What does a home cinema cost?

These are the main building blocks - the sound system - processor, amplifiers, speakers and acoustic treatment, and the video system - projector and screen.

The main factor is room size. All these rooms would make a great Home Cinema, but the cost to equip them varies like this:

You'll see how much the room volume and screen area increase, and how in larger rooms we need more speakers.

The viewing angle is what dictates how big the picture looks from the seats, and it's the same across all three rooms. It's as if you're about two-thirds back in a commercial cinema, which most of us prefer (some cinemas charge extra for those seats).

To get these figures, I worked everything out, according to film industry standards - the correct speaker positions, enough sound pressure level for all seats, reduced sound reflections (RdT60), plenty of screen brightness and worked out the sightlines - so everyone can watch in comfort.

Recently CEDIA has released the new CEDIA/CTA-RP22 guidelines for immersive audio design.

I had early access to the document as a member of CEDIA Standards working groups, so I've been working to the new standard for some time. More about RP22.

At any room size, you can make performance improvements. These upgrades are all well worth having:

• Brighter, better projector - laser light source is fairly standard these days - however, it's always worth going for better quality and extra brightness, especially for modern HDR content, and if you sometimes want to watch with the lights up a little.

• Video processor - for better aspect handling, much better colour accuracy and superior tone mapping to optimise the dynamic performance of the picture - in practice, pictures look significantly better. The best video processors also enable aspect scaling and where needed, non-linear stretch.

• More system power makes the whole performance more effortless.

Larger subwoofers, and infrasonic subs - for even bass that goes deeper, and is more consistent across the whole listening area.

• More speakers improves spatial resolution - giving a more immersive, convincing, and three-dimensional sound, and better results for more seats.

• 'Active' acoustics = pioneered by Trinnov and DIRAC, active systems enable improvements particularly at the low-end, overcoming problems of room modes and standing waves - better bass, for everyone.  Read more about Trinnov WaveForming

• Aspect masking - the black screen border  matches whatever you're watching - no more grey bars. More about aspect ratios and screen masking

Performance is hard to write down in a way everyone can understand, but clear and obvious once you experience it.

It's like driving; functionally, a Panda or a Porsche will both get you there, but one is just... better.

My starting point is, this has to be better than going out to the cinema, or what's the point?

Read more - about top level home cinema

Book a visit to our showroom and feel the difference.

System Rack

Stores all equipment safely, allowing good airflow and super-tidy cable management. It's not optional, but the size depends on your system - how large the sound system is and how many boxes it uses, plus disc player, gaming consoles, movie server and so on...

From £550.

Controller

Fire up the system, dim the lights, switch inputs, operate all the equipment, switch everything off again afterwards - a control system is a must. It's a dark room, so a backlit handset with real buttons is what you need.

Savant Pro X2 Remote (featured) and control processor from £1250.

More about control systems

Lighting Control

Great lighting makes a huge difference to the feel of the room. In cinema rooms we use lighting for dramatic effect - plus task lighting for the seats so you don't spill your drink.

Lights should be remote controlled and dimmable.

Rako lighting from £800

Seating

Sofas, cinema style seating, or both? 'Cinema sofas' are popular too - the clean look and feel of a sofa but with motorised reclining for ultimate comfort in a mixed-use space.

Dedicated cinema seats from £1400 per person.

More about home cinema seating

Wall finishes and treatments

The cleanest look in a cinema room is a fabric wall system to hide away all the acoustic treatment and loudspeakers, so the room looks great despite all the technical equipment.

Different levels of luxury finish and audio performance are available - a 'Level IV' or 'Platinum' cinema system will need a suitable finish.

More about fabric walls

This is the biggest single variable.

The basics of a home cinema installation are to run all the cables neatly, install loudspeakers and set up the display, then calibrate the audio and video systems.

Construction

For larger spaces, one or more tiers for seating becomes appropriate - then everyone can see properly. For this, we need a good strong platform for the seats.

I'm very keen on fabric wall systems to hide the tech and the acoustic treatments - this will need building out from the existing walls.

For these more involved tasks, I can either work with your builders, or bring my own trusted trades.

Documentation

Critically important but often missed - your system must be properly documented and labelled. This will help with future upgrades, or help the next owners if you move on.

My in-house documentation is excellent, and achieves the exacting standards of a CEDIA Award-winning project (twice).