“When looking to create our cinema demonstration space, we researched many brands,” explains Gifford Malcolm, director at Bespoke Homes Cinemas. “Meridian had always been a brand we’ve followed and admired from afar. We were provided with several in-depth demonstrations at their UK showroom and a factory tour, which really turned our heads. The dedicated demonstration spaces, listening rooms, and the impressive technology built on-site, along with what goes on behind the scenes in the factory, contributed to our decision to choose the brand. The dedicated team looked after us from the early design discussions to selecting the right products to demonstrate, making us feel we were in good hands. It was without question that Meridian was going to be our top choice.”

With the new showroom in place, the integrator invited the client to experience the cinema room. Having enjoyed the demo, his mind were made up and he said, “I’ll take everything you have in here”!

The team from Bespoke Home Cinemas were shown the space intended for the cinema in the family home. This was found to be a double garage separated from a single garage by a structural dividing wall that couldn’t be removed. However, the team were able to utilise the entire space by building the cinema within the double garage area with a separate home office built into the single garage area.

The whole area was completely stripped back, and a floating and insulated sloping floor was built up. Bespoke Home Cinemas then studded out the entire area to conceal existing services, filling all walls with Rockwool and using double boarding for sound insulation.

The client wanted a single row of seats so, naturally, the audio was focussed on this area. He wanted the room to be designed with an emphasis on accurate audio clarity, without necessarily ‘chasing the numbers’ on channel count.

The decision to base the system on the Bespoke Home Cinemas showroom meant that the cinema was to be a 5.2.2 set-up featuring Meridian DSP750 in-wall loudspeakers for the left, centre and right channels, two Meridian DSP520.2 in-wall loudspeakers for the surround channels and two Meridian DSP320.2 in-ceiling loudspeakers to provide the Atmos height channels. Two Meridian DSW600 in-wall subwoofers were also called for.

“DSP loudspeakers have multiple benefits: massively enhanced audio fidelity, amazing dynamics - even at lower volumes, and also hugely reduced rack space,” adds Gifford. “From a fidelity perspective, the DSP750 loudspeakers are hugely efficient. They deliver massive power at 500W per speaker and with incredible control over each drive unit by having a dedicated power amp for each driver built into the speaker housing. This gives the client an exciting, dynamic, detailed and life-like experience with minimal fatigue and amazing immersion. It allows us to deliver incredible fidelity and thunderous low-frequency response without masking any of the fine details.”

The walls of the room were fabric-wrapped to conceal speakers and the acoustic treatment for a clean and sleek effect. The aesthetics were further enhanced with multiple zones of DMX controlled lighting.

An awkward nib at the rear of the room was adapted to become a comms room, accessed through a hidden door within the acoustically-treated rear diffuser wall. A Meridian 271 Digital Theatre Controller lives alongside other AV equipment in this room.

Even when the extensive building work that was undertaken to convert the garage spaces into habitable rooms is included, the whole project was completed in just six weeks.

The room is now generally used on a daily basis, with the client particularly enjoying the experience of viewing his extensive collection of classic and cult films from the ‘80s and ‘90s.