Windsor Family Cinema

The Brief

A busy Windsor family had been sitting on an underused basement for years, caught between two ideas for the space: half home gym, half home cinema. They wanted both — without compromising on picture, sound, or the feeling that this was a proper place to spend time together.

The brief was simple in words and demanding in execution: design a relaxed, flexible, dual-purpose room where the cinema side performs to reference standard, the gym side stays out of the way, and the whole space feels warm rather than clinical.

We were asked to deliver a finished Dolby Atmos cinema, fully integrated acoustic treatment, a cinema-scope projected image that stands up on bright Berkshire afternoons, and a layout that lets the family move between movie night and weekday workout without reconfiguring the room.

Our Solution

Audio — Dolby Atmos 5.2.4 for real-world listening

The room is built around a 5.2.4 Dolby Atmos configuration using KEF THX in-wall and in-ceiling speakers — the same series engineered to Lucasfilm's THX reference specification. A purpose-built baffle wall at the front of the room lets us sink the front left, centre and right speakers behind an acoustically-transparent screen, with dual subwoofers placed side-by-side for evenly distributed low-end energy. Behind the baffle wall sits extensive broadband acoustic treatment, so the room sounds calibrated, not boomy.

Acoustics — sound you can feel, a room you can live in
Acoustic decorative tiling on the side and rear walls does two jobs at once: it controls reflections that would otherwise smear dialogue and surround effects, and it gives the room a warm, tactile, finished feel. The result is a cinema that's accurate enough for critical listening but relaxed enough for Sunday-night family films.

Vision — Sony 4K HDR projection on a 2.40 scope screen
A ceiling-mounted Sony 4K HDR projector throws onto a fixed-frame 2.40:1 cinema-scope screen with motorised side masking, so the image always matches the aspect ratio of the content — true CinemaScope for films, a masked 16:9 window for streaming and sport. Electronic blackout shades handle daytime light, and a large drawback curtain separates the cinema zone from the gym when the family wants the full run of the basement back.

Products Used

The Result

The basement the family had been planning to split for years now does both jobs at once. The cinema has become the entertainment hub of the home — reference-grade enough to host film nights with friends, forgiving enough to stream a Saturday-morning cartoon on the big screen, and quiet enough that the gym on the other side of the curtain never disrupts it. The family told us the room has changed how they spend evenings together, which is the only benchmark that ever really mattered.