Home Theater System

Posts Tagged ‘understanding’

If you have ever fantasized about having a theater room at home with theater quality acoustics, turning this dream into reality is easier than you may think. With an understanding of the types of modifications a room needs to transmit quality sound, you can convert any enclosed room in your home to a home theater room. Specifically, noise must first be contained and then measures must be taken to enhance the sound quality within the room. Installing the appropriate floor, ceiling and wall sound proofing treatments will control the noise such that it is essentially inaudible throughout the rest of the home. Additionally, reverberations that can distort sound must be captured in order to maximize acoustic quality and to provide an original sound quality experience.

Containing sound within a room involves the approach of soundproofing all six containing surfaces of the room. All four walls, the ceiling and the floor are culprits for bleeding noise into the other rooms of the home, thus all six surfaces must be treated to help prevent sound transmission out of the theater room. Treating walls and ceilings entails increasing density and establishing a disconnection from the surface, modifications which work together to break down sound waves and prevent them from traveling through surfaces to adjacent rooms. A common system for implementing such wall and ceiling treatments is increasing density through the addition of a layer of a mass loaded vinyl such as dB-Bloc, then affixing strategically spaced horizontal furring strips and a new layer of drywall to create the disconnection.

Applying soundproofing treatments to the floor cannot be neglected, as a home theater system can transmit noise through the common floor surface to other rooms in the home. The most common floor soundproofing treatment is the installation of a rubber based underlayment beneath hardwood floors, carpeting, linoleum, and practically any other type of floor surface.

The final step in obtaining the highest quality sound for your home theater is applying wall and ceiling treatments to control reverberations throughout the room that interfere with the originally intended sound quality. Panels for this purpose come in a variety of colors and styles that can be coordinated with other decor and add flair to the design of the home theater while delivering quality acoustics.

An experienced and reputable soundproofing company can supply the soundproofing materials you will need for your home theater as well as guidance on the appropriate steps you should take to ensure that you consider the variables and obtain superior quality sound in your home theater room.

The eclectic Austin home owner wants a theater system that can effectively replace the need for public cinema. Many turn to stores that offer q convenient source of equipment that promises exceptionally high resolution video and surround sound audio effects. Getting this equipment to work, however, requires much more than electronics know-how. It requires an advanced understanding of new home wiring, home architecture, how it creates acoustics in the room, and how to make home theater equipment work within the context of a specific setting to yield superior results.

This is exactly what custom homeowners in Austin can expect from Illuminations Lighting and Design home theater specialists. Our unique combination of consultation, manufacturer relationships, and customized home system intergration services are what differentiate us as one-source vendor of both equipment and installation know-how that ensures the best possible results in home entertainment.

The first step in the process is a consultation with the homeowner and a close examination of the home’s interior architecture. Most Austin home theater clients live in homes ranging anywhere from 10,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet. These homes always have several rooms which can be converted into home theaters. However, each room is unique and has its own acoustical qualities. Homeowners are typically unaware of which room will work best as a high-tech entertainment center, and even electrical contractors are often challenged in this arena due to the highly specialize nature of their training in home wiring.

Our team, however, has cross-trained in many different disciplines in addition to home electrical remodeling. One of the most important skills we have picked up is a strong working knowledge of home architecture and interior acoustics. We have also learned to speak the lingo, so to speak, of the industry, and can quickly add in a consultation with the architect or builder to determine which room will best serve as the media center. We include this service with our complimentary consultation and with no obligation to purchase the equipment we subsequently propose.

Once the room location is determined, we select the appropriate type of projector, screen, audio processor, video processor, amplifier, and speakers to compliment the sound dynamics of its interior. While these components are standard to almost all home theater systems and available at a number of retail stores throughout Austin, our equipment comes straight from the factory and is rated at the highest level of specification grade quality. Our knowledge of residential home theater design enables us to efficiently install this equipment with a number of additional options not typically available through stores. We can integrate a home theater system into the home’s lighting control system, or go one step further and install it as one of many subsystems on a home automation network.

Such integration allows for a cinematic experience even better than the one available at public cinemas. Pre-programmed lighting control systems can be activated with the simple push of a button to set the mood for certain genres of film. Horror movies are exceptionally frightening under low, dark red lighting. Dim, but brighter colour temperature lights, can often add an upbeat tone to comedies and action movies.

One of the most important things that Austin residents can confidently expect from our one-source design, equipment and home automation installation services is a much better sound quality than retail equipment typically provides. Since third party installers who actually setup theaters in homes rarely have the time or knowledge to study the acoustics of interior architecture the way we do, they often tune the acoustics to only a satisfactory level. While this is certainly better than the speakers on any television set, it does not justify the expenditure one makes on such equipment, nor does it offer the truly exceptional experience that justifies home entertainment as a substitute for a night on the town.

If you are going to make that type of investment in a home theater system, do it with experts who can customize every aspect of the system to the home and room it resides in, and who can also personalize it with lighting controls and home automation controls that make it intuitive and user friendly for everything from family gatherings to formal parties and special occasions.