No matter how large or complex the project, a media room is a significant investment for any homeowner. Top-notch A/V equipment costs thousands of dollars, and there’s the time and effort required to design the room and install the various components. If you want a media room in your Dallas, TX, home, you want the best home theater systems and other features you can afford. Here are four guidelines to follow as you begin your media room project.

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USE A 4K DISPLAY

4K video content is much more readily available than in years past, and the price of 4K projectors and TVs has dropped significantly. With these facts in mind, a 4K display of some type is the logical choice for your home theater. We work with only the best brands to meet your display needs.

To give you the best possible viewing experience, it’s important to choose a display that’s the right size for your room. One tried-and-true guideline is that the distance between the screen and the viewer should be 1.5 to 3 times the size of the screen. In practical terms, this means that if you have about 10 feet (120 inches) between your display and the audience, you shouldn’t buy a display bigger than 6-7 feet (72-84 inches).

SURROUND SOUND IS CRUCIAL

Obviously, image quality is important when it comes to your media room, but quality sound matters just as much. To ensure you get quality sound, you’ll want surround sound for your space. At the very least, a 5.1 speaker setup is crucial. This speaker setup includes 5 main speaker channels (front, left, center, and two other channels placed somewhere behind or to the side) and one subwoofer to amplify the bass channel. These speakers can be placed on stands throughout the room, mounted in the walls or ceilings, or stand freely on the floor; go with the options that best suits your home’s aesthetic.

For a more immersive experience, you could opt for a Dolby Atmos installation. Atmos uses nine speakers carefully placed around your space to create a 3-D audio environment where every piece of sound is rendered as an individual audio object within that soundscape. An important note: Atmos only works with content that’s been properly mastered for the format.

INTEGRATE YOUR SYSTEMS

A fundamental principle of smart home automation is that automation systems work best when they’re connected to other systems. This includes the devices in your media room. Integrate your speakers, TV and more with your control system for even greater convenience and control.

Because of how bright lights impact image quality, lighting control should be one of the first systems you link to the devices in your media room. If you can control your A/V equipment with the same device that you use to control your lights, it’s easy to create a “Movie” or “TV” setting that turns on the TV, dims the lights and activates your speakers – all with a single button press. Even more possibilities open when you integrate more systems.

GET A PROFESSIONAL INSTALLATION

Being able to brag that you set up your media room yourself is all well and good, but the fact is modern home theater components are complicated to install and calibrate. If you want everything to work smoothly from the moment you press the “on” button, call an integrator like DeVance AV Design. Our staff has the skills and experience you’re looking for to ensure all your home equipment works properly.

To find out more about our home theater systems and how we can help Dallas residents with their next media room project, call us at (214) 389-4985, fill out our online contact sheet or click on the chat box in your browser.