RAKO Lighting Control For Home Cinema Rooms
Lighting for home cinema
Lighting is one of the most important parts of a home cinema. It sets mood, builds tension, and guides you through the room. We design layered lighting that works for every moment. Think soft perimeter glow for trailers, step lights and aisle markers for safe movement, wall washes for texture, and a low “pause” level that keeps the screen readable without killing immersion.
Why we specify Rako
Ben is Control4 certified and has worked with KNX, Futronix, and Lutron. For many cinema projects we now favour Rako Lighting. The key reasons are simple:
Scene control that feels natural in a cinema. One press, smooth fades, no flicker.
Retrofit or new-build. Wireless and wired options suit villas at any stage.
LED done right. Modules and drivers that handle modern LED loads cleanly.
Beautiful keypads. Slim profiles, quality finishes, and clean engraving.
Made in Britain with strong dealer support and fast parts availability.
It has also been an award-winning year for Rako, with wins at the Smart Building Awards for Best Lighting Control Product and the CEDIA EMEA Awards for Best New Hardware.
How Rako works in a cinema
Rako is a scene-based system. We store levels and fade times per circuit, so the room moves as one. You get consistent results every time, even if the network drops. We pair it with Control4 for “one button” starts and tidy on-screen prompts.
Typical circuits we design into a cinema:
Perimeter coves for a soft pre-show glow.
Column or wall washers to add depth and texture.
Step and aisle lights for safety without glare.
Star ceiling on a separate curve so it can shimmer while other lights fade.
Task lights at the bar or rear row for snacks and notes.
Hardware and control
Rako offers both wired and wireless architectures, so we can match the project:
Wireless modules for retrofits and minimal disruption.
Wired gateways and dimmers for large new-builds and technical rooms.
Drivers for LED strips and feature lighting, plus interfaces for DALI or colour-changing installs where needed.
Keypads with custom engraving and finish options.
App control for phones and tablets, plus timers and scenes.
Integration with Control4 for unified cinema, lighting, and media control.
Our relationship with Rako
We were invited to Rako’s HQ in Kent for formal training on their lighting systems. That time on the bench pays off on site. We design clean wiring schedules, label everything, and set fade profiles that feel cinematic rather than “on and off.”
✅ Mood lighting systems such as Rako offer users the ability to recall dramatic scenes, or mood of lighting at the touch of a single button lighting circuits are split to define zones, highlighting room features. They are programmed so that single button presses can enact those dramatic moods to the room through the lighting ‘scenes’.
Day One was their foundation course which is an 'Introduction to Lighting Controls'
Day Two was the Advanced course that covers the Rako wired system and programming.
The advanced course is specifically aimed at installers with previous Lighting systems knowledge.
We loved finding out how it worked, it’s a great system for wired/wireless (they work exactly the same and with each other if necessary). Retrofit and new build suit the system equally well.
It was a great course and we will be using Rako Lighting systems in some of our cinemas and homes. We have a nice mix of options now for lighting for different size cinemas and for those who like more or less control.
