Hidden Home Technology Steinway Lyngdorf cinema renovation wins trade award

An underused home cinema near Bath already had a Steinway Lyngdorf system worth keeping. Hidden Home Technology transformed the room around it, combining acoustic construction, a larger screen, a richly detailed interior and URC control.

Hidden Home Technology has won Silver for Best International Installation at the 2026 URC Unsurpassed Awards for its renovation of a Steinway Lyngdorf cinema in Midford, near Bath. Entered as ‘The Weary Cinema Reborn’, the project demonstrates how much can change when an integrator concentrates on the room around an existing high-quality system.

The Bath-based business first visited the property to extend its high-speed network. During that visit, the team was shown a dated cinema in the basement of an outbuilding linked to the main house. The equipment was substantial, but a small screen, limited acoustic treatment and harsh lighting left the space feeling uninviting. It was not a room the family naturally gravitated towards.

The client is a television screenwriter, so the brief encompassed professional viewing and BAFTA screenings as well as family entertainment. Over approximately eight weeks, HHT rebuilt the interior while retaining the Steinway Lyngdorf audio system and the client’s furniture.

Rebuilding the room around the sound

The original screen was constrained by the front loudspeakers. HHT constructed a new timber-framed front wall to accommodate a larger acoustically transparent screen, with the Steinway Lyngdorf speakers repositioned behind it and raised towards the main listening height. The structure also created space for substantial acoustic treatment and bass absorption.

Additional framed wall areas provided further treatment depth. This was a construction-led approach: the room’s reflections and bass behaviour were addressed before electronic correction was applied. The modest reduction in internal space bought room for the treatment, screen and speakers to work together.

A cinema with a domestic character

The interior was designed around the retained seating, rather than treating it as an obstacle. Timorous Beasties moth-motif velvet panels combine decorative impact with absorption, complemented by Camira navy fabric, Farrow & Ball Hague Blue, and wood-slat detailing with copper accents.

Buster + Punch brass lighting picks out the textures, while a CNC-cut black Valchromat floor inlay and skirting frame the new wall construction. A herringbone carpet and refreshed rear joinery complete the room. The books, ornaments and familiar furniture give the finished cinema the character of a lived-in space, rather than a demonstration room.

Lighting and control for everyday viewing

Lighting was part of the redesign, not an afterthought. Collingwood 1901 dim-to-warm fittings, diffused lighting and glare-control details replaced the exposed-lighting feel of the original room. An expanded Rako system provides four programmed scenes: TV, box-set, movie and blackout.

URC Total Control brings the sources, projection and lighting into a common interface. The cinema is led by an iPad on a magnetic charging dock, giving the family access to source selection and lighting without a collection of separate controls. A JVC projector serves the larger screen.

The installation also extends into the main house. The cinema’s MRX-12 links to an MRX-4 IR controller there, where a TRC-1480 handheld operates the everyday AV system, including a Denon AVR, Sky Stream, Apple TV and television through Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series loudspeakers.

HHT calibrated the retained Steinway Lyngdorf system using RoomPerfect and its dedicated microphone. The diagonally opposed subwoofers were tuned, and REW measurements were used to examine the room and check the effect of correction. Acoustic construction and calibration therefore formed complementary parts of the work.

The most telling feedback concerns the room as a whole. In his published testimonial, the client, Ashley, described the result: ‘Dan and Jess have transformed our weary cinema room into a thing of beauty!’ He credited the team not only for sound and vision, but also for the decorating, electrics, décor and lighting. HHT reports that the once-underused room is now used daily for work and family viewing.

A fourth international URC award

The 2026 Silver follows HHT’s international Silver awards in 2021 and 2023 and Gold in 2025. For this project, the distinction is a renovation that brings control, acoustics and interior design together without making wholesale equipment replacement the starting point.

An eight-part build-film series documents the transformation, from the original room through construction to the finished cinema. The complete project story and films are available on Hidden Home Technology’s website.