A House That Listens
Categories
Location
Alibaug
Background
Case study · Alibaug, Maharashtra. A calibrated private theatre, music in the gardens and sound in every room, woven quietly into a residence in Alibaug.
The brief: felt, not seen
Set among gardens in Alibaug, this private residence is a study in restraint: travertine underfoot, timber overhead and double-height volumes washed in daylight.
The owners wanted the house to feel as good as it looks. They asked for a room for films that rivals a night at the cinema, and music that follows them from the living room to the terrace, with none of it competing with the architecture.
Avenue Sound was brought in to deliver the complete audio-visual layer: a dedicated home theatre, designed and calibrated by our team; outdoor audio for the pool deck and gardens; and multi-zone audio, so each space can play its own music or the whole home can play together.
The challenge: beautiful rooms are rarely kind to sound
Hard stone floors, walls of glass and soaring ceilings make rooms lively and full of echoes, and gardens offer no walls at all. In a home designed with this much care, the brief was clear: the technology should be felt, not seen.
The approach: designed in from day one
We worked alongside the design team from the outset, so every speaker location, cable route and equipment position was resolved with the interiors rather than around them.
In the theatre, speakers sit within the walls and ceiling and the screen wall is kept calm and uncluttered. Outdoors, the speakers take the form of stones nestled into the planting. Inside, each zone is discreet enough to sit alongside art and joinery.
Products Used
Solutions
Project facts
- Location: Alibaug, Maharashtra
- Project: Private residence
- Year: 2025
- Scope:
- Dedicated home theatre with calibration
- 120-inch projection screen by Screen Innovations
- Outdoor audio
- Multi-zone audio, 4 zones
- For: Architects and interior designers who want the technology to disappear
The theatre
Behind a single door lies the room the family uses most. Deep modular seating in soft ivory, tailored olive wall panels and a warm timber ceiling give it the ease of a lounge, and a 120-inch diagonal projection screen by Screen Innovations gives it the scale of a cinema.
Gallery lighting picks out the family's collection of film posters, turning the back wall into a personal archive of favourites. Every element was placed with sightlines and seating in mind.
“Architects give us beautiful rooms. Our job is to make them perform, without asking the design to compromise.”
Ashish Hingorani, Managing Director, Avenue Sound India
Calibration: the step most installations skip
With a measurement microphone at the seats, our team measured how the room actually behaves and tuned the system until it sounded right from every seat, not just the best one. Dialogue stays clear and the experience feels consistent wherever you sit.
“A room isn’t finished when the last speaker goes in. It’s finished when it sounds right from every seat.”
Ashish Hingorani, Managing Director, Avenue Sound India
Music, everywhere it belongs
Outdoor audio. Out on the terraces, travertine, timber and planting set the mood. The outdoor speakers are shaped like stones and sit quietly at the edges of the beds and steps, so music drifts across the deck and gardens without a single box in view.
Multi-zone audio. Inside, the double-height living and gallery spaces are set up as part of 4 audio zones across the home. A quiet afternoon, a livelier evening with guests, or one soundtrack across the whole home: each zone can play on its own or join the others.
“The best compliment we hear is when guests ask where the music is coming from.”
Ashish Hingorani, Managing Director, Avenue Sound India
Explore our home automation and whole-home audio work. Read more: Designing a calibrated home theatre and outdoor audio into a holiday home · All projects
16+ years of practice · 100+ projects in Mumbai · 40+ projects in Bangalore
Gallery
Testimonial
"Architects give us beautiful rooms. Our job is to make them perform, without asking the design to compromise."
Ashish Hingorani
Managing Director, Avenue Sound India