Mission: to create a cinema With a Huge Soundscape Within 20sqm
Cinemart, one of our StormAudio installers, based in Israel, received a call from a client with a mission. The client asked if it would be possible to have a decent cinema experience in a 20sqm room.
He had recently bought a penthouse based on the contractor’s promise to add another room to house a dedicated cinema space which was not part of the original building plans.
Our dealer was sure that they could deliver on this, but only with the right system.
The playback system that was recommended was Alcons speakers and subwoofers together with a StormAudio ISP. After hearing a demo, it gave the client confidence in the project, bringing a lot of excitement and expectations for the end result.
A challenge small-room
After choosing the suitable performing equipment, the size of the designated room for the cinema, at 3 x 5.5 sq/m, was the main challenge. To create a large sounding space, that defies the physical surroundings, the acoustics had to be carefully designed. Every element needed to be calculated and tested before the installation.
It was necessary to have a good flat low frequency response for all seating positions, the control of bass is already challenging, and in addition to this, even more so for very small rooms. The aim was to deliver all the power and low frequency extension possible, but also to be very accurate, with no bloated notes and inconsistent bass. Isolation is also key, as nobody wants complaints from neighbours as the client is enjoying a movie in their cinema.
The solution: a floating room!
Mr Omer Karni of Omer Acoustic Design overcame the challenges by designing a floating room with acoustic dampers on the floor, and a wooden pool on top of the dampers to prevent any physical contact with the room walls. Then 8 cm of concrete was poured to fill the pool. This floating floor was designed to attenuate the spread of vibrations from the massive subwoofer and speaker system. All the acoustic treatment in the room resulted in an evenly dispersed bass response with 0.2 ms reverberation time under 500hZ delivering very tight and detailed bass!
Subwoofers had to be brought into the room at the concrete stage to take measurements, to decide on their exact positions prior to installation, because with a room size like this one, everything has to be precise, nothing can be changed after the interior is fitted out.
A more than happy customer
To complement the Alcons speakers and subwoofers, the final touch was calibration of the StormAudio ISP. Mr Dan Nagar of Cinemart thinks that the end result was ‘spot on’, due to the flexibility of the bass management platform, together with the new Dirac Live bass module. When asked if the client was happy, he says that ‘happy is an understatement’!
Mr Karni, who has been building recording studios and home theaters for over 10 years, also agrees, he says that this installation with Alcons CRMS system together with the StromAudio ISP, is definitely ‘the best theatre experience [he has] ever heard!’
