01
Acoustics
The room itself: modes, decay time, reflections. Fixed with treatment, not electronics.
Bass traps · diffusion · absorption
Specialist installation · Audio calibration
The sound your room was built to make.
Audio calibration done the way audio engineers do it. Measurement-led, room-corrected, calibrated to commercial cinema reference.
Speaker timing aligned to within milliseconds, SPL matched across every channel, bass evened across the seating area, the room measured and corrected against industry reference standards. Built into every cinema we deliver.
Audio calibration is three jobs in one.
Most installers run the receiver's auto-setup, listen to test tones for ten seconds, and call it done. That's a guess from a microphone designed to take guesses cheaply. Real calibration is three distinct disciplines, and any installer who treats them as one is doing one of them badly.
02
Integration
Placement, channel level matching, sub-millisecond timing alignment, multi-sub phasing. The work that makes the sound field coherent.
ITU-R BS.775 / BS.2051
03
Correction
Electronic room correction applied last, to refine what acoustics and integration left behind. Not a substitute for either.
Dirac · Lyngdorf · Trinnov
What the work actually looks like.
Two measurement plots from a recent reference cinema. The pale trace is what the room produced from auto-setup; the solid trace is what calibration delivered.
Frequency response (dB / Hz)
Room modes corrected
Swings of ±8 dB in the low end smoothed to ±2 dB. Modes corrected by EQ where treatment couldn't reach.
Bass response per seat (dB)
Every seat the same
Three subwoofers phase-aligned and placement-optimised. Bass response within ±1 dB across every seat.
Plots are illustrative. Actual measurements vary by room, and we deliver a full measurement report on handover.
Which rooms gain the most.
Room characteristics matter more than gear tier.
Multi-sub installations
Always
Two or more subwoofers cannot be set up by ear. Multi-sub phase alignment requires measurement: the whole point of a multi-sub system is uniform bass across seats.
Dolby Atmos with overhead channels
Always
Object-based audio depends on accurate timing and SPL match across 9 to 14 speakers. Auto-setup cannot align this many channels correctly.
Untreated or lively rooms
Usually
Hard floors, glazed walls, minimal soft furnishings. Room correction manages some of what's wrong, but treatment is usually needed alongside.
Soundbars and 2-channel living rooms
Rarely
Limited channel separation and bass authority. We'll dial in a sensible setup at install. Calibration isn't the upgrade that moves the needle here.
How we do it.
Calibration is the last stage of a process that starts at design. THX-trained calibrators run the handover session and document the room in a report you keep.
- 01
Design stage
Speaker layout to ITU-R standards. Sub locations chosen for measured bass response.
- 02
Install
Precision placement and decoupling. Acoustic treatment fitted where the room needs it.
- 03
Handover session
Two to four hours, measurement-led. Detailed below.
- 04
12-month re-check
Room behaviour shifts with furniture. Re-checks available to project clients any time.
Inside the handover session
Four stages, measurement-led.
- 01
Baseline and geometry
Current SPL, frequency response, decay time. Speaker distances and angles verified.
- 02
Channel calibration
SPL matched to Dolby's 75 dB reference. Channel timing aligned to within milliseconds.
- 03
Sub integration
Multi-sub phasing optimised across the seating area. Crossover continuity verified.
- 04
Room correction and sign-off
Dirac, Lyngdorf or Trinnov applied. Final measurement run. Calibration report delivered.
Three things calibration can't fix.
Calibration is correction within limits, not magic. Stated openly.
Bad speakers.
EQ smooths frequency response. It doesn't fix distortion, off-axis problems, or limited dynamic range.
Structural acoustic problems.
Severe room modes, slap-back, flutter echo. EQ can reduce the worst of the bass modes; it can't fix the geometry. Treatment is the answer.
Bad source material.
A compressed stream stays compressed. Calibration delivers what the source contains, which is sometimes less than the format promised.
FAQ.
- Which room correction systems do you work with?
- Dirac Live (including Bass Control where the processor supports it), Lyngdorf RoomPerfect, Audyssey MultEQ-X, and Trinnov Optimizer. None is universally superior. Dirac and Trinnov are our preference for reference rooms; Lyngdorf RoomPerfect is exceptional in lively spaces.
- Why calibrate to 75 dB and not 85 dB?
- Dolby's home reference is 75 dB pink noise at -20 dBFS, equivalent to 105 dB peak at the listening position. 85 dB is the commercial cinema standard and produces uncomfortable peaks in domestic rooms. The home target preserves dynamic range without exceeding what domestic systems deliver cleanly.
- Do you measure with a single mic or an array?
- Both, depending on the room. Single-point measurement works for stereo and small setups. A multi-microphone array or multi-position averaging is used for cinemas with multiple seats, and both Dirac and Trinnov support this.
- Do you offer audio calibration as a standalone service?
- No. Calibration is part of every cinema we build, not a separate service. We don't calibrate systems for projects we haven't designed, because calibration is the last stage of a process that started at design.
- Do you calibrate cinemas across Manchester and the wider UK?
- Yes. Every cinema we build is calibrated by our own team. We travel across the UK from our Middlesbrough HQ, and Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, London, the South-East and the Midlands are all regular project regions.
Picture is the other half of the handover. Read about video calibration →
Start with a conversation about the room.
If you're planning a home cinema, calibration is one of the reasons clients come back to us years later, and one of the reasons our rooms hit reference level without sounding harsh.