The Home Cinema Alliance - Tech Talk Podcast
A consumer-facing podcast hosted by industry veterans, Stuart Burgess from Immersive Cinema Rooms and Simon Gregory from Cinema Rooms.
Each episode, we bring you News, Reviews, and Interviews from inside the industry covering Home Cinema, Home Theatre, and all things tech.
Get involved podcast@homecinemaalliance.co.uk
The Home Cinema Alliance - Tech Talk Podcast
What is a Home Cinema, and why doesn’t it come in just one box?
A true home cinema cannot be ‘bought in a box’ but is built bespoke for you by an expert, matching your needs and delivering performance beyond expectations. Stuart and Simon discuss the confusion which has existed for decades around the phrase "Home Cinema" and, as industry veterans working in the Home Cinema Industry for over 45 years combined, how you build a true Home Cinema.
Plus, what projects we have been working on and Tech News from inside the industry from LG and Sony.
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Find Stuart at Immersive Cinema Rooms
Find Simon at Cinema Rooms
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Hi and welcome to episode one of the Home Cinema Alliance Tech Talk podcast. My name is Stuart Burgess from Immersive Cinema Rooms and today I'm joined by my co-host Simon Gregory of Cinema Rooms. We've been in the cinema industry, technically, technology industry for about 45 years. And the idea behind this monthly podcast is going to be give you, the viewer, a little bit of an insight into our day-to-day lives, talk a bit about the tech news that we deal with every day, and discuss a topic of the month. So going forward onto this episode, our topic of the month is going to be what is a home cinema? We thought that's a good way to start off the conversation to lay out what we sort of perceive as being a home cinema and what others perceive as being a home cinema. So stay tuned and join us for the next segment. Thank you to RØDE for sponsoring this episode of the HEA Tech Talk podcast. Whether you're in the studio, on set, or out in the wild, Rode Microphones has your sound covered. From crystal clear audio to rugged pro audio gear, Rode empowers creators to capture every word, every moment, flawlessly. Trusted by pros, loved by creators. Rode, your voice, your story. So Simon... Thanks for joining me today. Hopefully this is going to be a regular occurrence. We've made it. Thanks for having me. We've made it. A lot of setting up. Just a big thank you to Artcoustic for letting us borrow their demo room or room one, screen one up in Chelmsford where we're going to do the podcast from today. So tell us a bit about yourself and sort of what jobs you've been up to recently.
SPEAKER_00:So my name is Simon Gregory from Cinema Rooms. I'm the director of the company and we've just celebrated 16 years we we started in 2009 and as you said we've both got a combination of a few years but and also the industry has changed so we're here the Art Q6 showroom which is close to where we're based in Chelmsford Essex and yeah that's a great great great showroom that we can bring clients to as many as many others that they're out there as well but and we bring our clients here we've just won a job that's a barn conversion okay which actually is having some from our Q6C ones in and the CI45 sub, which you can go under the counter in the kitchen. And then there's also a new build part of that, which is going to be a media room. So the room is seven by four, so quite a big room, but we're actually going to split that in half to have a media room, so a sofa with a 85 inch TV, and then the client wants a pool table in there and a pull-down bed. So we've got to work out how that actually all fits in. Pull-down bed, that's a new one. It is, they want a multi-purpose So I don't think you can get it more multi-purpose than watching a movie, playing a bit of pool and then going to have a sleep. It's also going to have a bar in there with a sink and a fridge for all your drinks. So the client did actually come to the Artacoustic showroom, really loved what he heard and what he saw and understood the room as well. So the Cinema Luxe guys have done this room and I think they're going to be working with this client as well just to get the room design and specification to how he wants it.
SPEAKER_01:I'm getting vibes of a 1980s, 1990s sort of like National Lampoon's vacation sort of motel room where you had this big bed
SPEAKER_00:you pulled down. I don't think there's going to be a vibrating bed, but maybe that could be added as an extra. Sweet to D-Box, they
SPEAKER_01:might be
SPEAKER_00:able to do 50p in a metre. D-Box solution is very good for cinema seating, but I'm not sure about a bed. Working on that project, it It's first fixed stage at the moment, but yeah, that would be a really nice, fantastic room for the whole family. So they've got three kids. They want the cinema lounge seating as well, but they want it as that destination room. It's all ground floor, so... There's nothing above us. And it's quite a big barn. And then you've got to walk to that area. Then there's a gym next door. We're going to have some archery speaks in there. And there's a pool area and then a garden area as well. So it's a nice... Sort of
SPEAKER_01:reminiscent. Our COVID project was a snooker room in East Sussex, which, you know, at the time the world was going to pot, but it was quite nice. It's still going to pot. It was quite nice because it was like I was, I was going there in the evenings when you're allowed to go out but you weren't allowed to see people and you're allowed to work and all this stuff. But I was down there for like six hours working away and this was, I think it was 14 metres long by eight metres wide. If you check out the Immersive YouTube channel, Immersive Cinema Rooms on YouTube, we've got a time lapse and a tour video of it. But it basically was very much like a dual purpose, a full size snooker room the clients probably was most wanting. He's always wanted it since he was a boy. And then we put like a big sort of like U-shaped sofa at the end with a massive screen, acoustic as well. And that's a phenomenal room, multi-purpose, but an absolutely phenomenal room, which I know gets used weekly, if not daily.
SPEAKER_00:I saw the video. It looked a fun room. That's the way I think to describe that. Those kinds of rooms is a fun room for everybody to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, technically maybe not perfect because, you know, In this one, because the room was, let's say, nine, 10 metres where the rear speakers would have potentially been, we didn't use rear speakers. So when you listen to it, I knew that things were missing, but it still gave off a phenomenal space and the client was really, really happy with it. And it was a case that sometimes you've got to leave things out because there's just no way of doing them in the first place.
SPEAKER_00:It works, doesn't it? the practicality of the room. So this room, we've designed 85-inch TV, centre left and right, but the sides have actually got to go into one next to a window, which is not ideal, and the other one is actually going to go into a bar area. So on the shelf of the bar, obviously we've got to make that fairly secure and hopefully it doesn't vibrate too much, which it shouldn't do. So there's always compromises in any room, isn't
SPEAKER_01:there? Yeah, and we're doing a room down in Brighton at the moment with another company. Shout out to John at Sound Integration So we're helping him on this job. We've originally been brought into the fabric. Similar to what we've got here. Yeah, similar to what we've got behind me. But this is... Red on red on red. A friend of ours, actually two fellow HCA members, Cyber Homes and Prestige, both did like red cinemas. And this is, it's not red. The only way I could describe it is it's the same colour as an RSJ. So it's that type of red. But when I first got involved in it, it was red walls like the blue walls we've got in here. And then it's a red ceiling as well, same fabric. It's a red carpet. And they've even painted the coffered ceiling in the room red. Wow. So my first thing was when I saw the renders for it, it was like, oh my God, this is a really red room. But because it's actually got windows in it and we've got Lutron blinds in it and I don't think they're going for a red sofa. I'm forgetting they're going for a creamy colour. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing it finished. I think it's just going to be a really interesting room. I mean, we're going to do photography and videography and a 360 tour on it anyway. But I think it's just going to be a really interesting room. But I'm looking forward to this one because I've not done almost like a single colour room before. Blue, I've done a lot of. Blue's very popular. But yeah, this one's going to be really, really quite interesting.
SPEAKER_00:Fun room. We did, many years ago, a purple cinema room. Oh, really? And the client wanted the purple and I was dismayed. But it just shows you the importance of lighting control. So we had Rayco in there and, again, the blackout blinds. And once we could manipulate almost the room and fill that room with light or control the room lighting... the purple elements of it did work really, really well. So your red room hopefully will work the same way. But red's a bold move. It's like when the clients get the orange sofa or the big yellow sofa. So in our demo room, we've got like a green sofa. So we didn't want the blacks or the grays or anything like that. So we actually had a nice sort of green sofa from the guys at Envision. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:I remember a job we did in Bedfordshire, which was, funnily enough, it was a blue When clients see that you've done rooms and you showed them examples, they tend to go with the same colour. And I think like purple, blue, even like a rusty red, when you turn all the lights off in here, it just is a dark room. But this room in question, they had a similar in here, like a greyish carpet with blue walls, and they wanted an orange sofa from our friends at Front Row. And I'm like, are you sure? But actually, I agree, it sort of pops. It's the first thing you see because you're walking into the room sort of by the side of the screen. It's the first thing you see in the room and it really just shouts out. And we're actually looking at putting a second one in now because they've decided they want to put another row in. We allowed for it. But I think, yeah, sometimes it's good to be bold. It
SPEAKER_00:is, and have the room your way. As you show in this facility, it's not a black, dark room. It's a nice, vibrant clean looking room which is what you want as soon as the client comes in they're like oh okay because people's perspectives of a cinema room or media room and we've probably discussed that further on down the podcast is a dark black room yeah no it doesn't need to be like that anymore yeah
SPEAKER_01:Now, I think it's, yeah, you know, a lot of people would say, oh, a room's got to be black walls with black ceiling, with black floors, and, you know, not have any distractions. It's not a coffin. Yeah, and it's a room you want to sit in, or more importantly, the wife acceptance factor, not trying to be sexist, or it might be the male acceptance factor in some families. But I agree with the fact of the, you know, from the front half of the room, like here and the side walls in here, you don't want glinting distractions. But it's actually got to be a room that you want to be able to sit in and enjoy as a family. Yeah. I mean, we've got some of our clients who, once they've experienced the cinema, once we've built the cinema in their home home, it's just like they love it. From Sunday morning hangovers, watching Sunday brunch or something like that, to the football, to full out movies, it's just a room for many different things.
SPEAKER_00:It's a destination room, whatever the purpose you use it for. So watching the movies, watching sport, watching TV, TV now is so cinematic, it can be used for anything really, but as long as you have got that destination room for you and the whole family, I think it's, yeah, it's exciting,
SPEAKER_01:it's good. So is it mainly cinema rooms that you've been doing lately or have you been doing some other sort of?
SPEAKER_00:To be fair, we have been doing more media rooms. We do a few decent size cinema rooms, but that seems to be coming less frequent with TVs becoming more readily available, especially the cost of TVs. We did like 98-inch TVs the other day. I know the guys at AWE HiSense, they've done some big TVs at decent prices, which gives you that more cinematic feel. I know in the ArtQ6 showroom here, they've gone for a projector-based media room, but they could have easily gone for a 100-inch plus size TV. Media rooms are becoming more readily available, I think. Obviously cost does come into that. And multipurpose. So for gaming, projectors are getting a lot better for gaming. But if you want that fast response time, obviously TVs, OLEDs, and the new mini LEDs are really the way to go. And plus you can stream from them. We were speaking about it earlier, just having that ease of use of of just everything in one controller, one room. You've got your streaming services. They're all on the TV. You want to play a bit of gaming, fantastic. Just turn the console on. It comes on the TV. The ER kicks in. The sound comes on. You haven't got to do much, have you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, true. True. Which brings the segue beautifully into the news. So what I want to do is we're going to roll into the news. But before we roll into the news, again, I just want to say a big thank you to our host today, Paul from Artcoustic. Artcoustic are a cinema company based in Denmark, but they cover the whole world. We have the facility that we're at today in Chelmsford, which you can come to as a member of the public. If you go to someone like a HCA member, homecinemaalliance.co.uk, they can bring you here to see the facility. And it's a perfect opportunity for you to experience the cinema room and to maybe get a HCA member and Artcoustic involved in your next project. So big thank you to Paul and the team for welcoming us here today and suggest that you go to their website, artcoustic.com and look at some of their products or speaks for a HCA member. Thank you to HCA for sponsoring the new set of the HCA Tech Talk podcast with their new U-Control remote. Right, okay, so on to a little bit of news for this week. So quite nicely segueing from our last conversation to this conversation on the subject of TVs. Sony have just sort of made aware of their Bravia 8 series TVs. So they're using a QLED technology rather than a WLED technology, which they use in the A95Ls, which they're saying is a 20 35% peak brightness compared to the older model. Now, I might have this wrong, so don't take me on this, but I read that it's from sizes 43 to 98 inches, but I agree with a conversation we said off camera, which was like some of their ranges aren't going up to the
SPEAKER_00:bigger sizes. I think that's right, yeah. So the 65 inches is the biggest size in the go for, and then obviously higher up in the series, then go up to the 98 inches. Which is
SPEAKER_01:small. Maybe that's coming from the person that's now got 77. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:we did install a 65-inch into a child's bedroom the other day, and it was a big room, I give them that, but a 65-inch in a child's bedroom was a bit over the top. But it was Steve Davies' old house, so it's a nice big room.
SPEAKER_01:I remember, I think you see it, I started the business... 18 years ago now, I think it was, and we looked after all the Sony centers in the southeast. And back then it was 40s. Going to 46 was like, whoa. But so quickly it's gone up to sort of like an acceptable screen as being a 65. As I say, I've just changed my Panasonic for an LG at home, which was a 77. And it was quite funny because at the same time as doing the 77, I also did an 83 for a client. So it was a definite sort of like, Oh, his screen's bigger than me. And then I was getting home at evening and watching, like looking at my screen going, do you know what? I could probably get an 83 up there. But then the speakers would be squashed.
SPEAKER_00:Too squashed. It's that FOMO experience, isn't it? But yeah, no, it's the new Sony range. We're a big advocate. So you do a lot of Sony, don't you? We do a lot of Sony, yep. So really like the pitch quality. We've got an OLED in our demo facility, but they are really good TVs. Nice and reliable as well. Google TV as well so they used to be Android but now they're Google TV.
SPEAKER_01:How are they now? I'll be honest with you I think I did Sony mainly when it was Android based
SPEAKER_00:and they were quite slow. Pretty slow and sluggish and you had to delete the cache and stuff every now and then just to speed up the TV. I know this because the in-laws have still got my old TV. So it's literally like, Simon, it's going slow. It's like, right, press and hold reset, delete this. But no, the new ones, the new Google TV ones are really good and nice and fast. And the pitch quality is next level. So yeah. Get a call into your local supplier and just Jupiter.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, hopefully. I mean, I don't know whether one of our suppliers, AW Europe, usually invite you up to Weybridge, isn't it, where they have them. I'm not sure if they've done that yet. So it'd be quite interesting to see. But it's just the fact of the, you know, 98 inches is standard now. Yes. And we briefly touched on the Hisense, which is 100, is it, or 110? Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:it's
SPEAKER_01:over
SPEAKER_00:100,
SPEAKER_01:definitely.
SPEAKER_00:Which is just like... More readily available for the... end users, which is
SPEAKER_01:perfect. Although, I mean, we're rolling to the next story, which is LG are releasing sort of like, it's sort of like TV time. So if you go back to January, we had CES in Vegas, which we have every year. So that's usually where the new TVs are announced. So, and sort of like about now, your April, May, June time is when the new TVs are coming out. So good thing is if you want a cheap TV, pick up an A95L from Sony or an LG G4 or something like that because you will get them at a good price if you can still find them. Most of the HCA members will be able to get hold of one for you probably or a high street location will be able to get it as well. But it is the fact of the screen size and the prices. I mean, the LG G5, which I knew the G5 was coming when I bought the G4 And I'm like, no, no, it's fine, it's fine. The G4's fine for me. It'll do me another three years.
SPEAKER_00:And now I want the G5. G5 was good. Oh, I see, when both you and I were there, the LG stand was pretty phenomenal and pretty bright, but it did fill up a whole haul. So the
SPEAKER_01:G5, the early pricing is sort of like from about 55 to 97 inches, again, which is good. So about 1800 for a 55 inch, which is phenomenal. Phenomenal price for an OLED TV. That's not bad, is it? But when you get to the 97, you are getting up to 25
SPEAKER_00:grand. So we were speaking to a client the other day, and they had one of the original Panasonics, and they spent about five grand on, I think it was a 42-inch or 55-inch TV. And so we priced up a Sony OLED the other day and gave them the price, and he was like, wow, that's half
SPEAKER_01:the price that I paid for mine. We swapped out a... No, an 86, was it? Yeah, 86 inch LED for a client in Tunbridge Wells in Kent. And we swapped that for an 86 inch micro LED LG. We didn't put an OLED in because the OLED only went to 83 and it was sort of fitting in the pigeon hole. And the client's like, no, I can't have any gaps around it because it's going to make me think I've got smaller TV. But the price of that was phenomenally cheap. I think it was something stupid like$1,700 quid for an 86 inch TV okay it's mini LED which you know has disadvantages over an OLED maybe some advantages over an OLED but yeah I mean going back to the early days of OLED 40 probably a 55 or a 40 something. No, it wasn't 40, because they did 14 OLEDs, but 55 OLED when they first come out. I mean, that was the 25,000 at the 97 inches now. Yeah. It
SPEAKER_00:was like with plasma, when plasma first come out, that was an extortionate amount of money. We sold Lerva TVs back in the day, and you're looking at 14,000, 15,000 for a 42-inch plasma TV. It's more readily available now, obviously, and more easily accessible for a lot of people. That's why I think we're doing more media rooms, so we'll do a cinema once a month but media rooms we generally can do every week, I think, to be fair.
SPEAKER_01:Before Christmas, we did this 86-inch G4. Actually, if you're watching, Seamus, you need to get a G5. Basically, that had our friend Roddy from Cinnabar Build Systems that had his Halo frame around it so we could hide some speakers behind that. And it was perfect because it was a converted playroom. It just worked perfectly because it had a lot of ambient light, which would not necessarily wash out a but would give you the full brightness. If the screen was sort of here where we are here, where the screen is beside me, the door was here behind me, so you couldn't really do ultra short throw because there'd be a unit straight in your way. So it just works really well. I mean, obviously in here and if you go next door, which you can find the video we did with Paul from Artacoustic where we've done a showroom tour of the showroom looking at screen one and screen two. I mean, that screen there is phenomenal. scope aspects, how wide? Do you remember how wide? Four metres. Four metres wide. So yeah, but there's some good TVs coming out. Don't overrule a TV for a
SPEAKER_00:projector in certain ways. No, everybody loves TV. Obviously, it's not as cinematic. You have got the short throw projection option, which you mentioned earlier. We've done a few of those because you can have a nice light room And it still looked pretty phenomenal. So there's various companies that do those. But obviously, a TV is easier to get into somebody's house. So everybody loves TV. But the big news is obviously the Sony and their projectors.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, sort of going on to keep with Sony, which is the fact that Sony have suspended sales of projectors in the EU. EU, yes. Which annoyingly does include the UK. It
SPEAKER_00:does, even though we're not part of the EU. It still involves us. It's one of those very fine lines, isn't it? It is a very fine line. And so, no, that was a big shock. I saw that and I thought it was almost fake news.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it sort of blew up on our HCA members club. It did, yeah. Which was like one of the members put it on the feed to say, have you heard this? And then everybody was sort of speculating. So thankfully, James, if you're watching, I reached out to James and sort of said, you know, what's going on? And he confirmed that it was all in the air. James from AWE. Yeah. So what's... your understanding of why they've ceased production, not ceased production, but ceased
SPEAKER_00:shipping? Temporally suspended, I think, is the term they use. But I think it was just due to shipping costs. Obviously, there's a lot of turmoil going on in the world. There's certain parts that they couldn't get a hold of in a factory that most of the projector is made in. But I think a lot of it was just shipping costs and just extra increase in that. But I don't think it's the end of Sony and their projectors. I think they will be back. A lot of our distributors have still got stock of the projectors. I mean, they are phenomenal projectors, so. Yeah, I think I spoke to
SPEAKER_01:one of them the other day. I think it was probably James from AW again, who was saying that the, funnily enough, the GT series, which is about£65,000, they've got quite a few of those, and the Bravia 8 and Bravia 9, they've got good stock of those, but it's the 5000 series, which is a staple which a lot of people are using. So it may well be that if you are looking at a project using a Sony projector get it in now before I mean they're all pretty relevant the 5000 is a few years old but they are keeping it
SPEAKER_00:get those orders in really guys I think nowadays it's very volatile at the moment for pricing and we've got literally signed off two jobs this week just for getting a client to put a deposit down because those prices are going up so we did a Sony 98 inch TV that went up£400 literally in the last two weeks
SPEAKER_01:not as bad as if you're in America and you're buying from China. Although, big news this week, because we are both gamers as well, is that the pre-orders have been announced for the Switch 2 in America, and apparently they're not putting the price of the unit up. So there was a lot of rumours to say that the price of the new Switch 2, not OLED, they didn't do OLED, but the new Switch 2 was going to potentially go up to£500,£600,£700 in America. They're
SPEAKER_00:not doing pre-orders though, are they, in America? I thought they'd suspended
SPEAKER_01:that. I think it's the 23rd or 24th of April. So we're recording this on the 23rd. So yeah, it's over to date. At some point this week, it's going live in America and Canada, but they They've said that it's going to be the same price. But yeah, we are sort of like seeing prices slowly
SPEAKER_00:rising. It's a brave move from Nintendo, I think, to launch it in this current climate. I think the original Switch is quite a few, eight years old now, I believe. Eight years, yes. So it's done its time. And obviously you can get 4K out of it now, which is good. Docked 4K. Docked 4K. I've got an OLED screen, which is fantastic. But yeah, now the Switch 2 is coming out. It looks fun. A bit of Metroid, a bit of Mario Kart, open world play. I
SPEAKER_01:nearly ordered it, but couldn't get to order it. Just couldn't get my pre-order in. And then... I find myself so little being able to play games at the moment. At the moment, it's Assassin's Creed Shadows on a Saturday or Sunday morning. When I wake up, it's like 4.30 in the morning. It's actually a bit like that. But I've got that... shame, that pile of shame is getting bigger. So I might pick it up once. It's maybe later in the year. Animal Crossing, going back to my snooker room, maybe I shouldn't say this on camera, going back to my snooker room, that was when Animal Crossing was coming out. Me and my daughter, she's now 14, we were in a group where you could sell your turnips. If anybody knows Animal Crossing, you know what that is. I have no idea what
SPEAKER_00:he's talking about. I've been playing Atomfall recently. That's a really good game based in Scotland and there's been some nuclear explosion but there's no quick way to get around. You have to walk everywhere. So there's no fast track. That's the first thing I do in
SPEAKER_01:Assassin's Creed is climb to the top of towers to unlock a spawn point.
SPEAKER_00:It's almost cheating. But yeah, Atom 4, I think it's been really popular on the multiple platforms that are out there. So yeah, I've been playing that and getting involved in that and getting lost in that.
SPEAKER_01:Brilliant. Well, maybe we'll bring an unprompted gaming section to the HCA Tech Talk podcast. But we have... called it HCA Tech Talk because we want to talk about everything to do with tech, not necessarily just home cinema. But we are the Home Cinema Alliance. This is the Home Cinema Alliance Tech Talk podcast. So a lot of it will be about home cinema, which sort of brings us on to our topic of the month. So what we perceive from this podcast, just sort of to get it out of the way in episode one, is going to be a myself and Simon will sit down initially, probably once a month, do a similar sort of format and talk about a topic that topic you'll be able to read on our blog please get involved in it if you're watching this on YouTube because it is a video and audio podcast please like and subscribe first of all please leave a review whether it's an audio podcast or a video podcast but also in the comments they still do it below or at the side I'm not sure now below with the comments below sort of you know touch on let us know you know what you perceive as you know as being a home cinema what TVs you watching or what tvs you're interested in buying
SPEAKER_00:also anything else you like us to talk about really it's uh it's an open platform and uh yeah we're here for you guys
SPEAKER_01:yeah we have a an email address purely for the podcast which unsurprisingly is podcast at home cinema alliance.co.uk so please reach out and let us know your questions uh but yeah so our sort of our main monthly topic there will potentially be a second pod every month which will be more of an interview sit down interview with manufacturers suppliers there is about 20 HCA members in the UK and I'm slowly working my way around I was in Bristol last week talking to Dan from Hidden Home and Owen from Cinema Works I'm in Edinburgh next week with the Cedia Business Summit talking to Stuart from Limitless I think we might even do our one after this if Paul doesn't kick us out so the second podcast may well be a week or two after this one which will be more of an interview based podcast a bit of an insight into a HCA member or a manufacturer or a distributor
SPEAKER_00:yeah subscribe click on that bell to get notified and yeah when the next one's out we'll be there
SPEAKER_01:so bringing us on to our topic of the month I thought we'd sort of like strip it right back to you know fundamentally what is a home cinema what do you as a client perceive a home cinema to be, a viewer, please let us know below what you are aware of as a home cinema. I've always wanted to do like, I think it's family fortunes, you know, stand out on an industrial estate somewhere, not looking weird, and basically do a And the survey says? The survey says, you know, we're allowed to say that. It's not copyrighted, is it? Are we allowed to do, sorry, what's your idea of a home cinema? You know, because I do believe that the word home cinema has been banded around a lot. It's now used on very many different things. But I don't, in a way, I don't think that's a bad thing. But, you know, because in the way of like, clients are made aware of Dolby Atmos, which is in this room, but they're made aware of it because the soundbar, it's written on a soundbar, or it's on a set of headphones, because maybe a set of gaming headphones can run immersive audio, Dolby Atmos audio type of thing. So I think because we are the Home Cinema Alliance, and we do build rooms like this, where do you see the home cinema? Where do you think sometimes people's misunderstanding of the term home cinema is?
SPEAKER_00:I think it's educating the client and, as you said, where they've seen it. So whether it's an advert, whether it's the local retail park and what they're into. So whether it's gaming, movies or watching sport. Home cinema, we did an article not too long ago, is like, have it your way. Because you can nowadays, have a room your way. It doesn't have to be a dark, blacked out room like a coffin. You can have a nice, bright, airy room with a TV or cinema or media projector-based system. So with a home cinema, for us, it's... Again, it's that destination for the whole family to come to. Doesn't matter how old you are, how young you are, and what you want to do in that room. Whether the kids want to come in and put YouTube on or whatever, do a bit of gaming, watching movies, or watch Britain's Got Talent, for instance. It's just bringing the whole... family together and sitting down they're not on their phones they're not like going off wandering off to do other things and you know where they are obviously depending on their age and what they want to do but they can get their friends come around as well we've we've got a demo facility and i know you have two where the kids can go and that can be their base and yeah it works for everybody so i think the perception of home cinema in a box
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was going to say, so a lot of people would consider as a home cinema or coming in a box that you would buy from one of the big department stores.
SPEAKER_00:I think so. I think people's perception of, oh, I need a big room. I need an extra extension built, for instance. But it's any unloved room. Yeah. We've done... kitchens before. So we've done a kitchen because they did build an extension. So we did a really decent cinema in what used to be a kitchen. Any other room, like a playroom, kids are growing up. What's in there now? Not a lot.
SPEAKER_01:Let's put a cinema in there. For me, the term home cinema... So if it comes in a box, I would say that's a surround sound system. Because fundamentally, what you're doing... The next step up from Prologic, maybe. Yeah. Oh, God, that day is where you had the wires running around from your Toshiba Cafferay tube TV. It worked. Yeah. Debenhams in Hastings, I think, was my Saturday job when Top Gun first came out. But, you know, I sort of perceive a home cinema as being something that has been led by a design. I think it's something whereby you'll reach out to a HCA member, a CDA member, or just someone who is a home cinema, a respected home cinema company globally, not just in the UK. And the questions they'll ask you is more about about the room you're going to use. You know, they'll work out, like if you speak with Paul here at Artcoustics, you know, fundamentally a lot of it is based around the seated position, which is based around the screen size, which is based around speaker locations, which I know in our video we touched on the speakers that are in here, and ultimately they're a relatively smaller speaker. But for me, I don't say there's anything wrong in a box solution. So I don't say there's anything wrong with solutions like Sonus, where they may use a five speaker system. But I think the term home cinema, I think it's been misused personally. And I think for me, it's been quite a few years to educate my clients on the difference of buying a box solution or putting a soundbar. There's a friend of ours who told me a story once of a room that he had, which was many, many speakers, and it was in his garden, and he'd run a garden festival. I won't mention his name. He'd run a garden thing every year, and all these kids were using it, and one of the clients came up to him and said, what's this? And he said, oh, it's a home cinema. And next year, this person who asked the question, it was their opportunity to run this event, charity event. And after it all happened, and they said the guy's name then, after it all happened, this lady took this unnamed man into the room and said, what do you think of my own cinema? And it was a 98-inch Samson TV with a Dolby Atmos soundbar below it. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but... that's not a cinema. You know, if you went to an Odeon or, can't think of any others, if you went to an Odeon or a Kino or something like that and you had a sound bar below the screen, you'd be a bit miffed.
SPEAKER_00:You'd be a bit annoyed that you spent 15 quid on a ticket and bought some popcorn and a drink. But I think you're right, it's that misuse of that word. So especially with home cinema and Dolby Atmos, Dolby Atmos is an immersive experience in a room. Yeah. they're now classing headphones as Dolby Atmos. There should be different levels of what you get from Atmos in my personal opinion. So Atmos level, yeah, light. Or for instance, it's like, yeah, extreme or something like that. Just so the client is more educated and understands what's going on. So yeah, and the way we approach things is understanding the client's needs and requirements. So how are you gonna use this room? What are you gonna do in his room? If you're just going to sit here and watch normal TV, yeah, soundbar might be perfectly fine for you. But hey, do you stream TV? Yep. Netflix, Amazon? Yep. Apple TV? Streaming all those? That's an immersive experience now. So it's so cinematic TV. You can get the Dolby Atmos. You can get Dolby Vision. So the picture quality really pops out the screen. Really does. So if you've got a really vibrant picture and you've got a little sound bar, you're getting a big screen with loud noise. You want that cinematic experience.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you're losing that dynamic range. One of Paul's favourite clips back in the old showroom was Cloverfield Road. And it's a bit at the beginning where it's quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet. And then something happens and it literally scares the living bejeebers out of you. I remember Paul saying to me as he walked out, he went, Stuart, you haven't got a heart condition, have you? Because there was that dynamic range. And I remember going home and doing that on my, what was then 5.1 system in the lounge. And it worked but then a few days later Did your sub pop? No luckily it was a good sub at that point I had two Kev subs so it was fine but a few days later I tried it at the showroom where I had an old Solace play bar on the wall and you just completely lost it so you know Sony used the phrase lens to living room you know and you know calibrating TVs to how the director intended it to be seen so it's being colour accurate I think that I think you'll miss in a big part of a film. If you're really passionate about film, and I'm not saying you have to spend tens and tens of thousands of pounds, but if you're really passionate about a film, about just thinking a little bit more about where you're positioning your speakers. you know, work with a HCA member, how even go on to like Dolby and just look at their speaker placement recommendations and get the system professionally calibrated. If it's a smallish sort of like, you know, like a, I don't know, let's say for argument, a relatively small system like the one we did, the Bedfordshire one, which was an Anthem amplifier and that was a five point speaker. 2.2, so five speakers around you, two subwoofers, two ceiling speakers for Atmos, and that was a great little system. Professionally calibrated, which did cost a lot of money, but it just gave them much more immersive.
SPEAKER_00:It's just designing the room to a decent standard. As you said earlier, sometimes you could omit rear speakers because they don't work in the room, you don't need them. So a good 5.2.2 system works pretty well. You get really good sound from that.
SPEAKER_01:And actually, sometimes stepping it back. I mean, you've probably done it and I know I've done it and many other HCA members have done it. I know our friend Owen at CinemaWorks recently did a project that we took some photography for him down in Somerset. Funny enough, all of Owen's clients are called Steve, which gets really confusing. But that was a room which it didn't require, because it was actually smaller than this room, but it didn't require loads of speakers and it was just a bit of a waste. Obviously we have RP22 now, which was launched last year. It
SPEAKER_00:was last year. It was January last year. It's been a long time in the making, but we're big advocates of that and it just helps a client understand what we're trying to achieve for them. So level one, level two, level three, level four, if you can get to that.
SPEAKER_01:Holy level
SPEAKER_00:four. Holy level four. But what it also helps is the client can make intelligent decisions. Yeah. So they understand. So as you come into facilities like this or any other facility that's available to the end user via HCA members is... what can be achieved. They know the difference between level one and level two and level three. Level three is quite a lot of money, but level two, actually, okay, I'll have that system because I can see the worth in that. You wouldn't buy a car without test driving. So come into these facilities that we've all got used to. If you've got your own demo room, then fantastic. So contact the HCA member and they can either bring you to a facility like this or go to their own showroom.
SPEAKER_01:And I think when you're a client and you see... I'm going to pull a figure out of the air. So if we see a 20,000 room, 20,000 pound room, and then you're shown a 40,000 pound room, and then you're shown a 60,000 pound room, and let's just say the decor in every room is the same. I think, yeah, like with cars, you want to know where that money is being spent and why. Do
SPEAKER_00:you see the worth in that? If you don't see the worth in it, go for level one, level two. If you see the worth in a level three, stroke level four cinema room to have that, grand cinema experience, then go for it. But I think the RP-22, and then now they're doing one for the video as well, which I think will help in a lot of projector stroke TV designs within that room, because obviously... that plays an important part in the room as well.
SPEAKER_01:Well, as we said now, especially with, you know, screens, TV screens get bigger. And although, you know, like my LG's got out of the box filmmaker mode, ISF mode. And I know when I was with Greg, formerly of THX, where Steve was formerly of JVC, we calibrated or took out a box of Panasonic G20 or something like that out of a box. And we checked the calibration on it with the computer and the cameras. And actually it was pretty close. So actually if you're doing a TV based system and it has a filmmaker mode or ISF, I don't think many have THX now, but set it to that. Yes, it will look darker. It may look a bit browner, but I have that at home and it does work.
SPEAKER_00:set our TVs to cinema mode and that gives you that correct setting but we would always recommend getting a professional calibrator in so most HA members either know somebody or they can do it themselves but getting a projector especially is beneficial. And obviously TVs do have that built in, but getting that set up for day and night mode is very worthwhile.
SPEAKER_01:So I think for me, you know, ultimately home cinema, and I think where I think about with our clients, you know, I mean, we did an exhibition recently, which was like my five-year-old Panasonic OLED connected to a kaleidoscape, connected to a I can never get this right, WIM amplifier, W-I-I-M, all I think is we, as we were saying earlier. And actually, I was just using the remote control that came with the Panasonic, and it was really nice. That's all you need. And actually, the two Paradigm in-walls with a Paradigm little Rockweiler subwoofer, that thing kicked. And actually... There's nothing wrong with having a TV with two good bookshelf speakers with or without a subwoofer.
SPEAKER_00:A lot of people are more than happy with that. If you've just got a TV with nothing else, it sounds 10 times better than that. If you want something even better and you've got the space and the room and obviously the money, then you can have any system in theory.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, Paul's just shown us a CPH speaker. soundbar out there, which again, if you watch the acoustic showroom tour on the HGA YouTube channel, that sounded phenomenal. I mean, obviously you can't tell on the video and we didn't play anything on the video because we get struck for copyright, but actually no sub on it.
SPEAKER_00:No sub, really cool stereo speaker that can integrate with the TV. So yeah, just watching normal TV and playing music. say on a whim or streaming your streaming services on there, that's a great sounding experience. I think, again, it's how you want it. That's the way that I now perceive a media stroke cinema room. It's how you want it. Have it your way. You can have that stereo centre speaker. As long as it sounds better than the TV and a sub, Fantastic. If you wanted surround sound, you can have surround sound in that, but you're not stuck to one particular system now. If you want something better than out of the box or just that sound bar, then that's fine. Nothing wrong with that. If you want something better, then there's plenty out
SPEAKER_01:there. And I think talk to... a cinema company, go to the HCA's website. We're about to launch a global directory underneath the International Home Cinema Day. On there, there will be people on there that build cinemas or theatres for our American friends globally. I believe that if you strip out all the fancy stuff out of the room, like the finishes, things like that, okay, It's not going to be a£500 surround sound system from a high street store. But they're not as dear as you think they are going to be. And actually, you could take a very small speaker, and if it's in the right place, pointed in the right direction, and it's calibrated properly, you'll get a fantastic
SPEAKER_00:little room. It's like when you speak to friends. It's like, oh, when I win the lottery. It's like, what do you mean when you win the lottery? Have you got a kitchen? Yeah. How much does that cost? They give you the price. Well, a cinema room is less than that. Quite a lot less than that. If you've got a bigger room, then it might cost a little bit more. But you don't need to win the lottery nowadays anyway to have a media cinema room.
SPEAKER_01:No, you do get them. I mean, your comment about the kitchen, I did one for a client I won't mention. It was a 15-seater cinema. You can see it on our YouTube channel if you want to see it. And I still don't know what cost more. The cinema... or the kitchen because I know the brand of kitchen that was put in and I know how much the client spent with me. Yeah, I still don't know. So for me, you know, and I think for you as well, the feedback you get from clients on these rooms and actually if you want it to be somewhere special that you spend some time with your family. I mean, one of the first cinema rooms I ever did in Wandsworth, I think it was, You know, the clients turn around to me and said, every Friday, sorry, every Saturday night, they go down there as a family. No phones, no tablets, no computers, no games consoles, no Switch 2. It wasn't even the Switch then. No Switch 2, but they just go down as a family. You know, one person chooses to take away, not eating downstairs, sitting upstairs first. One person chooses to take away, one person chooses a film. every week. So as my friend would say, some weeks you do get frozen for the third time and KFC, but then sometimes you'll get a really good movie and you'll get, you know, a Chinese or something like that. But for them, it's just spending quality time with each other. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:that's what it's about. We all lead busy lives. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:it's walking out of the room and going upstairs and actually, I think, I think there was four of them, two kids and two adults, might have been five, can't remember now. But they said, we were having conversations afterwards about the film we just watched. And I think that's what's brilliant about cinema.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, there's so many different films out there and educational films and things that... historical films that people can can watch and uh and they look back on as well actually yeah that's uh that's fundamentally really important it's
SPEAKER_01:great in family memories and it's you know we'll touch on it in a future topic as well but you know big screen sports you know during covid we had the demo room and and If you go way back on my Instagram, you'll see like a picture of microwaved popcorn and snacks that we would put in a drive for 15 minutes to my demo room. And we'd sit and watch a film. I mean, hell, during COVID, there was times where I was sitting in the office doing quotes for clients and the girls were watching the Strictly final. Or, you know, now it would be... Britain's Got Talent or The Voice or something like that. But a cinema room is not just about movies, in my opinion. It's about watching content with your family to make memories.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, 100%. And that's what it's all about. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Well, as I said, the topic is going to be on the Tech Talk blog, which if you go to homesinemareliance.co.uk forward slash blog, tech talk or it might be forward slash blog. It's on there somewhere. You can have a look. There'll be a link somewhere. I'll put a link in the below. You can get involved. Please leave comments below about your favourite systems. Send us photographs through the International Home Cinema Day Instagram page. Unfortunately, last year we lost Home Cinema Choice magazine. Yep. Sad times, that. And I think one thing I want to achieve or we want to achieve with International Home Cinema Day is somewhere that, you know, you, the end user, could send us your photographs to put up on our pages and talk about it. I'm thinking about starting like a, it might be a Facebook group, it might be a Reddit group, I don't know, where people can share images, people can share their systems, and we can celebrate the rooms that we've created together. Because for us, whether it's for a client or it's you, the end user who's done your own, the rooms you're very proud of and you love.
SPEAKER_00:100%. I mean, people put a lot of pride and passion into the rooms, whether we do them or they do themselves, or We've had a client who did a garage conversion. And we went around the other day just to make sure everything was working fine. And I was like, do you like this room? It's like, Simon, it's my life. and he took me back and I was like he said I work hard I come in and I just watch music this is my life and he loves movies loves music and this is just a small garage conversion that we did for him a few years ago so yeah
SPEAKER_01:get those sent in and I think for me for my home cinema alliance hat or my HGA media hat on I'm trying to take all this camera equipment that you guys can't see and basically film these rooms so these rooms you know there's a great guy I think his name's Tony building montage out in New Zealand he does some brilliant videos of tours in these rooms that normally people wouldn't get to see
SPEAKER_00:and that's what it's all about showing clients what you can come and see I mean it's not just exclusive to us and the rich and famous it's open to everybody so yeah contact your HCA member and yeah come on down to any of these showrooms and experience what can be achieved yeah
SPEAKER_01:I think yeah and make sure you take photographs, Instagram it, post it and all that. Hashtag us. Yeah, hashtag us in. So that's episode one of the Tech Talk podcast over. Sorry if it's a little bit hickety-pickety. It's a new one for us. That's what it's all about. But it's made to be a conversation between two friends, two industry people and HGA members. So we'd love you to get involved, whether that's by emailing us at podcast.homecinemarelions.co.uk, leaving a comment below or leaving a review if it's an audio podcast you're listening to. Obviously, please reach out to a Home Cinema Alliance member if you're planning your project or in many ways even if you want assistance with your project like you might want it calibrated or you just want a bit of help and advice i know i'm personally will happily help someone design a room because i know when i built my first cinema room i was excited to do it uh you know 32 inch cathode ray tube tv with sony sorry sony tv with keff floor standing speakers in my parents bedroom or my bedroom with my parents.
SPEAKER_00:It was brilliant. It's awesome. We had a client and we were doing his dedicated cinema. It's a double garage, this one. And he was putting all the work that we were doing as well as obviously him being part of it on sort of the forums. And it was like, wow, this is amazing, fantastic. It just gives you people inspiration. But yeah, just go on the dealer locator, can't you, for Home Cinema Alliance members. Wherever you're based, you can go on that particular link and But, yeah, find out your local member. And if you're
SPEAKER_01:in the trade and you're watching this and you want to be part of the HCA and you want to get involved in these podcasts, you know, maybe you want to do a tour of your own showroom, please hit me up. Email the same email, podcast at homecenteralliance.co.uk or hello at homecenteralliance.co.uk. And, yeah, that's it for episode one. Fantastic. Thanks for having us. And, yeah, we'll... Please like and subscribe yourself. And yeah, we'll speak to you on the next podcast. The next one potentially will be a meet the member interview with one of the members that we've just done. And then myself and Simon hopefully might be in the studio that I'm building. The studio's a little bit of an overkill, to be honest. The room I'm building down in East Sussex, so we don't have to steal someone else's room and set up all this stuff. It's like the
SPEAKER_00:HCA podcast tour. Yeah. Where in the UK are we now? Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:but you don't drive further than an hour. No, definitely not. So it's Chelmsford by fleet, south end. That's it.
SPEAKER_00:But we are going off to Amsterdam.
SPEAKER_01:Actually, yeah, going off to Amsterdam next month to see your... I'm not sure if we're going to get a chance to do it. Maybe we'll do it in a hotel
SPEAKER_00:room. We'll do some filming in there. And
SPEAKER_01:if you've not watched, we... briefly touched on it earlier. We did a load of videos out, Integrated Systems Europe, which is a massive trade show. I mean, I think we were both gobsmacked the size of it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, over in Barcelona, it's over like eight halls and there's plenty to see and do there. So yeah, plenty of videos up there to have a look at.
SPEAKER_01:But thank you for watching or listening. Thank you for your time, Simon. And yeah, we'll see you on the next podcast. Thank you.