We recommend you start by measuring the size of your room and decide on the seating locations you would like to use. Any competent dealer should start their system design by asking about these key issues before making any initial recommendations.

The more we know about your room, such as its dimensions, the floor and wall surfaces, the use of curtains or blinds and the colour and surface of your walls, the better we can match a system to your rooms acoustic and lighting properties.

JVC’s superb new HD-1 A 3 chip, 1080p projector with 15,000:1 contrast ratio and superb scaling for under £4500

Flat screen TV’s can provide much bigger, better quality images than traditional televisions but for a truly cinematic experience a projector and screen will provide the biggest, most film like images.

For optimum quality we recommend projectors with 720p or ideally 1080p resolution. Three chip projectors produce more stable images that are not prone to the rainbow affect that some people see with single chip devices. After these two criteria’s have been met, generally the projector with the highest contrast and brightness will give the best results.

Stewart Film Corporation: Vertical ElectriScreen ElectriMask

Stewart Film Corporation: Luxus Deluxe ScreenWall

Stewart Film Corporation: Luxus ScreenWall

Usually we recommend motorised screens as they keep the delicate screen surface protected and allow for a discrete installation.

The most critical decision to make regarding the screen is the size you will be using.

Ideally you should sit 1.5 – 2 times the screens’ width away from it, to ensure you will enjoy optimum picture quality on all sources.

Acoustically transparent screens should not be used except on the biggest screen sizes where placement of the centre speaker would otherwise be restricted.

These screens reflect less light back toward the viewing area than regular screens so picture quality is reduced.

Similarly they also restrict sound passing through them so sound quality is compromised.

In some rooms, there is no option but to use an acoustically transparent screens and in these instances it is vital to use some form of high resolution room correction like the Audyssey Sound Equaliser to remedy the sonic errors they introduce.

Where lighting in the room cannot be perfectly controlled or light coloured walls and ceiling finishes will be used, the use of higher gain, higher contrast screen surfaces such as Stewart’s Firehawk are highly recommended as they will significantly improve picture quality.

Speakers have more effect on both the look and sound quality of a system than any other components. They are also the products that are most commonly incorrectly specified by dealers.

As the weakest component in any audio system, speakers are the correct place to start any system design. The centre speaker is the most critical speaker in a surround system, typically playing over 70% of any movie soundtrack and its choice and placement will play a huge part in the overall performance of any system.

The centre speaker chosen must be placed centrally just above or below the screen. Traditional full range speakers must be placed well away from walls to perform correctly making them impractical in most installations. By using satellite speakers which are compact and far less affected by where they are placed the very best results can be achieved using in room, in wall or even in ceiling speakers.

Most film makers use compact satellite speakers to mix their films on and using the same type of speakers in a replay system will get you closer to what the director intended than any other type of speakers.

M&K compact satellite speakers and subwoofers are used by the worlds leading film makers including:-

• Dolby Labs
• Warner Bros
• HBO
• Lucasfilm THX
• Paramount
• Universal
• 20th Century Fox
• Sony

There are dozens of different centre speakers that we recommend based on the size of room you have, the power handling required and most importantly the location where the centre speaker will be placed.

Wherever you are listening to a system it’s vital that there is nothing between you and all the speakers, so a speakers placement is often more important than it’s quality. The best speaker put in the wrong location will give poor results so flush in wall and in ceiling models that can be perfectly located are often the best option for performance as well as aesthetics reasons.

The use of three identical front speaker is the only method of ensuring a perfectly even front soundstage.

The surround speakers you choose for your system should wrap you in sound rather than precisely locating sounds like the front speakers. To do this we generally recommend dipolar speakers, which fire in two directions at once, as they create a much wider, more diffused spread of sound.

Flush in ceiling or in wall models are perfect for surround channels and where possible four rather than two speaker will give better results.

Sunfire make the worlds smallest most powerful subwoofers. The SubRosa in wall and flat in room models combine a superb 2700w amplifier for incredible power handling from the most compact of enclosures.

When a subwoofer has been correctly chosen and calibrated, you shouldn’t know it’s there, while your room is filled with superb sound that will appear to come from your main speakers.

As subwoofers provide most of the power in a system, they must be matched to the volume of air in the listening room, much as you would the heater for a room.

In larger rooms and where the best possible performance is required a minimum of two or more subwoofers is recommended.

We use a very diverse range of subwoofers to match our clients homes.

These include the most compact, high powered models in world from Sunfire, a wide range of models from Miller & Kreisel whose subs are used by film makers the world over and from Triad who make the highest quality in wall and in ceiling subs available.

Commercial cinemas are designed with hidden components as the aim when watching a film is that you are engrossed in the action rather than distracted by speakers or electronics.

Most of the systems we design use hidden components with flush in wall or in ceiling speakers for the same reason. This means we can also provide an invisible installation in any room.

While most in wall and in ceiling speakers are designed by manufacturers whose first choice is bigger more traditional speakers, Sunfire speakers make their finest speakers available for discrete installation and dedicated cinemas.

All Sunfire speakers are sub/satellite designs which will deliver more consistent results from compact speakers than larger traditional hifi speakers.

With a wide range of products available that use ribbon drive units usually only found in far more costly audiophile speakers, Sunfire speakers allow for the design of the highest quality sound systems, invisibly, in virtually any interior.

If you want to know more about the benefits of compact speakers and why the worlds leaders in home audio reproduction such as HAA, THX and PMI all recommend this approach, please contact the Gecko sales office for more information on 0845 262 2882.

When you chose the electronics for your system you have the option of a one box amplifier or a separate processor and power amp.

One box amplifiers are a more affordable choice and can provide great results provided the speakers they will be used with are easy to drive.

It is important to understand that the vast majority of the power in a system is required for reproducing bass. As satellite speakers do not reproduce bass they can comfortably be driven with more affordable one box amplifiers. The majority of the power in a system can then be provided by the amplifier built in the subwoofers.

For optimum performance separate processors and amplifiers should be used. The specification of an amplifier is essential to match to the system and this is discussed below, but a processor must also be used to control the incoming signals and direct the appropriate sounds to each speaker.

Years ago decoding film soundtracks was a complex process that required the use of sophisticated electronics. Since film soundtracks went digital all that is required is a relatively simple decoder. This means that superb surround processors have fallen tremendously in cost and need not be a large part of the overall cost of your system.

Sunfire electronics use a unique patented design that makes them almost 90% efficient rather than the normal 30%. The result is far more power than similarly priced electronics from more compact, affordable amplifiers.

To play at these volume levels (105db) without distorting three factors need to be considered, the efficiency of the speakers, the distance between the speakers and the listener and the power of the amplifier.

The following table shows the minimum power recommended to achieve these volume levels, however more power is better.

Most systems installed in larger rooms are underpowered so that amplifiers “clip” the signal.

This makes a system sound bright and tiring to listen to and will eventually damage your speakers as well as your ears.

We want your systems to be reliable and give years of pleasure so where plasmas and projectors are being installed it’s vital that there is a natural air flow around the product for it to remain cool.

For audio components that are often hidden in cabinets we recommend choosing an amplifier with care as generally they create far more heat than all the other product used in an audio system.

Sunfire amplifiers combine audiophile Class A/B technology with remarkable efficiency. The result is superb sound quality, masses of power for those Blockbuster soundtracks and almost no heat for a cool listening room and a reliable system that will give years of pleasure without the need for bespoke cabinetry or noisy fans.

Every commercial cinema uses electronic sound equalisation to ensure high quality sound and these spaces already benefit from being carefully designed by acousticians.

As home cinemas are installed in much smaller rooms that are not designed for optimal sound reproduction, the need for room correction in the home is far more important than in cinemas.

Tom Holman is one of the world leaders in both cinema and home cinema design and is the man behind Lucasfilms famous THX audio programme. Having manually equalised hundreds of the world’s leading commercial cinemas, Tom has now created the world’s highest resolution, automated correction devices for use in home cinemas.

The Audyssey Sound Equaliser is the only room correction system that we recommend as having the resolution to accurately measure and correct surround sound systems with the precision required.

The addition of this component in any system brings a dramatic improvement in detail, envelopment and dynamics that cannot be achieved by any other means.

Our recommendation is to always start with the obvious, by reducing sound transmission through doors and windows as much as possible first. If the noise level is still intrusive then leakage through walls, floors and ceiling will need to be addressed.

Sound travelling through the structure of your room is a much bigger, more costly issue to remedy. Where possible it is obviously much better to address these problems before any equipment is installed and as early as possible in the life of the project as the design and construction of walls and ceiling will typically need to be included to soundproof a room.

In more modest systems we will provide recommendations of practical ways of achieving good acoustics in your room that will not spoil its appearance. Very often the addition of a rug or a pair of curtains will be all that’s required to achieve a room with good acoustic properties.

Where the ultimate stereo or home cinema system is required we can also consult on optimising your room for studio quality sound reproduction.

For more information of room design, visit www.rivesaudio.com

We hope you have learned a little more about how to design a home cinema from reading our website. Now you know more, you should be able to assess whether you local dealer really has the skills necessary to design and install the best system for you.

Alternatively please contact us with details of where you live and the type of system you are looking for and we’ll be glad to design a system for your needs or to put you in touch with a dealer who is expert and experienced in the sort of project you are considering.