Inspired by Defender

The family knew what they wanted from their entertainment room: a space which could easily shift from playing ambient background music to the sounds of sports and movies. And they knew exactly which brand could deliver it.

Their Land Rover Defender's Meridian audio system had made a lasting impression. The clarity and performance, whether quietly cruising around town or motoring along the highway, these qualities were exactly what they envisioned for their home.

Overcoming Acoustic Challenges

The space presented significant acoustic challenges. Open at the back and sides with tile flooring throughout, the room reflected sound rather than absorbing it. Hard surfaces like these cause sound to bounce around the room, making it harder to keep the audio clear.

The family had specific expectations. The speakers needed to be discreet with grilles on or off, and couldn't take up valuable floor space. Importantly, the system had to perform in different settings - from quieter late-night viewing to room-filling sound when entertaining crowds.

Denizen faced constraints: limited rack space in the existing electronics system ruled out traditional amplification; subwoofers needed to deliver powerful bass from small wall cavities without overwhelming the room; and the system had to compensate for the lively acoustics while delivering balanced sound.

For Denizen, Meridian's unique approach offered solutions where conventional systems would require compromise.

Engineering the Soundstage

Denizen worked closely with the homeowners from the outset, taking detailed measurements and designing the complete speaker layout with framing requirements before construction began.

Three DSP520.2 speakers anchor the front soundstage - left, centre, and right. These compact speakers deliver impressive performance. Meridian's wide-dispersion drivers fill the room so every person in any seat gets the same experience.

The DSP520's capabilities solved one of the room's trickiest challenges. The centre speaker sits below the 85-inch Sony TV - typically this means dialogue sounds like it's coming from below the screen rather than from the actors' mouths. Meridian's Image Elevation technology digitally tilts the audio, so voices sound like they come directly from the screen.

Four DSP320.2 speakers handle the height and surround channels - two in-ceiling, two at ear level. The matching drivers across all speakers work together naturally, with audio moving fluidly around the room. The in-ceiling placement keeps things visually clean while delivering the spatial detail the system needed.

Two DSW600 subwoofers sit hidden behind fabric in the front wall. Despite their compact form, they fill the room with deep bass.

Meridian's active architecture solved the rack space challenge. Each speaker houses its own amplification and digital processing, requiring only network connectivity - so there’s no need for external amplifiers, excessive cables or equipment.

As Denizen’s Director of Sales Seth Lauritzen, said: "It’s an immersive bubble of sound versus random sounds coming from a disparate group of speakers - meaning every speaker works as part of a unified system.”

Discreet Design, Powerful Performance

"The speakers disappear and only fantastic sound remains," says Denizen's Seth Lauritzen. "It's magic when you look at a speaker directly but cannot tell where the sound is coming from."

Compared to the larger installations Denizen typically designs, this project reinforces something consistent about Meridian: "Great sound obtained easily in a compact package with minimal tweaking. Meridian always makes you smile with the scale and quality of sound that comes from such a small form factor."

For the homeowners, it brings the Defender experience they love - that same unmistakable Meridian performance, right into their home.