Stylish custom home theater with integrated bar
It is not always natural for our customers to have a home theater built in their basement. For example, the Feenstra family's basement was initially zoned as a parking garage. However, after visiting friends with a cinema room and then visiting our showroom, Edwin and Kim soon decided that they had to change their plans accordingly... The initial idea of a gameroom quickly turned into a chic home cinema with bar and high-end quality image and sound.
The family was abroad for a long time, but will return to the Netherlands soon: "We will come back when the World Cup playoffs start, so we can watch the games on a big screen again too. We are very much looking forward to that!"
The question
The request was for a multipurpose room in the basement where the whole family, including friends, could enjoy sports, music and movies over drinks. Of course, the acoustics had to be excellent and the audio and video at an up-to-date and high level. The look of the cinema had to be sleek, with a luxurious feel in fabrics and use of color. The entrance to the cinema also had to have a special touch through an image that also had to serve as an acoustic dampening element.
The solution
We designed a home theater in which a bar at the back of the room allows for drinks while watching. Edwin and Kim made the space their own by carefully choosing their own furniture, wallpaper, lights, carpeting and acoustic upholstery for a luxurious and chic look. A nice touch with a positive acoustic contribution is the printed acoustically absorbent panel that we hung above the entrance to the cinema. This way you already get into the movie atmosphere when you descend the basement stairs to the cinema....
For an immersive surround experience, a 7.1.4 Atmos setup was chosen. The front, side surround and rear surround channels are reproduced by Bowers & Wilkins CWM 7.4 s2 speakers. These are built into a solid 'baffle wall' so that resonances have no chance and the speakers can do their work in an ideal acoustic environment. Two Bowers & Wilkins DB3D subwoofers with 2000 W of power each are used for low end.
For an image to match the quality of the sound, a JVC DLA-N7 4K HDR projector was installed, projecting its image onto a 3.5m wide "Cinemascope" acoustically transparent screen from Screen Research. Under this screen, we made a wide cabinet where all the equipment and subwoofers had their place.
For perfect acoustics, we installed a black acoustic stretch ceiling containing warm white spotlights and Bowers & Wilkins CCM 7.5 s2 Atmos speakers, and the final touches were added to the acoustic "i" using lining with underlayment, fabric furniture and precisely calculated acoustic panels.
Control is done with a Logitech Harmony Elite remote control.
- 3x Bowers & Wilkins CWM 7.4 s2 front speakers
- 4x Bowers & Wilkins CWM 7.4 s2 surround speakers
- 4x Bowers & Wilkins CCM 7.5 s2 Atmos speakers
- 2x Bowers & Wilkins DB3D subwoofers
- Marantz SR8015 4K/UHD immersive receiver
- AppleTV 4K
- Panasonic DP-UB9004 Blu-ray player
- JVC DLA-N7 4K HDR projector
- Screen Research 21:9 acoustic transparent screen 3.5 m wide
- Logitech Harmony Elite
- Additional item list
The result
It is very comfortable in the beautifully designed space and the family is incredibly pleased with the end result: "The cinema is very much to their liking! It really is a super experience. We are really super happy with it! The nice thing is your turn-key approach: we deliver the space and you take care of everything. You really notice that you are all passionate about what you do, you radiate that and that is contagious."
By listening carefully to Edwin and Kim's wishes, the room was given its multi-functional character with beautiful stylistic elements, with acoustics, speaker placement and total adjustment of picture and sound taken care of to perfection. The programmable remote control allows anyone to control the cinema, even grandparents! Edwin on the movie experience: "The action movies make the most impression. With low so intense you feel your whole house shake. Planes flying over your head and cars passing behind you, those are such pure experiences! No soundbar can compete with that!"
Interview
After completing a project, we like to hear how our clients experienced the cooperation, and if they like the result.
This is what Family Feenstra found
Ha! I really like this one! It's really a super experience. We are really super happy with it!
All of them actually did! My son, daughter, ourselves... Especially when you programmed the Logitech remote control. Now everyone can use it, even grandpa and grandma! My daughter often sits there by herself dancing and singing, even with her friends. Everyone understands how it works! Sometimes friends also stay overnight. We put mattresses down and they watch movies until they fall asleep. So the cinema is well used!
Several times a week we do! When we are home, we take the trouble - so to speak, because how much trouble is it to just walk downstairs - to watch TV and movies in the cinema. We don't watch in the living room anymore! I also stocked up on an extra bulb for my projector so I can replace it myself if it breaks. When it broke last year, you just miss using the cinema, so I want to avoid that in the future. We don't buy many 8K or 4K Blu-rays, but we are very happy to watch TV and use the Blu-ray player to watch Netflix, Prime, etc. as well. We actually only watch the Hans Zimmer - Live in Prague Blu-ray we got from you guys from a disc, hahaha! Almost all the movies are also 21:9, so we can use our whole screen then too. We come back from abroad when the World Cup playoffs start, so we can watch the games on a big screen again too. We are very much looking forward to that!
The Hans Zimmer Blu-ray remains very cool, but also the Pirates of the Caribbean series and Marvel / Avengers movies are great, often with bombastic music. Gladiator is another good example, also with music by Hans Zimmer. So the action films make the most impression. With low so intense that you feel your whole house shake. Planes flying over your head and cars passing behind you, those are such pure experiences! I can't wait to experience those again when we get back, no soundbar can beat that!
There's no real answer to that... We had the space and it was going to be a parking garage. My wife indicated she would probably never use it. During this decision period, we visited friends who had a cinema room upstairs and that's when the penny dropped for me. Changing the building plans and leaving out the basement was pretty drastic and we also wanted to start building, so we decided to make a "game room" with a bar. We then went to see you guys and decided to really get it right. So it wasn't that we had it in our heads from the beginning. It was more that we were remodeling, we were inspired and there was budget for it. However, we quickly looked forward to then spending evenings with friends in that space - hence the bar - watching soccer and other sports together. In that sense, it is a multipurpose space, though. My daughter can dance there, you can have a party there, things like that.
I Googled home theater and acoustics and quickly came across Mutrox. I quickly got a good feeling about you because of the shared love for Bowers & Wilkins and the website which showed that you know what you are doing. I then contacted you and of course the real magic came when I walked into the building and sat down with Ronald. We saw and heard the different demo rooms from entry level to (over the) top and Ronald said that for every budget we could realize a cinema that always sounds good, but it can always be even better, hahaha! That just really appealed to me and also the professionalism and knowledge and expertise. We are not familiar with all the material and you are. We thought: it costs a lot of money, but if we let you do it, we know for sure that the result is good, that you get value for money. Also the advice I got about the projector, where initially we thought to switch manually between 16:9 image and 21:9 to save some money... Now we are having so much fun with one-touch automatic switching!
People do business with people, and if that feels right, you just have to go for it. You can approach 1,000 parties, but what will that get you?
Actually super good, nothing to complain about! The first contact was super, then it was worked out in a first sketch with a first budget and I think if you look at the first offer and what it cost in the end, there is not much in between. And what was in between was our own choice. We were not confronted later with additional work; the whole quotation process was very transparent. What you put down is quite a lot of money, but it's also nice that everything is included. The project management was also excellent. We visited you once to choose the colors and everything else went like clockwork. You also took on the networking of the house and everything went very well through one person. I could e-mail him on Sunday, so to speak, and get an answer after 5 minutes. That is special and cool. You don't need a company very often, but if you do need them once, it's nice that they respond and with you that's well organized. You really notice that all of you are passionate about what you do, you radiate that and it is contagious.
I would so not know... What I can come up with is that only later did we realize how nice it is to have a single remote control. You guys might have to push that more... Hahaha! I know I called Ronald and you showed up 3 days later with a remote control. Other than that, I can't think of anything you guys could have done better. Stay as customer-oriented as you are now. I called because my lamp was broken and you took out a lamp from an appliance that was in stock. You really think along with the customer and it is important to keep it that way, because that is what makes the difference. Things can go wrong or break down and it's about how you act then and I am very satisfied with that.
Our neighbor I recommended you, but that neighbor already knew a customer of yours! Hahaha! Another neighbor doesn't have the space right now, but often tells his wife that they have to start digging... I tell her that I know just the party to go to if you want to be sure that everything will be taken care of. The nice thing is your turn-key approach: we deliver the space and you take care of everything.
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