The home cinema design podcast

Ben Goff - High standards and marginal gains

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 08:00:06 GMT

Elite cinema designer Ben Goff - entered the CEDIA awards twice and won four, CEDIA project judge, course author and instructor, key member of CEDIA standards, designer of bonkers private cinemas > £1m, and our pal / mentor / inspiration, talks about stuff.

You should listen.

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We need to talk about CEDIA

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 15:41:24 GMT

CEDIA. The industry association for smart home professionals.

Particularly, we're focusing on all the bits *we* really like - the education and training, CPD outreach, and the various industry standards and RPs.

Our friend Peter Aylett has been deeply involved with all of it - he was chair of RP22, served five years as Standards chair, CEDIA fellow, board member, the CPD trainer for EMEA over many years, and loads more besides. So he came on to talk to us about it all, plus some teasers about all the amazing education happening at ISE this year, including a one-day RP32 audio measurement workshop on Monday 2nd Feb.

We're doing all of it, what about you?

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Deeper, Lower, Smoother, Better

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 15:02:46 GMT

It's been a while since we talked about bass, and in the meantime we've learned some things.

Particularly...

How to place your subs for best results

Active Acoustics (Trinnov Waveforming and DIRAC ART)

Using digital EQ and limiters to achieve better bass extension

Infra-bass - how it's done and what it does

Updates on our Level 2 training course

Plus the usual swearing and nonsense.

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Live from Delli Towers

Fri, 02 May 2025 20:02:34 GMT

Tom's now on the 3rd iteration of his cinema demo room, at his facility near Stafford..

This one is pretty special, so this episode Owen interviewed Tom to tell us what he's done.

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Tom and Owen go to Spain

Sun, 30 Mar 2025 16:53:42 GMT

We went all the way to Barçelona, just to build a million pound cinema (OK, we helped a bit), with Trinnov, Officina Acustica, Perlisten and others, and we had a blast.

We also took some training and went round the show.

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Calibration - the Magic Wand

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 08:55:27 GMT

Although we're a podcast we also run an introductory calibration course for our industry friends using RoomEQ Wizard software.

This time we're joined by Tom Lanham (Lano), lead engineer at Wall of Sound, who was one of our first course attendees and a bit of a star pupil.

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2025 catch up

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 09:31:07 GMT

No particular theme for this episode - we accidentally took a few weeks off with our day jobs so we thought we'd ramble a bit and get caught up!

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Tom and Owen go to space

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 11:59:52 GMT

The RP22 performance targets cover timbre (timber if you're Northern), dynamics and spatial resolution. Spatial resolution has the longest set of metrics - there's 11 of them. This time out we go though and explain the spatial metrics in a bit more detail, what they're for and how they make your cinema better. Less sweary than some episodes - we're trying to behave properly. Ish.

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All the feels

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 21:46:03 GMT

This time, emotional hot-head Owen and calm, relaxed Tom discuss the emotional impact of a cinema system. We know that a better engineered system creates a deeper emotional connection with the audience, but why is that? Come with us on the hero's journey and find out.

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Deeper into RP22 - Timber!

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 08:28:15 GMT

This time out we look at the second group of RP22 metrics - timbre. The dictionary defines timbre as 'the characteristic quality of a sound, independent of pitch and loudness, from which its source or manner of production can be inferred.'

Making sure the sound from every speaker is consistent, that every speaker tracks the target curve faithfully, and that the whole system has deep enough bass extension, is a tough engineering challenge. As Tom says, you won't hit these numbers by accident.

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Deeper into RP22 - Dynamics

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 22:00:22 GMT

This time around we go deeper into the RP22 metrics, which divide into Dynamics, Spatial and Timbre (or Timber, if you're from Stoke).

We start off with dynamics - Sound Pressure Level, Low Frequency Effect, and particularly, Noise Floor.

And Tom throws a bit of a tizzy. Awww.

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Business at the front, party in the back

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 19:25:35 GMT

When it comes to styling, you can have whatever you want - up until the point it starts to affect the performance, and then we have to talk about it.

This week Tom and Owen go through some popular room styles, ideas about the process, and CPD training for our architect and interior design friends.

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Rendered to perfection

Fri, 31 May 2024 11:44:43 GMT

Tom and Owen both design in 3D, but very differently - Tom's Team Solidworks and Owen is Team SketchUp.

Let's have a fight!

No, not really. We talk about our processes and workflow with 3D modelling and how they help us create engineered cinema rooms.

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The Infinite Bullshit Generator

Fri, 17 May 2024 20:29:16 GMT

This week Owen and Tom are back on our bullshit - there's a lot of it about and thanks to AI it's increasing to near-infinite levels. We examine some of the most egregious examples in the home cinema industry, and wonder whether we can drag our industry from being bullshitters to professionals.

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Tom's Takeover

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 11:19:46 GMT

This time out Owen's the host and Tom is the special guest, to tell us all about a takeover project where having first got things working, he then made them work really well.

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Do better and bring money

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 21:31:55 GMT

Back after a short break looking after the customers :) this time out Tom and Owen are joined by Louise Tarling of Louise Tarling Limited and Benjamin Pratt from B-Electrical and White Onyx Automation, talking about the recent two-day RP22 training course and setting the world of home cinema to rights

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Video calibration with Dr Julian Scott

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 21:24:22 GMT

This week Tom and Owen are joined by Dr Julian Scott from https://displaycalibration.co.uk/ to talk about video calibration, the Professional Video Alliance (PVA) and why white-walled projection rooms are (still) a really, really silly idea.

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Myths, misconceptions and excuses

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 07:55:25 GMT

'Everyone knows that...' but is it true?

Tom and Owen go over some of our least favourite home cinema myths, misconceptions, and bad excuses. Big thanks to Ben Pratt for the idea and to Peter Aylett for the longest list of suggestions! Bit sweary.

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Waveforming with David Meyerowitz of Trinnov Audio

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 13:52:08 GMT

This week we're joined by David Meyerowitz of Trinnov Audio to explain their new Waveforming system. This technology really does seem to solve the long-standing problem of achieving great bass, for more listeners, in a small room. This could genuinely change the game. PS no Tom this week as he wasn't very well.

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Calibration

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:49:24 GMT

Once you've designed and installed the cinema to the best of your ability, you'll need to calibrate the system. There's a lot of difference between 'manufacturer auto-calibration' and what a trained, experienced pro can do with a bit of knowledge and the right equipment. Hosts Tom and Owen (mostly Tom this week) give you a 28-minute overview and talk about our (matching) calibration setups.

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Bass - foundations

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 17:46:58 GMT

Get the bass right and everything else flows beautifully - but in domestic sized rooms it's a hard engineering challenge, possibly the hardest job a home cinema designer has. This week Tom and Owen set out the problem and some of the remedies, preparing the ground for further episodes on the subject.

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Are you compromised?

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 13:37:12 GMT

All projects are compromised - some good, some bad, and many are accidental. Home cinema designers Tom and Owen give examples of all three and what to do about them. Find out more at https://homecinemadesign.co.uk

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RP22 - So what's in it for me?

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 07:09:05 GMT

Tom and Owen discuss the new CEDIA recommended practice for immersive audio which we've been working with for a while! Find out more at https://homecinemadesign.co.uk

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