EI Live! will be the launch pad for a completely new offering from Pulse Cinemas: the distribution company will introduce four home cinemas packages which look to combine high-performance, but at a very competitive price point.

“The idea came from us looking at our product portfolio and realising that we can put together some amazing cinema packages for even the smallest budgets,” explains Charlie McClarron, sales manager at the company.

“I don’t want to give away too much about this package deal yet, but I think the dealers are going to be very surprised with how much it costs! We are also very confident that our competitors won’t be able to put a package like this together with the comprehensive nature and quality of product we are offering, at the price we are going to do it at.”

The company has promised that the pricing does not mean that the dealer misses out on profit. “We want to provide new opportunities to our supportive dealers,” explains company MD Mike Beatty. “We are still giving 40% margin across the whole cinema system (the same they would earn if this was full price) to show everyone that Pulse can help with any cinema at any budget.

“The market is seeing a lot of developer and MDU work at the moment, where budgets can be tight, so to help our dealers in this space we have come up with this package – which still gives the dealers a great chance to upgrade the system further, but still will amaze the client when they hear what they are getting for their money.”

Pulse argues that the time has never been better to attack the home cinema sector.

Charlie says: “The home cinema market is doing very well at the moment. I believe that end users are starting to see the value of adding a cinema to their homes. I saw a report a few weeks back showing that adding a cinema to the home increased the value more than adding features like gyms, and we would argue that the enjoyment factor for the whole family is way higher than other similar priced home enhancements.”

What’s In The Packages?

So what can dealers expect from Pulse Cinema’s new package deal? Projector-wise, the company has included the new BenQ W11000 4K projector, the most recent addition to the Pulse family.

Charlie explains: “We have been incredibly impressed with this projector; not many projectors offer a spec like this, for this sort of money. Especially as we are offering the dealers a 35% margin on it as well! Which is clean! Installer-only, so no online sales.”

Key features on the machine include a 2,200 lumens rating, 50,000:1 contrast ratio, 1.36-2.03 throw ratio, THX certification, ISF certification, Rec 709 and obviously it is 4K capable. For cinemas and clients requiring an Anamorphic lens, this will be provided by specialist brand Prismasonic.

Charlie adds: “For the package we could have offered a basic prismatic option, but instead we increased the spec to the cylindrical option. The guys at Prismasonic offer some of the best lenses for the money; the quality of glass they use is second to none. We have seen so many projects recently where dealers have just ‘zoomed’ the picture to give their customer a 2.35:1 image. Although it does the job, you still are not solving the problem of black bars!

“Let’s not forget, the black bars equate to around 30% of the overall image, so that takes up 30% of your light output! If you aren’t using a high light output projector, this can cause big problems. This is why we would always suggest using an anamorphic lens as we are getting rid of the black bars, giving the DMD panel the full image and letting the anamorphic lens stretch the image accordingly.”

So what about the rest of the product line up? Well for that, Pulse is being a little more coy.

“As for the AVR and speakers, we want everyone to come and hear what this system can do first, so we will announce this at the show,” says Kapes Patel, technical director at Pulse. “All the dealers need to know that the ‘bang for buck’ is seriously high!”

So there you have it, you need to be at the show not only to find out which brands and products feature, but just how good the package can sound. That is not where the tale ends however: acoustic treatment is also included.

Charlie says: “Acoustic treatment needed to grow in popularity; there were too many projects that we saw that didn’t include any acoustic treatments, that really needed them! With the addition of Vicoustic to our brand portfolio, we want to show everyone that acoustics don’t have to cost a fortune. We have bundles that include 64 panels which cost the dealer just over £300.

“Vicoustic also offers us products like the VicWallpaper, for when clients don’t want to see any treatments, or the budget isn’t in place for stretch fabric,” he furthers. “We want to give the dealers as many chances to improve the way the room sounds as possible. Vicoustic also gives us products to help build the room, helping the dealer stop sound travelling to other rooms within the house. No other company in the industry was offering this before; our dealers were having to buy products online, or from building and construction companies at standard RRP pricing. We now can offer all these at trade prices for our dealers, to help them achieve the margin they need.”

So with this competitive price (to be revealed at the show), will Pulse still offer the same level of support?

“Of course, we will be offering design help to the dealers, speaker placements etc.,” Mike confirms. “Like always, we want to make sure that every cinema sounds as good as possible.”

Check it all out in Sound Booth Three at EI Live! May 10-11, Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey.