Workplaces and studios · Lairds offices, Ayrshire

The Lairds Auditorium, Ayrshire: an 11.1.4 Dolby Atmos demonstration cinema built in our own offices

Every installer wants to show a client what to expect. We built the place to do it: a derelict lecture hall turned into a purpose-built 11.1.4 Dolby Atmos auditorium with M&K Sound loudspeakers, a 4K Epson laser projector on a 13-foot acoustically transparent screen, and a demonstration office and meeting room on the way in.

Client

Lairds of Troon Ltd

Site

Lairds offices, Ayrshire

Scope

Auditorium, demonstration office, meeting room, comms room and infrastructure

Loudspeakers

11.1.4 M&K Sound, Dolby Atmos

The building

We started with an old lecture hall that had been derelict for more than six years. An extensive clear-out told us what we had, a few discussions and a design or two set the plan, and then our joiner set to work while our own engineers ran the cabling. The whole of the office needed a new, robust infrastructure: certified Cat 6 and multimode fibre, installed to standard, with a fibre backbone from the auditorium back to the main office network.

The visit is laid out the way a client walks it. First the office, where demonstration screens show video distribution, graphics and digital signage, and the network and security systems can be seen working. Then the meeting room, where clients look at drawings and schematics while listening to a Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 amplifier with Lyngdorf MH-2 loudspeakers and BW-2 subwoofers, a stereo system of the accuracy that brand is known for. Then the auditorium.

What we designed

We found M&K Sound and Lyngdorf the way most people do, in the quiet corners of the ISE show where the best rooms tend to be, and have specified both ever since. The auditorium loudspeaker layout is 11.1.4 for Dolby Atmos: eight M&K MP150 Mk2, three M&K IW300 in-walls, two X12 subwoofers and four IC95 ceiling speakers, driven by an Arcam AVR31 processor-amplifier. Picture is a 4K Epson laser projector on a 13-foot electric, acoustically transparent screen.

The comms room holds a 42U rack with all of the room’s equipment: 4K and UHD Blu-ray, a PlayStation 5 Pro, an Xbox Series S, a media server, a bring-your-own-device presentation input and a Pulse-Eight 4×4 4K video matrix that connects every source to the main office system, on a 24-port managed switch linked back to the office over the fibre backbone. A client sits down, picks up the custom-programmed RTI tablet or the remote, and runs the room themselves.

It is where we demonstrate M&K Sound and Lyngdorf. If you want to put us to the test, come and hear it.

The room, and building it

Seating and screen in the Lairds Auditorium, Ayrshire

The acoustically transparent screen in the Lairds Auditorium

M&K Sound loudspeaker in the Lairds Auditorium

The 42U equipment rack in the comms room behind the Lairds Auditorium

RTI tablet used to control the Lairds Auditorium

Building the Lairds Auditorium: joinery in the old lecture hall

Running cabling for the Lairds Auditorium during the build

Rows of seating in the Lairds Auditorium, Ayrshire

What it is for

A client sits in comfort, picks up the tablet and controls the room. They hear what an 11.1.4 M&K system does, see what a 4K laser projector does on a proper screen, and see the rack, the network and the cabling that make it work. We set the bar high, and there is nowhere better to do that than in our own building.

What went in

Eight M&K Sound MP150 Mk2, three IW300, two X12 subwoofers, four IC95
Arcam AVR31 processor-amplifier, Dolby Atmos 11.1.4
Epson 4K laser projector and 13-foot electric acoustically transparent screen
Pulse-Eight 4×4 4K video matrix, 4K and UHD Blu-ray, PlayStation 5 Pro, Xbox Series S, media server, BYOD presentation input
42U rack, 24-port managed switch, multimode fibre backbone, certified Cat 6 throughout
RTI control with custom-programmed tablet and remote
Meeting room: Lyngdorf TDAI-3400, MH-2 loudspeakers and BW-2 subwoofers