HOME CINEMA OF THE YEAR LEVEL II FINALIST THE DIGITAL PICTURE

The residents of this exclusive over-50s community are avid movie lovers who wanted a cinema room that would replace the need for them to visit a commercial theatre. Their cinema’s reference sound employs 13 speakers and two subwoofers, with four side speakers along each side wall panning sound along the length of the room. Video comes courtesy of a commercial 9000-lumen Epson ‘4K Enhanced’ projector.

There are a total of 40 seats, and The Digital Picture admits fitting them into the room’s width was a bit of a challenge. The team called in help from Australian distributor Cogworks to modify one of Cogworks’ existing electric cinema recliners — which turned out to be the only full leather electric reclining cinema-seating product in the country that would fill their requirements of a three-metre total width for a row of four seats without losing any width from the seat itself.

The retirement community had already been in place for some time prior to this room being built, and the theatre formed the last phase of the retirement dream for these clients. It was important that the owners be able visit the room at all times of the day, bring their own food and drinks, and welcome additional guests such as their children and grandchildren. Some of the residents even formed their own movie club and make contributions towards costs for streaming services and the Kaleidescape movie store.