16 – The Studios 24 Communal Cinema

The Studios 24 in Wolverhampton have been designed for young, active professionals who demand a lifestyle that’s vibrant, accessible and integrated.

As part of the building’s ongoing evolution (on-site facilities including bars, cafes and gyms were already in place), The Big Picture were asked to complete a cinema room. The delivery would complete the early work of The Studios’ developer Barry Glantz.

As the space was a free perk for tenants, we were asked to work to a keen budget (circa £15k) without, of course, compromising on experience.

We created a three-row cinema with casual sofa and armchairs seating along the lines of Everyman Cinemas. We installed a high brightness, 4K dual format projector on a custom sized wide format screen.

This was acoustically transparent to hide speakers behind and four subwoofers too; discrete ATMOS height speakers in ceiling; and on-wall surround sound arrays. Hidden-in-wall acoustical treatments tempered the reverberation of the space for optimal sound and legibility. Completed with LED lighting.

We installed a solid, rolling AV rack for security of AV equipment. A Control4 system with wall keypad (highlighted) for basic audience operation plus additional total control by bar/cinema management only.

In terms of sound, we opted for a high-powered 210 watt, 13.2 channel IMAX-AURO-ATMOS-DTS:X Pro AVR for reference level sound. Finally, there was a 4K Apple TV and SkyQ installation along with wifi and network integration into Master network.