New Demo Home Cinema Room Week 6

Star Engine

It’s week 6 of our home cinema demo room build. Our Infinity Star Ceiling panels have arrived from Starscape Fibre Optics so we decided to unbox the Star Engine that will power the stars.

The fibre optic light source is essentially a box with a light bulb in it that shines it through some 900 optical fibres (in our case). Our light engine uses 2 x 5 watt LED bulbs in a cool white. This does a fantastic job of emulating what stars really look like in the night sky.

1m x 1m Starfield Panel

Within the light source there is a Twinkle Wheel, this is a small disk with a number of random holes in it that alternatively let more or less light shine through the optical fibres which gives the stars a twinkling and glowing feel.

The two fibre optic head ends connect to the light engine, and then the corresponding tails will be threaded through the innovative magnetic frame and into the 9 individual 1m x 1m starfield panels.

Star Engine

Star Engine Shimmer Disk

Fibre Optic Head

Boxing Out

A late night finish saw us being able to complete the boxing out for the cinema room and office.

The Sanus equipment rack fits nicely in our equipment partition. Audio Visual equipment racks are different to data and office racks.

The shelving and frames offer additional strength and support, amplifiers and AV equipment generally weigh more than data and telecoms equipment. Cabling requirements are also different so AV racks have special cable management systems and routing.

As this is our demo facility and workshop we will likely be trying out lots of new equipment rather than it being a fixed installation. As such we have made sure that we have great access and plenty of room to change out equipment and cables.

We also ran our speaker wires (more below on speaker wire) to the Left, Centre, Right, Surround Left, Surround Right and Four Atmos Speakers. Additionally we started some of the data runs for our CCTV and Wifi.

We are using a wire tray system on the outside of our room that enters into the equipment area through a KoldLok Grommet.

Speaker Wires

Speaker Cables... Probably one of the most divisive products in the audio visual industry.

Many people in the industry have very strong viewpoints on cable brand, material, shielding, conductor etc...

We are of the opinion that you need good quality copper cables (don't cheap out) and that width/gauge is important depending on how long ultimately the cable run will be.

The Photo shows the difference between 1.5mm, 2.5mm,4mm and 6mm dual core cables.

Our philosophy is that any home cinema system is only as good as the weakest link. We are using 4mm cable for the Front Stage and Surrounds and 2.5mm cable for the Dolby Atmos speakers.

Speaker Cabling

4mm Speaker Cable

2.5mm Speaker Cable

Home Cinema Seating

Our home cinema seats will be arriving next week, we are really excited as we think they are really quite special.

Here’s a quick teaser glimpse (Left).

Getting the seating right is one of the main things with home cinema design. The positioning is important, the height and distance from the screen but importantly the seat has to be really comfortable.

If your cinema has been professionally designed and built to perform then it’s likely you will want to be spending a LOT of time enjoying it. You really need that luxury comfort level so you can fully enjoy the experience.

Fridays are a bit more of a fun day for us so I knocked up a quick parody with a play on Game Of Thrones.

Home Cinema Chairs Fit For A King (Or Queen)