Benoît's Home Cinema Installation in a Haussmann Apartment

This Home Cinema installation case study in a Haussmann apartment will be especially useful if your room has very high ceilings, no dropped ceiling, and a beautiful décor you want to preserve. When Benoît reached out to us at the end of 2017, he had been living with his family for a few months in his stunning Haussmann apartment. The idea of setting up a Home Cinema in his living space had been on his mind ever since they moved from their previous apartment — so much so that he had already asked his contractor to install a motorised projection screen on the wall, hidden behind a curtain rail cover.

Home Cinema Installation in a Haussmann Apartment: Initial Situation

After an initial FaceTime video call to establish a rough budget, we visited the property. Naturally, Benoît wanted a high-performance installation while keeping costs and — above all — the décor intact. Without that balance, the whole project would be a non-starter 🙂 Here is an overview of the starting conditions and the client's requirements:

• A motorised projection screen already installed on the blue wall, concealed behind the curtain rail cover.
• The TV on the side wall (facing us) must remain fully functional for everyday use.
• Both the projector and the TV need to be able to display the same sources (TV box, PlayStation, and Apple TV).
• The Haussmann apartment has very high ceilings (3.20 m) with decorative mouldings. On top of that, there is no dropped ceiling to house Home Cinema equipment or route cables through.

Home Cinema Installation in a Haussmann Apartment: Our Solution

For this Home Cinema installation in a Haussmann apartment, we planned the setup as follows:

• An Epson TW7300 projector — bright enough and equipped with a throw ratio that allows projection from one end of the room to the other (over 8 metres).
• A Sonos wireless 5.1 Home Cinema sound system, consisting of a black Sonos Playbase placed on the cabinet below the screen, a wireless subwoofer, and two Play1 surround speakers mounted at the rear corners of the room.
• A DMDB42HDTL HDMI switch with two identical outputs to simultaneously send sources to both the TW7300 projector and the existing TV.
• An existing boxing housing perimeter spotlights around the room, which we used to route the power cable for the projector, the lift, and the rear Sonos Play1 speakers.

Home Cinema Projector Installation

The only available position for the projector turned out to be above the window facing the blue wall. To preserve the existing curtain rail, we mounted the motor of our AluliftHC Home Cinema projector lift above it and then adapted the boxing to conceal the mechanism.

Sonos 5.1 Home Cinema Sound System Installation

The absence of a dropped ceiling and the inability to embed speakers in the walls were real obstacles in our pursuit of a discreet installation. This is exactly the kind of scenario where Sonos speakers come into their own. With just a single power connection, you can enjoy a full 5.1 sound system — no audio cabling needed. Perfect for this Home Cinema installation in a Haussmann apartment, where we tapped into the existing power supply of the already-installed motorised screen to power the wireless Sonos Play1 speakers. These were positioned up high, near the AiOcontrol unit that manages the projector lift, the motorised projection screen, and the projector via smartphone.

AiOcontrol Home Cinema Automation System Installation

To control the entire installation effortlessly from his smartphone with a single tap, Benoît chose to add our latest solution, AiOcontrol. This compact unit simplifies installation by requiring only one power supply to run the projector, the projection screen, and the projector lift. Connection is straightforward thanks to FastConnect connectors, and the screen and lift travel limits are configured directly through the free AiOcontrol app. In this Haussmann apartment Home Cinema installation, we placed it inside the housing that holds the motorised AluliftHC projector mount.

DMDB42HDTL HDMI Switch Installation

In Benoît's Haussmann apartment Home Cinema installation, there is no low media unit of the kind you typically see below a TV. All the electronic equipment lives in the black cabinet to the right of the fireplace — which is where we installed the DMDB42HDTL HDMI switch. It simultaneously distributes all sources (TV box, PlayStation, Apple TV) to both the TV and the projector. The audio signal is extracted from the HDMI stream and sent via the optical output of the DMDB42HDTL unit to feed the PlayBase. I've included the wiring diagram below to make the connections easier to visualise. This is a great example of a Home Cinema installation in a Haussmann apartment — straightforward to implement (the job took two and a half days), high-performing, and very reasonably priced. What's next? Since completing Benoît's Haussmann apartment Home Cinema installation, we have launched our Infinity light-control technical projection screen fabric (read our series of three articles to understand how it works). Benoît is naturally keen to benefit from it and has asked us to come back and upgrade his installation with our motorised projection screen. That'll be the subject of a future article 🙂 Equipment list

• Motorised projector mount AluliftHC (it wasn't yet available at the time of this installation — we also recommend the Finishing Kit to simplify installation and ensure a perfect result).
• Smartphone-controlled Home Cinema management system AiOcontrol
• Sonos Playbase speaker
• Subwoofer Sonos Sub
• Surround speakers Sonos Play1 (x2)
• HDMI switch DMDB42HDTL
• Home Cinema projector Epson TW7400
• Fibre optic HDMI cable 15m

Total budget including installation: approx. €7,800 And if you'd like to get quick technical details and an overall pricing overview, head over to our AiOhc page.

Ready to take the next step? Read our complete guide on designing your dedicated high-end home cinema room with AV Concept Products.