How To Setup A Home Media Room

Having a media room at home is not a new thing. For those who are ardent fans of sporting activities, and love watching live sports and movies; and those who enjoy the sounds of music in their home, replacing the conventional way of watching TV or listening to music in the living or family room with a home theatre setup, ensures they can enjoy the very best of visuals and sound production in the comfort of their homes.

This article is a simple guide that will show you the basics that you'll require if you want to create a media room at home. It doesn't have to cost you the 'world', and you will love the fact that you have a room specifically created for your audio and video entertainment, a place where you can sit back and relax to enjoy the sights of a good movie, and sounds of music.

A home media room design depends on a number of factors, such as your minimum requirements, your personal tastes, your imaginations and most importantly, your budget. However it's good to know that there are almost endless possibilities and directions which your media room setup can take.

With the right choice of high-tech visual systems, you can be assured that you'll get the best picture quality, with great image and sound quality in your home's media room setup.

The choice of a television will depend on your taste and budget, and its screen size will depend largely on the size and configuration of the room. Screen sizes go up to 90cm (36"), but if you want a greater image impact with the pictures almost popping out from your screen, then it's good to consider opting for either a rear projection TV, a front projection system, or a plasma screen.

Rear-projection TV

A rear projection system is one that that has its image projected and mirrored onto a screen from behind it, unlike the traditional home movie theatres that had their projectors facing the screen.

The advantages of a rear-projection system is that it is quite affordable, and surrounding light wont interfere with its picture quality. And unlike larger screen Plasma and LCD flat panel TV's, you get good value for your money because of its low price, yet high performance. This advantage makes it a good choice for a multi-purpose media room.

Front-projection TV

A front-projection television also consists of the projector and a screen, but this time, with the projector facing the screen. They are lightweight and compact, and easy to set up. The digital projector can be simply placed out of view, or on a coffee table. Many however prefer to install it on the ceiling using custom steel mounts.

They come in a variety of sizes, and can be standalone, wall-mounted, or retractable. And even though some may use their media room walls to project images, with a screen, you can be assured of better quality, smoother, and more consistent visuals. Images are best appreciated when the media room is completely dark, creating a mood and feel of a movie theatre. The screens can take on TV and video images of up to 3m (120") in width.

Plasma TV

Plasma TV's are noted for their slim flat profiles. They are less cumbersome than rear-projection TV's and come as free stand alone units or as beautiful mounts on the walls. Plasma television sets are much more recent technological innovations in televisions that many home-owners love to have in their media rooms. And even though they work perfectly in both lit and dark rooms, if you are looking for visual systems with smaller screens, you wont find that in plasma TV's because they are rarely manufactured in screen sizes smaller than (32").

With today's trend geared towards owning larger screen TV's, the 32" plasma's screen is rapidly becoming less popular and can be considered as disappearing from the market of high-tech media systems.

High definition television

People who plan to install a HDTV in their media rooms know precisely what they want. They are fed up with streaky actions, less than perfect visuals or unclear plays during their favourite football games. The stunning picture quality they get with these TV sets is the reason why they desire a high definition television in the first place.

With almost double the pixel resolution, the images are crisp, clear, and vibrant, with virtually no motion blur, providing viewers with visuals that look utterly mind-boggling.

So if you plan to have a media room at home, whichever home theatre visual system you decide to get, ensure that the positioning of your TV in relation to the main seating area must allow for a distance of up to two and a half times the width of the viewing screen.

To re-enact audio effects that's comparable to what is found in professionally set up media rooms demands high-tech sound systems such as multi-channel processors and multi-speakers. Such state-of-the-art systems allow sound to flow to you from any part of the room, and though the speakers may look trivial, you shouldn't underestimate their performance, because they do produce great sound.

And for an even greater sound effect, you can use smart acoustic treatments by installing sound proof panels that can be easily mounted on your media room walls with steel brackets.

Using a universal remote control will remove the unnecessary clutter of having various remote control units, so it's good to get a good one that works for all the systems.

Interior Furniture & Finishes: Sound bounces off harshly from interior décor materials such as glass, drapery, hardwood floors and carpet, resulting in muffled sound effects. Choosing the right interior furniture and furnishings will improve your media room's sound quality if you carefully plan its interior décor, including ceilings, walls, and floor finishes, so that they echo sound waves equally from your sound system.

Entertainment centre: Choose a well designed home theatre entertainment centre that matches the style and décor of your media room, and at the same time, hides untidy wires and cables, ensuring that they are all neatly tucked away and out of view.

Seating: The chairs that are ideal for a media room at home are those purposely engineered and designed for home theatre settings. There are also the flip-up seats styles, not unlike those used in movie theatres; which come with built-in cup holders fitted into the armrests, with a shared armrest between each chair.

Other media room chairs styles have plush leather reclining seats with pull-out footrests including compartments for storage and snack trays. The good thing is that there are several styles, colours and brands to choose from that will give you the feeling of being in a movie theatre, but are more appropriate for the home, and much more comfortable than what you'll find in cinemas.

On a final note, if you are a first time home-owner, or if you are carrying out extensive renovation works, you should consult with your building contractor and let him know your plans of having a media room setup, so that functional and effective electrical wiring, fittings and fixture options can be incorporated into your home theatre at the design stage.

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