Private houses · Garden building

Garden cabin cinema: a home cinema, office and family room in a garden building

A family who love the cinema built a dedicated garden retreat and called Lairds two weeks before the builders started. We designed a cinema and video distribution to a limited budget, extended the house’s Sky, media and broadband into the cabin, and gave the screen somewhere to hide.

Projection

Epson full HD projector on an Elite electric screen

The building

The client had a young family, a love of home entertainment, and a plan: a dedicated space in the garden for a home cinema and a multi-purpose room, with a small office because he worked from home. The brief was to reach the services already in the house, Sky, the media centre and broadband, from the new building; a cinema any member of the family could use; a screen hidden from view when not in use; and Wi-Fi for the office.

We were contacted only two weeks before the build started, so the builders had no idea when we would need access or at which stages, and the site visit had to be arranged very quickly. The budget was limited and had to cover distributed audio and video and the full cinema, so we worked with our suppliers to find the packages that gave the client what he wanted now with the ability to expand later.

What we designed

WyreStorm video distribution carries the house’s sources to the cabin, switched by a Pulse-Eight Neo 4×4 matrix. The cinema is a 5.1 Sonance surround system on a Yamaha amplifier, an Epson full HD projector and an Elite electric screen that drops when the film starts and disappears when it finishes. Sonance in-ceiling and in-wall speakers carry audio elsewhere in the building, Ruckus wireless covers the office, two 15U racks hold the equipment, and sync boxes keep the connections tidy at the wall.

The cabin ended up with a hot tub and a fire pit outside and a cinema inside: the family room for a film, and the place to watch the big game with friends. See our garden rooms and garage conversions service.

The cabin

What went in

• WyreStorm video distribution
• Pulse-Eight Neo 4×4 video matrix
• 5.1 Sonance surround system on a Yamaha amplifier
• Epson full HD projector and Elite electric screen
• Sonance in-ceiling and in-wall speakers
• Ruckus wireless
• Two 15U equipment racks and sync boxes

Home extension, west coast

7.1 surround, multi-zone audio and Control4 in a family extension

Building something in the garden?

Cabins, garden rooms and garages make good cinemas if the cabling goes in before the lining does. Tell us when the builders start.