Reviewed: Pounds & The London Home Cinema Company

Pounds, and its custom install division The London Home Cinema Company, have been involved in the UK home cinema industry since the earliest days of Pro-Logic and laser disc. Pounds itself is actually a third generation family business formed back in 1947, supplying electrical goods, domestic appliances and select furniture. The business moved into installations in 1994, and then in 2008 opened The London Home Cinema Company, with showrooms in Winchmore Hill, London.

Inside CI paid the team a visit, as a guest of specialist projection, lighting and control distributor Marata Vision, accompanied by Paul Bayliss, Area Sales Manager for the South. Onsite we met with Managing Director, Martin Redwood, who showed us around the company's expansive showroom and two demo facilities. The first demo room featured a high-end Sony VPL-VW500ES 4K UHD projector (pictured top) with a drop down 2:35 projection screen, which released down in front of a curved LG OLED TV. The room was laid out to show just how elegantly a discrete install can be fitted into a lounge environment.

I loved the choice of a 2:35 'Scope screen; the Sony has a cool trick at remembering the lens shift position so that you can easily change from 16:9 to 2:35. It's difficult not to fall in love with Sony's latest 4k projectors, and I was not disappointed by the amazing image thrown onto the screen.

The London Home Cinema Company has introduced some quality touches into its showroom - the walls have acoustic panels fitted with a velour look which makes fro stunning aesthetics as well as improving the acoustics. Redwood explains: "A dedicated home cinema space can benefit from acoustic treatment to enhance the sound experience. We work alongside a specialist acoustic company and can improve a room's acoustic performance together with helping to control the effect of reflected light from projectors".

The second demo room, located to the right of the main lounge, is a full blown cinema room with Miller &  Kreisel loudspeaker setup. The space isn't massive but the sound the guys have achieved is truly large. It quickly demonstrates how good a home cinema can sound; you're just drawn into the sonic action.

Martin Redwood has no doubts about what he is looking forward to most over the next six months: "Dolby Atmos for the home and faster HDMI switching," he reveals. "Dolby Atmos will truly change the world of home cinema as 3D sound is starting to make a big splash..."

When we visited, Martin and his team of installers were busy putting the finishing touches to a nice basement cinema install just along the road from the shop, and we were invited for a quick look of the project. The cinema has a tiered floor construction with bespoke seats and with a Sony projector firing onto a 2:35 screen. One advantage of building the cinema in the basement, is that there's no light penetration; the room guarrantees really good, high contrast images.

The property itself is a German made new-build full of cutting edge tech; the bulk of the house came on the back of a lorry and was constructed in days on site. The building had lighting control throughout; the kitchens featured top German engineering with every gadget you require. Even with all this technology, the client's favourite room was by far the Cinema. He told us it was a great place to chill out and that Martin's team had created a beautifully sounding room - and we can only agree. Here we see yet another top installation company working their magic in the Custom Install market.

For more on Marata Vision's products and services, visit our partner page here.

For more information, vsit Pounds online here andThe London Home Cinema Company here