Adept Integrated Systems Ltd walks Alice Gustafson through the company’s most prestigious and complex install, taking four years to complete and tripling in budget along the way – not to mention being the first ever Barco Residential Loki Cinemascope 4K Laser projector home cinema install.
“The cinema features the first Barco Residential Loki Cinemascope 4K Laser projector which the client has waited patiently for; the projector has the serial number 001!” enthuses Adept Integrated Systems Ltd’s MD Matthew Cupper, who talks exclusively to EI about the firm’s recently completed £320K home theatre install.
Formed by Matthew in 2007, UK-based Adept Integrated Systems Ltd works regularly with a number of prestigious clients, and of late has completed projects further afield with clients building holiday homes abroad.
The project in question came about when a tender specification was supplied from a property developer that Adept had discussed working with previously. Adept was shortlisted for the project and was asked to attend a project interview with the client, which offered the opportunity to raise a number of questions and concerns regarding the original specification, and helped Adept to become the awarded contractor.
“Some four years later, the project has now been completed and is one of the company’s most prestigious and complex installs!” smiles Matthew.
After agreeing a final specification, the 35,000-sqft property features a sophisticated Savant/KNX based control system featuring a whopping 36 zones of HD video, seven surround sound rooms (and that’s not even including the main home cinema), almost 100 zones of audio, DALI and DMX lighting control, and as much technology that could be crammed into the impressive property.
To complement the quality of the rest of the house, the client instructed Adept to design a superior home cinema system to seat his family and guests. This included front row seating featuring four custom made day beds that seat up to eight people, with the back row made up of a more conventional nine cinema seats – custom made to accommodate a taller client – offering ample seating for a total of 17 people.
Using Savant’s Apple-based control system, Adept worked with respected brands such as Barco Residential, Cal Audio Tech, ATI, DT Screens and Arcam to deliver a discreet Dolby Atmos cinema installation boasting 4K laser projection and digital streaming content via the home’s media sever by Fusion Research.
Being the first ever Loki Cinemascope 4K Laser install (projector supplied by Genesis Technologies), naturally Matthew is brimming with pride.
“The Loki delivers a resolution of 5120 x 2160 PX which means it is possibly one of the only projectors that does not need an anamorphic lens to deliver widescreen format, whilst also offering the benefit of not losing pixel quality,” he enthuses.
“Many other products out there either enlarge the pixel with the lens to fill a native 2:40:1 screen or do the same by zooming in with lens shift, which in effect drops around a third of the pixels. This projector also automatically detects which format is playing so will switch between 16:9 3840 x 2160 and 2:40:1 5120 x 2160, saving the client the need to select the right picture size. The Loki is also super bright at 6,700 lumens; there is also a 8,500 lumen Media Room version too!”
Complementing the projector is a 180” DT Screen, a relative newcomer to the market. “This delivers one of the finest acoustically perforated fabrics the industry has seen and for a fixed screen solution also a very completive price point,” Matthew points out.
Audio from California Audio Technologies speakers and eight subwoofers deliver a powerful audio experience in this Atmos/DTS: X set up room, powered with almost 15,000W of power from ATI digital amplifiers, with Arcam taking care of all of the signalling.
Another feature helping to make this cinema truly stand out is its eye-catching curved Manhattan Skyline light box, which Adept was commissioned to make for the client as he wanted the bar area to feel like he was looking out of a window. The backlit, acoustically perforated, stretched fabric artwork allows the acoustic treatment to perform to the best of its ability whilst also delivering the aesthetic that the client and the design team requested.
“The most challenging aspect of the project was managing change,” Matthew admits. “During the four year duration, the project tripled in value; many changes were due to the client’s misunderstanding of the original tender brief, and also his requirement to understand what would offer the best performance for any given price point, and where value versus performance ends. The client knew and could afford to spend more money, however at some points the additional cost only offered a small gain which was deemed not to be ‘worth’ the investment. It was Adept’s job to demonstrate and offer the options to allow the client to make the final informed decision. In the end the cinema alone came out almost at the price of the original whole house tender, including the cinema!”
Lighting and heating control from KNX has also been implemented throughout the home as well as access control and security from Texecom, a 640 zone intruder system and a 100 zone integrated fire alarm from Fike and Siedele.
“A CCTV installation featuring 28 intelligent IP based cameras from Visualint, IP based PIR sensors and IP controlled floodlights led to some complicated programming, with floodlights, CCTV tracking, guard dogs barking through audio systems and the whole shooting match!” Matthew laughs.
Although the Barco Residential cinema is the pièce de résistance within the property, it isn’t the only aspect of the home that stands out to Matthew. “I have to say, I am so impressed with the sunken garden!” he says. “We used a James Loudspeakers 109AT70 All Terrain kit which features eight satellite speakers and a subwoofer which was completely hidden in a living wall planted system. The sound coverage and imaging from the speakers is so amazing. For under £8,000 it was one of the nicest sounding systems I have heard – even on systems that have been four or five times more expensive!”
Cinema aside, the client can also enjoy technology around the home’s swimming pool. The team installed some custom-made Cal Audio Tech speakers which are built into columns with 12” subs in the bases – four of these monoliths act as full range speakers, with two dual 15” subs providing the low end – installed under the seating in the pool area.
“This project gives the client absolute flexibility to access his music and video and control mood via light without having to worry about how and why it works, which is just what the family wanted,” Matthew concludes.
“We are very proud to be part of this amazing installation with Adept featuring our new award winning Loki Cinemascope with its class leading image quality and laser technology,” enthuses Barco Residential’s Tim Sinnaeve. “This will also ensure the homeowner can enjoy over 20,000 hours of exceptional experiences before the light source needs servicing.”
While everyone is happy with the installation, Adept believes it can get even more out of the powerful Barco Residential Loki projector. The way to achieve that would be by upgrading the media server to one that can handle 4K content. Adept has already demoed a Kaleidescape system to the clients, with the hope that an entire 4K update to the central system will be approved.
Kit List:
A media room is best described as a multi-use space centered around a media experience.…