Infrastructure, network & energy

Multiroom & home cinema — sound you cannot see.

Music throughout the house, cinema in a room of its own – invisibly integrated and prepared at shell stage. Planned by people who build bespoke audio solutions for villas — not off the shelf.

Invisibleinvisible speakers possible
450 m²penthouse cinema, Düsseldorf
Bespoke solutionsMade to measure, not catalogue
KNX-integratedone world of controls
Our approach

One house, one sound.

Music where you live

Kitchen, bathroom, terrace, dressing room: multiroom brings music into every room — centrally managed, individually adjustable, as one system instead of many isolated solutions.

Technology that disappears

Recessed loudspeakers flush in ceilings and furniture, invisible loudspeakers entirely hidden behind plaster — you hear our work, you do not see it.

Cinema is room planning

Seating distance, screen size, speaker positions, acoustics, blackout, ventilation — only once the room is right do we talk about equipment.

Two disciplines

Multiroom for everyday life, cinema for the occasion.

Multiroom audio

The soundtrack of everyday life.

From the radio in the kitchen to the playlist on the terrace — available everywhere, integrated into KNX and the visualisation.

  • Zones & sources properly planned
  • Control by switch, panel or app
  • Scenes: music follows you through the house
  • Bespoke audio solutions possible
Home cinema

The best auditorium in town — in your own home.

Picture and sound at reference level, planned from the room outwards: acoustics, sightlines, climate and light as one system.

  • Screen & projector control
  • "Cinema visit" lighting scene at the press of a button
  • Reference: 450 m² penthouse, Düsseldorf
  • Acoustics & blackout designed in
The full depth

Good sound is made at shell stage, not in the hi-fi shop.

Two ceiling loudspeakers per room, bought off the data sheet, fitted for symmetry — and then the living room echoes, the bass sits in the wrong corner and film night starts with four remote controls. Sound is room planning: positions, cabling, acoustics and operation are decided while the walls are still open.

01

Zones, sources, groups

We settle which rooms sound on their own and which play together: kitchen and dining area as a group, bathroom and dressing room separately, terrace as its own zone. Plus sources, priority rules and what happens when two people want to hear different things at once.

02

Loudspeakers chosen for the room, not from a catalogue

Recessed loudspeakers in the ceiling or wall, free-standing systems in the living room, damp-rated versions in the bathroom and outdoors. Cone area, dispersion angle and number follow room size, ceiling height and seating positions — not the number of rooms.

03

Invisible speakers behind plaster

Where nothing at all may be visible, loudspeakers disappear entirely behind plaster or filler. That calls for early coordination with the drylining and painting trades: installation depth, cut-out, decoupling and drying times belong in the construction programme, not in the final fit-out.

04

Taking room acoustics seriously

Large areas of glass, exposed concrete and natural stone look superb and sound hard. We assess reverberation and reflective surfaces early, agree carpet, curtains, acoustic plaster or ceiling rafts with the interior designer and position speakers so that the room plays along instead of pushing back.

05

Cinema is geometry

Seating distance, screen width, viewing angle and eye height give you the room first and the equipment second. We check sightlines, rows of seating, risers and ceiling height — in the 450 m² penthouse in Düsseldorf that produced a cinema evening in the living room rather than a projector above the sofa.

06

Projector, screen, blackout

Projection type, screen type and gain are matched to the residual light in the room. We design the motorised screen, ceiling recess, projector lift and cabling together with the drylining and the shading — blackout, screen and lighting scene later run at the press of one button.

07

Bass that does not boom

Subwoofer position decides room modes: we plan locations, supply cables and, where needed, several smaller bass units instead of one large one in the corner. Structure-borne sound into adjoining rooms and bedrooms is considered too, so that film night does not shake the children's room awake.

08

Equipment into the technical room

Amplifiers, streamers, matrix and receivers belong centrally in the equipment cabinet — with ventilation, network, remote access and clean labelling. In the living room, loudspeakers and controls remain; devices, cable tangle and fan noise stay out.

09

Cabling while the shell is open

Loudspeaker and subwoofer cables, HDMI and Cat routes to projector and display, conduits with draw wire for later standards. In the open shell, cable and conduit are quickly laid — which is why audio design sits alongside electrical design, not after it.

10

Measurement and calibration

At the end it is measured rather than estimated: levels, delays, crossover frequencies and room correction per zone, and in the cinema channel alignment and picture calibration as well. Only then do we hand over — sound that has been set up is better than sound that is hoped for.

11

Control without remote controls

Music starts at the switch, at the panel or through a scene: "Good morning" plays quietly in the kitchen, "Cinema" moves the blinds, the lighting and the screen. The controls sit in the same interface as lighting and climate — streaming apps remain suppliers, not the remote control of the house.

12

Outside, pool and bespoke solutions

Terrace, pool and garden get weatherproof systems with their own zone and a night setback. And where standard solutions are not enough, we build to measure — in a villa in the south of Cologne this produced bespoke audio solutions that fit entirely into the interior.

Multiroom and home cinema at this level are not a product purchase but a planning task — and as little of it as possible ends up visible.

How we work

Four steps to perfect sound.

1

Concept & zones

Which rooms should sound, and where does it all come together? We plan audio zones, sources and controls — matched to your daily life, not to brochures.

2

Preparation at shell stage

Speaker and subwoofer cables, conduits to the projector and the screen, Cat cabling for AV equipment — in the open shell that is a few metres of cable — and afterwards every option you may later want stays open.

3

Product selection & system choice

You listen before you buy: in-wall loudspeakers, invisible speakers, cinema set-ups — selected manufacturer-independently for the room and the standard.

4

Calibration & handover

Calibration to the room, integration into KNX and the visualisation, instruction — until sound and picture sit right.

Proven

Bespoke solutions from over 100 projects.

01

Villa in Cologne: audio made to measure

Multiroom with bespoke solutions made to measure — designed with Studio ASH, integrated into the Basalte ecosystem.

02

Düsseldorf penthouse, 450 m²

Projector and screen control in the wine-warehouse loft: a night at the cinema in the living room, by scene or by voice.

03

Riyadh: media systems interlocked

800 DALI luminaires interlocked with the media technology — light, sound and climate as one experience.

View all projects
Where we work

Multiroom & home cinema in Cologne, Düsseldorf & NRW.

smartfabrik is a smart home planning practice based in Düsseldorf (Reisholzer Werftstr. 31A). We plan for private clients and companies in Cologne, Düsseldorf and across North Rhine-Westphalia — and, where wanted, nationwide and internationally. A selection of the places we have already planned and delivered in:

FAQ

Frequent questions about multiroom & home cinema.

What exactly is multiroom audio?

A central audio system that supplies several rooms – zones – with music independently of one another. Each zone has its own volume and its own choice of source, controlled by app, push-button sensor or scene. Unlike individual streaming loudspeakers, multiroom is permanently installed, tuned to the room and disappears into the fabric – not a zoo of devices but building services.

Can loudspeakers really be installed invisibly?

Yes. Invisible speakers are set into the wall, filled and painted over – the wall itself becomes the sound source. Alongside them there are flush built-in speakers with a minimal visible edge in the ceiling or in furniture. Both need planning at shell stage: position, installation depth and cable run must be fixed before drylining and plaster. After that, nothing of the system remains visible.

What cabling do multiroom and home cinema need?

Loudspeaker cables to every zone, Cat cabling for streaming amplifiers and AV equipment, conduits for projector and screen, plus power in the right places. Streaming loudspeakers can close individual gaps, but they do not replace fixed cabling – least of all in the cinema. We design the complete infrastructure as part of the electrical design, so that every option stays open later.

Does multiroom work together with KNX?

Yes, and that is exactly where it becomes strong: the switch on the wall starts the kitchen playlist, the goodnight scene switches music, lighting and shading together, the door chime pauses playback. As KNX planners and KNX trainers we integrate audio not as an island but as part of the building logic – manufacturer-independent, with one philosophy of operation throughout the house.

Can multiroom be retrofitted?

In principle yes – the question is the effort. Existing conduits, suspended ceilings and stud walls make a great deal possible; where cable routes are missing, we combine wired zones with high-quality streaming components. In a refurbishment we survey what is there first. In a new build the rule is: lay the cables now, even if the loudspeakers come later – that is the cheapest route to good sound.

Part of the living themeComfort & luxury
The first step

Let us listen to your project.

New build or retrofit — in a first conversation we work out what your rooms have in them.

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