Following Together for Cinema becoming a funded enterprise last year, the organisation continued to look for new hospices that would benefit from having a home cinema room. In August 2021, Rainbows Children’s Hospital, based in Loughborough in the UK, got in touch with Together for Cinema to find out what could be done for them.

On a visit in September last year, Ian Morrish, founder of Together for Cinema, met with Kate Golding, the head of organisational giving at the hospice, and some of her care colleagues.

“Once I saw the room they had available, it was clear that we could deliver our standard Together for Cinema installation, but with extra lighting to help create a wonderful ambience and visual experience,” explains Morrish. “Thoughts of downlights, LED lights and a twinkly star effect ceiling from Starscape, all combined to a cinema room vision that just needed the expertise of a good installer to bring together.”

Although the room was relatively small, it was ideal for a cinema room to hold up to 10 people comfortably, allowing entire families to schedule movie time with their children. “With such intense care required at Rainbows, there is limited residency, so a facility accommodating 8-10 would be perfect,” Morrish adds.

With every Together for Cinema installation comes a team of people who help to bring it all together. As a charitable good cause enterprise, Together for Cinema relies on sponsorship from companies within the AV industry, as well as kit donations and volunteers to give their time to help build the cinemas.

This time, Decorum Technology stepped up to the challenge. Gary Mills, director of Decorum Technology, and his team are big supporters of Together for Cinema and had already managed and installed a Together for Cinema project at Acorns Children’s Hospice in Walsall in 2014.

With Decorum on board, Mills went to visit the hospice to ensure the plans were possible. “Having discussed with the Rainbows team what could be done, they were all happy to commit the room to a full cinema scape room as opposed to a multi-functional room doubling, or even trebling up as anything else,” says Morrish. “This made the whole project a little more exciting for us and enabled us to consider more immersive products to really add to the cinema experience.”

As it had been decided that the room would be a dedicated cinema, the kit list was ambitious to ensure they had the right equipment to give a real cinema experience for these children who would otherwise probably never attend a cinema.

“Requests for product were sent out and I’m delighted to say that some old favourites stepped up to help,” Morrish reveals. “With this in mind, thanks must go to Control4 (Snap One), Denon (Sound United), Epson, HDANYWHERE, KEF, Orluna, Penn Elcom, Projecta, QMotion, Sony and Starscape. All great brands with great products and a real desire to help progress our work.”

The install itself began on 4 April 2022 and was completed and signed off just one week later on 11 April.

The cinema room featured a 2.5m fixed frame, acoustically transparent screen from Projecta paired with a T205 5.2 speaker package from KEF and an AV receiver from Denon / Sound United. For content sources, a smart Blu-ray player was donated from Sony and a projector from Epson was installed.

“This made the whole project a little more exciting for us and enabled us to consider more immersive products to really add to the cinema experience.”

Creating ambience, lighting design was a big part of this project. With lights donated by Orluna and the integrator itself, the lighting was designed to create a high-end aesthetic that would complement an immersive and exciting visual experience. A very special touch was added thanks to Starscape donating an 8sqm Infinity Lighting star ceiling. QMotion automated blinds were also used to blackout any ambient light through the windows to add to the immersivity and experience of the room.

Using Control4, movie time is made as easy as possible for staff at Rainbows and as fun as can be for the children and their families. Staff can easily turn everything on at once using a Control4 remote, including the special lighting, AV equipment, motorised window blinds and the Infinity Lighting starry sky ceiling panels.

Mills comments: “Working at Rainbows Children’s Hospice was made all the more pleasurable by the hospitality of the Rainbows team who couldn’t do enough to help us and made sure had a cup of tea and a biscuit whenever required. Of course, the main focus was to create as good a cinema room space as we could with the wonderful equipment that has been sourced from our industry colleagues by Ian Morrish.

“The equipment that was donated was all high-quality and I believe we have been able to create a fabulous cinema room facility that will stand the test of time and be used and appreciated for many years to come.”

Anne-Marie Rosak, head of nursing and clinical operations at Rainbows Children’s Hospice says: “The new cinema room will provide the most incredible experience for our children, young people and their families at Rainbows. It really will be a fantastic addition to our wonderful facilities and we can’t thank Together for Cinema enough for making this happen.

“For many of those who stay at our hospice, going to a cinema might not be a physical option, or they simply may not feel comfortable making that trip. Their child may have medical or mobility needs which would make it very difficult or even impossible. This new facility means families will be able to use the room at any time during their stay at the hospice, while making the space fit their needs – whether that is fun and lively or tranquil and relaxed with the beautiful ceiling of twinkling lights.”

A lot of consideration takes place when building any cinema room, but for a facility such as a children’s hospice, a lot more must be thought about, as Rosak explains: “For the families who are staying at Rainbows, because their child is receiving end of life care, or palliative symptom control care, this cinema room will be a place where they can make special memories. It is suitable for beds and wheelchairs, and it will be a place to spend quality time as a family.

“For many of our young people at the hospice, it is about freedom, being independent and choosing whatever films they wish to watch,” Rosak continues. “Previously, we used our conference room as a cinema, but that never felt like a cinema experience. This is much more intimate, and we know it will create wonderful memories for hundreds of families.”

Had this been a normal paid for installation, the total cost including consultation, design, installation, products and any other associated costs would have been around £25,000. This was Together for Cinema’s 31st installation, bringing the total cost to over £700,000 across all 31 projects.

Denon / Sound United AVCX2700 AV Receiver

HDANYWHERE XTND4K40TPC Balun Set

KEF T205 5.1 Speaker Package: 2 x T301, 2 x T101, 1 x Centre & 1 x Subwoofer

Penn Elcom 20U Floor Rack with Shelves & Fan

Projecta / Legrand 2.5m Fixed Frame Acoustically Transparent Screen

Sony UBPX70 Smart Blu-ray Player

Starscape / Together For Cinema Infinity Lighting Ceiling Panels