By CEDIA - Thu, Oct 10, 2024 - Blog
Learn about home theater setups, including room considerations, choosing between TV & projector, integration with smart home devices & maintenance tips.
With four in 10 US homes boasting a home theater, immersive viewing has never been more popular. This growing home entertainment trend features large screens with high resolution displays and surround sound. How you set up your home theatre comes down to personal preferences, from mobile speakers and projector screens to hidden audio solutions.
Here you’ll find all the answers to your home theater questions, from costs to setup and installation.
A strong home theater setup relies on innovative technology and an appropriate space. The technology required to play your media is known as ‘source components’. These include streaming boxes, cable or satellite, smart TVs, disc players and turntables.
For the display, you’ll choose either a projector or a fixed screen, using high-definition OLED or LCD resolutions. Speaker setups can range from soundbars to surround sound systems or hidden in-ceiling or wall speakers. All of this is linked with an AV receiver, which helps to play sound and images from various sources.
Once a CEDIA integrator has recommended all the appropriate tech, you can think about other room considerations such as seating.
There are several room considerations for a home theater, starting with the room size and layout. This will affect the screen size you need as well as the speaker placement. For example, smaller spaces may be better suited to projector screens rather than fixed wall screens.
You’ll need to think about lighting controls and how they’re impacted by windows and natural light. There’s also the proximity to other rooms in the house, for example:
Part of this comes down to whether yours is a home theater/media room or a fully designated cinema space.
So, how does home theater work? Home theaters work by connecting audio and visual components, such as a wall screen or rear speakers. Each component input feeds into an AV receiver, connected by a port such as an HDMI cable. Source components can be anything from a Blu Ray disc to streaming services.
Your installation will need connectivity between each of these devices to work. For example, surround sound speakers are placed around the room for 360° sound, connected to a subwoofer through an AV. Your devices may also be connected to WiFi or Bluetooth for seamless media playback.
These home theater system terms are thrown around interchangeably. Though they both guarantee an unrivalled cinematic experience, there is a key difference between the two. A home theater is a dedicated room, complete with a big screen and optimum acoustics for the best sound quality.
A media room, is a more versatile space. It’s less likely that there will be in-wall tech, and instead the viewing experience is more relaxed. This is ideal for a smaller area, like a living room, and lends itself to tech like a short throw projector. You may also have natural light sources like windows, and play audio visual media beyond movies, like music.
The price of a media room setup varies considerably, from small DIY jobs to large installations with high-end ultra HD screens and superior audio quality. As a guideline, your investment in individual pieces of tech, such as wireless speakers, should cost around $1,000. For a more detailed breakdown, visit our ‘Home Theater Costs’ page.
To get started, you’ll need to think about design and layout. This will inform the formats with which you play your media, from projector screens to the right speakers. With so many components and options on how the room can be – for example, a chilled-out space to watch Netflix or a full home cinema experience – its best to find a CEDIA member to support from the planning stages.
We’ll guide you based on the space available and the capacity for tech, from bookshelf speakers to large amplifiers. There’s no need to commit to one brand either. Whether it’s Samsung or Dolby Atmos, our award-winning integrators will build based on your home and lifestyle.
Technology is always changing, so you should keep your finger on the pulse too. Our integrators can help you future-proof your movie theater technology so that it’s in line with updates and other market changes.