Now Is the Perfect Time to Build Your Own Home Theater System
Create a Superior Cinema Experience at Home
Recently, Regal Cinemas, one of the largest commercial movie theater companies in America, announced that they were temporarily closing over 500 theaters, including 9 in Illinois. This unprecedented move resulted from a decrease in business due to the ongoing concerns of the pandemic. Additionally, the health crisis also slowed down the production of new movies, resulting in fewer theatrical releases over the past several months.
It’s no surprise to anyone that we’ve had significant economic impacts from the pandemic, and much of that has meant spending much more time at home. While we hope commercial cinemas come back soon, you can still enjoy the cinematic experience at home – in many ways, better than at the cineplex.
If you haven’t yet taken the plunge into creating a private home theater system in your Naperville home, now is a perfect time. There is a plethora of options in equipment, seating, audio, and more to customize your cinema experience completely. What's more, there's a staggering array of content to enjoy in a home theater. Just recently, Disney announced a major reorganization to focus more on bringing its massive collection of content directly to consumers, meaning even more choices at home.
Keep reading below to see how to take an underutilized space and turn it into your personal movie and media entertainment zone!
SEE ALSO: Building a Home Theater: What Architects Need to Know
Where to Put Your Theater?
In some ways, you can create a home theater experience in almost any room in your home. If you have a little-used guestroom or extra storage space in your basement, those can be converted into home theaters. Home theaters do not need to be vast spaces; they can be cozy ones for just your family or larger areas that may double as game rooms for entertaining.
A home theater doesn't need to be in a dedicated room if that's not feasible in your home. Motorized screens and projectors can drop down from ceilings in a living area and convert the space into your private cinema at the touch of a button. Surround sound speaker systems can be neatly hidden into walls and ceilings, and some models are practically invisible as wall finishes can be applied over them. In a smaller space, short-throw projectors can sit on attractive consoles just inches away from a screen that can go up to 120 inches so that your room is not consumed by equipment.
Seating, Your Way
At the local cineplex, seating choices are minimal. While many commercial theaters like Regal have upgraded to more comfortable lounge-style seats, you're not limited to that at home. Some people like the loungers, and some like less restrictive sofas and chairs. At home, you can also have nice extras, such as food trays for your snacks, cupholders for drinks, and USB ports to keep your smartphone or tablet charged. Unlike the cineplex, there are no restrictions on using your mobile device in your private theater!
Our partner CinemaTech covers many bases for home theater seating. You can choose from fine fabrics and leathers, as well as comfortable movie loungers, sofas, sectionals, and hybrids with retractable recliners. What's more, they can be customized to fit your needs and your space. If you like deeper seating, higher backs, or variable recline, that can be accommodated via their custom lines. CinemaTech also offers acoustic treatments for optimizing audio performance for both dedicated and mix-use theater spaces.
Screens and Visuals
Your home theater can have a wide choice of screens. A large flat panel of 86 or greater inches might provide an excellent experience for a media room approach in smaller living areas. For a more immersive view, screens over 100 inches would be the optimal choice, depending on seating and the room's size. Screens from our partner Seymour Screen Excellence offer acoustically transparent materials so that you can place the front channel speakers behind the screen for the most natural and enveloping experience. Sony ES projectors support 4K resolution and HDR for brilliant picture quality that surpasses the local movie theater.
Sound the Way You Like It
Commercial cinemas have loud and powerful sound systems, yet they often lack something. You may have problems with hearing dialog clearly in complex soundtracks with lots of effects, or some parts of the soundtrack may be too loud. In your home theater, you can have your sound system tailored to your preferences. You can up the dialog channel so that it's heard in action movies, tune the bass to your preferences and the room, and even have presets for different content as they tend to vary greatly in how the soundtrack is mixed. You can't do that at the cineplex!
Are you ready for your very own home theater system? Barrett’s Technology Solutions can help you turn your extra space into a dream entertainment zone. Call us at (630) 898-2850 or contact us here to get started – we look forward to working with you!
