Where to Place a Home Theater System in Your Westfield, IN Home

There was a time when dedicated home theaters were a standard feature in luxury homes. Enjoying a movie in a professional cinema in the comfort of your own home was incredibly popular. And while many families are still purchasing dedicated theaters and designing them with their own personal touches, media rooms are becoming increasingly popular. New technology allows you to choose between installing a home theater system in a dedicated room, like a basement or extra bedroom, or in the living room. In this blog we’ll help you choose where to put your surround sound system and screen.

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Media Rooms

The Pros:

More socialization: A media room is a great option for families who want to include their home theater system in common areas. Many interior designers choose an open concept in homes so that rooms aren’t divided. Open areas give parents the ability to watch their kids as they cook or clean, since they can glance from the kitchen to the living room. Open concepts are also beneficial for entertaining. Instead of sitting in a dark room and watching a film, your guests can converse with you, eat or drink, and watch a show at the same time.

More options for activities: By concealing your technology, you can easily transform the area from living room to home theater. For example, we could hide a TV behind a piece of art or in a mirror so that all you have to do is press a button on your tablet to begin a movie. You can have a cocktail party one moment and then play a video game the next.

The Cons:

Design and décor limitations: While some may like the fact that your home theater system will blend into your entire home’s interior design, others want to customize their home theater by adding fun movie memorabilia or picking a theme—like classic Hollywood or Star Wars. Design compromises may have to be made to allow the system to blend in with the rest of the home’s décor.

Acoustics: Another con to installing a media room is the noise control. It’s more difficult to contain loud sound when there aren’t surrounding walls. With no doors or soundproofing, enjoying a loud movie may disturb the rest of your family members or even your next-door neighbors.

Dedicated Home Theaters

The Pros:

Tailored equipment: While media rooms give you the benefit of being able to transform the space into anything for many different activities, dedicated theaters are for the sole purpose of watching a show, movie, sports game or playing video games with friends. The advantage of dedicating an entire separate room for these types of entertainment is that you can tailor every piece of technology, furniture and décor to enhance your experience. For example, a theater seat has been designed to not only make you feel comfortable but also make sure you can see the screen the best way and hear the sound optimally. A cinema-style chair will allow you to recline and place a nice drink in your chair’s cup holder, while at the same time prevent glare on the screen.

Specialized system and room design: A dedicated room can also house more speakers. In an open media room you are limited to where you install in-wall speakers. However, in a dedicated room you can install as many as you want and include them on all sides of the room. You can also add acoustic panels, specialty carpet and other features without disrupting the interior design. There’s also the potential to pick a fun theme and tailor the construction of the room. You could create a home theater that looks like Batman’s cave or Cinderella’s castle.

The Cons:

Limited use: The main point of contention over a dedicated home theater is that you can’t use the space for anything else other than watching movies and playing video games. Plus, if you want to add TVs to other rooms, you may have to split up your home theater budget to install additional systems elsewhere. Some critics have called dedicated home theaters “anti-social” because it doesn’t allow for conversation between groups of people. But some would argue that’s what the rest of the home is for anyway right? If you want to blast the volume on your surround sound system, the dedicated theater is certainly for you.

Whichever type of room you choose, Digitech Custom Audio Video guarantees the system will look and sound perfect.

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