The centrepiece of this family lounge is a large brick inglenook fireplace. It's the room's defining architectural feature — and it's also where the projector screen will appear and the speakers will live. The challenge was to build a full cinema system around a heritage fireplace without touching its character. The solution involved a motorised picture that covers the projector aperture, M&K speakers hidden inside the mantle, and a projector in the adjacent office firing through a wall.
The Project Brief: Cinema in a Living Room
This is a retrofit project — a family lounge in active daily use, with the fireplace as the dominant focal point. The client wanted a home cinema, but not at the expense of the room. The fireplace stays. The materials and character of the room stay. The cinema has to integrate invisibly.
The system specification:
- ▪Projector: Epson F3 (installation projector series)
- ▪Speakers: M&K Sound in-wall system
- ▪Channel configuration: 5.2 (five channels, two subwoofers)
- ▪Screen: Motorised, behind the mantle piece
- ▪Equipment rack: Built into furniture drawers below the fireplace
The Projector Location: Office to Cinema Through the Wall
The projector lives in the adjacent office — not in the cinema room itself. A hole was cut through the shared wall to allow the projector's light path to fire from the office into the lounge, hitting the screen positioned below the mantle.
This approach has several advantages. The projector fan noise stays in the office, not the cinema. The equipment rack is in the office, keeping the cinema room clean. The projector is accessible for lamp changes and maintenance without entering the cinema room. The temperature concerns — projectors generate significant heat, and the heat rises in a room — are managed by leaving the projector space open rather than boxing it in, pending measurements.
The projector is mounted on a permanent shelf in the office at the correct height for the throw geometry. The critical measurement: the projector is projecting slightly downward to hit a screen positioned below the mantle line, which requires careful lens shift calculation before installation.
The Motorised Picture: Cinema Mode On Demand
The most elegant element of this installation is the motorised picture. When the system is off, a painting or artwork covers the aperture where the projector's beam exits the wall. When the cinema is activated:
- 1.Control4 sends the command
- 2.The motorised picture slides aside on rails
- 3.The projector aperture is exposed
- 4.The screen descends from below the mantle
- 5.The cinema is ready
When the system powers down, the reverse sequence restores the room to its living room state. A visitor who doesn't know about the cinema could spend an hour in the room without noticing it exists.
M&K In-Wall Speakers in the Fireplace Mantle
The front three speakers — left, centre, right — are M&K Sound in-wall models, mounted inside the fireplace mantle. The discovery during installation was that what appeared to be wood in the mantle was actually plasterboard — a significant change to the mounting plan.
The solution: a separate plywood frame, cut to fit precisely within the mantle opening, is installed first and secured independently to the structure behind the plasterboard. The M&K in-wall speakers then mount into this ply frame. The ply provides the rigid mounting surface the speaker requires without being attached to the flexible plasterboard, which would vibrate and introduce distortion.
"The speaker won't be attached to the plasterboard — it won't actually be mounted to this plasterboard. That will reduce the vibrations surrounding it. This won't hold well for a speaker — it probably will, but it's not designed to hold speakers."
The aesthetic requirement from the client was to preserve the fireplace's character: existing mantle pilasters and decorative columns stay in place, and the speaker positions are worked around the existing architecture rather than replacing it.
Two Centre Speakers for Aesthetic Balance
One specific detail from this installation: two centre-channel speakers are specified rather than one. This is explicitly not for acoustic performance reasons — a single centre speaker is acoustically correct. The two-centre configuration was chosen because it balanced the visual symmetry of the mantle architecture. The pair of centres, positioned symmetrically, maintains the existing rhythm of the mantle design.
This is a legitimate design trade-off in a room where the cinema must live within an existing aesthetic. The acoustic redundancy of the second centre speaker is acceptable when the visual result is a room that reads as a lounge rather than a cinema.
Equipment Location and Thermal Management
The rack equipment lives in drawers built into the furniture below the fireplace — a compact, concealed equipment location that keeps the cinema room completely clear of visible AV equipment.
The thermal challenge: this room runs warm because of the fireplace and normal domestic heat loading, and projectors generate additional heat at the ceiling. Boxing in the projector entirely would risk overheating. The current plan — confirmed after temperature measurements — is to leave the projector space open above the shelf until data confirms whether additional ventilation is needed.
Key Takeaways
- ▪A projector located in an adjacent room, firing through a wall, keeps fan noise and equipment heat out of the cinema room and provides access for maintenance without entering the space
- ▪A motorised picture covering the projector aperture creates a true on-demand cinema hidden within a living room — no visible AV equipment when the system is off
- ▪M&K in-wall speakers in a plasterboard or plaster mantle require a separate ply frame mounted to structure, not to the flexible finish surface
- ▪Two centre-channel speakers for visual symmetry is a legitimate aesthetic trade-off in a heritage room — the acoustic redundancy is acceptable when the visual requirement is paramount
- ▪Thermal management in enclosed equipment spaces requires measurement before final decisions — projectors generate significant heat that can shorten component life if inadequately ventilated
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a projector be located in a different room from the screen?
Yes — an installation projector (designed for commercial and high-end residential use) can be mounted in an adjacent room and fired through an aperture in the shared wall. The aperture needs to be sized correctly for the beam width at that distance, the projector mount must be precisely positioned and levelled, and the aperture needs to be sealed acoustically to prevent sound transmission between rooms. This approach is common in luxury cinema installations where keeping the projector out of the cinema room is a priority.
What is a motorised picture covering system?
A motorised picture covering system uses horizontal or vertical tracks to move an artwork or decorative panel across an aperture on command from an automation system. In the cinema context, the artwork conceals the projector aperture in the wall when the system is inactive. When cinema mode activates, the automation controller commands the picture to retract, exposing the aperture. It's a more elegant solution than a fixed aperture or decorative cover that requires manual removal.
Why should speaker mounting frames be made from plywood rather than plasterboard?
Plasterboard has a relatively low modulus of rigidity — it flexes under the load of a mounted speaker and vibrates in response to the speaker's output. This vibration adds a resonant character to the sound that isn't in the source signal. Plywood (typically 12–18mm for speaker applications) is significantly stiffer and heavier, providing a non-resonant mounting platform that doesn't flex under speaker load. The ply frame can be fixed directly to structural elements (studs or masonry) while remaining physically separate from the surrounding finish surface.
How do you manage projector heat in a concealed installation?
Projectors require adequate airflow around the intake and exhaust vents — typically a minimum 150–200mm of clearance. In a concealed installation, this means either leaving the space open (no boxing-in) or providing controlled ventilation with a thermostatically controlled extract fan. Enclosed spaces that get hot enough to trigger a projector's internal thermal protection will cause the projector to shut down mid-film — a clear indication that ventilation is inadequate. Temperature measurement with a data logger over several operating cycles is the correct way to confirm whether additional ventilation is required.
What is the M&K Sound IW85 speaker?
The M&K Sound IW85 is an in-wall loudspeaker from M&K's custom installation range. Like all M&K in-wall products, it's designed for professional-quality mounting within wall cavities, with a sealed back can that prevents the wall cavity from acting as an uncontrolled acoustic enclosure. The IW85 combines a mid-bass driver with a tweeter in a compact format suitable for LCR applications in rooms where a larger in-wall speaker would be inappropriate for aesthetic or space reasons.
