Tech Talk - The Home Cinema Alliance 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
Tech Talk - The Home Cinema Alliance Podcast
From Lutron Scenes To UniFi Dreams: A Festive Deep Dive Into Smart Homes And Home Cinema
Forget the spec sheets—this festive session digs into what actually works in real homes. We start with a full Lutron RA3 commissioning, how we built 70-plus scenes that feel effortless, and where app control beats a laptop when you’re knee-deep on site. Then we go all-in on UniFi: Dream Machine Fibre, 10GbE links, and Wi‑Fi 7 access points that make a 2.5 Gbps connection sing. Protect’s local storage and AI detections let us skip cloud fees and keep privacy intact, while schedules stop hallway cameras from recording family life during the evening. Paired with a rare service win from Zen Broadband, this is the network layer we’d want at home.
From there, we unpack a barn conversion media room that balances beauty and impact: RQ6 speakers, dual subs, an 85-inch display, and HEOS zones for kitchen, lounge, garden, and pool. Hidden subwoofers under an island with skirting vents kept the look clean without sacrificing bass. We talk eARC-first simplicity, when a handheld control makes sense, and why HDMI 2.1 finally solved most of the switching headaches. News-wise, Kaleidoscape’s Mini Terra Prime brings 8TB SSD storage and up to 25 simultaneous playbacks, perfect for expanding entry players. At the same time, the EU mercury rule makes this the last call for lamp projectors—grab an original lamp or plan your laser upgrade. And yes, Loewe is back with luxury OLEDs for those who want design-forward screens with serious sound.
Our big theme is the power of demonstrations. A good demo lets you choose between a brilliant two-channel TV system and a compromised surround setup. It shows how scope versus 16:9 changes what you see, and why room treatment and calibration matter more than box specs. We share the demo clips that land every time—from The Greatest Showman’s musical punch to Atmos showcases, live sports, and games—and how to tailor a session for families, gamers, and movie purists. We also celebrate CEDIA Award winners, tip our hats to meticulous design work, and share a charity challenge to start the new year with purpose.
If you enjoyed this, follow, rate, and share it with a friend who’s planning a room makeover. Got a favourite demo scene or a question about your space? Drop it in the comments and join us on Patreon (HCA Tech Talk) to shape future topics and get in on upcoming giveaways.
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Showcasing some of the world’s best #homecinemarooms and #hometheatrerooms
So Simon, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas indeed. We're all festive, this uh podcast. So, yeah, welcome to the festive edition of the HCA Tech Talk podcast where we are uh we are donning our Christmas jumpers.
SPEAKER_04:We are indeed. I've got my special once once-a year Christmas jumper on. I've had this for such a long time, but only wear it once a year, so uh every other good old squeeze of the nose.
SPEAKER_03:You've got your your phallic snowman on.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, very much so. But uh we thought as it was a Christmas uh episode, we would uh make the most of it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I had the wife um uh rummaging through our ottoman, our bed, uh one of the beds that lifts up. So she was rummaging through that, and I just thought, well, I've got to wear my Xbox. So I've got um 25 Xbox achievements today for the ugliest um uh t-shirt and the ugliest uh Christmas uh sweater.
SPEAKER_04:If you're not if you're not uh watching on YouTube or other uh video platforms and you're just having a listen, yeah, Stuart's got his Xbox one on, I've got a snowman one with uh uh a carrot for a nose sticking out. So feeds your imagination. I think Simon just likes being touched down apart. Always.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, so this is our this is our Christmas episode. As we record this, it is the first day of December. Uh have you opened your advent calendar this morning, or do you not have one anymore?
SPEAKER_04:I do, yes. No, I do had a lint uh chocolate advent calendar, but uh no, not yet. The kids did, so uh yeah, they were they were more than happy. And the elves turned up as well, so uh they're gonna cause mischief and mayhem, without a doubt.
SPEAKER_03:No, my wife went to uh Ashford yesterday and bought some uh advent calendars, so I have a Ferrero Rocher one, which I'm quite excited looking at. And then I think the girls have got another one, you know, um chocolatey ones.
SPEAKER_04:So you haven't got one of these luxurious ones. I was driving down here and on the radio, they're going through all these luxurious ones, the port scratching ones, Fortman and Mason's ones, but they're like 30, 40, 50 pounds. It's like where where have the days gone where you both you and I used to open a calendar and it had a picture behind it? We we were more than happy.
SPEAKER_03:Now, should I give you a tip there? Go on. So, my Christmas tip to anybody watching or listening to this podcast is if you need stocking fillers or you need dirty Santa or or um Santa presents for work, about middle of December, pick up the advent calendar from I don't know, Boots, Fortner Mason, John Lewis, open it up, take all the presents out, that's your stocking fillers. We've done that for a few years for Molly, where we we've bought like the Boots one for I don't know, which is normally like 80 quid and it's now 30 because it's now like the 15th of December. We take all the toiletries.
SPEAKER_04:But they do plumb it in uh in value, don't they? As soon as uh it hits like the 2nd of December, it's like whoa.
SPEAKER_03:We take all the toiletries out of it, then we wrap it, and then basically we put those as stocking fillers in her in her stocking. Good idea. Merry Christmas. Yeah, exactly. Merry Christmas, listeners. It does backfire then because the next year she goes, Oh, this was really nice, and I had it as a stocking filler. Can you buy me the full one?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, oh no.
SPEAKER_03:So uh yeah, so um Christmas episode. Um, so what have you what have you been up to?
SPEAKER_04:So we've just finished doing the uh the ra free commissioning that we uh that we did with Lutron. So uh that house is now uh pretty much completed. There are a few dimming modules that we have to add for the kitchen and the garden, I think, that uh that that we did. But yeah, nope, uh programmed all the scenes and uh clients very happy, very elegant looking. Um and so lightning pools are such an important part of any any house, but uh when it's set in scenes and the kitchen, the dining room, the living room area uh works really well, and even the bedrooms and the ensuite bathrooms, we've done all those and all the low-level lighting as well. So um we're gonna take some pictures uh when it's all all properly done and all cleaned up because there's still a bit of building work going on.
SPEAKER_03:But so that's the whole house you've done.
SPEAKER_04:The complete whole house, yep. So uh uh I think it was about 70 70 scenes and circuits that we did, so uh it's quite quite quite intense. But it's all the all the pre-programming first, which we which we did, then went on site, then you have to identify all the modules and where they are, and obviously the electrician had had wired a lot of those in and named them slightly different things than what we would like name them up as. So I was trying to identify what what they were, but once they were done, um yeah, no, it's fairly fairly straightforward, and uh yeah, the client's really impressed and really happy. So uh, and obviously it's a lot cheaper RAR3 than homeworks, and it's a bit more advanced than the RAR2 that that you can get out there. So um programming, it's a bit weird the RAR3 because uh homeworks you do all on on the program, on the computer, the laptop. Uh with a RAR three, it's 50-50 between the program that you've done on the laptop and the uh app.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:So it's a bit like, oh hang on, why can't I do this on there? So I think they there's talks of changing that to how homeworks is done rather than a bit of RA 2 and homeworks and making RA three. So apart from that, it was uh it was fairly simple to do, to be fair. But uh when you're sort of trying to program a thing, it's like where's that on the why isn't that working? So you have to go on the app and then do it that way.
SPEAKER_03:So um I think the the thing is with a lot of stuff. I mean, we talk I talk about gaming, you know. I'm more king gamer, I've just completed the uh the C completed the Fortnite battle pass for the Simpsons. Oh wow that was quite good. Um but it's got me playing more Fortnite now, which is great because I could play against young kids who can't use a controller so I can actually get good at it. Yeah, but it's but I think it's a bit like gaming, you know. I think where you used to be the finished product had to be released because there was no way of changing it. I think that a lot of companies now will get to the point where it's ready to release, but then you have day one patch or you have you know feedback from the the beta testing. So I think we'll come on sync in a minute, which is you know, which has got both app based and PC-based. Uh and I think that I think having the the luxury of either or definitely app's great because it's quick and you've always got your phone in your pocket, yeah. But PC sometimes can give you a little bit more in-depth. Yeah, I can see that.
SPEAKER_04:And uh they've just done a patch where you can actually just walk around with your phone and do it, do it that way rather than sort of doing it via a laptop. So I think they've sort of maybe gone the other way now rather than sort of more towards homework. So that makes it a lot easier for uh for you to do. So uh, but no, at least companies like that, and that's why we deal with companies like like Lutron because they listen to feedback, um and you're like, well, this doesn't work. Okay, well let's let's see what we can do about that. So uh they they do actually listen and and they appreciate the feedback that uh any uh home cinema alliance member uh gives them. So yeah, really good.
SPEAKER_03:Excellent. Well, my my first thing was I've been thanks to yourself and Simon working for both me and you, and then the job that we've been doing in Brighton that we've we've finished now, the shades of RSJ, as I will call it, in the awards next year. Uh I've I've fallen down the unify uh well. No, you have, I've converted you. Well, it sort of like was um it was sort of like the right time because So what were you using before then? So I had an Arachnist network in, which is obviously a Snap One or ADI company, but the equipment I have was limited to gig, and I've just had my Zen broadband put in, uh which is 2.5 gig. So I'm like, actually, do you know what? Why not let's take the opportunity to put a 10 gig network in the house for ceiling height, you know, because obviously I'm only getting 2.4 at the moment. When I signed up with BT three years ago, they were giving me gig-ish down and 100 up, uh, and that was fine. But I'm now getting 2.5 gig down, 2.5 gig up.
SPEAKER_05:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_03:So that's only going to go north. And that's actually on the is truly network that is. So they had to come and do some new wiring and things like that. So, but yeah, I sort of fell down the rabbit hole thanks to UniFi and some of the other parties like UltraAid out there and broadband buyer. And uh, so I bought a couple of their APs, uh, which as I bought the Wi-Fi 7 Pro and the Wi-Fi 7 Pro Max. Yeah, they are sounds like an iPhone.
SPEAKER_04:They're quite they're quite big, but uh they are very powerful and very fast.
SPEAKER_03:Now they're not Wi-Fi 7, they're 2.5, right? So, but I decided to go for Wi-Fi 7 2.5 because the chances are that by the time it upgrades to 10, there might be an there could well be another Wi-Fi standard or iteration out. Probably. So I didn't get the flat ones, um, you know, the new flat uh unified ones. But yeah, I mean I've just set them up on their own at the moment within the Arachnis network. You know, roll your sleeves up, get the laptop out, put the coffee down, go right. How do I do this? Oh, oh is that it? Yeah, exactly. Is that oh, I actually just needed to use my phone.
SPEAKER_04:Well, exactly that. So that's why it is quite quite handy just to use your phone if you wanted to obviously want to go more in depth than a laptop is is is the way to go, but to do it just on your phone as well, it's like plug it in. It's like, oh, you want to connect this? Yes, please.
SPEAKER_03:It was so easy. So I've I've been having a so I've just made up, I've not got the one you dream machine, I went for the dream machine fiber.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, and because I just wanted to have a play with something that is a little bit more house-friendly, maybe for clients that don't have racks.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they're they're ideal for racks, but for what you've just got is perfect for the residential home network on a desk thing. But uh, if you if you've got a comms room or something like that, then uh you can do Dream Machine Pro or something is better. But uh yeah, no, the little tiny ones they've got now are pretty good, pretty fast and easy to set up, and a lot of them are you've just got to check you've got the right power to do those um access points that you've got.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, so the yes, I've got the Dream Machine Fibre, um, then I've got some 10 gig switches to go on because I've got the switches in my rack, which I decided actually to get a smaller 2.5 gig switch, uh what can take so 10 so 10 um 10 gig link connections through the fiber, but then the switch is 2.5 out, but then I'm also still gonna probably use the Arachnis gig switch because there's certain things like the LG TV that don't need 2.5, where my Xbox does, my Apple TV does, yeah, um, just for the speed. And then I've also fallen down the rabbit hole of Unify Protect. Yeah, so I haven't I haven't got the cameras up yet. That may be a Christmas job or a new year job, but taken down the other brand I had because I wanted to have a little bit of play with the um number plate recognition, the the AI side of it, face recognition, you know, car recognition, that type of thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you can go into the settings of that, can't you, and just say what you want to it to detect, and it'll send you a message if you want, so there's a particular car, and obviously you can have uh work on gate entry as well. So if you wanted a certain car and the gates to open straight away, because the client we've got are this barn conversion, they don't want the gates to open all the time. So something like that is if it's your car, perfect, but uh as a stranger's car, then you don't necessarily want them uh leaving or a gate if you've just driven.
SPEAKER_03:And also, it's like we had ring cameras in and around the house, and they were the X-line where you didn't pay a subscription where they're starting to go faulty now, and ring don't do the X line anymore, and I don't really want to pay a subscription, don't really want to have my to have my doorbell to upload to the cloud to come back down like it does with ring, and also as I've mentioned before on the podcast, I'm not a fan of Amazon's privacy policies where it comes to that type of thing. Also, I quite like it the fact of like we have cameras around the house, but I can actually schedule them within the software to say don't record anything between like 5 pm and 11 pm, because that may be on the hallway floor where my wife and my daughter and me are walking to or fro to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but it's very versatile the unifying. The fact that uh I say it's uh it's almost a one-off purchase because once you've got it, it is you haven't got any subscription-based um uh thing going on, so it does work really well, I think.
SPEAKER_03:And I got to say, actually, uh Zen Broadband, honestly, I'd recommend it to anybody.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, I've just upgraded mine, but so it was a black Black Friday deal, so I clicked the button and just upgraded.
SPEAKER_03:Well, my brother, my brother recommended it because they're UK based and UK based call centres. Um BT sort of put my nose out of joint a little bit where they gave me an offer all the whilst I was in contract, but then took the offer away when I was six hours out of contract. But so the guy came to put because I didn't realise it couldn't use the BT network, so it was using the Truly network. So the guy came to put the cable in on the certain day, he couldn't get the cable in because the the conduit in the road was blocked. So, long story short, took about 10 days for them to get it in. Got an email from them last week saying, Dear Mr. Burgess, we're really sorry about the 10-day delay. Here's 80 quid. All right, perfect.
SPEAKER_04:That's nice. Not not their fault.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't even ask for it. No, no, I had no problems with it. That's that's customer service for you. So um so uh link in the description if you want to move over to the Zen Network, and I think we both get 25 quid.
SPEAKER_04:Do they do um uh mid-contract price increases? Or is it so that's a bonus because I'd just gone for Vodafone and it would say there's a price increase first of April, and then another and it's an 18-month contract. I was like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh, yeah, you're right, because it's which is very frustrating. There was like I was looking at half all of our phones, myself, my wife, and my daughter's phones are coming up for renewal, but again, I was looking and it was ridiculous. And it was like, as of you know, I don't know,£50 a month, let's say at the moment, as of like March coming, it will be£55, and then it then goes up five pounds every year. But I think one of Zen's things is that when you're in contract, there's no price rises. I mean, should be the case.
SPEAKER_04:I don't I don't know how that's even legal, to be fair. I'm sure uh somebody will know how they can get away with it. But if you're entering a contract for that price, how are they allowed to put that price up during your contract? Cash flation, very odd.
SPEAKER_03:Anything else you've been up to? You've been doing the barn conversion.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the barn conversion, so that's all good now, that's all finished. So uh the media room, uh again, I mentioned before CinemaLux uh helped out with the design of that. So that's all uh commissioned, uh calibrated and tested. Clients very happy, looks and sounds amazing. Uh so we've got the RQ6 speaks in there, two sub twos, um, really kick in a sort of nice five point uh two point four system uh with uh an 85-inch TV. Um it's got a bar in there and uh kitchen area and a work desk and things. Um I think they're gonna it wasn't gonna be a multi-purpose room, but I think now it's designed and it's in there and almost ready to use because it was gonna have it's got like a sofa bed in there, then it was gonna be a snooker stroke pool table, and then the sofa to watch the TV, but obviously that space gets smaller and smaller, and when you start cramming everything in there, it kind of ruins the the the look almost and and and the use of it as well. So uh they've had a few sort of kids' parties over there and things, and the kids have all loved it. The the PlayStation was plugged in uh last week, so uh the uh the older son is very happy that uh he can start doing some gaming on a nice big 85-inch TV with Dolby Digital, Dolby Atmosphere and sound.
SPEAKER_03:So I think once once the client sees the space to find, I can remember when my parents built our their old house in '87, our family house. You sort of stood in the room, and the first words out of my mum's house was, this is smaller than I thought. And then as it gets built, you're like, okay, it's a bit bigger now. And then you sort of like, you then start seeing things go in, and then you get a little bit like, oh, I know we were gonna put a pool table in here, or I know we were gonna put X, Y, and Z in here, or a second sofa, but it's not a lot of room, is there? Maybe we should step it back a bit.
SPEAKER_04:Which way when you buy something, you go to IKEA and you buy like a bed or a wardrobe, and then you bring it in your house. It's like, wow, that's pretty big. It's like not another sofa, it's not enough room to do that. So, but yeah, now the room looks really good. We were even discussing sort of curtains now, the room is done, and how we match that up. Do we match it up with the sofa? Do you match it up with the uh the carpet, that kind of thing? But so you've got to complement uh the room itself, and obviously we've got the fabric walls in there as well with some nice gold trim either side of the uh the the TV. So you could even have sort of a little bit of gold in there if you wanted to to get that up and running. So uh yeah, no, that's all good. Uh we did the uh the kitchen as well, so you can be using Denon Hios. Um I just say hey Hios because it was actually Morant's uh the M1s. Yeah, so no no no the uh M4 uh Hios driver. So the four zone you know. So the four zone is doing uh the kitchen, the living room, the garden, and then the pool area when we get that up and running because that's not quite finished yet. So um, but yeah, it sounded really good. It's got some uh RQ6C ones in there with uh the new C4 uh sub, which is actually under the kitchen island. Okay so we've done vents uh on the skirting board to let all the air out, and uh yeah, sounds pretty good. You can't see anything, but uh obviously the the RQ6 speakers are nice and elegant, so they're above the cabinets, so it's got like a mesanae, which if you go up to the top you can see them, but obviously lower down because it's a very high ceiling, there's a barn conversion, so um it's very high, but no, it fills that area really well, and then got all the uh the unify uh access points all up and running and all working, so the whole area is now ready for uh super fast broadband speed. So um, yeah, no, very happy. So, yeah, just in time for Christmas.
SPEAKER_03:And talking about art acoustic, uh a week or so ago, as we recorded, we put a tour up of the art acoustic showroom with Paul.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, been there 18 months now, so we thought we'd better do a uh a video tour of the you donned your presenter jacket.
SPEAKER_03:I did it. I donned my cameraman jacket. I was there, I was just the person behind the camera. And a good job you did too. Thank you very much, sir. So that's up. That's gone down really well. Yep, very well, yep. And uh that's a really good insight. And actually, if you've not already guessed, we're back at Pulse today, and we're gonna try and do one after we finish here. If they've got the Christmas tree set up, uh done a little tour around. Do a little tour, and they've got some new things in their demo room, haven't they?
SPEAKER_04:So uh we'll have a little bit of a listen, a little bit of play on on those.
SPEAKER_03:And so I might try and get it up before Christmas, if not, keep uh an eye on the YouTube channel.
SPEAKER_04:Obviously, a treat, maybe.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so obviously they are YouTube videos because you can't really do a podcast of a tour because they're pointing things out that you can't see. So they are YouTube only. Um so yeah, so we're gonna hopefully do one with Pulse today, and then we've got the art acoustic one up, which is uh which is really good. Yeah, really good, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So maybe not Essex based or you're a bit further afield up north or whatever. It's just a great insight to what their philosophy is and and how they work, and and obviously um also Cinema Lux uh built the the two two media rooms as well, so you can sort of see the quality of of their work. Um and uh yeah, no, it's a really nice demonstration facility, as a lot of the ones that we use are so. And uh we're off to IC again. IC all booked, ready to go. Uh 2nd of February.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I think we fly out on the second, I think the show is third to third, I think. Tuesday. Tuesday to Friday. Yep. Everybody leaves on the Friday and everybody's left hanging around. Yeah. I have again taken a later flight on the Friday because just in case I did find it quite useful because we spent three days filming and I found the Friday quite useful because I had a wander. Although I was pulling my house behind me, my luggage, I had a bit of a wander, and I've got like my little DJIs in my pocket this year as well. So I might have a bit more of a wander this year. But uh, if you are a distributor or manufacturer listening to this podcast or watching this podcast, We are coming out again, myself and Simon, with all of our video equipment, and we've got some little packages coming out for some uh paid-for videos, but professionally produced, that you can use on your website, but we can also promote them via the HCA to the end consumer, to the HCA members, and you can take advantage of the platform we've got. So Simon's gonna put his smoking jacket back on uh and uh and his microphone in his hand, and he's gonna be wandering around talking to some of the people that sign up with us to get the videos done. Are we gonna have a light this year as well?
SPEAKER_04:I've got many. But yeah, no, so we're we're gonna come and see everybody uh say sign up and uh we will come and see you and have uh a proper, proper little chat about what you've got on the stand. And uh you're gonna try and attempt to do uh a same-day release, aren't you?
SPEAKER_03:For uh Yeah, probably it'll either be the same day or it'll be over. Worst case scenario, it'll be overnight. So we're probably gonna have maybe six to eight spots a day, depending on the length. We're probably gonna do a half an hour package and then we'll do a one-hour package. So if you're someone like Pulse here, where you've got multiple vendors, then maybe you do the hour package where we can do up to three stands. But if you're someone like, I know our friends at monitor audio, uh then you can just do you've just got the one stand, so we will do a half an hour shoot with a video of round about five to ten minutes because you don't want it too long, because like this podcast, people probably tune out once we get to the news.
SPEAKER_04:After after after a certain while. But I think what is good about that, and if if you if you can achieve it, is something that not many people do or can um can offer, and in my personal opinion, it it makes people want to come to that stand. So if you're on your socials just having a look, it's like, oh, I haven't seen that, I haven't gone to that hall, I haven't seen those people, I didn't know they were there, for instance. So I think that really does help if you're in Barcelona or you might might fancy a quick trip over to Barcelona. I mean a lot of uh our colleagues do like a day visit, go there early in the morning, come back, leave late at night, like like you.
SPEAKER_03:So uh I mean I did that a couple of times with uh Amsterdam.
SPEAKER_04:Amsterdam was easier, but I have to say, but uh yeah, no, I think it's a great, great uh facility that uh we're trying to offer. So uh yeah, get get signed up.
SPEAKER_03:So if you are a member of the public, obviously subscribe to the this YouTube channel if you're on YouTube or go to YouTube and subscribe to the Home Cinema Alliance on YouTube because like this year, we'll put a playlist up of IC 2026 and then we'll be shooting the videos. And let's say if you are a manufacturer or distributor, get in touch with us because obviously Tuesday, Wednesday is probably the ideal spots because then we can get the videos out. Worst case scenario Wednesday, Thursday, so they can still work at the show. Yeah, I've also got a new toy to play with AI toy, um, which uh is a little added incentive for the videos, which I will tell you about off camera, and I'll tell anybody that wants to know about it off camera as well. But I think that's gonna be a cool little thing that what might make our coverage a little bit better or different to some of the other people's coverage. So uh still professional. So that's a little Black Friday thing that I picked up. Oh, excellent. Uh, you might find the brand sponsoring the podcast early next year. Well, I'm okay. So you might watch it. Watch this space. So, yeah. So uh, but that's it really. So before we jump into the news, please can you do us a favour, uh, rate, review, subscribe to the podcast or the video podcast on whatever platform you are. Please leave some comments. If you're listening to this on audio, there will be a uh a text in the description that you can text the show to ask us any questions you have. Obviously, if you're watching this on YouTube, please leave a comment on YouTube. And we also now have a Patreon. Wow, exciting! So we took part of this uh wonderful podcast. Well, so with the Sonos giveaway that we've done, congratulations to the winner. Yep, which is uh just finished, so we'll announce the winner of that in the new year. Uh I haven't drawn it yet, that's why. I've got to sift my way through all the the emails that came in with people's connections. But I just sort of thought, well, like with ISE, you we've got brands that we get a lot of merch, we get t-shirts printed up for us, which you can't see because we're wearing our Christmas jumpers. So I thought actually, if we do a Patreon, um our friends uh at hometech.fm, Seth out in America, do a similar sort of thing. Not sure if they do a giveaway thing, but I basically have created at the moment just a one pound subscription to Patreon, which obviously helps support the podcast, helps us carry on doing it, but also we'll include you in any giveaways we have going forward. Perfect, lovely. So in 2026, if maybe we've got a Trinov bag to give away, or I might try and tap Mr. Tickle up for a uh for a Bowser Wilkins uh McLaren giveaway. Nice Steinway Lindorf cap.
SPEAKER_04:They're they're very rare and uh very sought after.
SPEAKER_03:Or we have someone like Sonus who are kind enough to give us a giveaway, you will automatically be included in that. I have some CYP t-shirts if anyone wants them, very nice. Probably Origin Acoustics known Jose and when we come back from uh when we come back from ISE. So, yeah, so if you want to help back the podcast and you want to help and you want to be included in any giveaways we have in 2026, head on over to the Patreon, search HCA Tech Talk. Is it patreon.com forward slash HCA Tech Talk, I think it is, um, then yeah, sign up for a pound a month and then you'll get included on that. Uh I also have started putting the blogs on there. So if you want to get involved in a conversation and comment on like the topic of the month that we're doing, you can do that over on our Patreon or over on our website. Can people suggest a blog as well? What uh the blog can be about? So on Patreon, everything is free, as in the the the topic of the month blogs and the suggestions and things like that are there. Obviously, I'm gonna release more um Patreon memberships. So if you know you want to get invited along to a VIP event like with maybe like with Charlie and Squino at Lindorf Steinway, if we can pull that off, or maybe over to you know someone's opening of a showroom or something like that. Uh but there may well be also be in there a uh Discord server where people can get involved and have a vocal conversation on shaping the future of the podcast and and and what we do. Perfect. But I thought I'd just start it simple. So at the moment, it's one pound a month. There is a£99 a month. Um it's a big jump, I know. There is. But if you are a business or want to promote your business or your product for a month, then you can sign up and do it.
SPEAKER_04:On the podcast and the video and get a lot of things.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so on the podcast, we'll do it, we'll do a 30-second ad read. Obviously, it depends on what you've got. If you've got a video we can use, or you just want to ad read, or we produce a shoot short little reel for you, but you can sponsor this podcast. Um, mainly the episodes that we do, the one or two a month for those we do. Sounds like a bargain, that really. What a show the love. We're enjoying doing this, but also it does cost money. Yep. Um, and uh if we can get more people involved, give them some freebies, and also get some businesses involved, then obviously it's gonna keep us doing this and spreading the love for this Christmas cheer. Exactly, with our Christmas jumpers on. Um so, right, into the news. So the first news story is with Kaleidoscape and with you.
SPEAKER_00:Thinking of building your dream home cinema? Don't know where to start? Start with the HCA. 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 to help you every step of the way. Visit our website to find your local member at homesinamaralliance.co.uk.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, hot off the press this. Uh it only come out a lot. Uh well, what were we in my Monday? So I think I saw it on Friday. But so they've got a mini Terror movie server. Okay. So uh which is ideal uh perfect complement to the M and the E movie players. Um so it's a nice little compact uh movie server. So uh yeah, I think as a if you want to expand your uh storage, it's a perfect, perfect brand. It's not big either, it's nice and tiny. Do you know what the memory is? I don't know. I think uh four four terabytes, I think I saw, but uh it literally was so new, I thought, well, I need to talk about it. But uh rather than buying their big big servers, um, I think it uh it's almost easy to get into the rack or sort of like, oh, I'll go and buy that. I didn't even see a price, to be fair, but uh if it's if it adds to your storage uh for the for the movie player, um it uh it really is helpful, and I think obviously the number of movies on there is pretty pretty large. So um but yeah, no nice little uh Christmas bonus, I think, for for for that one.
SPEAKER_03:We'll put some links on to uh to explain a bit more about it, but I say it was hot off the press, so um because I know Pocket Rocket, I think uh Essentially Install described it as because I know my Strata C comes with six terabytes on it, so there's I can't feel what it is now, but there's quite a lot of films on there I've got um so that's quite good, and because I can upload downloads, especially now with two and a half gig down. Uh I mean I downloaded Call of Duty the other day and it took like six minutes. Wow, wow. Um and um but it's been good because obviously you've got your movies on there, but the not the problem, but the the USP of the the entry-level players was the fact that it would hold, I think it was 10 movies, and then it would delete itself after you watched one, unless you told you wanted to keep it. So obviously having a smaller Terra server means that you can probably you'll be able to store more and then you'll probably get access to the full GUI as well. Yeah, 100K.
SPEAKER_04:So I I I think it's it's a nice, it's a perfect complement to uh to those uh those movie um uh units. So um, but yeah, no, happy happy to uh put some links up on uh on the podcast and things, but uh yeah, no, really good.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, just looking now, mini Terra Prime features eight terabyte internal solid state drive, enough storage for a properly uh approximately 125 4k movies, movies downloaded in a little as four minutes if you have a two and a half gig connection, like me. There we go.
SPEAKER_04:It was messed like a midrium for me. It's another Christmas present for yourself, Stuart.
SPEAKER_03:And it's a price, uh it doesn't say a price. Still no price on there. Um I mean this one I'm looking at Projector Central, but mini Terra Um, sorry, the Mini Terra Prime supports up to 25 simultaneous playbacks. Wow. So that's quite cool. So you could have a mini Terra and you could have then uh let's say four, you know, let's say cinema, family room, master bedroom, games room. You could have uh you could room. Yeah, I mean, well yeah, yeah, garden room. So that that's quite good. Yeah, no, it's pretty good. Yeah, so that's that's expanding what uh I mean we're but we're both fans of uh of Colliderscape, so that just expands that even more. So uh so first story for me is um the last call for bulb-based projectors. So I think we touched on it earlier in the year, but and it's already pretty much started. So as of January 2026, you're within the EU, I believe, uh it's an EU law as far as I'm concerned, uh, you're not allowed to manufacture any new bold-based projectors. But I think one reason I wanted to talk about this was also you're not allowed to produce any new replacement parts for bold pay projectors. So for instance, I have, and if you are an installer watching this or listen to this, get in contact with anybody who's got an Epsom 9400, you know, the first entry to the HGA Hall of Fame. Indeed, because I think once stock runs out, and I know AWE and I checked Pulse earlier as well, have both got stock of them at the moment.
SPEAKER_04:Well, the lamps, so yeah, I we we as a company have got a few in stock, so because when we first heard about it, so it's basically it's the Mercury. So the Mercury is is banned basically, so um that's uh obviously an important thing for the environment and uh and safety and everything like that. So yeah, lamp-based projectors, uh as soon as we heard that we did start stocking up because a lot of our clients have want to keep their old projectors and I mean the JBC projectors we were we were we were doing. So um but yeah, so no more for as of January. Well as of yeah, as of January.
SPEAKER_03:A lot of them got laser based already, but it's still I've still got half a dozen customers who've got uh who've got the Epsom's in. Yep. Uh I've I've contacted all of them and just say, first of all, would you like to upgrade to a nice laser-based projector? Obviously, that's my first port, of course. It's a very good uh worst upsell that too. But worst case scenario, uh I I think it's a hundred or two hundred quid for a bulb. Um, grab one, keep it in the locker just in case we have an issue. Because even if we have an issue with the bulb, let alone its degradation over time, which obviously is what happens with bulb-based projectors, uh, you're gonna have to buy a projector because if it if you need to change it. So, anybody listening who has an Epsom 9400 or a bulb-based projector, uh, if you can pick up a spare bulb, pick up a spare bulb, or you know, contact a HGA member about having an upgrade if maybe you've had it for four, five, six years.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, definitely so, because uh there are a lot of bulbs out there, and some are uh the original lamp and original housing, some are the original uh lamp but uh third-party housing, and some are third-party lamp and third-party housing. So be careful. We have tried to go for the original all the way through. Yeah, sometimes cost becomes a factor. So you try and do the original lamp in third-party housing. Please don't go for third-party housing or third-party lamp. It will last you about a year or overheat, and uh your projector will start flashing at you and not works.
SPEAKER_03:And maybe go up in flames and burn your house down. So please don't buy one off of uh off of some of the Chinese websites that will do it cheaper.
SPEAKER_04:No, no, so we generally use projector central, so we we can use uh the the distribution companies that we deal with, but uh please don't. What happened to uh a client of ours last year? Left it every time we turned the projectron, said your lamp needs replacing, your lamp needs replacing. Really? And then what happened week before Christmas, stop stopped working, didn't stop, couldn't get hold of one, we didn't have one in stock. Uh so yeah, Christmas was uh yeah, he wasn't very popular. He had like a two months beforehand to get a new lamp, and it's like, oh, I'll do that tomorrow. But uh yeah, uh get get get get it in, or even just have one in uh in your house so you can avoid such circumstances.
SPEAKER_03:Just like the guy that phoned me last week uh talking about a new cinema room, and we got three or four minutes into the conversation, and I went, We can certainly help you. You don't want this before Christmas, do you? And he went, Well, it would be nice. Yeah, you should, as we said on the podcast, you should have contacted us in September. I I hopefully, as this podcast goes out, this is my last week of before Christmas. As we record this, I've got this week and next week. This week I'm finishing or starting some future automation cabinets with Crestron. Next week I'm trying to do a few bits and pieces, and then the week after that, that's it. I'm I'm working from home.
SPEAKER_04:Out of office is is on, so uh back in January.
SPEAKER_03:But yeah, so this podcast should go up on the 9th of December. So uh please reach out to a HCA member and uh see if uh you can pick up a bulb for your projector uh or upgrade to a laser projector, which uh can't guarantee any of you. We can certainly get your bulb before Christmas. Yes. Um so your next story is with Lerva, and they've got a couple of new screens coming out at a very reasonable price.
SPEAKER_04:Very reasonably priced, again, hot hot off the press. Uh we I've always sold Lervers, to be honest, with my early days of retail, 1998, and uh one of the first to have the plasma TVs back back then. We uh we installed a plasma TV for uh one of the prodigy uh gentlemen, uh Leroy, I believe it was, and um yeah, it was about 14,000 pounds for sorry, was that a mic you just dropped? A 40 uh it was uh um you've got to do these name drops every now and then. Um uh 42-inch Lerva TV was about£40,000, so uh pretty expensive, but it did come on its own stand and rotated and had a big old sound bar and things. So, but yeah, the new Lerva uh TVs, uh say German manufacturer for doing some OLED TVs, uh 77 inch and 83 inch. Um do you like to go hazard a guess at the price?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I mean obviously 75 inch OLED's four grand, and then 83 inch OLED, probably it's gonna be a bit more, but five or six grand?
SPEAKER_04:That's what most people would think, I have to have to say. But you're looking at 10 to 15,000 for uh for a Lerva OLED TV. So uh a pretty much the the the high-end niche market, but uh the look of them and uh the pitch quality and the build quality most importantly from from Lerva. But what is interesting is got an integrated soundbar, so it can do all your all your Dolby Digital, your Dolby Atmos. I it says it does Dolby Atmos. How it does Dolby Atmos, I've no idea, but uh for 10 10,000 and£15,000, you'd hope that it would do everything for you and do it very well in D, which I'm sure it does.
SPEAKER_03:So, I mean, in all seriousness, joking aside, yeah, I mean Lerva are a brand that we used to deal quite a lot with. Um we used to do the installations for Lerva at Harrods via our friends at AWE uh when they used to sell them. So yeah, they've always demanded a certain price, but then they have always they've always been a little bit like I know, like I suppose the namesake, the the the handbag company Lerva or B O, they've always been TVs that push the boundaries on design, and they're not just you know, like my 77-inch LG, love its bits, but it is just a panel. I mean you can't see them here, but we've got a TV here and we've got a TV over there. It's just a panel on the wall. That's all it is.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, Lerva's a statement. You have that on your wall, that's like, oh that's that looks good.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you you you have that, you know, maybe mechanical movement or the stand that swivels, or you know, as you say, the Dolby Atmos soundbar with if it's like most Dolby Atmos soundbars, it's got the different facing drivers that allow the assume it has got it in there, to be honest.
SPEAKER_04:I couldn't find anything more detailed than that, to be honest, but uh yeah, no, that and they've got the built-in apps as well because that's previous issues with Lerver, they didn't have the rights for the app, so you have to put in a fire stick or something like that to do Apple TV to get that working. So now they're all integrated within the TV, which I think is an important part. So that Barn conversion we did, the client just wanted the TV, didn't want to go for Apple TV or anything like that. So uh all the streaming services are on its TV, and we use EARC out into the Morant's uh AV amplifier, and it's nice and easy for them to use, it's not complicated, they're not very technical. It's like what button do I press? Well, the TV turns off, you turn the TV on, the amp turns on, TV audio comes on straight away through the AV amp. If you want to play on a PlayStation, just press game on the AV amp and away you go. And they're like, okay, great, I can manage that.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think I think if I go back to uh homebuilding renovating this year, I mean I may have mentioned it already on the pod, so I apologise if I'm repeating myself, but we had a we had my old 65 inch Panasonic on the an X. R exhibition stand that was connected to I think it was a Sonus AMP, then connected to the TV was a the my Kaleidoscape strata, and then we just had a 2.1 system. But because we were using EARC, we were just using the Panasonic Remote Control. And I remember talking to Simon, who was obviously with me helping me, and I'm like, do you know what? I like control systems, and but actually just having for those few days the Panasonic remote, and I turn the TV on, that would turn everything else on. Then as I adjust the volume, it would turn the volume up and down on the Sonic amp. Then as I went left, right, or up or down, it picked the movie I wanted. Plus, if I wanted to, I had the streaming services on there. And I there's just I don't know, maybe it's because I'm old now, I'm 50. But that is old. I know, thank you. Well, you are as well. Well, it doesn't matter. Um, so it's not as old as Simon, though, our other Simon. Uh he's always beating us. But I've got to admit, and and I think our mutual friend James Radcliffe at HomePlay is a big on this. We had a conversation on the the uh WhatsApp channel the other day, or the WhatsApp group the other day about just I think James says something along the lines of the only reason a client has a control system is because we've sold them a control system, and I'm not saying audio return channel or EARC is is the answer to everything, and I do believe there are spaces for matrices and control systems, but there are there is just something to have the simplicity of A TV on the wall, I mean, and this this client that phoned me the other day about one before Christmas, he's actually we're gonna do it in January, and then actually when I got talking to him a bit more, I found actually he's a suitable candidate for like a pair of floor standards like these um paradigms here. Beautiful, yeah. And actually having a, I said to him, rather than having a underperforming 5.1, because he didn't want to do ceiling speaks or anything like that, so rather than having a surround sound system, which may be a you know, it could be a son of solution or something like that. He then started talking about having music, listening to music more. And I said, Well, why don't you have a really good two-channel system with your TV, and we maybe just use your sky remote control and use your audio return channel, than actually spending a load of money and having a inferior is the wrong word, because I and I'm not talking about sonas now, but an inferior, let's say 5.1 system with a little you know amplifier.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you're making intelligent compromises, it's sometimes not possible to do that. So we we've actually done a uh a nice little system which maybe before Christmas, probably January now, because of the media wall's being built, but it's actually a 3.1 system. So centre left and right, two subs in the media wall, that's it. Yeah, just keep it simple because it's kind of an extension of a house, so we can't really get speakers behind. There's quite a bit of glass, there's like it's almost like a half a 50-50 orangery. Um, and what we've done in there is yeah, just keep it simple and keep it sounding nice. The client has got a cinema room in his garden in a in a sort of uh a garden room that we've got out there, which is obviously all singing and dancing. Um, and we're gonna put uh a Samsung uh TV in there, so probably an 80. I think it's a weird size. I think it's either a 77 or an 83-inch uh size TV. Um, and then yeah, just keep it simple. All the speakers will be hidden, subs will be hidden, look and sound phenomenal, both for movies and music, which I think is uh is very important. That's gonna be running off an anthem, Anthem Slim, which can again be go behind the telly or gonna go uh like in the cabinet uh uh framework, which where you can't see it. So nothing really will be on show apart from books and alcohol.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, well, quite nicely, it leads into the topic of the month, which we're gonna talk about in a minute. Uh it leads into the fact of you know a power of demonstration, which is what the topic is. But it I always remember I can't remember who said it, but someone said to me once about, you know, like if the client doesn't ask you to run their bath via a control system, make them aware of it, but don't install it for them. Because actually, I think that it's important to have that conversation with a client. We found out, or I found out by talking to this client that was pushing for something to become before Christmas. Actually, he's gonna watch he's he's gonna sorry, he's gonna listen to music more on his system than he is gonna watch TV. So uh actually a two-channel or a two point one channel system is gonna be beneficial, but actually make it the you know, rather than maybe use an ant from Slim where we could expand it to be a 5.2.2 or 5.2.1 system just because he can spend more money on the speakers at the beginning at the front to listen to the thing he's gonna use it most for.
SPEAKER_04:100%. I say you hit the nail on the head earlier, just keep it simple. It really is. And I also, when you say that, I think it it uh clients appreciate your honesty. So this particular client was like, well, what happens? I went for the bigger speakers. I was like, it's a bit overkill personally. I'd rather you put some more money into the subs or even a better quality TV or whatever. So um, but they really appreciate that and uh obviously went ahead with the uh with with the with the order. So but keeping things simple, I think when things get a bit more complicated, so if you've got like a a games console, Apple TV, etc. etc., then you would need uh a like a a U-Control remote or an Ava remote, something like that, which just the press of the button will allow you to do that. So you want to watch Sky, just press Sky, the TV comes on, the amp goes on to the correct input, and and and away you go. So but I think if everything is just going for the telly and you've got one product like a games console or whatever, I think that keep it simple for for the whole family as well, so young and old. So we've had that a lot recently. So, well, my mother-in-law won't be able to use that. And one example was the uh the Lutron lighting, right? We we just put perimeter sensors in in sort of the downstairs area. So the the the mother-in-law walked in, the lights come on and said, Oh right, okay, how do I turn the lights on? Oh no, the lights are on the toilet. So it's just keeping things simple like that, really.
SPEAKER_03:So um I think you knit that hit an L on the head. I think if you are doing a room or a system, which is a TV with Skybox and Xbox, and obviously Xbox you're not gonna control, but you control the input. If you're gonna do it whereby you're putting the sources into the TV, and then Eark is gonna take the audio back out to a two-channel or multi-channel, not a two-channel amp, let's say, or a small multi-channel amp, I think it works. I think if you're like in my home where all my sources are going into my amp, and then my amp is sending a signal to the screen, I think that's when you would put a U-Control remote or something like that in. Yeah. Because I think that does give you the flexibility a little bit more.
SPEAKER_04:Also, I think you would generally need uh a remote control if if you haven't got EARC or HMI 2.1. HDMI 2.1 is really good now at doing that eark. Previously, we've had syncing issues, so you you you can't, it doesn't sync up, so then you have to grab your remote to then try and turn it onto TV audio if you want to watch something like that, or you want to go back to Sky. We've had instances where you go to Sky, but it still thinks you're watching the TV TV audio. Yeah. Actually, no, I want cable sat. So if you've got a system that uh you just press the remote control, that'll obviously do it for you. But with HDMI 2.1 EARC, it's it's pretty good. So far, we've had no issues with with with those syncing up.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I can completely agree. Um the last story is uh a few weeks ago now, maybe two, three weeks ago, I can't remember now. We had the Cedia Awards in uh Leicester Square in London. Uh a new venue for Cedia uh right near the train station, which was both good and bad for me because it meant that it was a 15-minute walk from Charing Cross to Leicester Square, but it also meant that I had to leave halfway through Nimo talking about who was winning the awards because I had to get the last train back, which was at 11:45 or something like that.
SPEAKER_04:It's never very late, is it? You think London would be like one, two in the morning, but uh by the time you get home is about one in the morning.
SPEAKER_03:It was about it was about one in the morning, I think. By the time I got to bed, it was two. Yeah. Which considering I I go to bed about half past nine, worst case scenario.
SPEAKER_04:You're lucky you didn't fall asleep on the train. That's uh that's that's that's that's the killer one. But uh but the venue was good and uh obviously the uh the event was uh well run and uh all the winners, congratulations.
SPEAKER_03:Big congratulations to all the winners. Yeah, 100%. But also um HCA co-founder Owen Mandock of Cinema Room, sorry I'm not cinema rooms, that's you, Cinema Works, uh won Beside the Seaside, won Best Home Cinema Level One.
SPEAKER_04:Level one, no, fantastic. Congratulations to Owen and that that room did look really nice, so uh well deserved, and obviously it's not it's not an easy thing to do to to do all the all the paperwork and everything like that that's involved to enter the CD awards, but uh yeah, no, a very good effort and uh yeah well well won.
SPEAKER_03:So I mean I know because I gave him a hand with doing some of the work down there and we did the photography for it and the video, um, but I know the effort that Owen went to that, the intricate detail on you know angling the speakers in, everything to the minute detail of what is great about using an HCA member. It's what you don't see makes all the difference.
SPEAKER_04:You're saying about the angled speakers and everything like that. Clients wouldn't even know, to be honest, but obviously the passion from uh Owen and uh all of the HCA members, it really goes towards getting a really good sounding room.
SPEAKER_03:So, and obviously I'm sure the clients are very happy that they their their room is one on a wall, which I know I I was down there two or three times, and the clients are absolutely lovely, really, really nice people, very warm, welcoming, make your cup of coffee, sit down and have lunch with them. Um they they are and I know that Steve would have been as excited as Owen for winning that award. No, fantastic. But also, why we have uh I have the list up in front of me, I won't read it all out, but our friends at uh Indigo Zest and Cinema Lux won uh Cinema Level 2. Uh we've they also won um can't see it now, but they also won another award. But there's there's a really good smattering. I mean, looking at on here, because it's the MEA, the the the there you go, uh technology meets design was Indigo Zed and Cinema Lux at Buzzard Road Home Cinema. There's a really good smattering. We've got UK, we've got uh level three was won by some friends in Germany. I'm not even gonna try and pronounce that name. Um the guys at Maccabee won in India, then you had guys in Kenya, um UAE, Sweden, Kenya again, India. There's just there was just a really, really good smattering of it.
SPEAKER_04:It's a nice nice mix, isn't it, as well? And obviously you've got to appreciate the judges who judge all these these awards and things, and it's it's not like a half an hour job, it's uh it's it's it's doing a proper job and sitting there and going through all the data that that that's that's been handed to them to make sure you get the right proper RP22 levels from Cedia, and obviously a photo looks nice, but if if you can't back it up with the technical data, then you have you have nothing, you have a nice picture at the end of the day. So, which obviously they're not really based on that. Um obviously, I'm sure they looked horrible but sounded good, then uh might be a different matter, but uh you need that combination of the room looking good and all the technical data to back it up.
SPEAKER_03:And I suppose my favourite award of the evening was the Lifetime Achievement Award, which went to Nikki Moss on Nikki for all the work she does for her charity Costa Cancer. So she started the charity, I think it was 2009, uh unfortunately, after she lost her best friend to cancer. So I just wanted to say a massive congratulations to Nikki. I got to know Nikki and Andy this year when I did some work over at Moss Tech with HGA Media, and Nikki is probably the most humble, shy person you will ever meet. Um, she may not come across that way. She doesn't seek the spotlight, that's for sure. Yeah, and I mean she it was just, you know, it brought a tear to my eye when she wanna. Yeah, no, it's fantastic. It also deserved. It also got me thinking because she doesn't have a lot of people doing stuff for her. So uh I've donated to HCA's uh media services next year to help her. Oh fantastic. But also, because I don't drink anymore, I don't do dry January. So I think it's very tricky to do dry January when you don't drink then. Well maybe I do drunk January. Maybe there you go. Well but then I'll just be drunk 2026 because it'll go back on the wagon. So I was sort of thinking the other day about what I could do in January to focus my mind and maybe lose a few fat pounds and get some energy ready for ISE 2026.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, burn off those Christmas calories and uh get ready for Barcelona.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I had my first mince pie with cream on Saturday. I had one yesterday. Chuck it in the fryer. Yeah, it's lovely. Um, so I think I'm gonna set myself a challenge. Okay. If anybody wants to join me in this challenge, I might set up like a group, you know, just give in page. And you can do what you want. I can't do push-ups. So I sort of thought, well, because it's January and everybody joins the gym and everybody gets fitness again. I at least do the gym once a week. You might not notice it, but I at least do the gym once a week whilst my daughter's doing kitboxing. She's nearly a black belt. So I decided what I'm gonna do for January is I'm gonna do every day for is it 31 days in January? I can't remember now. Every day for 31 days, I'm gonna do 100 bicep curls. 100, wow, and I'm gonna raise money for cost for cancer. Fantastic. So I will set it up this weekend.
SPEAKER_04:Is this all in one go or is this uh over a period of time of the day or a session?
SPEAKER_03:No, I'm gonna do it in one hit-ish. Okay. So I'm gonna do it in respects of so the way my my I work with doing a workout normally is I go to work and then I go and we'll do a workout. Uh, luckily I've got a small gym at the back of my office and I will do it then. So I will normally do, what is it? I normally do three sets of 12. So I normally do 36. Okay. So what I'm gonna do and what I challenge other people to do is do um do 100, so what's that, 3,100 bicep curls in January. Uh, 100, it can be done over the day if you want. And what weight are we talking about here, Stuart? What I am gonna stress is it do it with the weight that you're comfortable with. Don't injure yourself, but don't injure yourself. So for me, I I mean to be honest, I don't know what weight it is, but I've got like a preacher bench where I lay over and I've got the the weights like that. So I'm gonna carry on doing that weight for the whole of December. So you want us to sponsor you? So sponsor me through January, but also get involved. Are you gonna do a video for that as well? I am gonna do a vlog. I think I'm gonna do a vlog. I think I'm gonna set up a corner in the office with my preacher curl machine. Yep. But what I would say is please get involved, please help me raise money for cost of cancer. Whether you want to sponsor me, link will be in the description. I'll set it up. But you've got to do a hundred, is that is that the hundred, hundred of whatever. How long however long it takes, hundred squats, hundred press-ups? Yeah, hundred press-ups, hundred squats. Draw on a spot for a minute, maybe? Yeah, or for a hundred minutes. Hundred minutes. Or or do a hundred minute run, but or do a hundred leg extensions or a hundred burpees.
SPEAKER_04:But it's a well worth well wild calls, so uh but definitely uh sign up and uh yeah, get involved.
SPEAKER_03:But I think from from a few basics, I think I'm gonna do a hundred bicep curls every day in January. I'll do a little vlog to show I'm doing it.
SPEAKER_04:You'll be like Popeye by uh by Barcelona.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I have two arms. I'm not just gonna do one arm. You'll be like, where's the beach? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so please please sponsor me. I'll put a link in the description. Uh, but also please get involved. I'll try and set up a little page like we did for Together Cinema. But yeah, raising money for cost for cancer for all of the work Nikki does and the families that are going through the the trauma of having cancer in their lives, which is a lot of people, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_04:No, it is, but uh yeah, no, worthwhile calls. Well done, Stuart.
SPEAKER_03:So you're gonna get involved, are you? Oh, I didn't say that. Come on. Simon's gonna do a hundred bicep curls every day. I'll just do dry January. That's hard enough. Well, it is, but uh right, so uh let's get on to our topic of the month. As I mentioned earlier, we have a Patreon now, which so we have a Patreon page. The Patreon page will let you get involved in the topic of a month, comment, like, and do all of that stuff. It's there for everybody to go to. So if you have any opinions or you have any thoughts about our conversation, go to Patreon, search HCA Tech Talk and just take part in the conversation there. Obviously, you can have the conversation on YouTube as well, but you know, both audio and video people can have the conversation on Patreon. And obviously, whilst you're at Patreon, please uh subscribe and get involved in our monthly giveaways for a pound a month. And if you are a um if you are a manufacturer distributor, I nearly named some then, but I thought I'd better not. If you are a manufacturer or distribution, you don't want to do that. Who wants to get in with some sponsorship, then please do so as well. Bargain price of 99 pounds. Exactly. Our next month's topic is what do you need to create a home cinema? So if you have any thoughts about that, obviously if you've watched this podcast or you read the blogs, you know the sort of things that we use and we're talking about. But we'd like to hear some things like you would have in your cinema. So obviously there's the necessities, the screen, the amps, the things like that, but what's the go-to thing you have to have in your cinema? Obviously, mine is an Xbox and a PlayStation. And I'm for a lot of people it's a pop call machine. Exactly. Which is uh or it could be lights, it could be a starlight ceiling or something like that, or some free advertising. Starlight ceiling. So let us know what is the must go to thing in your cinema. And the topic of the month this month is uh the power of a demonstration. So I'll read you a little bit of the blog, which again will go up onto the the Patreon page. Having a demonstration at one of the UK's growing numbers of facilities designed to show how good a home cinema can be is the key to discovering and finding out what the products and solutions are that you want within your home cinema. Just like a kitchen, you wouldn't buy a kitchen without going to a kitchen showroom to have a touch, a feel, a play, open the doors, close the doors, look at the height for your oven, maybe see what brands you want. You wouldn't buy a kitchen without a demonstration. You also wouldn't necessarily buy a car without a demonstration. So you shouldn't. Not that you would, but you shouldn't buy a cinema without a demonstration. So when it comes to demonstrating a cinema room and you've got those initial conversations with a client, what's the sort of thing you're talking about with them initially? Is it the tech? Is it the is it the the fixtures and fit-ins? Is it how they live their life in the room?
SPEAKER_04:Well, fundamentally, it's the most important thing you you you need to do when you're buying a cinema room or media room. So, as you said about the kitchens, we we will I've always said for like the last 27 years, but you wouldn't buy a car without test driving it. So, and what what we find with uh a lot of the demonstration facilities that we can take clients to, or an HCA member has their own uh uh showroom, which obviously they can show you what they've got in there, um, is is visualising. What the room could look like. Because a lot of our clients they find it a bit tricky to see what their living room or playroom or whatever room they're going to convert will look like as a media room and cinema room. So fundamentally, the most important thing you can do and get there into the design stage. Don't say it's very tricky to come in and say, Oh, I've just put a new carpet down, I've just had the walls painted, I want a cinema room or a media room in there. That's very tricky. If it's an older room that we can uh we can change and do something from concept to completion, uh then you can come in and discuss with us or go to the showrooms and see what can be achieved and visualize what's going to be uh what your room would look like. So we don't necessarily talk about the tech, that's almost not irrelevant, but it if you generally you can't see the speakers anyway. So we're doing a media raw or so for a fabric track system, but it's what you like the look of and what it sounds like. So you want it's escape from reality as well. So if you go into the room, straight away the room sounds different, it feels different, as we said with the art acoustic showroom when uh the their first portal call is the desk. You sit down, if you've got plans, fantastic, but then you do discuss with the client how many people are in the house, how many people are gonna come over. So whether you want a 55-inch TV or an 85-inch TV or even a 100-inch TV, or you've got the new ones 115 and 116 inch TVs. So it it's it's what you put together as a package. You don't sort of go into a kitchen and start saying, Oh, that's a a nice handle or whatever. It's it's it's all part of the package and the element of what you're gonna have in that uh media room and cinema room.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think as you say, like with the kitchen. Okay, you the only time you really buy a kitchen is if you're buying an X display and then you're gonna make it, you're gonna make it fit the room. Where obviously with a cinema, you know, if you look at like what a lot of the C Dia Award winners did, especially I know like what Owen did, the first thing he did with that room was have the conversation with the client, but was also draw it on paper. There's a reason why the speakers are angled at the location, there's a reason that the technical sides behind it that will determine within reason what kit you have.
SPEAKER_04:100%. And it's it's like speaker location, so you you can't have front wires if you've got a window where the front wires need to go. You have to get rid of those, so it's not even an option. So things like that, that obviously ceiling height speakers. Uh, can you have two, four, six, eight of those speakers, depending on the size of the room? If you've got a steel beam in the way, for instance, then you you you're generally pretty tricky to have uh four speakers in the ceiling.
SPEAKER_03:So uh I think that, as you said, that's the technical side of it. That's the side of it, which is a very big impact, just like what size engine are you gonna have in your car? Well, it depends on how fast you want to go or range you want to achieve in an EV. But I think you have places like Paul's at Art Acoustic, you have places like here at Pulse. I mean, this facility we've got at Pulse, you know, we've got the dedicated cinema room next door, we've got the smaller dedicated cinema room at the front, then upstairs above us here, we've got the more media room. So I think actually, like I had that conversation with the client the other day, which he started off with a surround sound system, then realized that he had to put speakers in the ceiling if he wanted to take advantage of Dolby Atmos, which he literally just read about. To now we're looking at a two-channel system. Well, actually, we're gonna pick that up in the new year, and I'm gonna take him to some places. So I'm gonna say, right, okay, well, look, I'll tell you what, let's go here, let's go there. I mean, we might end up at like the Kef Gallery in London because that way he can sit in front of the new Kef sound bar, but he can also sit in front of, you know, in a dedicated cinema room. So I think the power of a demonstration for me is as much as, well, this room looks like this and feels like this. In this room, we've used this furnishing with this look and this equipment. So I think it's that conversation to ascertain uh what environment the client wants to be in, what they're gonna use the room for. You know, if it's a dedicated cinema room, which you're gonna watch, always gonna watch movies, then it's gonna be a certain look. But if it's gonna be a room that maybe you're gonna do a Zoom call from, or it's gonna be a room that maybe you're gonna read a book in, then maybe you want something like upstairs, which is more of a lounge type media room that is a place that you can sit in and relax as well as watch a Hollywood Blockbuster movie or Lando Norris. Hopefully, by the time this goes out, winning the world championship. Hopefully. Please don't stuff that up. No.
SPEAKER_04:Um, but yeah, yeah, that's 100% right. It's uh and also it's budget a little bit as well, because you a lot of clients don't know what they can get for their budget. So when I speak to people at parties or whatever, oh if I win the lottery, I'd love to. So the lottery is like, have you got a kitchen? You can do like you can afford a kitchen, you can afford a home cinema or media room. So, but it's also making those those uh in intelligent, not compromises, but what you get. So, do I want four subs? Well, actually, maybe just two at the front or one at the front and one at the back will suffice of what I've got. Let's pre-wire for the the four subs, because if we can do it, or you can upgrade to that at a later date, then uh then we might as well. So, but it I think what you can get from going to uh a facility and demonstration, you you can say, well, what about you? You we literally making intelligent uh conversations and saying, and the clients will come up with ideas. Well, what happens if we put that there or put that there? Well, yeah, okay, that that could work, or even change the room round. Sometimes the clients come in with a design because they know what they've want, have looked it up, and they've gone, great, great. And we like, well, what happens if you just turn that around and have it that way? Well, we can't do that because the window's there. Yeah, but what happens if you just build the window up? You don't do use that window, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_03:That maybe down a side passage that no one's gonna do it. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:So things like that that uh it it it's difficult to work out, but say it's having those intelligent discussions with with the client and what can be achieved in that room. So, which you wouldn't be able to do if you just said, Oh, come round to my property and have a look. Yes, we could see the room, we can work out in a discussion saying about the TV or the projector could go there, but come to a demonstration facility, have listen and see what you can can can achieve in your room is is say most fundamental thing you can uh involve anything you can do.
SPEAKER_03:I think it's also it's without trying to sound sexist because it is both men and women, sometimes it's the lead of one person in a relationship. And actually, I've had clients that it's very been a very man-led thing, and actually when then when you I mean it's my my friends, uh clients' friends, Mark and Joe, down in battle, the whole family come. I'd had the conversations with Mark, but the whole family came to my old showroom on a Friday night, and uh they came to enjoy it, but I think by the time they all left, they all appreciated what they were gonna have. So I think sometimes it can be that the male influence of the house is I want a cinema room, and the the the wife. I mean, I had one client which was the wife, was very much like, okay, so what do you need from me? That's where originally my name, Just Add Popcorn, came from, was because it's like all you need to do is add the popcorn and just let me in and we'll build it for you. But it was, it was by the time that job had finished, once I got an the understand of what she wanted as well as what he wanted, she now uses it just as much, if not more, than him. Because we made sure there was space in there for her to use Apple Fitness in that space in front of the screen. So I think what you can get from a demonstration is just that that investment, that buying into it as a family.
SPEAKER_04:It's a is a big investment, so um, but it's an investment that will last a long time. So, like a like a kitchen, it will be the most used room uh in your in your property. So uh a lot of clients obviously spend quite a bit of money on holidays and stuff, but two or three weeks, that's that's then done and dusted. A decent cinema room would last you a very long time and give the family and friends hours, years of enjoyment, and uh and that's what it's all about. So again, getting the the bigger screen, so oh, do I go for a 65, 77, 85 inch TV, or do I go for a projector-based system, which we which we spoke about? But trying to visualize what a big TV looks like in your room is is pretty pretty tricky. What a big cinema screen looks like in in that room again is also very tricky. But you don't go to the cinema and go, well, that screen's too big. So it's it's it's fundamentally important to come for a demonstration and see what a 77-inch OLED TV does look like. And don't forget, you've got the rate different ratios of uh of Netflix and Amazon and and all the streaming services, it's not all 16.9. So uh while the TV looks a bit big on the wall, the image doesn't necessarily look that big uh because they all got their different ratios.
SPEAKER_03:One thing I always wanted to do with I was gonna do it the new demo room, which I'm not sure to what extent I will build that, still flip-flopping, but like with some of the systems like uh like Trinoff, you know, our friends at Trinoff, they basically you can set presets because I go back and have a think of basically ask you about demonstrations you've come across in your times, which you remember. One of my earliest demonstrations, I actually worked in Debenham's for London electricity at the time, and they had their they did the Debonhams in Hastings and they had the electronics door, and we had one of the first uh Toshiba 5.1 TVs, Catherine tube TVs, so you know the the the left centre right, and then the two speakers behind you with the cord running around you, and we were playing a VHS of Top Gun. And one of the things that I wanted to do in my old dem room, and feel free to steal this idea if anybody wants to, just make sure you buy a Trinov because Trinov might give you one at the end of the day if you say Stuart from the HGA center. But one thing I wanted to do with Trinov was set up presets via a control system and actually take people on a journey. So this is what a system will sound like as a traditional Dolby Pro Logic system. So maybe play a scene in the room which was Dolby Prologic. So maybe something Pulse used to do here, which was light up where the speakers are. So in this scenario, we're using these, we're using three speakers at the back and two speakers, sorry, three speakers at the front, two speakers at the back, and one subwoofer. This is what it would have sounded like if it was a Dolby Pro Logic system where the rears at the front, uh rears at the back uh are just one channel, then introduced Dolby Digital. So then what happened was we then separated the channels behind us and maybe we introduced the side channels. So now we've got a 7.1 point, sorry, 7.1.2. No, sorry, 7.1 or 7.2 system. So now this is what that same film would sound like in Dolby Digital. Then introduce into Atmos and say, so right, within Dolby Atmos, what we added was we added front left, uh front wide, left and right, plus we added ceiling speakers as well. So this is now the same clip in Dolby Atmos. That's good. And almost take them through the journey of where we went from that Catherine Tube TV that I remember, you know, in when I was 16 or something like that, working at London Electricity, to what we deal with now, which is, you know, 64 channels in the cinema room. So are there not necessarily electrical, but have you ever had any really outstanding customer service as a result of a demonstration? Uh this is when you say no, I can't remember.
SPEAKER_04:No, I can't remember. I mean, going back to your demonstration, we did uh as the Pioneer uh rear projection TVs, if you remember those, where to get the better pitch quality, you had to paint inside black so you get less reflection going on. Um, and uh as 98 when DVDs first cut started coming out, so you had the bigger screen, I'd say 55 inch, I want to say, uh, maybe a bit bigger, but uh with Zorro, uh with Antonio Banderos, Mr. Banderos, yeah. The opening scene of that where you go with the sword swishing and you got the surround sound going on, you were literally like, whoa, what is going on? And that was one of the first surround sound experiences that I think they utilized properly to make you go, Wow, what what what is that? I mean, you had helicopters going from front left to back and things like that, but to actually enhance those rear speakers, uh, for me that was uh one of the most fundamentally uh yeah really important, sort of stuck in my brain kind of scenario. So uh and it's a good film as well.
SPEAKER_03:What was the clip that we saw at Lindolf Steinway the other day? Because that one no F1 obviously, but there was the the one with the the kid in the bedroom with the big Oh, and the Monster Calls. The Monster Calls, yes, right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's a very good film. Again, that's sort of based loosely on uh uh uh a cancer illness uh that the mum's got, but it's is his way of coping with the traumas trauma traumatisation of of what his mum's uh going through. So uh um yeah, he just creates a monster and uh the monster gives him a challenge to do. But again, the the subtle the subtleness of that demo is like the pencil rolls off on the floor and you can hear it rolling and crashes down, and then the monster approaches, shakes the room, speaks, shakes the room even more, and then uh yeah, it just uh has everything that you possibly need in that. So that's a really good little demo uh that you could uh you could utilise on all systems, really.
SPEAKER_03:I think I think that there's um I remember Paul Arcoustic playing Cloverfield Road. That was a brilliant case of like um dynamic range.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it makes you feel claustrophobic as well, part of that film because it was so like enclosed.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, where it started out it's from the beginning, yeah. And it's just like there's nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Then something happens that scares your wife so much she starts punching you and runs out of the room. True fact. Um, because it didn't tell her about it. Because I remember Paul showing it to me for the first time, he said, none of you've got heart conditions, have you? But I think the Was that the scene in the car, it makes you jump.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the scene right at the beginning where she's having a conversation with I think I thought you mentioned Clover Field where they've got the action cam going on. It didn't make people for fit people feel a bit sort of motion sick because it was some guy was running around and uh the Statue of Liberty's head just rolls along and it's like wow.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think Clover Road, yeah, very good, very intense. And the new F1 movie, and I think there are some like I suppose there's some this is the great thing about a power of a demonstration is is hearing the content that you know. Everybody's got their own favourite. I mean, hell, if you're watching this on YouTube, leave a comment below. What is your favourite movie clip? What is your favourite if a mate comes around to your house and goes, I'm gonna watch, I'm gonna show you my system because you're proud of it, what's your go-to clip? I mean, because you have things like uh Ready Player One, but then you also have, you know, you also have things like Save It Private Ryan, where it's mean it's bullets, it's dynamic range.
SPEAKER_04:But also more nowadays is musicals. So we just watched uh Wicked for Good, which uh is a is a great, great film, and obviously it's a sequel to uh the first one. But if you've seen the stage show in Broadway or whatever, it's uh it's a fantastic singing kind of experience. So, and you get that grand crescendo thing going on, and the music playing and all the surround sound effects, and people can relate to that, go, wow, yeah, that does sound good. So, yes, Great Showman, for instance, the opening scene to that is is is is phenomenal. So, uh, and say Wicked for Good is also uh another, probably will be an excellent uh demo demo scenes going on in that, but say music in any cinema room or media room does sound really good because not everybody can relate to to sci-fi that because it it's not real, that kind of thing. Um, but if you're singing and it's music playing, people can relate to that, but obviously flying on a broom is not always uh relatable.
SPEAKER_03:So I think less it's Halloween. I think when I used to do my sort of like run, I used to keep it short for mate, maybe 20 minutes, half an hour, but it was always like I started off with a little bit of music, uh, so maybe some maybe some like Dolby Atmos off tidal, so not even an image on the screen. Then I would go into maybe some Gregory Porter or some Ham Zimmer off of the colliderscape, and then I would then basically then start to go into things like uh Great Showman, and then I would I would then take it right up to I don't know Venom, the first the lobby scene in Venom, because that was like full uh sensory overload. But I think after I I was keen to go right, this is what I'm gonna show you, but here's the colliderscape remote. Play what you want.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly that I was just about to mention that because we we we again, similar to you, we do do the demo run things and things we know, but it's like any film that you would like to watch, any any demo scene that you'd you want to put on. Well, I watched this film the other day, it was on the plane, but I was like, Well, hang on, that's not really watching a movie or film. Let's let's put it on on the on the system here. But we had one client who uh and we were like completely anti it. It's like no, no, no. Uh Pokemon. Oh they wanted to watch the Pokemon film because that was that was her favourite movie. So it's like, okay, what what what scene do you want? She said, well, it's about an hour in, and then we found it. It sounded really good, really impressed, and uh she loved it and bought the system. So uh six little things like that, just relate people can relate to that because they've seen it, they've heard it, they've watched it a lot of times. But watching something like that in a proper experience in a proper room really does blow them away.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think if you are an integrator watching or listening to this, and you you're lucky enough to have a demo room, make sure you've got everything in there. I mean, obviously, we'd love you to have a colliderscape and things like that, but have in there look at the family, the family's the key word because I know when some customers have come around to me, who's coming? Oh, okay, it's me and my wife and my kids. Oh, okay, so how old are the kids? I've done a little bit of work, so I know that the 12-year-old kid is probably gonna wait play Fortnite, just like the 15 years.
SPEAKER_04:You've also got to show age-appropriate material.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and also it's the key of basically knowing what they like. So if the if like if we talk about Owen's client, he's a massive F1 fan. So he's gonna watch F1 in that room. So if you know that you're gonna have a client that likes Formula One, make sure you've got the F1 movie on there. If you know you've got a client that wants to is gonna watch it for let's say football, make sure you've got football on there. But also, if you've also got kids that are coming, that they may be playing Fortnite or they may be playing roadblocks or something like that, or they may be buying Call of Duty if they're older older kids, then make sure you've got that. Oh, of course, obviously don't forget you've also got the PlayStation and Xbox underneath here. So bing, there's Fortnite on this four-meter wide screen. A lot of people don't realise that's even possible.
SPEAKER_04:No, so it's quite surprising. Like, well, I can plug this. Yeah, what else can I plug into it? Whatever you want. It's uh but a simple thing to as you say to to ask the question. What do you do at the weekend? Yeah. Well, I did the football, took the kiss to the football, legal. Yeah, did watch the Formula One, watch the tennis. All right, have you seen tennis on this? Wow, have you seen football on this? I think you say people don't uh uh get it or not get it. People have never experienced it. You don't know what can be achieved in a in a in a in a s a simple or A high-end home cinema media room.
SPEAKER_03:To close up the podcast, I've done what I always do, which is put the question: would you recommend a demonstration if you were building a cinema room in the Who'd you put the question to, Stuart? So this time I put it to Gemini. Wow. I'd branch. Talk about AI in case people don't realize. I put it into Gemini. And yeah, I mean, like normal is. I think we should just give up and do this as an AI podcast. Right, it comes up with the exact uh within reason. It comes up with some brilliant answers. So these people listening for an hour and a half. Yeah. Buying a home cinema isn't like buying a TV or choosing a sofa. It's an investment into an experience. An audiovisual environment that uh that should move you, impress you, and feel tailored to how you enjoy films, sports, and gamings. The truth is, until you've actually felt a properly designed cinema, you don't know what you're buying. Here's why demo is essential. I won't run through all of it, don't worry.
SPEAKER_04:I like what it says, what what you feel, so actually, yeah, what you felt, and yeah, that's a big important part because you've again watching a movie, you're so like again, we've done quite a few demo scenes, and a lot of the clients don't want to leave. You're like, oh, I want to watch that movie now, and that's what it's all about, is how it makes you feel. Obviously, the world's pretty, pretty up and down at the moment, and uh people uh haven't got much money due to the recent budget and things like that. But sitting down and watching a movie, as we've said a million times, is escape from reality, and just sitting there and watching a movie or a musical and how it makes you feel, it makes you feel good, a bit emotional, a bit tense. Do you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, you're like, wow, that's really good. I enjoyed that, and uh and that's what it's all about being uh enjoying the experience.
SPEAKER_03:Well, so here you need to you need to hear and feel the difference. Proper bass impact instead of boomy noise, clear out, clear dialogue and natural volume, surround and surround effects that truly uh wrap around you, an invisible integration of speakers, room treatment, and calibration. You can compare brand setups and audio performance, a bit like my client. We can show you the 5.1.2, or we can show you the two channel, which one fits you the best. Um, it uh avoids uh sorry, it helps you avoid compromises that you regret later. So maybe the difference between a 16.9 and a uh ultra wide or a scope screen. So if you're gonna watch movies, what does a movie look like on a scope screen, and then what does football look like on a scope screen? And then flip it. What does football look like on a 16-9, and then what does a movie look like on a 16.9? Obviously, you can show that those different uh ways off, and then you discover what's possible. You know, what you discover what proper acoustics sound like, you discover what reference audio is, you discover where how we hide the speakers. Hell, you know, we talked about it with Procela and um recently as well about video walls. You know, you might be lucky enough to have an opportunity where you have a video wall in one room and maybe a projector in another. What's the difference between a light that shined on a screen and a screen that is a screen? Yep. So what's your preference, really? Yeah, and then obviously I think one thing that is important, especially if you've got a cinema room, and one thing that oh sorry, a demo room, and one thing that I liked with my room, which was actually a nice accident, was that I built my old demo room in an old pigstye. It was actually called Project Pigstie, because it was on an old farm. And I built a very rectangle room in this room, but we had a neighbour, you know, about six, seven, eight hundred miles miles away, yards away, wasn't that loud, um, that I didn't want to annoy when I so I put like tech sound, rock wall, uh, acoustack, I did resilient bar, and actually one of the key things that we did in that room was we did that that show showmanship at the beginning playing the clips, but when I got to Venom, I knew that that clip in the cinema room at Venom was about 115 dB. So then what I said, what I said to them was right, right, okay, we're gonna watch this, and then I'm gonna pause it, pause it. Now come outside, and we walked outside, walked round outside the room, and then I said, right, now put your ear against that door, and as I left, I hit play again, and then you went outside and I went, they went, What am I listening for? Exactly. Literally, about a metre from your head, there is the front right speaker.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's very important. Yeah, no, it's it's both keeping sound in and out of uh a dedicated cinema room. So using uh things like tech sound and uh acoustic rock roll, which has got thermal properties and acoustic properties, it's uh yeah, no, very well uh very well done. But uh yeah, a good pick style.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and then it was um and then it's like again, because you wouldn't buy a car without driving one. Cinemas are often cinemas could be anything from 20,000 to 200,000 pound investment. And you know, why would you wouldn't buy a car without driving it? And then if AI says that, it must be true. And then one thing that's copying me. One thing that AI does really well, and uh this is another one you're gonna nick. Probably. In short, a demo makes sure your investment delivers the magic you expect. If you skip a demo, you're relying on imagination. If you have a demo, you're relying on experience.
SPEAKER_04:That's it. We could have done a one-minute podcast.
SPEAKER_03:We could have just done a one-minute podcast than the probably an hour and 30 minutes. That's what it's been going on for. So I think that pretty sure sums it up a bit more. Yeah, 100%. We're gonna properly launch International Home Cinema Day in September next year. No, it's October, 26th of October, or around 26th of October 2026, which is a way for people to experience a uh a demo room or a cinema room. Um, we're in talks with HCA members, non-HCA members, um, into other integrators, distributors, manufacturers about opening their rooms. So at least go along to the website and register for that. Um, but in the meantime, if you want to experience a cinema room or you're planning a cinema room in 2026, reach out to a HCA member and then yeah, we can talk you through what is achievable in your space.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, either via the HCA website or uh our own personal website, so homesinamarooms.com and you so yeah, immersive cinemarooms.uk or all on all the socials and things like that. So there's always a way to get hold of us.
SPEAKER_03:Excellent. Um talking about that, what's the best way to get hold of you, Simon?
SPEAKER_04:So we've got a new website, so the website's up and running and uh yeah, working very well, so we're happy with that. But uh yeah, that's uh cinemarrooms.co.uk or cinemarrooms.com will also send you to uh to to that. So again, cinema rooms on all the uh Instagram and uh LinkedIn and everything like that.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:We're all on there, so trying to do festive updates and festive films, and we've got a client who's got a very nice star ceiling and they do a themed uh Christmas room. So uh we generally keep putting that up on uh actually.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, your Christmas room is the December HCA post. Oh, is it all right? So so follow Home Cinema Alliance on social media and you'll see that Christmas room again.
SPEAKER_04:Have you seen our Christmas rooms? I know it's like oh fantastic.
SPEAKER_03:Don't scroll back to last year where you'll also see it. I literally sat down and scheduled the the main socials at the weekend. No, definitely so. Uh for me, you can find me as uh Mercer Cinema Rooms on Instagram or Mr. Stuart Burgess on most platforms if you want to see me, myself, and I. And we're on TikTok as well.
SPEAKER_04:So uh And we're on TikTok. And the uh shorts, I keep seeing a lot of the shorts on YouTube, they are very good.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, annoyingly, one of our most watched shorts in the last well, since the last podcast was the one of me falling over. Excellent.
SPEAKER_04:Thanks for that, Simon. What a cunning plan that was.
SPEAKER_03:I could use that, I could rhyme that word with another one, it's a word for you. Um, but yes, when you suggested that and I was editing the podcast, I'm like, I really can't not put the feet on.
SPEAKER_04:I even showed my kids that, and even they laughed. And they did say, Why didn't you just walk around the other way? I was like, exactly.
SPEAKER_03:Because that's the way I walk every day, and I didn't realize it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_04:It's never usually if a nine-year-old says why didn't you walk around the other way?
SPEAKER_03:A 50-year-old should know better. The thing is, it is a bit of an ongoing joke in our house. I walked out the other day and my wife had the similar scenario, and I went through the window. Are you still trying to kill me? So uh, but no, so well look, uh happy Christmas. Happy Christmas, Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Yes.
SPEAKER_04:This will be happy holidays as well to all our international uh viewers and listeners. We did get an email from an American uh uh gentleman, so uh thank you for that, and uh yeah, happy holidays and enjoy.
SPEAKER_03:And uh yeah, this will be the last one that we do together. Uh we do have some in 2025. In twenty f yeah, or maybe I might stop it now. I'm getting bored with this now. No, um, this will be the last one in 2025 of us. Uh we'll do one early 2026, but we do have uh I've still got the Barco one to put out, I've still got the Lindolf Steinway one to put out, I've still got the one from Capes from here to put out, although I'm just waiting for something to be told to whether I can do it or not. Um bargoed. And then we've obviously got the tour video from here that we're about to go off and shoot once we've probably had a sandwich because it's lunchtime. So yeah, please like, subscribe, you know, come along to the Patreon. We'll see you in twenty twenty six. But I hope you all and your family have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, guys.