Road trip: Inside The Majik House demo suite

The Inside CI road trips have become a popular feature of the magazine, so it was time to set out again, this time taking a train to Lancaster for a visit to The Majik House demo suites. The Majik House was set up back in 1998 by Tim and Carol Burrow and has been turning out outstanding work ever since. It's located in the Kirby Lonsdale Business Park, and after scouring the other businesses in the area you can tell it's not going to be your average demo room experience. As you walk into the main reception you are instantly made welcome, a fresh cup of coffee thrust in your hands before you can blink. I do think service is everything in the CI industry, clients need wooing and first impressions always last.

The open plan feel of the facility is great, with demonstrations of screens, fires and audio kit on show. Lighting and lighting design with control is also a big part of Tim and Carol's business; the company is Lutron Homeworks trained and has embraced some of the finest lighting technologies available, including Deltalight with colour change for LED being provided by amBX.  After quizzing Tim on amBX he told me: "I view this as significant in the domestic market going forwards; amBX will soon have a software version of the colour control available, I believe we are not far from being able to apply RGBW coloured fittings throughout the home and to control the exact colour requirements for each living space." Watch this space for further developments.

All bases covered
The Majik House's main type of work is home cinema and full house control, but it also caters for everything from TV distribution to multi-room audio. One interesting fact about the demo rooms is that you can hire the whole setup for parties, what a great idea!  As this place has a kitchen, dining room and cinema why wouldn't you want to hire it? Another major plus point to hiring the room is it gets people talking about the tech, always a great way to promote your business. Moving on up, the first floor is where I really wanted to be, the cinema room! As you probably know I just love well put together theatre installs and this one is awesome! The bass hits you in all the right places and with motion sensing software and seats, you can get into the action within minutes. The whole cinema is run via a Control4 SR 250 and iPad app - it makes for a wonderful experience. Moving on to yet another couple of rooms, I find a full blown sauna and TV room with moving picture panels hiding screens and even a James Bond-style automatic sliding glass door.

So how has The Majik House found business in these tough times? "We offer a full turnkey operation," explains Tim. "We recently we completed a cinema where we carried out the plumbing, heating, ventilation and acoustic treatments as well as fitting all the technology. By doing this we ensure that all work is beautifully crafted to optimise the experience for the client". I was also interested to hear what Tim thought of the next generation of kit coming through.  "4K and 8K will be in place commercially for us this year, as any improvements always offer up USPs," he said. "All we need now is for the content to catch up with the technology and hardware..."

Demo suite verdict
Rounding up on my visit out to Kirby Lonsdale. I have to give massive praise to The Majik House setup, the attention to detail on display and its understanding of the CI market is amazing - it's one of the best demo rooms I've seen to date. I also love the idea of hiring out the rooms. The only downside I see to this is getting rid of the punter at the end of the day. It might be best to check out those squatting rights...

For more, visit The Majik House web site.
Contact Tim and the team: Tel: 015242 73578 email: info@majikhouse.com