A period country house in the Cotswolds: bow-projection windows, formal parterre gardens, cornicing left undisturbed. Inside, nothing about the home technology is visible — except in one room.
A period house brief: technology out of sight
The owner directed the finishes throughout the house and kept the technology brief clear: nothing visible, anywhere, except in the media room. Working alongside main contractor Bailey and Jones, Hidden Home Technology planned the installation around that principle, room by room — plaster-in speakers across the reception rooms, kitchen and spa; on-wall cinema loudspeakers presented across the front bookcase and rear feature wall of the media room; garden audio concealed among the planting.
Restraint, in other words, was the architectural choice. The task was to make the audio disappear into a period interior — and then create one room where the technology could be visible, deliberate and resolved.
The Cotswolds home cinema — one visible exception
The media room is a single space dressed as a cinema, with two design surfaces facing each other. At the front, a dark-stained bookcase carries the screen at its centre and three of the five Wisdom Audio P2m loudspeakers along its joinery shelves — front stage integrated into the bookcase as part of the same composition. Behind the seats, the rear wall is owner-curated as a framed gallery: Timorous Beasties Pinyin Tree cherry-blossom velvet framed within wood panelling, darker Camira fabric on the flanking acoustic panels, and the two rear surround loudspeakers mounted on those Camira panels — visible by design, presented as part of the framed composition rather than concealed. Only the acoustic treatment behind the fabric stays out of sight.
Project notes
| Role | Detail |
|---|---|
| Cinema processing and amplification | Anthem MRX 540 |
| Front loudspeakers (L/C/R) | 3 × Wisdom Audio P2m planar magnetic, on the bookcase joinery shelves |
| Rear surrounds | 2 × Wisdom Audio P2m planar magnetic, on the Camira fabric panels |
| Low-frequency support | Perlisten R12s sealed subwoofer |
| Sources | Apple TV 4K, Sky Stream, Panasonic Blu-ray |
| Control | URC MRX 12 with TRC-1480 handheld remote |
Perimeter cove lighting around the ceiling softens the room when the screen is off; with the cove dimmed and the panels lit, the cinema register takes over.
Invisible whole-house audio
Elsewhere in the house, the same idea is repeated at different scales:
- Drawing room — two pairs of Sonance IS10 invisible plaster-in speakers, driven by two Bluesound Powernodes
- Main kitchen — two pairs of Sonance IS10, two Bluesound Powernodes
- Master en-suite and dressing room — one pair of Sonance IS8 in each, on a Bluesound Powernode
- Spa — one pair of Sonance IS8, integrated within the joinery line without disturbing the antiqued mirror back wall
Audio built into period plaster and cornice work has to be considered early, before the walls, ceilings and joinery are closed up. That is why the coordination with Bailey and Jones began at first fix.
Garden audio in the parterre
The formal garden is treated as part of the listening environment: four Sonance Garden Series satellites concealed among the box hedging facing the house, two 12-inch subwoofers hidden within the planting, all running from a Bluesound Node streamer through a Sonance DSP amplifier. The fountain remains the visible centrepiece; the audio is only apparent when it is playing.
Technology planned around the building
Over two decades of period-property installations is what makes briefs like this possible — knowing where technology can be hidden, when decisions must be made early, and which details should remain untouched. It is a clear example of the Hidden Home Technology approach: let the rooms lead, and let the technology recede until it is needed.
