Based between Devon and London Pyramid provides audio-visual solutions for the office or the home, architectural lighting solutions for a wide range of sectors, as well as conference and events management and production services.
Longtime Trinnov audio partner Pyramid is no stranger to winning awards including this beautiful home cinema located in the Cambridge countryside that CEDIA judging panel estimated “Perfect”, labelling it Best Home Cinema £40K – £120K at this past year CEDIA EMEA Awards.
In this case the owner, a self-confessed movie fanatic, asked Pyramid to design a high-end home cinema into the upper floor of the house for this new build property in Cambridgeshire.
We asked veteran sound engineer and audio consultant Simon Honywill (Goldfrapp, Shirley Collins, Chris Rea) about working as an audio consultant for Pyramid, Simon had previously helped design sound systems for the Glastonbury festival, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds or the London and the 2012 Paralympics Closing Ceremony.
Which were the challenges and objectives inherent to this high-end home cinema set-up?
Due to the nature of the construction of the building and the technically challenging pitched roof, it meant that we had to manipulate the spatial audio in a way that was not typical, and we would not have got the same result if we hadn’t had the Altitude.
The Altitude’ unique remapping ability allowed us to generate the desired immersive sound field we were after, despite some speaker positions not being ideal as a result of the roof profile and its impact on the shape of the space. We had spent some time investigating processors that would not limit us to the invisible set-up procedures seen in the vast majority of AVR’s, and Trinnov seemed to be the only company where the world of studio and home cinema came together in a product that was ‘honest’ with what it was doing to the signal path.
Why did you pick the Altitude32 as the processor for this luxury home cinema?
The Altitude32 is the most powerful multichannel processor and the one that gives us the most flexibility, coupled with the highest quality sound. From a sound engineering point of view, it offers facilities that no other processor yet encountered does. The option to go right in under the hood and engineer the system allows some real creative sound field design to happen. Individual channel DSP offers FIR filters, graphic eq, amplitude and delay to be adjusted in such a way as to balance the system output psycho-acoustically – for instance; the sound field can be adjusted to create the feeling of being in a much larger space than a small home cinema.
The 3D optimization process deals with not only the loudspeaker response but for the first time takes the room response into account in a meaningful, accurate way as well. What is surprising is how well something like the upmixing of a PCM source works – a simple stereo track is given a whole new life, enveloping the listener in an involving experience that appears to have been created as a surround mix. Evidence of this is seen in just how much the client likes to use the cinema for listening to music, as well as watching movies and playing games.
- 9.1.6 Dolby Atmos 3D audio system
- Artcoustic Spitfire 8-4,6-3-Control 2 speakers
- Trinnov Altitude32 processor
- Rotel amplification
- Oppo 4k Bluray player
- Sony VW520ES 4K projector, ISF Calibrated
- Screen Excellence 130′ cinematic acoustically transparent screen
- Front Row Home Cinema Seating
- Control 4 7” touch-panel control