Custom Installation, UK, London, SE England

Custom Installation Solutions > Home Owners > Listed Building Refurbishment

The Coach House, a prestigious listed building that presented some unique installation challenges.

The fact that the property is listed only served to bring the need to prevent the specified technology from making a negative aesthetic impact into sharper focus. CAI Vision took on the challenge of incorporating the specified systems with an absolute minimum of aesthetic impact to bring The Coach House into the 21st Century.

The specification called for a comprehensive and user-friendly multi-room audio system that could deliver high-quality music throughout, cutting edge home cinema set-ups to serve different areas of the home and a lighting control system.

Screen test

The first option many people looking to upgrade their home entertainment kit go for is some sort of home cinema solution, equipment that provides a step up in audio and visual quality from a standard TV. The Coach House’s set-up, however, is something a little more ambitious. Located within a converted dove cot, the unique room is surrounded by pigeon holes, which form part of the original brick construction. The brief for the installers was clear. The room should provide ‘good home cinema – James Bond-style’ and the results are more than in keeping with this requirement.

Describing the fruit of their labours as a pleasant ‘chill-out’ room, CAI Vision delivered an environment unspoilt by technology – thanks to the use of home automation and hidden kit wherever possible - that can be converted into a full-blown 6.1-channel home cinema at the touch of a button. The task of transforming such an unusual location into a home cinema was, as you’d expect, not a straightforward one. The pre-wiring proved a particular challenge: the aforementioned brick pigeon holes proved an obstacle to getting cables to the speakers and screen. The solution was to construct a wooden pelmet, which enabled CAI Vision to unobtrusively hook up an extensive array of AV technology.

Providing the pictures is Yamaha’s impressive DPX 530 Digital Cinema Projector, which is pointed at a 7ft 16:9 electric screen. A Yamaha BluRay player and RX V4600 7.1-channel Digital Home Cinema Receiver are also in attendance, whilst a SkyHD box gives access to TV on demand. Bose’s AM15 speaker package, upgraded to serve the cinema’s 6.1 channels, was also installed, along with a karaoke system (for when there’s nothing good on). The unique nature of the room may have made installation a challenge, but it also resulted in an extremely effective sounds-stage. Our system designer described it as “possibly the most acoustically sound room ever!” and its characteristics add immensely to the impact of the images being reproduced. One of the ubiquitous Philips Pronto NGs completes the complement in the dove cot, giving any user the convenience of handheld control of the systems in front of them.

R and R

Going to bed in The Coach House doesn't mean leaving the home entertainment behind. The Master Bedroom also received some expert attention, sporting a 43-inch Pioneer plasma screen, a T533 DVD-player from NAD and a Bose AM10 5.1 speaker package. The subwoofer from
the latter was cleverly installed flush to the wall with the aid of a custom-built enclosure, whilst the DVD-player and amp are tucked neatly away within the confines of a walk-in wardrobe. The room also makes use, thanks to a run of CAT5 cabling, of the 2nd SkyHD box that’s to be found in the lounge. This solution proves a far superior (though admittedly more expensive) alternative to standard coaxial cabling – a good example of CAI Vision making excellent use of the technology to get the best possible end performance. The lounge itself boasts a 50-inch plasma and 5.1-channel surround system from Pioneer and a Sony PS3 for good measure, providing even more quality home entertainment.

The other major task for CAI Vision was to equip the home with a multi-room audio system and they opted to install Yamaha’s MusiCast. Capable of relaying sound to seven independent zones, the finished set-up features in-wall clients, very discrete in-ceiling Monitor Audio speakers, a PURE Digital DRX 702ES tuner and four Bose 131 speakers for the bathroom. Thankfully, the vast majority of the amplifiers needed to power the system were suitably located in a small loft area, which also houses other vital network equipment better hidden from view. The finished system is simplicity itself to use and provides instant access to high-quality music all over the property.

Light up

To provide the owner fingertip control over his home’s lighting, CAI Vision also equipped The Coach House with a Rako Lighting Control system throughout. The results are particularly noteworthy, especially in the home cinema room. Here, one of available Rako ‘scene’ buttons – employed usually to recall a preset lighting configuration – has been programmed to activate a motorised blackout blind, whilst simultaneously activating the ‘Movie Mode’ lighting, making the cinema room a truly smart place to be.

Which is what The Coach House is as a whole now. Proving beyond all doubt that having an old home doesn’t mean you can’t have a smart one, CAI Vision’s installation has retained the aesthetics and character of the interior, whilst never sacrificing the quality of the technology employed within. And, as far as audio-visual set-ups go, they don’t come much more impressive than this. Throw in the complementary lighting control and you have a smart home that could satisfy the most ardent AV enthusiast…

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