Home Cinema

Concept. Most homes have a TV room but few have one where you can sit back, relax and truly immerse yourself in a great movie or the big game. A home cinema can re-create the large-scale experience of a commercial cinema and deliver it in your front room inconspicuously.

What is a home cinema? A system is usually made up of 5 components:

• Screen - Projector or Flat-screen. Most displays are now High-Definition which makes it possible to achieve fantastic clarity with only a relatively modest financial outlay.
  • Projection -The most impressive way to see a movie or the big match; projectors are generally ceiling mounted and throw an image onto a motorised screen of between 6-9ft. The bigger your room is, the bigger the image will need to be, requiring a more expensive projector. A small room can therefore yield very impressive results even with a relatively inexpensive projector.
  • Flatscreen - TV’s & monitors are available in many sizes. Up until recently, plasma screens were the predominant choice for screens over 42” but LCD has now become an option due to reduced manufacturing costs.
• Amplifier - Surround Processor & Multi-channel Amplifier. Most amplifiers decode a variety of surround codecs such as Dolby Digital & DTS. In small and medium sized rooms an integrated surround amplifier will be able to generate good fidelity and realistic sound levels. High end and large-room systems generally require a 2-box solution; a surround processor and one or more power amplifiers.
• Loudspeakers - Loudspeakers come in all finishes, shapes and sizes. Generally, the appropriate price-point of speaker system is determined by the size of the room and quality of sound the client wants to achieve. Once this price level is determined speakers may be free-standing cabinet types, sub-satellite, in-walls or in-ceiling as the interior style dictates.
• Source - Disc Player (Blu-ray, DVD), Satellite/Terrestrial TV etc. There are a multitude of sources that can be played back in a Home cinema; standard definition sources such as DVD, Video & Satellite; and High Definition sources such as HD satellite, Blu-ray, HD-DVD players and games consoles such as PS3. 
• Control - Home cinemas generally have a large number of components and this inevitably means a lot of remote controls. Wrestling with 6 remotes in order to watch a movie is cumbersome and worse, may deter people from even using the system. A customised remote control reduces clutter and macro commands make it possible to activate the projector, lower the screen, switch on the amplifier, select DVD input and start a movie with a single button press.

Build-in or Build-on? A home cinema requires a considerable amount of cabling so there will be some disruption in order to retro-fit a system into a room with no cabling in place.