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Theater Rooms
Tired of crowds, baby-sitters and waiting in long lines? Why buy a
ticket when you can own the theater? With new technologies like
High-Definition TV, Blu-Ray and Dolby Digital Surround Sound, you can
have a theater room in the comfort of your own home that will rival the
best cinema in town, and best of all no sticky floors! Westco can
design a theater that will not only sound great but will also look and
perform great. We work with some of the finest products available
and our highly trained technicians understand how to properly setup your
theater room and equipment and also will calibrate your system to
deliver all the potential of your new Blu Ray Player or HD cable or
satellite
The goal of a theater room is to recreate the cinema
experience in the comfort of your home. It requires more than just
a big TV and surround sound.
Whether you dedicate a room or have your theater in a family room or
den, you can create an experience that your whole family will enjoy.
There are two main parts of a theater room: sound and video.
The sound is actually the most important part because it creates the
most engaging effect - the feeling that you're actually in the environment
on the screen. The standard for theater room surround sound is
Dolby Digital®. It is far superior to its
predecessor, Dolby Pro Logic. It delivers clearer dialogue and a
more realistic sense of atmosphere. It is sometimes referred to as
5.1 because there are 5 full range channels of sound plus another
channel dedicated to low frequency effects, called LFE. High
quality surround sound requires a Dolby Digital® processor (part of an
A/V receiver or preamplifier), 5 speakers, a sub-woofer, and
amplification for the speakers. The processor decodes the surround
sound information from the DVD, HDTV, satellite or cable broadcast then
sends the signal to the amplifier and on to the speakers. The
left, center, and right front speakers reproduce on-screen action:
dialog, music, and sound effects like left to right motion. The
two rear speakers create the 3D effect - the illusion of space.
They are essential to creating front to back motion effects like jet
aircraft fly-overs. Finally, a sub-woofer (sometimes more than
one) is used to reproduce the LFE: the very low sounds of explosions or
earthquakes. The placement of the speakers in your room is
critical to the over-all effect. So is the character of your
floors, walls, and ceiling (hard surfaces reflect sound, soft surfaces
absorb sound). Believe it or not, properly addressing the shape
and character of your room can have a greater effect on the quality of
home theater sound than buying better equipment. It is easy for
professional home theater designers to predict many aspects of how a
room will sound - before the system is even installed! They can
recommend seating positions, speaker placement, and acoustical
treatments that dramatically improve the home theater experience.
Creating film like images for a home theater can be achieved on
screen sizes from 32 inches to 10 feet or more. Direct-view
televisions (CRTs), rear projection televisions, flat panel displays
(LCD, LED and plasma), and video projectors can all be used, but quality
varies greatly among different models and brands. The best
pictures are created through a combination of high resolution, accurate
geometry, and proper color, contrast, and brightness settings.
Having your set professionally setup is worth the money. The
choice of video display depends on the size and shape of the room,
ambient light conditions, viewing distance, and the seating arrangement.
Most people are comfortable at a viewing distance that is 1.6 to 3.0
times the screen width.
Ease of use is key to a great home theater experience. Nobody
wants to use 4 or 5 different remotes to control the various pieces of
equipment. Adding a programmable remote control to simplify
operation is an investment that will pay off immediately. They can
be small hand held units with buttons or touch screens or large colorful
touch screens that provide feedback from the system as you control it.
Some can even deliver video and internet access.
Automated lighting and window coverings complete the home theater
experience and it is easy to control these "atmosphere" elements with
your system controller. You can literally press a single button to
close the drapes, dim the lights, turn all the equipment on and start
the movie.
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