Custom-made viewing

Gone are the days when we simply popped down to our nearest appliance store, bought a television set and sat it in the corner of the lounge. Rooms, and sometimes entire houses, are today being designed around home entertainment and automation systems.

The home theatre system in the gentleman's room featured on these pages was designed and installed by Atlantic Audio.

A 50-inch plasma television is set into a cabinet in the middle of the bookshelf, with other home theatre componentry sitting on shelves below the screen. The centre speaker and subwoofer are also built into the cabinetry above and below the screen.

The room has a lot of hard surfaces, including a polished concrete floor and schist fireplace surround, which tend to reflect sound.

Atlantic Audio managing director Leonard Lucas says the use of quality equipment has helped compensate for the reflective nature of the room.

"Acoustics make a huge difference in the way that sound is perceived. If your home theatre room is not acoustically treated, the sound can be muddy, undefined, or harsh. For a room to be set up properly the installer needs to calibrate the audio equipment and ensure the speakers are correctly positioned in relation to the seating position."

In an emerging trend, home theatre systems are becoming pieces of furniture in their own right.

The home theatre on the following pages features a system set up in a small living room. The owner didn't want a large television screen on the wall dominating the room and detracting from the decor. Instead he opted for a television cabinet that would match his walnut speaker stands and could be moved from one room to another.

Atlantic Audio installed a 50-inch plasma screen that pops up from inside the cabinet at the touch of a button. The infrared censor and centre speaker are concealed behind black cloth trim at the front of the cabinet.

The cabinet also features a drawer and two cupboards, one either side of the plasma screen, which hold up to 300 DVDs.

On the other side of a partition, next to the walnut cabinet, is a second cabinet housing the remainder of the home theatre componentry

For those wanting to install a custom-designed home theatre system, Lucas has a few tips.

In order to keep up with the latest technology, he advises talking to friends and associates who have installed home theatre systems, downloading information off the internet, and talking to a design and installation expert.

A crucial part of this investigation process is making sure you buy home theatre products that are compatible, says Lucas.

"The mistake that some people make is buying a brand that looks fabulous, but won't integrate with any other system."

When it comes to future-proofing your home theatre system, Lucas recommends installing a cable structure that will accommodate new technologies and hardware.

When considering how much money to spend on the different components of your home theatre system a good rule of thumb, says Lucas, is that while you can fudge the sound, you can't fudge the picture. "A lot of people put their money into an expensive sound system and cut back on the quality of the picture. This is not the way to go."

It is important to have a quality DVD player, for example. "You can marry up an inexpensive DVD player with a regular television, because television is very forgiving but plasma and projection screens are not. You have to put quality in to get quality out," says Lucas.

In the rooms featured on these pages, the owner has opted to openly display his home theatre componentry in a dedicated media room yet conceal it from view in the master bedroom.

The media room features a projector, mounted on the ceiling towards the back of the room, and a large projection screen immediately in front of the lounge seating.

Audio-visual equipment is displayed either side of the projection screen. The owner says he likes the light source created by the flashing lights on the equipment's display panels.

Thin, vertical windows either side of the screen are blocked with a black mesh blind to keep out natural light while watching a film.

Installing home theatre in the bedroom is becoming popular as people continue to look for ways to combine entertainment and relaxation.

The owner of this bedroom had a projection screen mounted into the ceiling, which rolls up and down at the touch of a button. The speakers are concealed in the walls either side of the screen, with the movie projector and other components hidden in the walk-in wardrobe.

A small hole in the rear wall of the bedroom allows the picture to be projected on to the screen.

Story by: Trendsideas