthem AVM 70 AV processor
Anthem MCA 325 power amplifier
Anthem MCA 525 power amplifier
Artcoustic PDA1000 digital amplifier
Artcoustic SL series loudspeakers
Artcoustic Spitfire 12-6 loudspeakers
Artcoustic Spitfire Sub 2
Artnovian acoustic panels
Control4 EA-3 entertainment and automation controller
Control4 SR-260 remote control
Control4 Decora wired keypads
Control4 square dual-load wireless adaptive phase dimmers
Control4 square dual-load wireless switches
JVC DLA-RS3000 projector
Kordz HDMI cables
Luxul XAP-810 AC1200 dual-band wireless access point
Luxul XGS-1008 8-Port Gigabit desktop switch
Luxul XWR-1750 wireless router
Mogami MOS3 audio cables
Panamorph Paladin DCR lens
Screen Innovations 200-in projection screen
Sony UBP-X700 Blu-ray player
SurgeX SEQ-1213i surge protector and power conditioner