The eclectic Austin home owner wants a theater system that can effectively replace the need for public cinema. Many turn to stores that offer q convenient source of equipment that promises exceptionally high resolution video and surround sound audio effects. Getting this equipment to work, however, requires much more than electronics know-how. It requires an advanced understanding of new home wiring, home architecture, how it creates acoustics in the room, and how to make home theater equipment work within the context of a specific setting to yield superior results.
This is exactly what custom homeowners in Austin can expect from Illuminations Lighting and Design home theater specialists. Our unique combination of consultation, manufacturer relationships, and customized home system intergration services are what differentiate us as one-source vendor of both equipment and installation know-how that ensures the best possible results in home entertainment.
The first step in the process is a consultation with the homeowner and a close examination of the home’s interior architecture. Most Austin home theater clients live in homes ranging anywhere from 10,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet. These homes always have several rooms which can be converted into home theaters. However, each room is unique and has its own acoustical qualities. Homeowners are typically unaware of which room will work best as a high-tech entertainment center, and even electrical contractors are often challenged in this arena due to the highly specialize nature of their training in home wiring.
Our team, however, has cross-trained in many different disciplines in addition to home electrical remodeling. One of the most important skills we have picked up is a strong working knowledge of home architecture and interior acoustics. We have also learned to speak the lingo, so to speak, of the industry, and can quickly add in a consultation with the architect or builder to determine which room will best serve as the media center. We include this service with our complimentary consultation and with no obligation to purchase the equipment we subsequently propose.
Once the room location is determined, we select the appropriate type of projector, screen, audio processor, video processor, amplifier, and speakers to compliment the sound dynamics of its interior. While these components are standard to almost all home theater systems and available at a number of retail stores throughout Austin, our equipment comes straight from the factory and is rated at the highest level of specification grade quality. Our knowledge of residential home theater design enables us to efficiently install this equipment with a number of additional options not typically available through stores. We can integrate a home theater system into the home’s lighting control system, or go one step further and install it as one of many subsystems on a home automation network.
Such integration allows for a cinematic experience even better than the one available at public cinemas. Pre-programmed lighting control systems can be activated with the simple push of a button to set the mood for certain genres of film. Horror movies are exceptionally frightening under low, dark red lighting. Dim, but brighter colour temperature lights, can often add an upbeat tone to comedies and action movies.
One of the most important things that Austin residents can confidently expect from our one-source design, equipment and home automation installation services is a much better sound quality than retail equipment typically provides. Since third party installers who actually setup theaters in homes rarely have the time or knowledge to study the acoustics of interior architecture the way we do, they often tune the acoustics to only a satisfactory level. While this is certainly better than the speakers on any television set, it does not justify the expenditure one makes on such equipment, nor does it offer the truly exceptional experience that justifies home entertainment as a substitute for a night on the town.
If you are going to make that type of investment in a home theater system, do it with experts who can customize every aspect of the system to the home and room it resides in, and who can also personalize it with lighting controls and home automation controls that make it intuitive and user friendly for everything from family gatherings to formal parties and special occasions.
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Houston Home Theater
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Houston home theater clients reside in some of the city’s most upscale neighborhoods. Over the years, we have worked with many families in River Oaks, West University, Bellaire, Hedwig Village, Spring Valley, Memorial, Sugar Land, Clear Lake, and The Woodlands. These neighborhoods are home to a significant number of custom houses, and homes exceeding 10,000 square feet are ideal environments for Houston home theater equipment and home automation services. Families in these residences have grown accustomed to lifestyles of privacy and spaciousness. The increasingly crowded conditions of Houston’s ever-reconstructing road system, along with the full capacity crowds at many public theaters, have made eclectic Houston residents more inclined toward a home theater experience that accommodates personal preferences and exceeds the generics of public cinema.
Most Houston home theater systems that are purchased through retail channels consist of a set of very sophisticated, yet standard components. All have a video processor and an audio processor that allows them to render both sound and image in high definition quality. Amplifiers are also a standard component of Houston home theater systems because they are necessary to the proper reproduction and magnification of sound. All feature exceptionally high-end speakers that provide exceptional reproduction of voice, music, and sound effects. Smaller home theater systems may rely upon a flat-screen plasma television for video, but most of the larger systems utilize a projector and projection screen to create a fully cinematic experience.
While there certainly are many Houston home theater and automation stores that sell premium quality equipment of this nature, installing it can be problematic for the homeowner, to say the least. Stores only provide equipment; they do not offer installation or technical support. Some refer customers to local electrical contractors who can install the various system components. The next challenge becomes that of tuning the acoustics of the system. Even if one is working with an electrical contractor who has some knowledge of acoustics, tuning a home theater system is almost impossible without some very detailed knowledge of interior architecture.
Illuminations Lighting offers a more full-service approach to Houston home theater design, sales and installation. Before recommending any brand or piece of equipment, we first take a careful look at the acoustical environment of each room in the home. Because the houses we work in are so large, there are often several rooms to choose from which can be converted into home theaters. However, there is always one room in the home that will provide the very best sound effects, and this is the room we want to target for installation. Once we locate that room, we will contact the architect or interior designer who designed it to gather more specifics of the acoustical qualities of the materials used to build the interior.
Understanding how the room was constructed to begin with will tell us a great deal about what speakers, amplifiers, and controls to install. This approach allows us to use technology in harmony with home architecture in a way that maximizes sound quality, and it makes it much easier to tune the audio systems once installed. One thing that is common to all Houston home theaters and Houston media room designs by ILD is that we do not install wall or ceiling mounted speakers. While such configurations may appear highly sophisticated, they do not amplify nor reflect sound waves correctly in relation to the seating of the audience.
Other components of Houston home theater and media room design are much easier to select once the acoustical qualities of the system have been established. Any number of projectors and screens can be installed for premium high-definition rendering, including DVD Servers that can hold up to 500 DVD’s and CD Servers than can record 12,000 CD’s. Elite home theater seats that electronically recline and a wide range of lighting and home automation control options can top of the home theater system to rival the best of Houston’s public venues-all in the privacy and luxury of one’s personal estate.