Do you like the idea of starting a movie on your sofa, enjoying the middle of it while you’re taking a shower, and then finishing it off in the comfort of your bed?
How about an invisible speaker system that allows you to enjoy music out on your porch, by the pool and in your kitchen?
Or, do you simply want to turn an unremarkable TV room into a true cinema experience?
o help understand how to turn home entertainment dreams into reality, Custom Acoustics owner, Antoine Place, and head installer, Sean Burgess, took RG Home on some home entertainment tours. His emphasis: If you want the The Full Monty, but the budget won’t allow it, start small, but lay the groundwork for big.
First things first: consultation
“The most important stage to make it all come out the way the customer wants is the consultation stage,” he said.
“No matter what your budget is, let me know what you want. We look at the room, and I give you the options.
“What is your ultimate wish list? What would you like? Let’s go ahead and put the infrastructure in place so, for this room, you could get just a TV and soundbar.
“Then, you can add the sub. Then, you can add the rear speakers, but if you don’t have conduits already in the ceiling, it’s not going to happen.”
For the uninitiated, sub is short for subwoofer. This type of speaker reproduces low frequencies with precision, adding power and clarity to certain musical elements and enhancing sound effects in films.
Retrofitted entertainment
If you want to turn a room into a home theatre, but without channelling into your ceilings or walls, the easiest and best quality option, advised Mr Place, is the Sonos speaker system:
“Sonos is an easy way to get really good sound. It’s cost effective and also, if you have speakers throughout your house, the whole system ties into each other,” he explained, adding: “The speakers are wireless, so you don’t have to run wires.”
Sonos systems can also be added to over time, so if you only have the budget for a soundbar, you can start with that and then add, for example, wall mounted speakers, amps and subwoofers over time. Their latest product is the Arc Ultra soundbar which, among other benefits, creates a clearer dialogue, making it easier to hear speech.
In-built ceiling speakers with minimum mess are also an option as long as the installation team can access the ceiling easily.
Integrated entertainment
If you are planning to renovate, your options are considerable, especially if you want to integrate the entertainment system throughout your house, but don’t want to see speakers everywhere.
One of Mr Place’s clients wanted a home theatre experience in his large, open-plan living room and kitchen, but it’s also the first area you walk into when you enter the house, so it needed to look good.
The rest of the house includes televisions and/or speakers, in the outdoor patio, by the pool, in the bedrooms, bathrooms, gym and cinema room. He also plans to add “rock speakers” in the garden, and the conduit has been laid for when budget allows.
“Antoine came on right at the beginning, so was very quick with his expertise to hone in on fine tuning with areas where we knew we wanted the audio visual to be,” the client said.
“He was good at looking at the bird’s eye view of the plans, making sure that the locations fit, all the pre-wiring could be agreed so we could do all the messy work once.”
The open-plan, ‘great room’ has a state of the art entertainment system, that is invisible to the untrained eye. The frame TV looks like a work of art above the fireplace, and four invisible speakers have been installed into the ceiling and painted to match. Two subwoofers have been subtly installed behind two corners so the sound is powerful no matter where you are in this room.
Each zone of the house is operated by an app, so if he wants the same music playing throughout, he can. If he only wants music in his great room and patio, he can, and, if he wants to turn the volume up in his cinema room, but down in the gym, he just has to tap the right buttons on his phone.
Another integrated home entertainment system Mr Place shared includes a “very high end”, custom designed in-wall system, using up front and surround speakers by KEF, along with a “powerful” 10-inch subwoofer behind the screen. This owner chose striking rectangular speakers either side of their 98-inch Samsung TV, which have all been built into custom-made acoustical wood and foam panelling.
“That TV can recess right into that space,” said Mr Place who explained that the bracket enables them to pull the TV out and service it when necessary. The panelling, he added, “helps to deaden the room so there’s less reverberation of sound.”
Furnishing your home theatre
While the quality of the speakers and television are crucial, having the right soft furnishings can also enhance your entertainment experience. This includes blackout blinds, dark walls, dimmable or low voltage lighting, carpets or rugs, and comfortable seating.
While a large soft couch is ideal, Custom Acoustics can take this up a level by sourcing and fitting theatre seats. One example he shared was a semi-circle of four customised reclinable leather seats with foot rests and cup holders.
If budget doesn’t allow for the full theatre seat experience yet, Mr Burgess advised some simple rules for improving the audio visual experience
“If you’ve ever sat in a theatre, they have carpeted floors and carpeted walls. A big empty room sounds like a lot of reflections, it gets muddy in the sound. You don’t want it to be in a room surrounded by glass.”
The softer the textures therefore, the crisper the sound.
