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DPP Smart Home & Electrical chose Procella Audio as the ideal solution for its ‘Surrey Cinema’ project, winner of the prestigious ‘Best Home Cinema Project Over £50K’ at the Smart Building Awards 2024.
Announced during the UK’s trade show for the smart home and luxury AV sector, EI Live!, the Smart Building Awards are designed to reward the very best in the industry, recognising innovation, attention to detail, and the highest standards of customer satisfaction. With this background, the Procella team was delighted when ‘Surrey Cinema’ by DPP Smart Home & Electrical took home one of the most hotly contested awards, ‘Best Home Cinema Over £50K’. Procella Audio speakers were the backbone of the audio experience in this high-performance cinema.
Dominic Parete, Director of DPP Smart Home & Electrical, explains, “This project was for an existing client. We had already completed work on a multi-room audio system during the renovation of their kitchen, dining room, and wine cellar. I had an initial meeting with the client to go through what they wanted. We discussed some options with them and produced a 3D design of how the room would look, incorporating their colour schemes and ideas alongside our knowledge and creative input.”
Dominic adds, “They loved going through the design process with us and were excited to see the mock-ups we had produced. The only real issue was ensuring that we could achieve this in a room that also incorporated a bar/games area at the rear, without compromising the cinema experience.”
Obviously, with a project of this type, the key is selecting solutions that are going to deliver the required performance while also coping with the design challenges.
Dominic reveals, “The main area of the room is used as a home cinema, with high-performance AV using a Sony projector and Procella speakers. We also used Rako lighting for creating scenes and controlling the blinds and curtains. Fabric lining was employed throughout most of the room. There are two rows of FrontRow leather cinema chairs, built onto a custom platform of our own construction, which also houses a secondary TV serving the back of the room (bar/games area). This platform also acts as a baffle wall, with diffusion diverting audio back to the seated position for some clever audio management.”
In this varied and dynamic space, Procella Audio was chosen to deliver the required sound quality and provide the flexibility the installation team needed. Specifically, three P8s were used for the LCR channels, four P5Vs for the surrounds, and a further four P5iCWs for overhead Atmos.
Dominic says, “We chose Procella for their high SPL and low-distortion levels, suitable for the room size and the number of seats. They needed to maintain a high SPL because they were to be placed behind the fabric we were installing. The Procella speakers were easy to install after some slight adaptation using the brand’s supplied angled brackets.” The Procella range also comes with threads ready for Vesa 100 brackets, furthering their flexibility of installation.
There were plenty of challenges presented by the room, its construction, and shape, but the installation team was determined to deliver the very best results and achieve the CEDIA RP22 Standard, Procella’s involvement was key.
Ben Lancaster, European Sales Manager, Procella Audio, explains, “We went through many variations of the specification to achieve the right performance for the distance from the screen to the seating position. For this, the P8 was ideal, while leaving good headroom for overall performance. The P5Vs were chosen for their slim profile, as they would be visible in the room, while still delivering plenty of performance as surround speakers. The P5iCWs were selected due to the restricted ceiling height (common in UK homes), requiring in-ceiling installation. The great benefit of the P5iCW is the angled baffle and square cut-out, allowing the speaker to be rotated so the tweeter can be aimed towards the Main Listening Position (MLP), improving output and performance.”
Dominic points out that Procella's Elliptical Waveguide was particularly crucial in delivering controlled directivity, not only for the MLP but also providing strong dispersion and performance for all the other seating positions.
Ben describes this technology, “Each speaker uses a Procella-designed Elliptical Waveguide, which, along with carefully selected crossover frequencies, produces constant power response with superior dispersion characteristics and uniform coverage over a large seating area.”
One of the main challenges was the centre speaker location, as there is a window seat where it would ideally be placed. Again, the wide dispersion characteristics of Procella’s Waveguide technology came to the fore, as the team were able to angle the centre speaker to provide the best coverage for the room.
Valuable input did not just come from the supply of Procella speakers, but also in the form of support from the Procella team. Dominic underlines that Procella was involved from the early stages and created multiple different systems to deliver the best combination of performance and price.
Ben adds, “We also helped specify the AV processor to create the best synergy for this system. We frequently help dealers with speaker layout drawings to ensure perfect positioning for projects. However, in this case, the team at DPP had this in hand.”
All the hard work and Procella’s performance have certainly paid off, as the customer states, “The overall room exceeded expectations, which were already high. After spending time in our friends’ cinema rooms, our room outperforms anything we’ve ever heard or seen before!”
Equipment List:
Procella: 3 x P8, 4 x P5, 4 x P5V (loudspeakers)
SVS: 2 x SB3000 (subs)
Sony: VPL-VW790 (projector)
Anthem: AVM 90 (processor)
Sony: UBPX700B (Blu-Ray player)
BluStream: HDMI cables
