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
Beyond Movies: Creating Tranquil Spaces for Modern Living
The home cinema is no longer just a place to watch movies but has evolved into a multi-purpose sanctuary that can become your favourite room in the house. We explore how these spaces provide escape and relaxation while serving as family gathering spots.
• Home cinemas are evolving into tranquil multi-purpose spaces beyond just movie watching
• These rooms provide acoustic isolation that creates a sense of escape from everyday life
• Garden audio systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated with options like Stealth Acoustics speakers
• Outdoor entertainment areas with TVs and zoned audio systems are growing in popularity
• Sony's new XW5100 projector offers improved features, including 2,200 lumens and preset memory for different screen ratios
• KEF has launched a high-end XIO soundbar system for £1,999
• Samsung's new Frame Pro TVs feature wireless connection to input sources
• The UK smart home market has grown to £3.1 billion, up 7% from 2023
• Well-designed home cinema spaces can add value to properties
• Creating spaces where families can disconnect from individual devices and reconnect with each other
For more information on how to create your own perfect home cinema space, contact an HCA member through our website at homecinemalliance.co.uk.
Coming up on this week's episode of the HGA Tech Talk podcast. Yes, we're creating a cinema for you, but we're also creating a tranquil room. We actually find with a lot of our clients that they like the spaces we create, because it's another room, it's a room. On a Sunday morning, you can sit with a cup of coffee and read a newspaper or a newspaper on your iPad if you don't have physical media anymore.
Speaker 2:It's also escaped from reality I as well. So any room that we design using the technology, it is escaped from reality, but it also as soon as you go in, they feel a bit more relaxed.
Speaker 1:I think it is something to sort of like sit in and appreciate these spaces. Yeah, they're there for big-screen movies. Yeah, they're there for Netflix and they're there for YouTube. And they're there for big screen movies yeah, they're there for Netflix and they're there for YouTube and they're there for sports. But they're also just nice, tranquil places that you could just sit and spend time with your family. You old romantic, you, stuart, I know as the ex-girlfriend, but that film was one of my favorite films ever because it was so decisive.
Speaker 1:Thinking of building your dream home cinema, don't know where to start. Start with the hga. At the home cinema alliance, we connect homeowners with the very best in the business. Our members are trusted designers, installers and technology experts who know how to turn any room into a breathtaking cinematic experience. Whether you're building from scratch or converting a spare room, our members are here and technology experts who know how to turn any room into a breathtaking cinematic experience. Whether you're building from scratch or converting a spare room, our members are here to help you every step of the way. Visit our website to find your local member at homesinemarelionscouk. Hi and welcome to episode 6 of the HCA Tech Talk podcast. I'm your host, stuart Burgess and today my co-host, as always, is Simon Gregory. Good morning Stuart. Good morning Simon. Thank you for coming along to another podcast in Essex.
Speaker 2:Yes, another podcast in Essex. Where are we this week then, stuart? So we're at Pulse Cinemas this week. We are indeed Beautiful showroom and very lucky to be able to use their facilities.
Speaker 1:So about 25 minutes from you, this one About half an hour. We actually are running out of places.
Speaker 2:Now we are, I normally come here to take flight at Stansted Airport, so when we do ISE in Barcelona, said airport, so when we do ice in barcelona, I normally come here and uh, yeah, just head off, uh, quite, quite easily for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's uh, uh, it's a lovely showroom. Uh, I'm sitting down with capes a little bit later and having a conversation, because capes has sort of been here from the beginning. So uh, just wanted to touch on one thing before we get on. Obviously, here in the uk at the moment we're just getting into school season or school holiday season.
Speaker 1:I should say, yeah, the holiday season six weeks and, as I've mentioned many a time before, simon is never around when the kids are off. So you might sort of like where we've been trying to do uh, one with me and simon every two weeks. Um, we might, you might, find through. Where are we? July? This is January, then 21st of July, so yeah, we're in July. Now August. We're going to still put a podcast up every two weeks. We've got podcasts in the can from people like CAVD Distribution. We've got Procella in the can. We've got AWE Artcoustic.
Speaker 1:We've got Artcoustic, so we've got plenty out there we've got plenty of concerts go out there, but, um, we've got this one we're recording with us now, um, and then I think we've got one in about a month's time with us again, so there will hopefully be a podcast up every two weeks. I am still sticking with the rod in my back. Um, I was editing the one that's going out live tomorrow as we record this all weekend with Mel and Jamie for CAVD. So that was really cool. So if you've watched that one, it was a great podcast. If you haven't, go back and watch it. So, yeah, get it on to today's podcast. So, what have you been up to? What have you been working on, simon?
Speaker 2:So we've been doing the barn conversion so we're doing first fix on the cabling. It was a very hot couple of days because most of it was outside, so we're doing the swimming pool area. So we had to drill I think it's 44 holes in the joists to get all the cable from the comms area to the locations where we wanted, because we've got cameras going in there, access points, outdoor speakers from Stealth Acoustics. So yeah, it was a long three days of hot sweat and a few tears.
Speaker 1:Yeah, didn't you put a post on the group at one point saying it sucks to be near a swimming pool when there's no water in it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the swimming pool's not ready yet, so it would have been lovely to jump in, but it was full of a lot of a lot of uh, a lot of rubbish and debris and uh and everything like that.
Speaker 1:But that all went well and uh, we're, we're well on our way, um all the cabling in then, because I know, I know simon, who works with me, was giving you yes, so simon's gave us a hand.
Speaker 2:So he was helping as I was eating my lunch. He was helping uh do some of the other uh joists as well and running the cables. So I think you always need two people to help do pulling through of cables. I said run three cables. You said run four. So we are, we are fully covered for most things and we actually run cables for other areas that the client wasn't too sure when they're going to use. Yeah, because the most expensive cable to put in is the cable you don't put in. So we run some cable to the gym area. So I'm not sure we're going to have anything in there.
Speaker 1:But again, speaker cable, cat cable we put that in there as well, I think yeah, you touched on that you're completely right, because it's like why why run one when you can run two and why run two when you can run four? Um, considering that if you're doing like a cat six, if you're going to terminate on a wall, you're going to get a two or four game play anyway, potentially.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you change your mind at a later date and you haven't run the cable, then you are stuck. There's obviously ways of doing it, but you're going to add more cost and more complications to a build. A new build is always stressful anyway, because there's so much going on, you want to move in. There's so much going on, you want to move in. There's always teething issues, whether it's plumbing, electrical work and things like that. So if we can make everything a lot more simpler and easy for the client, then we're in and out and we're done so well, you're correct in respects of the it always makes me laugh of all the years I've been doing the exhibitions.
Speaker 1:You know you have builders and architects will turn around to clients and go how do you want your lighting to work? How do you want clients? Probably never lived in this site before, let alone this house no, not at all, and it's quite a stressful environment yeah, lots of decisions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this particular client is he's doing the whole project management side of things. So, uh, I'm on the whatsapp group for everything, so I see everything that's going on and I'm glad that I'm not a part of that on a daily basis. So we've done our first fix.
Speaker 1:It's good, though we're ready to go mid-August.
Speaker 2:I think we're ready to go first. Second fix Okay, so the cinema, the pool, should be done shortly after that. So the cinema has all been completely wired as well for a nice Atmos 524 system.
Speaker 1:I've got to say, actually being on a few WhatsApp groups for builds is quite useful, because I think we did a job back in Cranley, probably seven years ago actually. Fair to say, I'm still doing it because the client just gets me in every now and again to do a bit more and I remember there, you know, we were almost like the conductor, like the orchestra um, you know sorry, the conductor of the orchestra because and I suppose with whatsapp, what's quite good now is, you see, a conversation between the hvac and the electrician and the client and you can go. Well, you know we've got a system called cool master that we could probably integrate with that so we could control all those elements, you know, via our when. Before it was like if you weren't in that meeting on site between those trades, the only time you would have got to it was when you were there and saw it and by then it's too late.
Speaker 2:So we did actually get some really nice feedback from the foreman. I said we drilled all the joists and did all the holes and everything. He's like, oh, you could have just tacked it along that, because we're going to cover all that. He the joists and did all the holes and everything. He's like, oh, you could have just tacked it along that because we're going to cover all that he said, but at least you've done the belts and braces and you're not going to get involved in anything he said. They said you guys are leading by example. So we try. Nobody really pays much attention but we do try. So electrical cables are all over the place and piping here and there for underfloor heating, but uh, yeah, we, we try and lead and any any home cinema Cinema Alliance member should lead by example.
Speaker 1:So are you doing? Obviously we touched on summer and obviously we're in the summer now, although not by the weather today on the way out here it's a bit wet, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:I've had four seasons in one day driving up here.
Speaker 1:Literally everything but snow, so I'm waiting to go outside and find the car covered in snow when we finish recording this. So are you putting garden audio in there?
Speaker 2:Yep, so we're doing a little bit of garden audio as well. So we did a nice little garden audio system a couple of weeks ago and that was around a pool area, so again, that was using. They had Sonos in the house, so you had Sonos outside with the BGU ramp to give it some more power. But as you get that sound really good. So this job, we're just working on the barn. They're gonna have the stealth acoustics because it's a barn conversion.
Speaker 2:Heritage England have got involved so we need to have it fairly in keeping with with what the barn looks like from the outside. So they've got like a black wooden plinths going all the way across. So what we're trying to do is if we can get something that matches that to a similar standard, which you can get the different covers on the stealth, you can get brick, you can get grass, you name it. You can generally get it to match the the decor of the outside of the of the building that you're working on. So looking forward to doing those, because we saw them ic in barcelona, didn't we? We, uh, we went down there and had a good chat with the guys Along with their massive patio.
Speaker 1:TV, very big patio TV when we finally got to see some sun, sunlight. I was so happy to get some sunlight. You got your glasses on. Literally, it was in February, wasn't?
Speaker 2:it. It was a bit cold back home, so it was nice to see that. So, yeah, the Stealth guys do some really good stuff and the HCA members can get those from AWE.
Speaker 1:I think touching on like garden audio. I mean we did a home building renovating show in Sandown recently as immersive and I where the plot I was. I thought I could cheekily sneak a little bit of extra land here for the exhibition stand. So just having a banner up Simon had gone on holiday, you had gone on holiday, my brother had gone on holiday, my dad were on holiday, so it's like I'm not building the full-on stand on my own. So I just took the pop-up. But a few years ago I got a couple of b&q planters stacking on top of each other, a bit of artificial grass and put some origin acoustics, so uh, buried subwoofer and then four spikes, so ones that go in the ground in between your foliage. Um, we've just done a video for the gash at Nucleus and he used those at the Wow House and they're brilliant. And actually the response I got from people was like first of all, is this you? And I'm like yeah.
Speaker 2:People didn't believe it was you, Stuart. I like that.
Speaker 1:It was sort of like the other side of the post and they were like, what are you doing? I was like yeah, side of the post and they were like, well, you do it. Yes, so first of all, are they wireless? No, they're wired. But, as I said, it could be simple like Sonos or you know a Wim or Bluesound or an amplifier that you just connect. All you've just got to think about is running. Like you would do a ring main. You would just run a radius of cable from the house out and then I always run it back in um, and then you could then hide them in your foliage. But the sound from them was phenomenal, even like haphazardly buried in a bit of wood with a bit of artificial lawn, and that's that's the great thing I've said.
Speaker 2:Obviously, the weather now is the new norm really. It's uh, I think a heat wave in this country has to be three consecutive days of temperature between 23 and 25, which in my really is not particularly warm. It was 30 then I would say, okay, that is a heat wave. So I think you're gonna get better, better weather out here. It's going to be obviously hotter and having garden audio, even TV, so, like, obviously, it's a summer sport at the moment. You've got the cricket on, you've got the Europe women's euros going on as well, um, you've got some loads of sport tennis, golf, everything going on but you have a tv outside in in your garden and, uh, that that really adds to the uh, to the entertainment area of a garden as well yeah, because there's loads of brands.
Speaker 1:I mean samson terrace tv comes to mind. You've got a couple of other companies out there like TV Aquavision do a really good one nowadays. Even companies like I think it's still around TV Shield where you can just put a normal TV in a clipable, lockable frame.
Speaker 2:Keep it nice and safe and Call as well. They've got the fans in there. So, yeah, there's a few options you can do either dedicated outdoor TV or, as you say, the Shield being put in a normal TV and it kind of protects it in in its own environment.
Speaker 1:So that's well worth it and also just a big shout. I don't I haven't even told you this, but we've got a new HCA member come on board and the new HCA member have actually got a stunning garden set up. So a big welcome to Potter's Digital Home down near me in Tensden. So they came on board, welcome, and yeah, they've got a stunning outdoor garden where they've used a screen behind a future automation sort of split frame, um, outdoor audio and things like that.
Speaker 1:And I think you know, speaking to alex and the team at the cd a tech forum a few weeks ago, he said the growth in outdoor entertainment, not just audio, is massive. And I think the good thing about outdoor entertainment, especially with the speakers where you're isolated or they're around you, is that they're not gonna annoy the neighbours. They're not blirty audio like a couple of speakers on the back of your house. You can have them at a lower volume but within the zone you're in, and then you can actually zone your garden up into multiple zones with multiple systems. So someone in the tennis court could be listed as someone different in the barbecue area or you could just have a party zone, but not, you know, beep your neighbours off. No.
Speaker 2:I think it makes a big difference. Obviously, we used to have the outdoor speakers on the back of the house, yeah, and if you were down the bottom of the garden you generally have to turn the volume up, which obviously starts annoying the neighbours. So having more of a direct sound from the sat sub kind of system I think works really well. Also, audion Acoustic have just bought out well, not just bought out. They've been doing for a few times. I think they've modified them slightly the bollards yeah, we saw those recently.
Speaker 1:Which?
Speaker 2:are really good, so we quoted a client for those the other day. The Tudor building we've just finished off, so they're just doing the garden as we speak. So we were there this week just helping out with the CCTV and getting that through the 8x8 matrix from bluestream and there's a lot of concrete going down outside. So I kind of mentioned that they need to get some speaker cable down before they put any more cement down, so hopefully that's going to happen as well.
Speaker 1:Get the cable in or get the duct in, get some tubing in, just some piping, anything please Just something we can run it through.
Speaker 1:Please just do it. So yeah, I mean I've been busy doing a lot of media stuff recently. We're just about to start a cinema tomorrow as we record, so ironically, the van that I bought with me to carry the camera equipment is also full of our friend Roddy at Cinema Build Systems framing, so he's Space Frame. How many suites did you get this time? I just got one pack, although Kevin, bless him, did take my note to heart in respect. I went could you actually just tell me where the sweets are? Because the last time they sent me like 40 boxes of acoustic foam I didn't go through 40 boxes trying to find the sweets. Actually, I don't even think I found the sweets yet.
Speaker 2:That does take the fun away, though, stuart. Anytime we get sweets from any suppliers, it's always fun. 1av and Jess always give superb sweets, so shout out to 1AV.
Speaker 1:But no, but Kevin did actually put a little box which had some screws in for the space frame and he wrote on the front of it sweets, sweets. Because I did say to Roddy what he needs to do is stick a documented closed label on whatever box it's in, because the last time I had a delivery of them, of something, it was about eight months later, or maybe even a year over a year later I came to this box of foam, let's say, found the sweets. Of course they're out of date. I still ate them, you know, because can round trees go out of date? It's only the chocolate you've got to be wearing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if it turns white, you gotta be a bit careful. So yeah, I've been doing that?
Speaker 1:um, I've been with our friend degesh at nucleus. Uh, he did the well house this year. Yeah, looks amazing. That very good. I mean very impressed, stunning, you know. Uh, so I'm just literally doing a video for now. I think we're on version two, so that will go up soon. So check out nucleus av's website for that, also HCA Media YouTube. I'll probably put it on as well. But yeah, it was 22 rooms, I think 22 rooms of the most decadent interior design you've ever seen. Dagesh worked with an interior designer, alex Dealey, I think it was Apologies if I got that wrong, but he worked with her on this sort of like date night room, which was just stunning, you know like it does look beautiful, I have to say.
Speaker 1:I've seen some of the footage, but hidden speakers you know, a tv was sort of sunk away even. They even had a bar with a game future automation lift that came up over the room next door. They did the office where they put a B&O TV and a B&O speakers. They did the outdoor garden with I think it was Paradigm speakers, because actually it was Pulse who were at the day helped them quite a lot with the equipment there. That was like a garden outdoor indoors. They did a really, really cool thing, which I just so want to do at someone's house, which is they took some 85-inch commercial Sony monitors, turned them on their sides and then they used a little UniFi little sort of like nook. And then what? This UniFi little nook allows you to put content on it. So what?
Speaker 1:they did was they put the trellis work around the TV and then it was sort of like a window to the outside world. So they used pictures of gardens that they'd done for the client on the TVs that the Gash put up.
Speaker 2:That's clever.
Speaker 1:But that was, that was stunning.
Speaker 1:But that was really cool and like the wallpaper in the room next door, I mean we use CAD to design our cinemas yeah, this company uses CAD to design their wallpaper. Wow. Use CAD to design our cinemas yeah, this company uses CAD to design their wallpaper. Wow. So they did this opulent room and they CAD drew the wallpaper, I think in Texas. Then they hand painted it to the size of the drawings or the CAD and then they then came and put it up in London and then yeah, it's there. It was there for the whole month of June and that I would hate to think. Whatever per meter wallpaper is now ripped up and put in the skid probably a lot of money.
Speaker 2:Wallpaper some of our clients have had the most expensive wallpaper I've ever seen. But uh, it's uh. It looks from. It looks really good when you have a proper, really decent wallpaper up.
Speaker 1:It's uh but I mean that's, I mean I, I, you know it's. It will be again next year. Well, 2026, chelsea Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour. Yeah, absolutely stunning. I mean a different world. You know, sometimes we get to see this little world.
Speaker 2:Do you have to book this or you can just go and visit how?
Speaker 1:does it work? I think it's. You buy tickets, so if you go a little bit like to an exhibition you go, because I think Dagesh was saying about 600 people a day go in. Right, dagesh was saying had about 600 people a day going. They must limit it because it's not. You're sort of like this is a really bad way of putting it, but you know, ikea, I knew you were going to say that, I was about to say it, but I did one of the follow the path I've got every interior designer in the country going.
Speaker 2:You can't compare the warehouse to Ikea swearing at you on the podcast You're basically following the path and then you probably come out the back and then that's it.
Speaker 1:So I would imagine they might limit it to slots. But if you've got any interest in interior design, finishings, furnishes, fabrics, obviously technology I know me and Dagesh have had a conversation about potentially some of the more of the members getting involved next year, because it was just some of the stuff this year. If we'd had a centralised Lutrol system, for instance, in the whole of the Wow House, it would have been so much easier for people to turn the lights on and off. You know, like on Sundays when the photographers were coming, like we were there on a Sunday, there were some rooms we went into just to take some photographs for the people that were there, because I had all the camera equipment with me but we couldn't turn lights on because couldn't find them right.
Speaker 1:Um plus. Also, if you didn't think about putting audio in the room, then the guys gave you a little bluetooth speaker. But it'll be awesome to partner up with someone like paradigm or origin acoustics, um, and actually do multi-room audio throughout the whole house so you have a consistent audio playing throughout the whole house, or you've just got some nice atmospherics, as you work through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what you need, isn't it? But you mentioned Lutron. We've just worked on a project with a client that we had previously doing RA2, which they've got a bigger house. We're going to go RA3 now, so the guys at Pulse are going to help us with that. But we were one of the first to do RAR 2 many years ago at this client's house and they liked it so much they want the new version of that, so we suggested RAR 3.
Speaker 1:So explain RAR 2 to sorry, RAR 3 to what people know so.
Speaker 2:RAR 2 is like an intelligent dimming lighting control system. Rar 3 just allows you to do a lot more, so you've got homeworks, which is the granddaddy of them all German.
Speaker 1:For bigger houses you can control blinds RGB more predominantly, but wrath 3 allows you to do that as well, but much more cost-effective and obviously I think we're home, if I'm right in thinking homeworks is sent more centralized, where a raw system you can retrofit, yeah, yeah but the Rako is obviously.
Speaker 2:Rayco is another option, but because the client already had the Lutron RA2, they wanted the RA3, so they've gone with that.
Speaker 2:So we're at the stage now where we're speaking with the electrician where if the cable is run correctly, then we can obviously have that as a central location. If not, then it can be retrofitted and we have the dimming modules going up with the lights are going to go but. But it's all going to do the, the blinds and the rgb as well. But I thought I mentioned that, as we're at the whole showroom definitely.
Speaker 1:and um, yeah, the other thing I opened up to really was I was over in wales uh, had a nice three days. Three days, three days in wales, I think it was uh, nicky and Andy at Moss Technical. They were opening a stunning little showroom which had like HGNU-L HDA in there. It had obviously Nikko, because they're the UK supplier for Nikko, distributor for Nikko. It had Sonus in there. Sir Stephen was over there. It just was like a great scenario of a really well thought out room. It had Roddy's fabrics in there.
Speaker 1:They put like an Amina visible speaker, I think it was. I can't remember what it was exactly, but let's say 5.1.2. But also for anybody listening to this podcast who is either a consumer or a trade in Wales, because obviously we're lucky I'm in Sussex, you're in Essex We've got a plethora of people that we can go and see, we can train, we can take clients to, if not our own places where there's not a huge amount of distributors, if not, I don't think many showrooms in Wales, no, not at all. So Nicky and Andy have created a great little space there where you can go and learn how to use Nikko. I actually I've got to say before I was like pfft Nikko. But I actually spent a few days doing some media for them, recording Andy talking about the Nikko products. It's actually quite a cool little system.
Speaker 2:They've just been announced as a headline sponsor for the essential install, so that mr Kitchener is over in Belgium at the moment I think with them.
Speaker 1:But yeah, they're sponsoring the the smart home award in.
Speaker 1:September. But yeah, it was for a lot of the sides of it, for, like, they had a little thing called a Digital black or something like that, which was like a little thermostatic control. But what's quite cool was that, you know, it had four little squares you could pick up music, audio tv. But as I was trying to get andy to use it with me, he like whipped out his phone, went actually no, we want to see this. So he was changing what was on the screen there and then on the phone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he was like no, let's make it look like, let's make it look like this, let's make it look like that. So, from a BMS side of it, with a bit of control as well, and it also integrates quite nicely into Control 4, because they only had a Core 3, I think. So that was quite cool, and they actually did some really nice sort of faceplates. So, whether it was an HDMI face plate or a power face plate or cat6 face plate, um, they just looked a little bit nicer than the normal sort of stuff that you might find in houses look forward to seeing those at the show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it was was really good. Um, so very quickly. Uh, what have you been watching? Have you watched anything recently?
Speaker 2:have you watched anything in your cinema, obviously, so I recently watched uh, thunderbolts with the new Avengers. I think they decided to call it at the last minute, or were going to always call it that. I'm not too sure, but yeah, so that's. They've got Florence Pugh in there, who's a phenomenal actor, so that was a good, heartwarming kind of story about family.
Speaker 1:And is it Marvel? It is Marvel, yes, it's based in the Marvel universe.
Speaker 2:Obviously, the Avengers have disappeared and gone off and done other things and they are a sort of group of misfits who nobody really likes. They're more criminals than superheroes, and what is quite poignant about it is it's all about mental health as well. So they are on their own. They're kind of being told to go and do these things and because they've got some superpowers or some kind of powers, uh, they, they just go and do it, but at the end of the day they're just on their own and feel a bit isolated. So it's about joining up together as a team and just just better mental health and uh, and family and things like that.
Speaker 2:So it's quite a good little story and uh, it's uh yeah, at the end they get introduced as the new avengers. So, uh, it was a nice little, nice little film. But uh, and department q on netflix I've watched that, which is like a an old school sort of uh detective program that you used to have in the 80s, early 90s, and that that was really good as a short episode but made you want to keep coming back for more.
Speaker 1:But uh, I've actually watched something. Well, well done. I've got to admit I've had a couple of weeks at home, working from my home office, doing the media stuff more because I've had quite a lot of jobs up where, as I said to you before, trying to capture people's creations, their projects, to show their incline, because I think we're brilliant at talking about ourselves to ourselves, but we create these stunning rooms, but we're not always thinking about capturing them when they're at their best out to their client. So what I've actually been doing is because I get up at half past four or five o'clock these days I've been sitting down and watching something in the morning.
Speaker 1:So a series called the Night Agent came back to Netflix, which was quite good. The first one, first series was this the Night Agent was this guy who sat in the room and answered a phone call from an operative who was in trouble. Is that with Stephen Graham? Is that? I don't know? I'm terrible at actor's names, but that was quite good. He's got out of his room now and he's actually become a proper spy. I watched the Cleaner.
Speaker 1:All right, yes, proper spy um I watched uh the cleaner, all right. Yes, mainly because it had dailies ridley in it, um but I can't see any past star wars.
Speaker 2:That's the problem, and that was just a weird.
Speaker 1:I mean, it was one of those films where I was watching it thinking I'm just gonna stop, um, but I carried on watching it. So think about, think about, die hard. But john m McClane was a guy that cleaned windows on the building With Daisy in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was Daisy. Did she get a lightsaber out at the end?
Speaker 1:No, she did not get a lightsaber out, but it was okay. And then the one I finally got round to watching, that's not a metaphor, by the way, no, the one I finally got round to watching, which Owen, our friend Owen Mad maddox, has been on for ages about, is the gentleman um, which was absolutely brilliant, have you seen?
Speaker 1:it oh, it's phenomenal film, so it's a, it's a like a british gangster film, but it's it's just got everybody in it. So you've got matthew mcconaughey's in it. Um, you've got colinughey's in it. You've got Colin Farrell's in it. You've got I can't remember his name. Now one of the lead guys out of Sons of Anarchy. He was in it. Hugh Grant in it not Ron Perlman.
Speaker 2:No, the son Charlie, charlie, yeah but just the characters they play.
Speaker 1:I mean, like Colin Farrell, yeah, but just the characters they play. I mean, like Colin Farrell plays an Irish coach of a boxing club and then Bugsy Malone, the rapper, is in the group that do these things with him, but he doesn't realise they're doing it. It is just brilliant. And then that's actually span off into a Netflix. So it's a. It's a. I can't remember the director's name now Guy Ritchie. Yes, guy Ritchie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry, so, yeah, so, and actually it's got Guy Ritchie's pub in it which we went to recently with 1AV and Kev because that was in central London, but they've just spun that off into a Netflix documentary Different people. But I reached out to Owen and said what's it like? And he said it's really good, it's just different people but similar sort of story. But really I mean, don't watch it in front of the kids no, no, no but it is very, very, very funny.
Speaker 1:So I would watch that. But no, I'm watching quite a bit at the moment, so I'm sort of trying to catch up with a few bits of his Last of Us, season two. Oh yes, yep, I didn't like that.
Speaker 2:That's why I think a lot of the showrunners and nobody else have left to be honest. So I think number three is going to follow more the girl who's part of the army and stuff.
Speaker 1:I really hope so, because it started off really good. It did. I never played the games, but I know what happened. And then I just felt the other six or seven episodes were just getting from A to B with not much in the middle.
Speaker 2:No, it faded off into the distance, didn't it? But when the attack on the village happened, I was like, wow, this is fantastic and they almost do what they did with the Game of Thrones. So Game of Thrones is the really big episode. And then nothing happened. The next one, but you knew the next one after that was going to be pretty epic and that's what I was expecting from the Last of Us, but nothing really materialised.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed it but I couldn't wait to get that one over no.
Speaker 1:So right, okay, Thank you to HDA for sponsoring the new section of the HDA Tech Talk podcast with their new U-Control remote. Let's jump into the news. But before we jump into the news, if you're liking the podcast, please like and subscribe. It means a lot and it helps get more people to discover. If you're looking for a home cinema to be designed and built, please reach out to our HGA members at homesinemarilitescouk. But we'll jump straight into the news. So first up with you is the new Sony projector.
Speaker 2:Yep, so I did a webinar, probably a couple of weeks now ago. That techniques more about the Sony projectors, so the Sony projector seven, which, as we know, good with prices, so the XW5100 is Are you? Going back to our kaleidoscape.
Speaker 2:I'm going back to kaleidoscape days, which coming just shy of 7,000 pound, but is 2,200 lumens, which is a little bit brighter than the the previous model, which we've actually got in our demo facility. So we're still more than happy with that. One thing they have got about that, that is a manual lens shift. But if you wanted a 2, 3, 5 to ratio screen, you couldn't really have it because if you were going 69. But what you have now is a 2.35 to 1 ratio button so you could have that screen. Press it and it goes to that 2.35. And then you've got 16.9. Press the button again, it goes to your 16.9 screen size.
Speaker 1:So it's got manual shift, but it's got preset memory.
Speaker 2:Yes, so that's actually quite handy because I think it restricted a lot of people from getting that projector, especially that price point 7,000 for that is a really good price point.
Speaker 2:But you couldn't have the correct film ratio because it's manual lens shift, so if you wanted to watch something at 16.9, you were going to struggle. But they have got the new projectors as well. So you've got the 8 and 9s, the Sony projector 8 and 9s which something that I found was fascinating 8 and 9s, the Sony projector 8 and 9s, which something that I found was fascinating it's got tone mapping, which obviously can do the light source. So if it's a darker scene it will reduce that brightness and obviously a really bright scene it'll increase that brightness. So, with tone mapping. And then you've got the prices for a sony projector 8 is about 16 000 and the 9 is about 26, but again, you've they're a lot brighter than they were as well, so that that always helps. But yeah, I was really impressed and I think sony have done a few tours to show people what, uh, what they're capable of.
Speaker 1:So yeah, expect to see those sooningly. I wasn't aware of the webinar until you told me that you were sitting on it and then I was due to go to our friends at AWE this week but I had to bow out because I just had so much work to do and I know that the guys at AWE will welcome me anytime or welcome anybody anytime. But I know Simon, our Simon now um, as we jointly share him, uh r simon um went and he he is uh seriously contemplating taking his uh 5000 and replacing it with the 5100. I think he's just as uh james uh drummy said was like if you can sell that one off for you know the price you paid for it on the demo right then it would be worth, because Sony are doing some good demo rates and some good deals for clients wanting to swap out yeah, I think they've had to do that because obviously they stopped distributing them in the in Europe for not long, but long enough to people to start selling other projector manufacturers.
Speaker 2:So I think they've had to do that to be fair. But they're always good, do good deals anyway. So, yeah, get those orders in and get those demos going. But yeah, any end user wants to see them. Then yeah, contact the HCA members and go and have a look Awesome.
Speaker 1:So my first story is the Sony XIO.
Speaker 2:sorry, sony KEF, even KEF XIO soundbar wow, so the is that a new thing for KEF?
Speaker 1:yeah, so I didn't really realize it was coming. I've dealt with KEF for years. I've known Ron, who works with KEF, for years and it sort of like just appeared out of nowhere. I know that at the moment one of our distributors has stopped dealing with them no reason, just stopped dealing with them, um, and they've gone back in house. And I know I've not really spoken to ron because he's had a knee operation.
Speaker 1:Uh, hope you feel better soon, ron. I think you are a few weeks into it now, so hopefully you'll be ready for the to get for cinema bike ride in a few weeks, month maybe, something like that, not long, not long, uh, but yeah, so they've got a. Uh, so it's released. Well, it's out now, um, it came out on the 18th. It's priced at a pound shy of 2000 pounds, wow, um. But you also could get an optional kw2 wireless subwoofer receiver with it. Uh, now I know that they have the subwoofer receiver, something they've done before, because I remember using it in some KEF systems, some KH3005 systems that I did years ago, where we used it as a wireless receiver between the front and back.
Speaker 2:So is that an Atmos speaker? Can you change the size of it? Is it one particular size? One size fits all.
Speaker 1:It's one size fits all. Um, it basically can hang on the wall, go below the tv. Uh. The picture I'm taking off of, uh our friends at inside ci's website at the moment, um is it sitting on a tabletop, um, and then basically connects the tv. It's got an app that works with it. Um, I believe it probably works on eARC as well.
Speaker 2:So a simple plug and play, because two grand is not cheap, but hopefully it would do. It sounds pretty good.
Speaker 1:It's KEF, so I'm sure that sounds and I read the extract from here it's the KEF XIO. Introduces comprehensive suite of technologies, including unique QMX driver arrays. It's the results in an immersive 5.1.2 channel experience. It's got 12 class D amplifiers and supports DTSX, dolby 360 sorry, dtsx. Sony 360 reality audio. It doesn't say, and it does say, yeah, sorry, dolby atmos as well. Uh, works as hdmi um e-arc as well. I mean I've heard advanced eq measures night mode, classic mode, music mode. It's got the app, it's wall mounted. I've seen a few early, early reviews on it and I've got to say what I'm hearing from people that I respect is that actually it's bloody good little sound. Now, again, we'll go back to some of the conversations we've had in our podcast and we've still got to cover our podcast um, which is I think these are brilliant for rooms where you don't want true immersive audio.
Speaker 2:It's a great solution, as we said in the previous podcast, but, uh, kef wouldn't be bringing that kind of thing out after after all these years of doing excellent speakers and subs and things like that. They wouldn't bring this out if they didn't think it was necessary, and they can improve upon what's uh, what's out there. So, so, I don't know. Exciting times.
Speaker 1:I'd be interested to hear it from a music point of view. Yeah, I mean obviously, ron, if you want to send me one. I will happily put it on the wall in the lounge or the bedroom and I'll give it a whirl for you and I'll give you the HCA seal of approval on it Seal of approval. You know where to send it and you have my mobile number, or I could just go to Great Portland Street, to the Keff Gallery, and look at it, that'd probably be easy.
Speaker 2:I think Ron's got other things to do on his mind. He doesn't need to worry about it.
Speaker 1:Can you deliver it to me? Because you're only about 35 minutes from my house, so that's quite interesting. You've got a story about Samsung Frame, which I also noticed, having a Google yesterday, that Samsung have partnered up with DC so you can now have Superman images on your frame TV.
Speaker 2:So we've done something slightly different again for this barn conversion that we're doing. The client has got like a wood burner to one side and wants like a discreet frame TV. So it turns out there's quite a few frame TVs that Samsung have done and obviously you need an empirical cord that connects to the box. But their new one which again I want to get the model number correct, but it's a Samsung frame Pro, neo QLED 4K Vision, ai, smart TV 2025. Because there's a 2024 version and a 2023 version, but this new one has a wireless box, so you don't need the umbilical cord to try and connect to this box.
Speaker 1:Oh, so the fibre optic cable, yes, which is?
Speaker 2:not the easiest thing to connect. So this Tudor building sorry, tudor building the barn conversion that we've done we did say to have all the sockets recessed so you can just put this, the tv, on there. But the sockets were surface mounted, which have thankfully now been recessed. But there's no room for the box, so we're going to go in a little cupboard behind where the tv is, which does work wireless here as well. So all your has all your inputs on, so you plug in anything, so your sky would go into that. Your Apple TV, amazon fire stick, games consoles will plug into that and I'm assured that it will wirelessly transmit to the frame TV not only the artwork that you can have, but the new QLED technology they've got on. There is a lot brighter and the picture quality is a lot better than it was on their previous versions. But it will transmit at 4k at 120 frames per second. So we shall see if that's the case.
Speaker 1:Actually touching on that for a second. Just going back to the Sony projector, I did did notice that was for 4k 120 as well 4k 120.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the sony projector is hdmi 2.1 uh and the refresh rate, uh. On that for gaming, yeah, is pretty good. I want to say nine milliseconds.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's good for a project which I mean, I think the one I had in my showroom years ago was about 20 minutes, yes, which was like shoot, yeah, yeah, shoot, yeah, so okay. So that's interesting because I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with saps and frame TVs. I know Simon's got one in his house Not this Simon, the other Simon who we keep on mentioning and he loves it. I've got a Gen 2 maybe in my bedroom and I've nearly thrown it out the window a few times.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm going to say he's got one of the older versions and he does like it. But what I do like about it is it sensors when somebody comes into the room. So then the artwork then comes on. You can change the bezels. So the bezels could be changed to different wood finishes or white or black and things like that, but the artwork you can do a subscription service with them. Finishers or white or black and things like that, but the artwork you can do a subscription service with them. Obviously, you can do it via your phone and then you've got the smart home app side of things that you can do stuff with it. So, yeah, we've installed on that this week. Are you putting?
Speaker 1:a control system in there.
Speaker 2:No, no control system.
Speaker 1:I'd be interested to see how it talks on the control. Because that's one of my big problems was to watch Sky Q on the Samsung TV, and then the Samsung TV would come on okay, but then it would be talking to the Sky box and it does it with the Apple TV, so it's not a Sky issue and then the handshake would take ages, to the point that you would have to turn it off and turn it back on again and then it eventually would come on.
Speaker 2:I think the guys from Envision are working quite closely with Samsung and I think they have talked about the CI side of things and getting that working with a lot of the control systems. I believe that's a lot better than it previously was.
Speaker 1:I hope so because, to be honest, it was one of those things which I would just flat out refuse to supply. Samsung TVs yeah, and if it was a picture frame TV they wanted, I'd do an LG Gallery, no we might have been a bit more wary if it had a control system with it.
Speaker 2:So thankfully it's on its own. It's going to be wireless, it's going to have internet connected to it and that's about it. So hopefully that goes well.
Speaker 1:Oh well, I'll have to get them to send me one of those as well. That goes well. Oh well, I'll have to get him to send me one of those as well. Yep, definitely.
Speaker 1:Well, actually, in fairness, the little studio that I'm still trying to build at my office, um, I do want to put a test bench in there to do unboxings and reviews, because I think there's lots of people out there who do unboxes and reviews, but I think that to do them from our perspective, um is I mean, obviously, they used to do quite a few in here um, post-its, you know, unboxers and that and I think we do tend to look at things slightly differently than maybe some reviewers because, again, we're coming from people who actually install it, not just review it, and know about it. No disrespect, I mean, you know, phil and the guys at AVForums do a fantastic job and a lot of them are installers or ex-installers. But it is something that I'd like to get, but we're involved, involved in, so I could just sit down with a control four system, for example, see if it's working or not so we may actually do, uh, one of those videos, because installing it looks fairly tricky let's say that because obviously it is flush to the walls.
Speaker 2:It comes with its own bracket, yeah, which seems to be in two parts, and then, if you imagine, hooks on a picture frame, there's another little square that then goes in the back of the telly, then that hooks on to the, to the two separate brackets, yeah. So I think you've got to be pretty precise. So I did do a bit of a google search just to be be certain in my mind how it should be done. I can only ever find one okay, so uh.
Speaker 1:Well, if you need a media company to record it for you, you know where I am. A media will be on board. I seem to live in essex.
Speaker 2:Well, if you're free wednesday, come on over. Unfortunately I'm not.
Speaker 1:I'll film it for you get simon to film it, um, so right. So the last story was actually one just touching on on uh. So every year, the cdia cdia do a market analysis of the professional smart home industry. So more smart home rather than, you know, home cinema, um, and I just thought it was quite good. In respects of the um, they now. The uk smart home market is now valued at an estimated 3.1 billion um, so that's just the uk uh, which is a 7% increase over 2023, and they project more growth in the next 12 months.
Speaker 1:This actually talks to people like you and me. Fill this out. So it was. They spoke to approximately 3,700 integrators, which showed that most medium integration company had a turnover and were involved in projects of around totaling around about 300,000 a year, with a typical medium size project being around about 20,000 pounds, and most of them completed about 13 projects a year, which I thought was quite interesting, because I know I've gone and you do more cinema, then a little bit of smart home, as well as some of the other HGA members, but I think, in a world of your Amazon as, and your Apple Ss and your Google YG, whatever they're calling it now, I think it's good that actually there is still some vibrancy in the smart home market because I think that from what I see at the shows, sometimes the okay. So what's the benefit of a control four system and a control four lighting system over an Amazon eye with some Philips Hue?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's good, it's good to see and obviously that is doing it properly. But you can understand from a cost perspective why people aren't doing that. But if you're doing a nice media cinema room that is costing about twenty thousand pound, I think you should have some kind of control system with within that. So, um, to hear those figures is, uh, it is quite nice, obviously, especially the climate at the moment in the world. Who knows what's going to happen next week? But, um, yeah, it's. Uh, it's up on last year or 2023.
Speaker 1:Uh, then, yeah, that's fantastic, it is good and I mean it shows you there is still a, there is still growth in the industry and I know that, I know from the cinema side of it. Obviously we see it with our 20-odd HCA members, but you know, I think, people's understanding of what a cinema room is now and the enjoyment they can get from a cinema room. So it's good to see that people are still seeing the benefit to a well-designed smart home rather than a, you know, a pile of products that could just link together but not necessarily give you that fluidity no big word for me, yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:But so, yeah, no, having that is, uh, is paramount, I think, in any, any system like that. So, and ease of control, ease of use as well for the end user you don't want granny coming over and not being able to turn things on and obviously reliability is paramount, really.
Speaker 1:So I think that's what the biggest thing is. It's like do I have to download an app? Yes, that seems to be something that a lot of people not liking. Do I have to flip between apps? Um, but then on the flip side in our industry, you know, if you're doing lighting, engrave it, yeah, or write on it or stick a sticky note next to it for the minute whilst it's going in. Because all consistency because that is the biggest thing I get with, like you know, a lot of the lighting systems is that I don't know what buttons what, because it's not been engraved. No, you know, and then they come in and press 17 buttons to try and find out which one's the light on and then the projector screen drops down and you realise you pressed the wrong button.
Speaker 1:You're talking about us in here. This morning we are yes, do we get the lights any brighter In the Pulse training showroom. Which is I will briefly. If the lighting is a little bit weird in here, it's because we are having to use two portable lights of ours, because the lighting in here is in between changes. It's just been done up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the place is being done up, just being moved around in bits and pieces which, again, if you watch the sit-down I do with Capes, which will be after this one, you'll hear about the changes that have happened and are happening here. So, talking about cinema rooms, because we are the Home Cinema Alliance, we are indeed yes, With lots of fantastic, lovely members.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to touch on this month for our topic of the month, um, a home cinema and why it could be the favorite room in the house, but not just from a technological point of view.
Speaker 1:So, yes, it will be a cinema and it will be a place that you can create memories, sitting with your family watching content. You know, as I think I've alluded to before, we did, we did a lot of that with my family through COVID, you know, when we couldn't go anywhere, we were out the office and watched films together, um, but I think that you know we actually have these great rooms which are well designed and are could be usable spaces for other things than cinema. So, what, what's your view with? Like, if you get, if you get, have a customer come to you and say, you know, like I want a home cinema, um, and let's say it's the husband led and then the wife's, like you know, home cinema and all this lot. When you have a conversation with the wife, or maybe even the husband, about it's not just for watching movies, what do you usually sort of say to them about the room and the space that you're designing for them?
Speaker 2:so as we've said in the previous podcast is you can have it your way nowadays. That's, I think, the fundamental uh point here, because what we generally do is have a discussion with the clients to understand their need and requirements a little bit. How many members are the family? Are there? More family members like to come over, more friends likely to come over? And then you can understand and establish exactly what's going to go into that room. So, whether they're going to watch movies, sport, netflix, amazon, gaming, music, listening just to music, atmos music nowadays is superb. It really is, I think.
Speaker 2:Actually, atmos was made for music to be, fair, so I can't believe it's taken so long to come out. So I think having that dedicated go-to room is is fantastic for the whole family. You haven't got to queue up with the cinema or popcorn and everything like that. So we did the sphere in vegas and that was something completely different here nowadays in the cinemas but pretty mundane. I know they're trying to do something like 4d or whatever it's called, um trying to get you to, to get into that.
Speaker 1:To get more money out of you. To get more money out of you If you have the 3D option or the 2D option.
Speaker 2:That's £15 for this and £6 for popcorn. You want to drink, so £30, £40 later. So you haven't got that. You've got a nice room where everybody can come to, as we said previously. The phones get put down, you can watch some films together as a family, you can watch it as a couple, like in the evening, and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:so having a dedicated room uh, whether it's a media room or cinema room, that is now multi-purpose, to have it your way is, uh, is is worth, worth its weight in gold, I think, especially in this day and age well, I think, if I look at like, I suppose, when I, if I have a, again not look at like, I suppose, when I, if I have a, again not tried to be sexist in any way, but if I have a client who comes to me I mean, actually it's where the original company name Just Add Popcorn came from which was like the husband wanted a cinema and the wife was like what have I got to do?
Speaker 1:Because I'm the one who's here dealing with you, dealing with the disruption, dealing with the work, and I turn around to the client and I'm like, look, you know, what we're gonna do is I'm gonna have a conversation with you about the room, about what you like to watch, about who's gonna be here, how many people could be sitting down, and then we're gonna design something and then we're gonna come up with some ideas and then we're gonna choose some fabrics, some carpets, some furnishes, some finishes, because it's going to be a designed room from a technological point of view, for the best sonic value, but also from I want you to sit in this room and enjoy it and I said so fundamentally once this is designed and you've paid me a little bit of money or a lot of money, depending on the budget.
Speaker 1:I'm going to build it for you Me and my team, you know, are going to build it for you me and my team, you know, are going to build it for you and then all you've got to do at the end of it is just come in, we'll show you how it works, and you and your family have just got to add the popcorn, and that's where the original name came from fantastic name, always liked it, yeah, and I think it's just, and I think I think I said before it's a name when you knew what it did.
Speaker 1:Yes, but I always I remember sitting down with uh well, it was back when tom butler worked with paul at acoustics and they were like you, you gotta have a name, what does what it says on the tin. And then for all the years, that always played on my mind and that's why, as we alluded on one of the podcasts we did, where you, you stole the cinema room's name, um was where I had to put immersive in front of it because I think that if someone's driving past the project or your van and you've got a site sign up and I think it's got to do what it says on the tin.
Speaker 1:And I think that the days of the quirky, like you know, I don't even know if they, you know elephant insurance, if they still exist, you know. I remember one point. I was driving past the pub called squirrel and I'm all squirrel AV. That could be quite cool, but again it just didn't tell you what it did.
Speaker 2:It was like Orange Mobile. I always loved the name Orange because it was synonymous with mobiles. But you say to the kids nowadays Orange like what do you mean? Orange? I don't like oranges, no, no, orange, there's mobile. I just don't get it but back. I thought it was a really great name.
Speaker 1:Well it's a bit like going off a complete tangent, which I did a lot with Stuart at Lillis the other week. Like my number plate on my car, the last three digits is THX and my daughter's friends come over to my house and if my car's parked in front they go. Why has your dad got thanks on his number plate? It's like, okay, bring your friend in here. I've got to explain to them george lucas and what thx is and why it was created because, again, you know, they don't know. But going back to the subject, I mean for me, when I have clients like that lady in question, yes, we're creating a cinema for you, but we're also creating a tranquil room. We're creating a room that you know like.
Speaker 1:Here next door you've got a deco screen, which is actually a screen where a piece of artwork comes down in front of the screen. So when you walk in to the cinema you're not got a big piece of white fabric, you've got an image, a family image or an image of a tiger or a holiday. It could be whatever you want. But what you've also got in these rooms is you've also got nice fabric walls. You've potentially got a fabric ceiling or a starlight ceiling. You've got nice fluffy carpets and big cinema seats. So because they've been created to keep audio in, they also keep audio out. So we actually find with a lot of our clients that they like the spaces we create. Because it's another room, it's a room. On a Sunday morning you can sit with a cup of coffee and read a newspaper or a newspaper on your iPad, if you don't have physical media anymore, it's also escaped from reality, I think, yeah, well.
Speaker 2:So Any room that we design Using the technology, it is escaped from reality. But it also, as soon as you go in there, you feel a bit more relaxed. So when Pulse first did their showroom here, they redesigned it all. They'd really thought about how it would come across. I think they actually got an interior designer to come in, but even had the smells in there as well. So you know, when you used to sell a house and you got the coffee brewing and somebody said, have the bread maker going as well, pulse has decided to have that really nice little smell, not like a popcorn smell, but like a nice relaxing kind of smell that automatically, as soon as you go in, you feel relaxed. You're going to sit down, um. And so we are lucky because we've got these showrooms where we can bring the clients.
Speaker 2:But what with the bigger rooms? What we find is clients have difficulty visualizing what that would look like in their own home, and I know you can do the 3d drawings and everything like that to say this is what it would look like. But the room upstairs is one of my favourite rooms because it is designed with sort of the customer in mind because you can sit there, you can visualise that in your house. You can visualise, say, the deco artwork, you can visualise the lamps, the coffee table, the normal sofas within that period, in that setting. So I think, from a client's perspective, being able to visualize what they can have in their home when they see it as well, I think really helps.
Speaker 1:Well, that's it. I mean I know we've touched on it before like, like international home cinema day, you know, okay, this year I'm probably not going to get it to where I want it to be, and I had always thought about it being 2026 as the real launch. But you, I want to get places like this open to Joe public across the world. So if you live in Ohio, you can look on the International Home Cinema Day website. You can find a local place. You can go along and experience one of these places.
Speaker 2:Do a virtual tour be really good and people then can understand what we're trying to achieve for for them.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and I think more importantly I think also is like what a great space this can be, you know, not just like a room that you watch a film in. But I think one thing that I've tried to educate a lot of my clients is that, yes, even if it is a husband or wife-led project and even if you are creating it as a family space to watch movies, you know it could be so much more hell. I mean nicola, one of my clients up in bedford, because it's got that lovely space at the front of it where you generally don't have the seats because of the throw ratio or the distance from the screen. She does a yoga in there and there's there's a constant joke that we have of each other about your yoga balls in here. Have you been using this for yoga again?
Speaker 2:but it's such a great space, definitely, definitely a multi-purpose room. Yeah, so I think I might mention this before, but when we first started out in 2009, we did a really nice system for a client. He's like simon it's the best room in the house. It's fantastic. If I could sleep in here, I would would, but he used it for the films, but also a lot of gaming, so his son was doing a lot of gaming. His son would then go to bed and the dad would go on and start gaming and the lamp, which I think was on a JVC, was designed to last. About 2,000 to 3,000 hours lasted a year. Because he did so much gaming. It worked out.
Speaker 1:It was pretty much eight hours a day that he was, uh, gaming for but but I mean, I've got clients that I know they don't use their room every day and I've got clients that use it every day and and I, you know, for me, like when I hear a client's been there every day watching everything from saturday morning kitchen to the football to a film, um, or staying up early hours of the morning and watching the boxing, or something like that, I think we've created this great space and actually, you know, when I hear, you know also when I hear that a person uses it to go in there and listen to the car map and meditate. You know, maybe because I've turned 50 this year, like you, you know, maybe because I've turned 50 this year, like you, but I've got a lot more into trying to get into meditation and just trying to get a little bit of the craziness out of my head and running three companies.
Speaker 2:And these spaces are really quiet to do that. Yeah, and I think, just touching on what you just said, there is that the rooms that we've done. Previously it was that special room, so you would go in there and watch the big sporting event, like the boxing that was happening the other day or the movie that you wanted to watch, so you weren't really going in there. You were going in there for a special occasion, which is fine, but now they're multi-purpose. I think people are using those rooms a lot more. So we've got a client with one of the original Epson laser projectors which is, I think it's like a 24 foot high ceiling, so we've had to angle the 24 foot jeez.
Speaker 2:It is really high the Epson projector down because it didn't have the key stoning, so issues that you would have with normal lamp based projectors back then, and so I've been trying to sell him the new Epson laser projector, which was a lot brighter as well, but he's only done 3,000 hours and he must have had that a good seven, eight years, wow, at least. So again they only use it for special occasions of watching the rugby or whatever. So the kitchen used to be the hub of the home, but I think now a multi-purpose cinema media room is. I can't remember who who uses the tagline, but uh, your new favorite room, or?
Speaker 1:that's me, that's you, that's me. There we go. Yeah, you know that's what we say. Yeah, we are creating your new favorite room, and I think that's a great way to sum it up. Is that?
Speaker 1:I think that until you've witnessed these rooms, um, and you've been in a private cinema, um, or cinema created for an individual family, and if you haven't reach out to our HCA member, as I say, we have facilities to our own places and all of the places around the country, let alone, you know, you know our own places. I think it is something to sort of like sit in and appreciate these spaces. Yet they're there for big-screen spaces. Yet they're there for big screen movies. Yeah, they're there for Netflix and they're there for YouTube and they're there for sports, but they're also just nice, tranquil places that you could just sit and spend time with your family and have a conversation about. You know, again, making us sound like we're old, but, but I remember going to watch films with my friends. I mean hell, I even remember going to watch Natural Born Killers with an ex-girlfriend. You're old romantic, you, stuart, I know as the ex-girlfriend, but that film was one of my favourite films ever because it was so decisive.
Speaker 2:But back then you couldn't really book because it turned up like an hour or two hours before and said oh, can I have two seats please?
Speaker 1:Also, you didn't know nothing about the movie no, so I did that with Silence of the Lambs.
Speaker 2:I think I was 17 and me and my friend sort of got on the bus and went to the local cinema and I was slightly taller and looked slightly older and I was like two tickets for Silence of the Lambs please Two tickets for Silence of the. Lambs and yeah, got in and yeah, one of the best films I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1:But what you did on the bus on the way home, you had a conversation about it, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you come out talking about it and I think, with the cinema room and I've talked about this on one of the projects we did in London was to go downstairs and leave the mobile phones and actually create in these spaces that you could spend time with your family yeah, you could sit in on your own and watch the boxing, if that's what you want to do, or sit there with mates. But create in these spaces where people talk and also creating these spaces where you don't have to have the screen on. You can, you can listen to music, you can. You know, you can do the calm app, you can do some yoga. Hell, you can just sit there and read a book and have an espresso, because they are just calm, tranquil spaces away from every day's bedlam yeah, and it's what you get out of the film.
Speaker 2:So like fun fact. Fact this day 11 years ago, the original Guardians of the Galaxy was released Really.
Speaker 1:So James Gunn? Yeah, 11 years ago that was so the James Gunn's? Oh blimey.
Speaker 2:So that's a fun fact of 21st of July.
Speaker 1:He's maybe still even older than 50 now.
Speaker 2:Yeah 11 years ago. But he's just obviously done Superman. So what he wanted to do with that is bring that feel-good factor back of what Superman represents. So the previous films were obviously destruction and death and God knows what else. But I think the new Superman sort of makes you feel good about life and stuff that's happening and obviously the conflict. So I think there's a scene in there about Superman stops a war. So it's quite close to what's happening in real life, but he's trying to stop a war. All the countries are made up names, obviously not to point any fingers. So but then it's like well, should he have done that? Did he do the right thing? Did he not do the right thing? And that's so. It's that moral dilemma of what a superhero could do. But that's just come out on Kaleidoscape as well.
Speaker 1:I say I've literally, just, just, literally pre-ordered it. On Kaleidoscape yes, so that's, that'll be fun. Superman, james Gunn yeah, you got me. Yeah, so demo scenes and the new Jurassic Park film, which I think originates back to the original Jurassic Park. That might be an Apple TV one About 30 years ago.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's that fun room to go to and you can watch the films, watch your TV programmes, escape from reality, and I think that's what a dedicated room is all about. But you have it your way and they don't cost a fortune. Nowadays you can have, as we said previously, the Kef soundbar on a nice decent TV with a wireless sub, or you can have a little sat-sub system or you can have a dedicated Dolby Atmos system in your media room or cinema room Somewhere to enjoy your content.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so before we wrap up, one of the ideas that we had before we really started the podcast um was to do an ask ai section. So we did, we did and unfortunately we sort of like forgot to do it with our uh, you know why? Cinema doesn't come in a box one, although I did look at it and actually, in fairness, chat gpt did get it pretty right, but it did refer to a dedicated cinema or dedicated cinema room or theatre with a soundbar, which for me is a high-miss mistake. So actually, what I did was I asked ChatGPT oh, exciting. So I thought, right, I went into ChatGPT and we will use Gemini and all that lot just to spread the love around the AI world.
Speaker 1:Ai is a buzzword at the moment. So I basically just put into ChatGPT why is a home cinema the favourite room in the house, or why could it be the favourite room in the house? I actually got it pretty right. So it goes in today's fast-paced world, there's nothing quite like escaping into your own private cinema no queues, no noisy crowns, no overpriced snacks, just you, your family, your film, in a space designed entirely for you and your view and experience. There's no surprises, sorry, it's no surprise that home cinemas are quickly becoming the new favourite in the house, which I thought was quite good, true. And then it went on to just I mean, I'm falling in love with chat gpt at the moment, or anyway, we're getting a bit addictive yeah um, but it's like your rules, your schedule.
Speaker 1:Pause it when you want, get a glass of wine when you want, watch what you want, you know, tailored comfort. So you have recliners, your lighting, your acoustic panels, even your popcorn machine or a fridge in the back. Okay, fridge in the back I do agree with, as long as there's somewhere turning it off when the film's on, so it doesn't affect the noise floor.
Speaker 2:It's a bit noisy.
Speaker 1:You know, tech that wows, that goes on to a little bit of 4K projectors, dolby Atmos, but again it doesn't mention soundbars. So it's doing well, in my opinion. And then it's got perfect for family and friends, which creating fun family spaces, that is for me. That is the key thing for my business. You know, creating your new favorite room, creating fun family spaces is something that I think all of us as hga members get a buzz out. Movie nights become a shared experience again, whether it's a marvel marathon, rom-com night or weekend of gaming on the big screen at home cinema brings people together like no other room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. You said earlier about the summer holidays. The kids have invited their friends around to watch the go down the end and watch the cinema and things. What are you going to watch, I don't know. So I keep trying to get them to watch the Goonies, but I did watch it last night. But it's a 12 and some of it is a bit dodgy, even even steven spielberg. It's, uh, a bit risque some of it.
Speaker 1:But my friend at the moment is just the sequel comes up, am I yeah?
Speaker 2:is there a sequel?
Speaker 1:yeah, is it? Yeah, goonies 2. Oh, that's a very short period though isn't it like 50? Years, 37 years is it?
Speaker 1:crazy. I'm a friend of mine, johnny. Johnny. He's doing his first ever feature film at the moment. He's been doing it for the last few years. It's actually been brilliant insight into how long it takes to produce a film. But my daughter had a very small part in it because we helped back it. But that is a. He's doing a cross between the Goonies come ET and it's called stargazers. You can see the it's. I think it's on united magic. He's united magic studios is his youtube channel, um, and he's got the trailer up. But that is very, you know, goonies cross et a bit stranger things type vibe of that so this is with ai or just standard?
Speaker 2:no, no, no, it's all okay, it's all properly filled oh yeah, no, they're're using proper full-on RED cameras.
Speaker 1:They're using. You know, we spent a day out in West Sussex when Molly was going to shoot her piece and yeah, I've been watching him do it and actually it's been really interesting doing it where they're just doing it and they're getting people involved in it. And obviously Johnny also is not doing it this year because he people involved in it and and obviously johnny also, uh, he's not doing it this year because he wanted to do the concentrate on the film, um, but uh, it was the apex film awards that the ha sponsored last year. Yeah, because I like the synergy between the fact that they make them they make the movies that we show in the rooms, um, so, uh, that's definitely what I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 2:But uh, no, goonies too.
Speaker 1:2, interesting Goonies, 2, yeah so yeah, and I suppose the last real point on this chat GPT thing was actually adds value. You know, a cinema room will add value to your house. We did a project a few years ago in Tunbridge, wales. It was a disused room that really wasn't had anything in it. It'd been an office, it'd been everything a bedroom. We created it into a cinema room. So you know, yes, you might not get your money back in the same way as if you had the optional extra panoramic roof to your car. You might not get that money back. But you know, if a client walks into a room and it's a box room, you ain't going to get any value out of that.
Speaker 1:But if a client walks into the box room and it's a box room, you ain't gonna get any value out of that. But if a client walks into the box room and it's a reasonable home cinema and I've even done a couple of projects for developers where we've put in a decent system that we can then upgrade when they've sold the house, because when they walk in there and see a design cinema room that might at the moment be a 5.1,.2 but we've run the structure cabling for a, you know, a 9.4.6. Um, the clients get that well factor just about say the same thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is that. Well factor, it's a new swimming pool in that room. So we had a client who already had a cinema room but he did have a pool, which cost him 30 000 pound a year a year. So he he boarded that over and put a gym in there. It was much more cost effective. So at least with a cinema room, the running costs aren't that high actually so same with Owen.
Speaker 1:Owen did the one that we did the photography videographer down in Weymouth and did the fabrics there for him as well, helped him. That was the same. I think that originally Steve had that as, or it was originally before Steve bought the house. I think was a swimming pool and they backfilled the swimming pool and now it's a beautiful bar area which goes into a stunning eight-seater cinema. That Owen's done. Actually he's up for a senior award this year with it, so hopefully he gets shortlisted and wins because he deserves it.
Speaker 1:It's a phenomenal room, but again, steve uses it a lot for f1 and things like that.
Speaker 2:So so we're saying, like, about the rooms, have it your way. I think that any size house, you're going to get that wow factor of that room because it's different. So you go into a room that's got a big tv screen and then you've got speakers throughout, anybody's going to go. And there with a three, four bedroom house, you go, wow, it's fantastic. You can go to a slightly bigger house and they've got a much bigger dedicated cinema room. You can go, wow, that's fantastic. So I think it works on all fronts.
Speaker 1:Personally, Well, I think actually you know your local. So a shout out for Simon and cinemaroomscouk is a place like this where you have a million pound cinema next door potentially. Then you've got the smaller room at the front, which is now Crix in it, I think, and then you've got the media room upstairs.
Speaker 2:It ticks all the boxes, the pole showroom. So yeah, anybody wants to come down? Contact, give you a shout, give us a shout and yeah, we can bring you down.
Speaker 1:Definitely worth. If you're in the Essex area, reach out to Simon and come and have a look, because this is a great example of three different rooms in one building yep, contact us on our website, which is actually a new website which will be launching very soon.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so cinema-roomscouk or cinemaroomscom, we'll take you there and contact page. And yeah, we've got the various options of an acoustic showroom, the pulse showroom or red line showroom for more media-based systems. So either of those, any member could take you to these showrooms or come see us at Cinema Rooms.
Speaker 1:And I'll end on this one line I've just seen at the bottom of my iPad, which is your home. Cinema is more than just a space. It's the heart of the home and a place for your family to enjoy Beautiful, awesome. On that note, thank you, simon. We'll see you in whatever after the summer holidays.
Speaker 2:I'm off on holiday, see you later.
Speaker 1:I've got lots of podcasts to do with Trinov. We've got a good one coming with uh sonos as well, which would be quite interesting. I say sonos a few times. I think it's probably good for algorithms sonos, sonos, sonos, different. So enjoy your school holidays. Thank you so much, you too and uh, we'll see you on the next one. Thank you very much. Cheers guys, cheers, bye.