We’ve been on a journey into advanced home cinema design, engineering and calibration.
Now we’d like to take you all with us.
Tom Dellicompagni and Owen Maddock, seasoned UK designers and installers, discuss their adventures in home cinema. Plus expert guests, when we can persuade them to join us.
Amongst other things, we’ll be talking about the new CEDIA / CTA immersive audio design guidelines (RP22) and how our work has been transformed by them.
Episode 23 – Ben Goff – High standards and marginal gains
Elite cinema designer Ben Goff – entered the CEDIA awards twice and won four, CEDIA project judge, course instructor, a key member of CEDIA standards, designer of bonkers private cinemas > £1m, and our pal / mentor / inspiration, talks about stuff. You should listen.
Episode 22 – We need to talk about CEDIA
Featuring special guest and all-round superstar Peter Aylett
Episode 21 – Deeper, Lower, Smoother, Better
Revisiting bass, and how we design for better bass in rooms – chief weapons being power, placement, displacement (that is, moving air) and choosing the right kit for the room we’re designing.
Episode 20 – Live from Delli Towers
Tom’s built v3.0 of his demo room – it’s a massive step up, so we talk about it.
Episode 19 – Tom and Owen go to Spain
(to help build a million pound cinema)
Tom and Owen were honoured to be asked to help build OA’s 2025 ISE demo room – a joint venture between Trinnov, Officina Acustica, and Perlisten.
Calibration – there’s a lot more to it than running the mic (supplied with the equipment) and running away. We even teach a course about it – our star pupil Tom Lanham (Lano) from Sonyx AV shares his learning journey with us.
This and that, bits and bobs – general catch up with industry news and things we know.
Episode 16 – Tom and Owen go to space (Deeper into RP22 part 3)
The third in a series about the ‘three pillars’ of cinema sound – spatial resolution, or, how to make sure sounds are coming from the right places, for everyone.
A home cinema is really an emotional amplifier for the content we’re watching – when it’s right, you’ll feel all the feels they wanted you to. Listen to Tom and Owen get all awkward discussing their feelings.
Episode 14 – Deeper into RP22 – Timber!
Or rather ‘timbre’ – that is, the tonal balance, or how does it sound – the second of the three pillars of RP22 design.
Episode 13 – Deeper into RP22 – Dynamics
Dynamics. Quiet bit, loud bit. Like a Pixies song.
Film soundtracks are significantly more dynamic than regular TV, and than most all music – full orchestra, but explosions go louder than that, and then whispers and breathing are much quieter.
Faithfully reproducing the dynamics – especially at the bass end – is a hard engineering problem, and it’s the first ‘pillar’ of cinema sound design in RP22.
Episode 12 – Business at the front, party in the back
I borrowed this phrase from Peter Aylett – basically, if you want ‘bling’ in your cinema, that’s cool; but not if it detracts from the experience, so let’s take it away from the field of view when we’re trying to watch something.
This episode, Tom and Owen talk about styling. For cinema rooms, anyway.
Episode 11 – Rendered to perfection?
Owen largely works in Sketchup, while Tom is 100% Team Solidworks, so this week we talk about 3D design in general, and bicker about which is best.
The front page was getting a bit long so we’ve put the first ten episodes on a new page.
Who the hell are we?
Tom Dellicompagni is the owner and founder of Dellicompagni – home cinema designer, builder and calibrator with in-house manufacturing.
Owen Maddock owns Cinemaworks in Bristol, a home cinema design and installation specialist.
If you have questions, ideas, or suggestions, please email podcast@homecinemadesign.co.uk