CEDIA-Award-Winning APEX Cinema is Blackroom’s Finest

CRMS pro-ribbon technology forms the sonic heart of APEX Cinema, a private theatre created by premium cinema specialist Blackroom. Combining commercial-grade DCI/DCP playback, streaming, gaming and professional karaoke, the project demonstrates how reference performance and concealed technology can be united within an elegant “quiet luxury” interior.

Built beneath the entrance of a luxury residence, the cinema presented a complex shell. Rounded staircases in the home’s central atrium dictated an irregular, mushroom-like shape with a curved rear wall. The concrete room measured 78 m², reducing to 65 m² after sound isolation, acoustic treatment and finishing. All loudspeakers and subwoofers had to disappear behind acoustically transparent fabric, while the interior designer prohibited a conventional ceiling-mounted projector enclosure.

The client wanted an entertainment hub for the family, capable of hosting film premieres alongside television viewing, PlayStation 5 gaming and zero-latency karaoke. Blackroom’s demonstration cinema confirmed the audio choice. “He was immediately convinced by the lifelike reproduction of the Alcons CRMS system,” says Anton Zadnepryannyy, founder of Blackroom. “His trust gave us the freedom to engineer every aspect as one complete experience.”

“No other loudspeaker solution we have worked with provides this degree of controlled, constant directivity together with such coherent imaging. The result is a seamless soundfield, with stable localisation and stereo imaging throughout the room.”, Anton Zadnepryannyy, founder of Blackroom

Blackroom specified an 11.1.6 Dolby Atmos system based on Alcons’ Cinema Reference Monitor System. Three CRMS mkII screen systems provide the LCR channels behind the 180-inch acoustically transparent screen. Six CRMS-SR systems serve the surround layer, six CRMS-SRHV/9090 systems reproduce the wide and top front/rear channels, and two in-wall CRMS-SRIW/9090 systems provide the top-middle channels. Five Sentinel3 amplified loudspeaker controllers power and control the Alcons system.

All screen, surround and height systems feature RBN401 pro-ribbon technology, creating consistent tonal balance throughout the room. Its compressionless principle delivers 1:1 non-compressed reproduction with up to 90% less distortion than conventional mid/high transducers, preserving clarity and dynamics from the quietest details to reference levels.

A Trinnov Altitude32 processor feeds the system, while eight Blackroom Audio DSBR15 subwoofers form an active Trinnov WaveForming array. Four are integrated into the front baffle wall and four around the curved rear wall, controlling room modes across both seating rows.

Left untreated, the radius rear wall acted as an acoustic mirror, focusing reflections into the audience area. Blackroom covered around 80% of it with dense absorptive treatment. The Alcons systems’ predictable dispersion, low distortion and linear dynamics precisely addressed the seating while limiting interaction with the architecture.

“No other loudspeaker solution we have worked with provides this degree of controlled, constant directivity together with such coherent imaging,” says Anton. “The result is a seamless soundfield, with stable localisation and stereo imaging throughout the room.”

For projection, an 80–90 kg Barco Freya was mounted vertically inside a sound-isolated hush box within the rear wall. A specialist mirror redirects its image through 90 degrees onto the screen. When deep bass initially caused visible image vibration, Blackroom reinforced and rigidly anchored the hush-box structure, eliminating the resonance.

APEX took 17 months to complete. Its design was recorded in a 144-page Autodesk Revit BIM package encompassing acoustic modelling, coverage maps, room-mode analysis, lighting, cabling and HVAC. The documentation earned Blackroom the 2025 CEDIA Smart Home Award EMEA for Excellence in Documentation.

“At the first activation, the engineering team was stunned,” Anton recalls. “If it sounded this spectacular raw and untuned, what would it be like after professional calibration?”

Blackroom now regards APEX as its finest cinema to date. The delighted client regularly presents it to guests as a benchmark for integrated design and engineering, with its phenomenal soundstage and picture delivering complete immersion from the opening seconds.

For more information, visit Blackroom Theaters(opens in new tab)

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