New Demo Home Cinema Room Week 10-11

Subwoofers

It’s week 10-11 of working on our home cinema demo room, We start out by installing our subwoofers.

The subwoofers are Paradigm X12 Defiance. We have two of them at the front of the room as part of our Dolby Atmos 5.2.4 setup. The first number means that we have 5 surround sound speakers, front left, centre, front right, surround left and surround right. The next number denotes we have 2 subwoofers and the last number is for the 4 Atmos ceiling speakers we have in the setup.

We are running the Paradigm subwoofers wirelessly (they still have wired AC Power) this gives us the ability to move them around when it comes to configuring, testing and tweaking the acoustics.

These wireless kits let us position our Paradigm Subwoofers anywhere in the room. That's really useful because of bass nulls/peaks.

This is the phenomena of hearing huge differences in Bass levels for different seating positions as the bass sound waves reflect and interact with each other in the room.

Bass can boom (when two soundwaves reflections hit each other at their peak).

Or sometimes completely cancel itself out (when a peak hits a trough soundwave reflection).

By being able to move the subwoofers we can ensure that seating/listening positions get the best BASS sounds and aren’t stuck in positions where the nulls and booms form in the room.

Isolation

We want all of the power of the subwoofers transferred to the listeners sitting in the room, rather than through the floor and walls which would waste sound energy and introduce potential for vibrations and things shaking off the wall. We do this by isolating the subwoofers from the floor.

By decoupling our subwoofers from the floor we reduce transmission of sound energy through the floor and beyond.

We do this with an Isolation system, in our example Isolation Donuts (SVS Soundpath Isolation).

This gives us cleaner & tighter bass and reduces rattles, buzzes and vibrations.

These work well with wooden floors of all types, even if it's carpeted. They won't work at all with concrete or solid floors because of the mass.

Buzzkill

It's not all fun and games. With two subwoofers putting out 650 watts RMS of BASS each in the home theatre demo room it really punches.

One side effect of so much BASS is potential buzzes, rattles and resonance from vibrations.

Subwoofers generate huge sonic energy - low frequency sound waves travel farther than other sounds, passing through walls.

We used the on-board software on the Paradigm X12 Defiance Subs to sweep through the frequencies from 20Hz upwards, stopping and stepping it at frequencies that had issues.

Different 'things' resonate at different frequencies, by holding the sweep frequency say at 63Hz we can find, isolate and solve vibrations at that frequency.

The aim is to minimise any disturbing or distracting sounds for more complete immersion into the film.

We spent time to track down buzzes and rattles and then we could tighten up screws, move plug sockets and add additional dampening to light fittings. Attention to detail here means we can minimise those potential distractions.

Motors & Zigbee Lighting

Next up we motorised the Fortress seats by wiring up the electrics, the Fortress motorised recliners have such smooth action and are so comfy we are very happy with them, they also look amazing in the flesh. It’s a premium product and really looks and feels like it.

We also wired up our ZigBee striplights, adding them to just above the carpeted kick-up, just below where the fabric walls will be. This adds some really nice ambience and splash of colour when we want. The lighting will all be controlled via our RTi remote control but also we have ZIgbee light switches which can instantly set mood lighting at the touch of a light switch.

AV & Data Cabling

To pull speaker wire and data cables through to the equipment closet we've used Koldlok grommets to ensure a nice, tidy entrance way for all the cables.

The Cables get separated into;

• Main stage speakers (front left, centre, right and surrounds).

• Dolby Atmos height speakers (front and rear).

• Ethernet and Data cables.

We use snakeskin to keep it all tidy and untangled.

Sanus AV Rack

The Sanus Equipment rack was also wired up and installed. Using AV equipment racks means we can hide the equipment away, no messy wires to trip over.

• Wiring it all in a structured manner makes it easy to maintain.

• The front is sleek and tidy with just UI interfaces from our equipment visible for instant feedback.

• The rack has plenty of room for future updates, so it can grow with new equipment or upgrades.

It looks great, everything’s nice and tidy, tucked away and all the feedback we need is displayed clearly for us to see.

Fabric Tracking System

The track system for the acoustically transparent fabric has been put up. We use the fabric tracking system from Cinema Build Systems

By using fabric that allows sound through we can make sure the room looks fantastic and treat the room with acoustic panels behind the fabric.

Acoustic panels allow us to amplify the performance of the equipment, speakers and the sound of the room.

By reducing echoes, reverberation and absorbing soundwaves we achieve a more natural, realistic sound and voices and sounds are clearer.

We are looking at different fabrics for the fabric wall system, a combination of fabrics, something plain at the edges and something with a bit more texture for the centre areas.

Fabric walls that feature acoustically transparent material look great and let the sound from the speakers through.

Cinema Screen Goes Up

We mounted our 127 inch home cinema screen in the demo room. This is a Screen Research woven acoustically transparent screen.

The screen material allows sound from the front speakers to pass through.

Sound comes out through the screen, placing sounds precisely from where the action is happening.

The screen is woven instead of perforated to minimise visual distortions such as Moire.

Office Acoustic Panels

We've added some acoustic treatment to the office. The acoustic panels are held off the wall by a few inches. This doubles their effectiveness:

• Soundwaves are absorbed on the way through, reflect from the wall and then absorbed once again on the way back.

• Absorbed soundwaves vibrate and get turned into heat energy.

• Reducing echos, reverberation and reflections.

These panels feature rockwool, which is basically spun stone (Imagine a giant candy floss machine spinning molten stone) which has great acoustic properties.

Finishing The Office

Our new office/design area is complete, A few finishing touches bringing some plant life in.

Still a little to do on the cinema room with the fabric walls/projector and our foyer area is now under construction.

We also want to emphasise Atmosphere, getting in the mood, priming yourself for an experience.

Whatever you want to call it, we are huge believers that setting the scene is key to enjoying remarkable experiences and special moments.

If you create an environment with expectation - using mood lighting, plush inviting carpets, luxury seats, the smell of popcorn - you are inviting a pleasurable, memorable experience.

Even the small touches, such as movie magazines to flick through before watching a film can trigger emotions and feelings of anticipation and excitement.

PS. These magazines are over 30 years old. Wish movie magazines still looked like this.