A home theater must have a speaker setup that can make the most of all the features that Dolby … [+] Offers Atmos.
Photograph by Nick Wall
One of the things I missed during the different pandemic confinements we suffered over the last two years was being able to go to the movies. There’s nothing like the experience of the big screen and the surrounding audio of a properly calibrated movie theater that can bring any movie to life. Not being able to watch movies on the big screen made me wonder what it would be like if I had my own home cinema. What does it mean to design the cinema of your dreams and what types of decisions you have to make.
To find out a little more, I turned to Chris Walls, CEO of Indesign Theater. The UK-based company designs and installs home cinemas for people who value their privacy and love the convenience of being able to enjoy this cinema experience whenever they want, regardless of the time of day. I started by asking Walls to tell me a little more about Indesign Theater.
“Our affiliated companies, Level Acoustic Design, Studio Creations and Indesign Engineering, have created studio facilities for many of the world’s greatest filmmakers, broadcasters and musicians. We know how the content should sound and look. This comes from the dubbing design and classification of theaters that result in Oscar-winning sounds and images. This is the difference; no one else has this pedigree.
Chris Walls is the CEO of Indesign Theater and his job is to oversee the design and … [+] construction of luxury home cinemas for a stellar cast of customers.
Indesign Theater
“The idea for the company arose when we were working in a private studio for a well-known music artist and they showed us their cinema at home. It sounded great, but it was very poor acoustically and technically. Then we found out how much he had paid for it. It was more expensive than the recording studio we had built.
“That was when we were finishing a screening room for Lucasfilm at Pinewood Studios. The room was for reviewing newspapers and CGI, etc. from the latest Star Wars movie. It was much more technically advanced and soundly accurate than the music by the music artist, but it cost less.We saw no reason why the same rigorous principles and standards could not be applied to all high-end home cinema.
“Since then, our companies have worked very closely on various projects that have served as proof of concept and helped to perfect our process and we have now launched Indesign Theater as a joint venture to focus on design and home theater installation “.
I wanted to know what makes Indesign Theater different from other “luxury” home theater installers, such as the company the nameless musician has used and probably lamented.
“When we started talking about setting up the company, we thought it would be an attractive offer to have your home theater designed by the team that offers industry-leading facilities for Lucasfilm, Netflix, Apple, Sky and Abbey Road Studios Our clients include Oscar-winning film directors, composers and sound designers, as well as the world’s largest streaming company, and we believe that this experience should give our clients the right to boast instantly about their friends.
“Our team includes qualified acoustics, architects, AV professionals, mechanical and electrical engineers and a project management team with extensive experience in offering the best audio and image installations in the world. Among us, we cover all facets of the design and installation of facilities at the highest level. In short, we can create the most accurate and industry-leading breeding environments in residential environments.
“There’s a good reason why residential home theater builders don’t work in the commercial realm, as theaters simply wouldn’t exceed the stringent acoustic requirements of industry professionals.”
What is the story behind the two founders of the company?
“I studied music and acoustics at university. I pursued a master’s degree in audio acoustics and was incredibly lucky to get a job designing recording studios straight from college. In my first job, I designed studios for U2, the BBC and the Dolby’s Atmos screening room in London, which I believe was the first Atmos room built specifically in Europe, possibly in the world.
“I started my own acoustic design company in 2014 and have since designed studios for Abbey Road Studios, Netflix, Lucasfilm, NBC Universal, Google and Spotify. Many of which are now regular customers. I still conduct and oversee the acoustic design of all our projects and in general I do the start-up tests which are then fed into the design of the next project so that we can constantly improve. That’s the really interesting part for me. “
“My business partner, Justin Spier, started writing and producing dance music under different costumes in the 1990s, but continued his career in technical positions within the music industry, including the technical supervisor of a music company. audio hire, the head of technical engineering at a large London studio and several other consulting roles before setting up Studio Creations in 2005.
“Studio Creations is the leading technical, construction and studio design integrator with a client list that is like Who’s Who? of the music and film business, offering the best recording studios and post-production facilities in the industry “.
What kind of services can customers expect if they get Indesign Theater to build their home theater?
“Because each home cinema is a tailor-made design, our services will depend in part on customer requirements. Sometimes our role in the project is a small part of a much larger scheme, in which case we will join the larger design team. However, more often than not we offer a complete turnkey design, construction and installation service.
“The design process will normally begin with an acoustic survey and a thorough assessment of construction performance requirements, in terms of insulation, building services, noise, room acoustics and technical integration. This determines the size, shape and construction methods required and forms the basis of the following design.From here we begin to look at the options of equipment, technical and interior design and furniture, which is where the customer is often very involved. “We then transform it into a fully coordinated set of construction plans and specifications for the site team to execute.”
A typical scope of services includes architecture and interior design plus full BIM coordination, including technical design. We also fix the sound insulation and design the acoustics of the room. 3D visualizations, custom lighting design, and custom movie seats are all we take care of. We also do the back stuff, such as designing the engine room and designing the server rack. We take care of all the fiber wiring and backbone, as well as the design of the video array, the automation systems, the start-up of the room and the calibration before delivering the project to the customer ”.
Where does Indesign Theater operate? Is it a global concern?
“Although we are a UK-based company, we operate worldwide. Projects outside the UK or Northern Europe are usually design-only, with a team visiting the site and commissioning to check the design compliance The design team has carried out projects throughout Europe, North America, South America, India and the Middle East.
Who have you built home cinema for so far?
“Many of our clients are high profile people and we take their privacy very seriously. However, some family names we have worked with and are happy to mention include: Noel Gallagher, Idris Elba, James Arthur and Muse. In business, we’ve worked with Apple, Netflix, Disney, Warner Brothers and Lucasfilm. “
What type of kit do you use in your designs?
“Each Indesign theater is unique, which is why we select the most suitable equipment based on the type of room and the client’s needs. We only use industry-leading products that offer identical reproduction to a commercial facility and have excellent relationships with the best manufacturers in the world, both professional and domestic. But the kit we use is only a small part of the equation; without good acoustic and technical design, you can’t realize the full potential of the equipment. It is the extra attention to detail that makes a normal home theater an amazing space.
“We approach the technical installation with the same methodology that our commercial cinemas, we use processors AV only like gateway to the analogue domain and our systems are programmed in Qsys or Crestron and totally to measure. While the backend of the system is likely to be complex, the user interface is incredibly simple and perfect to operate without the user needing deep knowledge.
“Audio-based IP and IP decoding and custom-designed integrated hardware and software drivers are the norm. We only specify a handful of speaker manufacturers that we know can deliver the performance and accuracy our customers demand.” .
Where do you see the home theater industry going in terms of technology?
“Resolutions will increase at some point and because films are often shot at a much higher resolution than they are released. But as higher resolutions are adopted throughout the post-production industry, this will result in the push for higher resolutions, as 4K is the industry standard and, above all, is currently considered unnecessary.We consider HDR to have a much greater impact on perceptual quality than additional pixels and frame rate (the BBC has found that as spatial resolution increases, viewers prefer an increase in temporal resolution).
“There’s a big change with Atmos music because Apple Music requires mixes at Atmos. We’re constantly building commercial projects for that …