Why Home Cinema?

Why does anyone want a home cinema?

Home cinema, when done right, can add so much to the home. A focal point that brings the family together when you’re all home, somewhere to enjoy the latest sporting spectacle with friends, or somewhere to unwind alone. By designing the room around you and what you need, not just the latest fad or technology innovation, you’ll have somewhere that will provide countless hours of enjoyment.

Home Cinema

Early stage of a home cinema build out, creating depth in the room so that we can hide any speakers. We have named this our “Room in a Room ®” solution.

These are the steps we employ when looking at any new Home Cinema project.

1) First and foremost are our clients needs. As we continually talk about, we at Living® do not subscribe to a one size fits all solution, not ever. We take the time to listen to what our clients want and need, only then look at how we can provide there perfect solution.

2) Design. Once we understand the need and purpose of the room, we will then look at the space available, what does it offer? What restrictions does it have if any. Once we take all of our measurements, we will then go about our design process, maximising everything we can within any budget constraints, providing our clients with a 3D rendering of the room and how it will look.

Home Cinema Nearing Completion

This larger cinema is nearing completion in this image, you can see the incredible lighting design incorporated into this cinema. Our design solution enables us to create the perfect room feel for you and how you want to use the space.

3) Pricing. Once the design has been agreed, we will provide a comprehensive price for the project. At Living® we provide a one-stop solution, so our pricing includes building works, waste removal, electrical works as well as the installation of the home cinema itself. We do our best to make sure that everything is included from the off, taking the time to work through each stage of the project and include any works required.

4) Installation. Once the price is agreed, we will book the works in with our teams, this usually works with a roughly 3 month lead time. Then, depending on the size of the room, the works will be completed in between 2-6 weeks. It should also be noted that at Living®, we do not use sub-contractors for the home cinema installation, this ensure we are able to keep only the most appropriately trained persons on the project, leading to an exacting attention to detail on everything from acoustic fabric treatments to the calibration and set-up of the soundstage.

5) Handover. Once completed, we will book the handover and training session. During this handover, we will demonstrate the features and performance of the room, ensuring our clients benefit and enjoy everything the room has to offer.

Home Cinema with Hidden Speakers

From the image above you can see how our teams built this wall out, now you can see the finished result, with all the speakers neatly hidden behind the fabric wall, providing a clean high end finish, without compromising on the performance.

6) Service. Once installed, our rooms run perfectly, but of course over time, firmware needs to be updated, calibration will need to be re-done, or a new piece of equipment may need to be added. With all of our systems, be it a home cinema or whole home control system, we offer 2 levels of service, Gold or Platinum, both provide peace of mind with the technology installed, and both include a yearly service. During this service our technician with check and update everything on site, making sure you have another year of trouble free enjoyment.

Home Cinema Terms to help navigate the topic:

Dolby® Atmos® - Dolby Atmos is sound processing feature. There are many configurations of speakers that can meet this standard, which one is employed on your project will depend on the size of the room as well as any potential restrictions therein, such as windows/doors, or ceiling layout. Dolby Atmos provides an amazing depth and clarity to the soundstage of whatever you are viewing, whether that be the latest blockbuster, Netflix series, or sporting event. You really have to hear it to believe it and fully understand how good it is, why not book a demo at one of our showrooms? We have Dolby Atmost demo-cinemas in Poole, Dorset, Swindon and Chelmsford, Essex.

Home Cinema Designed by Living®

The design is so important, allowing us to meet our clients expectation, including the look and feel of the finished room.

4k/5k/8k Video - Essentially all of these formats provide a superior viewing experience. The larger the screen, the more critical the higher k values are. Against popular belief, a 40” screen with 8k isn’t really a great use of budget, with marginal gains over the more conventional 4k. Once you get up into the larger screens, if budget allows, then 5/8k can be of benefit, offering greater detail and colour rendering. But, and this is a big BUT, 4k is usually ample, especially when the latest laser projection is utilised. Read the next section to discover Laser…

Laser, LED, DLP. These are all projector types. Each one offers a different feature or function. At this time, our favourite type is Laser, with projectors costing around 15k offering the performance of a 100k projector not 5 years ago. Which projector type is right for you? This will depend on the room and the budget, DLP being less expensive but not giving the same level of performance, as say laser.

It’s time to enjoy…

Sit back, relax and enjoy your new favourite room…

Another Award for Multi-Award Winning Home Cinema experts Living Home Cinema

Home cinema experts Living Home Cinema have done it again, winning another award for their outstanding work in the field. This latest award is further proof of their commitment to providing the very best home cinema experience possible, and cements their place as one of the leading providers in the industry. If you're looking for a world-class home cinema setup, then look no further than Living Home Cinema.

Living home cinema have won another award, this time for "best home automation specialist 2023" from the Prestige Awards.

Living Home Cinema have added another incredible feather to their cap as they recently won the Prestige Award for "Best Home Automation Specialist 2023". With years of experience creating first-class home cinemas, this award highlights Living Home Cinema's expertise when it comes to automated technology. They are the go-to industry leaders for top-of-the-line installation and create comfortable and stylish luxury home cinema experiences that can differ per each homeowner's preference. Awarded well deservedly, Living Home Cinema continues to give their customers the satisfaction they need!

This is just one more award to add to their already extensive list of manufacturer, industry and professional awards.

Living Home Cinema has earned yet another award to add to their already impressive list. The multi-award winning company has been widely acclaimed in the home cinema industry, receiving manufacturer awards and professional recognitions. Their depth of knowledge and dedication to enriching their customer's home theatre experience has brought them enormous respect from a variety of sources. With this most recent honor, Living Home Cinema continues to prove themselves as leaders in the world of home cinema.

Luke Crutcher Living SD says that while they didn't get into the business for awards, it's still fun and recognition for the hard work their technicians put in.

Home automation specialists Living Home Cinema are multi-award winners in installing Home Cinemas, Lighting Design and Golf Simulators, and Luke Crutcher is the MD. According to Luke, even though Home Cinema experts didn't get into business for awards, it's nice when their hard work gets recognized. Moreover, he says it's fun for technicians to add these wins to their experiences. Home automation experts have been in this business for more than a decade now and have applied expertise from cinema installations at 5-Star Hotels to configuring the latest Home Automation systems of clients' homes with ease. Besides Home Automation, Living Home Cinema also offers Lighting Design and golf simulator products. Each award adds another feather on their cap which is a testament to their expertise in this field.

He goes on to say that they're looking forward to continuing providing their customers with high quality service and innovative solutions.

Home cinema innovation has been at the core of Home Cinema experts Living Home Cinema’s success, and this latest award solidifies their stance as one of the leading digital home cinema providers. They have always focused on bringing friends and family together through their immersive and interactive home streaming solutions, offering more than just a movie night in - it's now an experience that surpasses any offered in traditional cinemas. Their dedication to ongoing Home Cinema excellence is clear with the announcement of yet another award showing that they're dedicated to continuing providing high quality service and creative solutions for all Home Cinema customers.

It's great to see another award being won by this multi-award-winning team of specialists at Living Home Cinema. Gaining recognition in the industry and winning awards has become almost routine for them, but it just goes to show how dedicated they must be and how seriously they take their profession. They must have a very advanced knowledge when it comes to the latest home automation technology, so you know that you're in safe hands when hiring them for installation or repair services. That goes without saying why they were granted this most recent award - The Best Home Automation Specialist 2023 from the Prestige Awards! We're sure that this won't be their last award either as Luke Crutcher Living SD won't let them rest just yet, always pushing for better solutions for their customer base. So if you need advice on transforming your home into an impressive audio/visual experience, make sure to reach out to top professionals such as Living Home Cinema and get the best service available in composing your perfect home cinema atmosphere. Get in touch with the "Home Cinema Brothers" now!

Living partner with Bang & Olufsen

In more news…. We’ve partnered with B&O to bring our clients the very best in sound and vision with that now customary Danish design flare. Is it us, or do the Danes absolutely rock this?

To celebrate this new collaboration, here’s a B&O article celebrating another British/Danish partnership that turned out rather well…

Designer, David Lewis

How did a Brit end up in Denmark leading the design on one of the country's most esteemed companies?

Read below and find out how David Lewis built upon the Bang & Olufsen legacy.

A Design Classic

Music and poetry

“Form is nothing more than an extension of content,” David Lewis told Beolink Magazine in 2003. “Who says that loudspeakers should hide away in corners, if the closer they get to you, the better they sound?” It's quite telling that Bang & Olufsen's chief designer's words almost exactly paraphrase those of the American writer and poet Charles Olson, writing in his manifesto, Projective Verse – music and poetry are, after all, both vibrating air.

From London to Denmark

Lewis was born in Britain in 1939 and graduated from London's Central School of Art in 1960. Moving to Denmark a year later, he began working for Bang & Olufsen under the legendary designers Jacob Jensen and Henning Moldenhawer. His very first product was the Beovision 400 television set. His other early work included the Beolab 5000 system – as he assisted Jensen with its classic wood and aluminium design that won them the iF Design award in 1967.

David Lewis Designers

He founded his own practice, David Lewis Designers, in 1982 and throughout the rest of that decade, their designs were the core of Band & Olufsen's output, especially as the company moved beyond stereo equipment and into the booming television market.

New frontiers

Innovations included the MX series, the first television sets designed by Bang & Olufsen. As ever, Lewis had a unique perspective. “As he sees it,” wrote Lewis’ right hand man at his studio in Copenhagen, Torsten Valeur, “when it's off, a TV is a cross between an aquarium and an eye peering into people's living rooms. Once the set is turned off, the design becomes paramount. Designing and creating a TV which also has a ‘life’ when turned off is the closest you can get today to giving consumers a good alternative to the empty aquarium.”

An evolution of elemental form

Design that holds

Lewis was steeped in the idea that any product should have a long life, both in desirability and endurance. He believed in slow evolution, only producing new products when the customer really needed them, rather than tinkering with existing items and then relaunching with unnecessary fanfare. “Today there’s too much pressure, not just for designers. It’s disappointing in a way. You can miss cool things – afterthoughts, great little ideas – in the design process because it goes so fast,” he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “We wouldn’t dream of doing something that wouldn’t hold. This is part of the culture.”

We wouldn't dream of making something that wouldn't hold. This is part of the culture. 

David Lewis

Designer

This is reflected in the approach used by the Bang & Olufsen designers that Lewis led. Rather than shutting themselves away with humming computers in laboratory conditions, his team of six would only meet for a few days a month, before dispersing to develop ideas independently. His inspiration would often come from intensive thinking about the problems of any given object, as well as regular visits to art galleries, museums and Danish antique dealers specialising in mid-century furniture and architectural design.

At the time, they would almost entirely ignore digital design – Lewis once dismissed computers as being “Too inhibiting, too complicated to work with.” He preferred to let problems work themselves out as he sat with pieces of cardboard, paper and plastic, designing via model-making or, as he put it, following a more sculptural practice.

Stand your ground

Lewis was always ready to stand his ground to ensure that Bang & Olufsen's products were never aesthetically compromised but it was never about self-importance. In 2003, for instance, Bang & Olufsen CEO Torben Ballegaard Sorensen asked Lewis to add a few centimetres to the depth of the Beovision MX 8000 TV. The designer refused, and the CEO backed down. “If I had prevailed – if I could have easily forced a decision – I would have violated the very design integrity that gives us an advantage,” Sorensen told Fast Company magazine in 2003. This steadfastness of opinion had its advantages too, often forcing radical new developments in materials and engineering, such as pioneering the use of diamonds to cut aluminium. 

Back to the original

Like his mentor Jacob Jensen, Lewis’ products have been selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In his case, the selected designs were the video recorder, Beovox 5000, the Beovox Cona booster and the active speakers Beolab 6000.

Back in that 2003 interview, Lewis spoke about the core of the philosophy that had led to such a long and successful collaboration with the company. “I believe that the less you complicate things, the more interesting people will find them,” he said. “Let's clean up and simplify the technological mess. Let's go back to original ideas. Let's do it the Bang & Olufsen way.”

David Lewis: 1939-2011

David Lewis