What to Consider When Planning a Home Theater Installation in Marietta, GA
Who hasn’t been invited to a friend’s home for a showing of the latest Hollywood blockbuster or one of those Netflix nights, complete with fabulous culinary delights, beer, wine, laughter, and happiness?
You can build your own cinematic oasis that offers you all the movie experiences of large screen delight in the comfort of your own home, all for a surprisingly affordable price.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with social distancing ordinances and closed cinemas prevalent, more movie buff homeowners are opting for the installation of home theaters as the solution to the missing cinema experience.
The crucial question before embarking on this fun-filled home project centers on the question of what constitutes the perfect home theater, in terms of components and important technical considerations. Things such as room layout, signal flow, and ambient light conditions play an important and not to-be-underestimated role in the building process of a home theater. Here at Sound Sensations in Marietta, we ‘ve compiled the following list of what prospective home theater buyers should keep in mind in dreaming up their own home cinema experience.
Basic Considerations
So, before deciding on the physical components of the perfect home theater, the prospective buyer needs to realize that the planning of the perfect home theater space needs to take into account signal flow, room darkening, ambient lighting, soundproofing, seating arrangement, projection space, and of course, budgeting costs.
Modern home theaters have evolved from the concept of just a sofa and a screen. They now embrace a dedicated room with ambient lighting controls, full soundproofing, and cinematic seating in the form of large sofas arranged for optimal viewing angles from every seat. The ability to reduce outside light and throw a large enough picture is important to really get a proper home theater experience, regardless of whether you use a drop-down projector, a large screen, or a flat-screen 4k TV.
Plan for the Flow of Signals
One of the most underrated aspects of the home theater planning phase is signal flow. Since your entertainment experience is entirely based on data flow, this data flow by wire and Wi-Fi is central to the overall function of your system. The modern home theater is no longer a self-contained entity with a Blu-Ray player and a projection screen; rather, it completely depends on integration with your home’s Wi-Fi and data flow capacities for streaming your favorite shows and movies via services like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon, in 4k or high-definition formats.
To control the data flow, more home theaters rely on equipment capable of handling high data throughput streaming rates, which is largely achieved by a combination of dedicated hard-wired connections with Wi-Fi signals. The resulting wire mess needs to be kept at a minimum in a home theater, as wires can create feedback loops that become noticeable and can interfere with the crystal-clear sound you want. As a result, more speaker systems are now equipped with a wireless signal path to reduce the number of wires in the home theater room.
Don’t Forget an A/V Component Rack
Your system components need a sturdy space to call their own so that they don’t have to be moved out of the way. This is best accomplished by building or buying a dedicated audio-visual component rack as the central point for all your gear. This is the brain of your home theater. Players, streaming boxes, cable boxes, and your home theater tuner will rest there and perform their jobs, central and yet out of the way, but close to the main electrical outlets and your internet cable outlet. Don’t forget to make sure that all your rack equipment can easily be ventilated from the front, back, and sides, as many home theater components can run quite hot under hours of operation.
Control Ambient Sound and Light
When listening to your favorite show in your new home theater, the last thing you want to hear is the sound of your washing machine or dishwasher interfering with what’s happening on the screen. Equally as inconvenient is having sunshine coming in from outside, which reduces your viewing angle or throws shadows across the room. As such, control of ambient sound and light is vital in creating the most realistic cinema experience.
Our experts at Sound Sensations are happy to help you create a theater design that eliminates these nuisance factors by using sound baffles or wallboard, as well as using heavy blocking curtains that absorb light and sound. A robust recessed LED lighting system with dimming features will accentuate the cinema experience and make your family forget that they’re at home. All lights should be recessed and come from behind the viewer so that the movie experience isn’t diminished.
Control Sound Within the Home Theater
When it comes to home audio, you need installation experts that are in tune (no pun intended) with the sound that the home theater needs. Unlike regular audio systems, home theater sound systems need to take into account sound that bounces from walls, ceiling, and flooring. Limiting that audio bounce through sound baffles and wall-to-wall carpet (it doesn’t have to be red velvet, we promise!) is an important part of creating that dense cinema sound experience that is key to achieving perfect home theater sound.
Home Theater Screen Types
The big question our experts will try to answer with you is if a drop-down movie screen or a large, fixed TV screen is best for your viewing pleasure, based on the room configuration. Our experts recommend a dedicated home theater room setup, so this question is more one of aesthetics than functionality. If you opt for a projector, it should be noted that this projector should be suspended from the ceiling and not be placed on the audio-visual rack.
Home Theater Installation
Now that we’ve covered all the important points of configuring your home theater room, we can come to the actual joy of selecting all the components of your home theater. This is where our experts’ dedication to giving you the best home theater experience shines. We cover all the pros and cons of the major theater systems based on your budget, and our selection of prefabricated home theater experiences are sure to wow you. Combine that with quick and convenient installation, and it’s a win-win for all! Give our team a call today at 770-429-1600 to start planning your home theater!
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