MIRROR EDGE NETWORKS – KALK BAY INSTALLATION

Mirror Edge Networks presents its Cape Town Dolby Atmos home cinema in St James, Cape Town. This exciting project was carried out from 15 July 2022 to 15 August 2022 by Morgan Irwin and Daniel Little.

A brief overview of this project: The home cinema was built in a room that is 6.2 m long x 4.2 m wide x 3.0 m high. The front screen wall construction is 350 mm deep, which allows enough space to locate the subwoofer behind the screen wall, placing the subwoofer in the front of the home cinema.

MEN used an M&K Sound speaker package in this home cinema. The company has worked with M&K Speakers for many years due to their high quality, transparent and incredibly dynamic performance. A strong recommendation for anyone looking for a high-quality home cinema speaker.

The M&K speakers are being driven off an Anthem MRX 740 surround sound AVR. MEN has been using Anthem AVR’s for many years. The Anthem “ARC Genesis” room correction is one of the best available and enables the company to ensure that the audio sounds as good as the room it has built. The power delivery from the Anthem AVRs is high quality and ensures sufficient amplifier channels for MEN’s home cinema requirements.

The company has implemented a Control4 EA1 room control unit. This takes care of all commands within the room, from light dimming, to switching on the television and changing channel on the DSTV decoder (or any other set top box). Control4 light switches and dimmers are used to control the lighting scenes in the home cinema room.

All HDMI cables are by HDAnywhere, these are tested and certified cables to meet video requirements of 4k60 in HDR from the Apple TV as well as 4K60 from the DSTV decoder. The HDMI cable from the AVR to the television is an HDAnywhere Opticmax 15m 48GB HDMI cable.

The video display is a Samsung 85-inch Crystal UHD display. Capable of displaying 4K HDR content.

Cinema seating is the Cinema Pro 4 seat recliner by Cielo. The front two seating elements are Weylandts Cubist Sofas.

Project timeline was roughly outlined as:
4 July 2022 – Initial client meeting
6 July 2022 – Presentation of conceptual diagrams & overview budget
7 July 2022 – Verbal acceptance of Mirror Edge Networks home cinema design package & budgetary outline.
8 July 2022 – All electronic hardware ordered from: Anthem AV / Control4 / M&K Sound
11 July 2022 – Procurement of all construction hardware begun.
15 July 2022 – Delivery of all construction hardware to site & home cinema construction commenced.
15 August 2022 – Completion of final trim-out and snags of home cinema & handover of completely functional home cinema room.

Mirror Edge Networks brought in the professional calibration services of Charl Lotter at iDetic to assist it with calibration of this home cinema. It started with a basic 1-hour video calibration, which included: Disabling all Samsung processing features on the television. Setting minimum and maximum brightness levels for back light of the televisions display. Correctly setting all colour settings.

With the strength of Anthem ARC Genesis, the Anthem ARC audio calibration of the cinema was carried out. It was found that the calibration carried out by the processor was very close to how the installation team the cinema to sound. Once there was a baseline from Anthem ARC, slight adjustments were made to the gain on some of the speakers and crossovers of the front sound stage. This was enough calibration to get the sound to a point where they were happy … and most importantly, the client was happy too.

From a technical perspective, following equipment was used:

Anthem MRX 740 surround sound AVR
M&K Sound 5.1.2 speaker package, including one of their legendary subwoofers
Control4 room control equipment, including SR260 hand held remote control, light dimmer & switches
HDANYWHERE HDMI cables, including a 15m 8K certified HDMI Cable
Samsung 85-inch UHD / HDR television
Weylandts Cubist Sofa
Cielo Pro Home Cinema recliners

To view a comprehensive video detailing the build process of this home cinema, please head over to Mirror Edge Networks’ YouTube video:
YouTube: St James Home Cinema Build.

For more information about this home cinema, or to book a home cinema consultation, get in contact. We would be happy to help