Home Theater

A growing trend in custom homes today is the installation of a home theater. Home theaters can be designed as a dedicated room or serve as a multi-purpose room. Both designs have their advantages and allow for a completely custom look to meet one’s individual tastes. GFI’s Home Technology Solutions can provide comprehensive ideas and designs to help the homeowner create a theater to meet their needs and budgets.

Including a home theater in your construction plans allows the homeowner to design a space that is optimal for creating a “true theater experience” and allows one to defer the cost into their mortgage, affording them typically a higher level theater vs. using out of pocket funds. This is, in addition to, the obvious advantages of a more cost effective pre-wire vs. a retrofit, installation of acoustical treatments and special ambiance lighting.

A home theater is comprised of five critical factors: the room, lighting, furnishings, video essentials, and audio. A true home theater experience is a bit different than your typical television viewing area. To approximate the movie theater experience, you need to maximize control of lighting, acoustics and viewing positions - constraints that are difficult to impose on a high-use living area. A basement is often the perfect choice since ambient light is usually not a problem, but any room, which you can sufficiently darken, will work.

The room dimensions will depend on your maximum intended audience and the screen size. In general, the optimum viewing distance is about twice the diagonal screen measurement.

Always make sure your light sources are indirect and controllable. Automation is quite popular here through sophisticated wireless remote control systems allowing for, with one touch, control of the room’s lights and window treatments. This automation can be carried further in the theater whereby the control of the room’s light sources can happen simultaneously as the theater screen and projector drops out of the ceiling and the movie starts.

Furnishings and décor can tremendously impact the feel of a home theater experience. GFI can provide you with seating choices and décor ideas. Comfortable seating is a must. To maximize the number of viewers in a given space in a dedicated theater, GFI will provide a multi-level design, staggering the seats to allow the viewer an unobstructed view of the screen. Recliners are a popular option and with theater seats, a cup holder is always a welcomed feature. In multi-purpose rooms, arrangement of a section sofa is a necessary consideration in order to position for optimal viewing distance and the room’s traffic pathways.

The video choices in creating a theater experience range from direct-view sets (the least expensive option) to DLP (digital light projector) and CRT (cathode ray tube), growing in expense, respectively. DLP and CRT projectors with a variety of screen sizes and capability are the preferred choices for creating a home theater experience. These projectors and screens can be set up in a variety of ways to conform to the available space in a theater room. In other words, the projector and screen can be set up for rear projection, eliminating the projector from view in the theater seating area, or automating a front projector and screen to descend from the ceiling in the theater room.

Screen size and video formats are rapidly trending towards a wide screen format. Choosing a DLP or CRT projector with a four-way masking screens provides the viewer with customized viewing formats thus eliminating the gray area that is inherent to direct-view sets when changing video formats to capture the true video produced signal. High Definition is another growing video trend and is available via high definition satellite reception or from a terrestrial antenna. To receive a high definition signal typically requires an outside mounted UHF-TV antenna. Direct-view sets today are available as either high definition “ready” requiring a high definition tuner, or as high definition, incorporating the tuner in the set.

Besides a broadcast medium, video is available in DVD (Digital Variable Disc) or VHS. DVD video is the new video trend replacing the VHS format. GFI offers to configure your system to incorporate these various video sources and provide a streamline remote control selection of these sources.

Your audio signal in your home theater is generated typically from a 5.1 surround sound amplifier or receiver. Depending on the room size and configuration, advanced surround sound processing is available including 6.1 and 7.1. To explain these choices, the 5.1 surround sound system contains six speakers, left, center, right, right surround, left surround, and a subwoofer. A 6.1 system adds an additional speaker, a surround center; a 7.1 system incorporates two additional rear surround speakers. All surround sound formats are recorded in 5.1, with growing trends in 6.1 and 7.1 availability. GFI will recommend to you the equipment to fit your lifestyle and taste. The starting point in compiling your audio equipment for your home theater is the speaker choice. Speaker varieties are numerous and can be chosen to fit all budgets. Your first choice will be to determine which style your tastes prefer, in-wall or in-ceiling varieties, or the traditional cabinet variety. GFI has selected four custom speaker lines based upon sound reproducibility, esthetics, and price points. We would be happy to review these selections with you.

A home theater can be designed to fit your lifestyle, décor, and your budget. Please let us show you how we can make your dream theater come true.