Olivier's Integrated and Discreet Home Cinema

In this article, the integrated Home Cinema we're covering will give you detailed information about the specific equipment chosen — something I don't usually focus on as much.

Olivier's Integrated Home Cinema Project

An engineer turned brilliant entrepreneur specialising in high technology, Olivier is a passionate tech-enthusiast dad. Whether it's electronics — with a home he has fully automated himself — or motorsport, with cars and a garage straight out of Need for Speed, Olivier lives his passions to the fullest.

He contacted us because his home is a place where every generation of the family comes together. Children, parents, and grandparents all live under the same roof, giving the house that special soul I found so unique.

Olivier reached out to us, of course, to enjoy the system himself — but above all, to share the experience with his family.

Like many people, Olivier discovered the AiOhc Home Cinema through our activity on Facebook. He wanted to find out more, and I was happy to welcome him to our showroom in Fontenay-sous-Bois. 

He got to experience Home Cinema by AV Concept Products first-hand. Two days later, he confirmed the offer along with the layout design we had produced.

Designing the Integrated Home Cinema

As you can see in the video, Olivier already had a fine audio/video setup. For those who might not have recognised them, the Bang&Olufsen TV and the two floor-standing speakers are works of art in their own right — both in terms of design and performance.

What's great about our work at AV Concept Products is that we develop precisely the opposite kind of solutions. So while some products are stunning but remain standard, mass-produced items, we take pride in delivering the ultimate in discretion and personalisation.

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. This integrated Home Cinema is proof of that.

One thing was clear from the start: this Home Cinema had to offer "more" than the system already in place.

Choosing the Equipment for the Integrated Home Cinema

There are two ways to advise on Home Cinema equipment.

The first is to gauge what the client wants and what they are "willing" to spend on their integrated Home Cinema.

This is often what happens when you turn to certain professionals. Someone who, for example, runs a physical shop with overheads and a limited catchment area must, at all costs, make the most of every transaction by pushing certain products.

Products which are, admittedly — and thankfully — of decent quality, but are not necessarily optimised for the environment in question.

The other approach is to genuinely think through the best possible products to equip this first integrated Home Cinema installation. To propose the most high-performing solution that will deliver an enormous amount of enjoyment in everyday use.

Olivier's integrated Home Cinema is a good illustration of this. I'll walk you through what we could have proposed, versus what we actually installed.

Projection Section 

For the recessed projection screen, we specified our new CeilingScreen Tensioned screen. The new Infinity technical screen fabric with its side-tensioning system delivers unrivalled flatness.

The optical properties of the Infinity fabric enhance every projection. To find out more about this screen and our fabric, click here for more info.

Our recessed projection screen requires only 14cm of plenum space in the false ceiling. With 15cm available, it could be recessed without building any additional housing.

Recessing the Home Cinema Projector

On the projector side, the minimum 22cm required to fully conceal the device with its motorised mount. And to future-proof the installation for when Olivier upgrades to an even higher-end projector, we allocated 25cm of clearance.

In fact, Olivier was weighing up whether to choose the Sony VPL-VW270ES projector or the Epson TW9400.

The Sony does produce a sharper, more refined image than the Epson. However, this perceptible advantage does not outweigh the significant brightness gap between the two projectors.

Projections in a living space with ambient lighting would be noticeably compromised. So I recommended going with the Epson TW9400.

The Epson TW9400 is a superb device for projections in lit or dimly-lit living spaces. I mention this because many of you ask me about 4K improvement. Rest assured, it works — your eyes really do see 4K. Yes, image quality is even better with a native 4K product, but it's a matter of comparing one to the other.

If you've never owned a Home Cinema before, let alone a 4K projector, you will be blown away by the image quality.

Want to take it up another notch? In that case, go for the Sony VPL-VW570ES Home Cinema projector. Combined with the Infinity fabric, your projections will genuinely look like a giant OLED screen.

Home Cinema Audio System

When he visited us at our showroom in Fontenay-sous-Bois, Olivier asked for a 7.1 system (which was what he'd been using in his AiOhc configuration).

Looking closely at the floor plan, I explained that this wouldn't actually add anything to his listening experience. Because the sofa is positioned very close to the rear glazed wall, it would be impossible to install four surround speakers in the space above the sofa — certainly not in any way that would be effective enough to be worthwhile for Olivier.

So we went with the U 5.1 configuration. This Home Cinema audio system delivers rich, precise sound. The rear speakers are bipole, which means they create a true soundfield that enhances the sense of immersion.

Olivier was doubtful when he saw the size of the subwoofer included in the U 5.1 Home Cinema audio configuration. I politely asked him to be patient — to let us finish the installation and calibration first. I'll come back to that point at the end of this article.

Home Cinema Amplifier

As in many modern homes, the living room is part of a large open-plan space. It stretches from the lounge on one side all the way through to the kitchen on the other.

In this type of common configuration, sound tends to dissipate in every direction it can. So in addition to a powerful 5.1 Home Cinema audio setup, Olivier's integrated Home Cinema needed an amplifier that could match the challenge.

Up to the challenge, certainly — but there's no point in choosing an oversized device simply to artificially inflate the bill.

The Denon AVR-X3600H delivers excellent audio performance and handles the latest audio/video formats. Since we are only using 5 of the 9 audio channels this amplifier supports, the power available per channel would be more than sufficient to produce rich, precise sound.

In short, we tailored the audio configuration to perfectly match Olivier's needs — rather than selling him on the idea that more speakers and a more powerful amplifier would give him more enjoyment.

Control System

To control his integrated Home Cinema, Olivier — the tech-enthusiast dad you now know well — naturally wanted to take advantage of AiOcontrol.

AiOcontrol lets you operate your integrated Home Cinema from your smartphone. Connections to the unit are simplified. I'll come back to AiOcontrol in a moment, but first let's look at the layout of Olivier's integrated Home Cinema equipment — the two aspects are closely related.

Layout

As with Christophe's installation near Toulouse, we took three days to install Olivier's integrated Home Cinema. We nonetheless returned on the fourth day to make the final adjustments and do a little sanding to make everything perfect.

In reality, the plaster drying phase requires a non-negotiable amount of time. While we manage this within the allocated three-day window, it's always more challenging because the material hasn't necessarily dried everywhere.

That's why we now schedule all our installations involving a recessed lighting coffer over 4 full days.

This allows enough time for all materials to dry properly — both the plaster and the paint. A clean finish is guaranteed, and there's no pressure to meet a deadline that might otherwise prove too tight.

On Olivier's project, we finished late on the third day and returned to complete the final adjustments on the morning of the fourth day.

Equipment and Audio/Video Configuration

An integrated Home Cinema like Olivier's — and more broadly, every project we carry out — involves a whole range of different equipment that all needs to work together.

First, there are the components that make up your Home Cinema configuration itself, which vary based on your choices — the brand and model of projector, amplifier, and Blu-ray player, for instance.

Then you also need to factor in all the equipment already in your home: the Wi-Fi, the TV, or simply the way your home's electrical and internet network is set up.

On the surface, you don't think about it — everything seems "standard" because you use it every day.

In reality, having carried out several dozen installations, and while there are general patterns, I can guarantee that every situation is unique. And our job is to adapt to each one, so that our equipment blends as discreetly as possible into your existing setup.

Why Am I Talking About Compatibility?

It's quite simple. At Olivier's home, the internet router is placed inside the grey TV unit beneath the screen, as you can see in the video. Behind this unit is a row of wall sockets powering all the equipment housed in the TV stand — including the router.

And in this integrated Home Cinema installation at Olivier's, you'll recall that an AiOcontrol was planned to control the entire system. The smartphone is what triggers all the individual components.

AiOcontrol is connected to the home's Wi-Fi network in order to function and be triggered from any smartphone in the house — provided it is connected to the local network and the app is installed.

The control unit for the system is placed in the false ceiling, near the projector lift. It connects to the home's Wi-Fi network. The router therefore acts as the bridge between the smartphone and AiOcontrol.

Within AiOcontrol, we had built in a reconnection process so that if the unit loses its network connection — for example after a power cut or a router restart — AiOcontrol scans for a certain time to find the network again.

However, the duration of this scan has a limit. A limit that internet routers' restart time unfortunately often reaches and exceeds. In that case, AiOcontrol stops searching for the network, even though it eventually reappears a few moments later.

All it takes is to restart AiOcontrol for it to immediately start searching again — and find — the Wi-Fi network.

The Problem

The issue is that the power supply for Olivier's integrated Home Cinema was tapped into the wall socket that powers the TV unit's devices.

So the clever idea of connecting the power supply directly into the wall socket by removing the faceplate was, in this specific case, actually a trap.

Because to restart AiOcontrol, you'd have to go to the electrical panel and flip the circuit breaker feeding that socket. But doing that also cuts power to the router… which then takes an age to restart.

AiOcontrol then stops searching again.

Unless you move the router, it becomes a vicious circle.

When this happened to Olivier, I didn't initially realise the setup was configured that way. Usually the router is in the garage, or in a separate unit. But we'd never come across one inside the TV unit alongside all the other equipment.

In writing it out it seems obvious — but it's far from obvious if it has never happened to you before.

It always comes back to the same old saying: the perfect is the enemy of the good. In trying to do better, we created a problem.

Marouane resolved it in a matter of minutes by reverting the installation to its original plan — with a power plug connected to the socket. Visible, yes, but hidden behind the TV unit and the B&O speaker.

Marouane's idea would have been excellent in any other configuration. Just not this one.

The Takeaway

If I share something that could have been done better in every article — or simply a mistake, whether ours or someone else's — it's because, selfishly, writing it down is the best way to analyse and remember it. And more broadly, it's to show and help you understand that a "perfect" product or situation simply doesn't exist.

This is especially true when all these components need to coexist and work together. A learning phase is always necessary. You launch the system, let it run. Then you fine-tune.

That's why software and apps have updates. In our case, the update — the "patch" — is us, coming to adjust things. And that's ultimately what matters most in your project: having someone who knows their subject inside out, and who commits to making it work, all the way to the end.

Thank you to Olivier and his wife Patricia for welcoming us so warmly. We had a great time creating and delivering this project. During my last visit, Olivier told me he hadn't expected the Home Cinema experience to be quite so spectacular.

Last I heard, he uses it practically every day, with the whole family enjoying it alongside him.

Mission accomplished. The Home Cinema delivered on its promises and offers performance that exceeded Olivier's expectations, given the quality of his existing system 👍💪.

More and more of you are reading our articles and watching our videos. Thank you so much, and welcome! Don't be shy — leave your comments and questions below, I'll be happy to answer them 🙂