Many filmmakers say that what’s on the screen is only half the movie, the other half is to be found in the soundtrack, carefully crafted by talented composers and musicians to elicit emotions of excitement, fear, sadness and joy in the viewer. Once of the major benefits of watching moves on DVD or hi-def formats is the availability of faithful reproductions of the multi-channel sound that can, when fed through a reasonable home system, sound even better than in many modern movie-theatres.

When most consumers go down to the store and pick up a big new flat screen plasma or LCD TV, they may think that they are all set and ready to go. In fact, the sound provided by even an expensive top-of-the-range TV is incredibly limited, providing little or no low-frequency response, producing only a flat, distorted version of the movies music, and generating little or no directionality. If they are good at anything, it is producing clear, audible dialogue, but that’s pretty much it.

Modern movie soundtracks contain so much more information; they contain multiple channels so the viewer perceives the sound to be coming from a particular direction, such as a plane flying overhead, or dialogue coming from left or the right. They also contain low-frequency information, to reproduce deep bone-shaking sounds such as explosions or rumbling engines. To be able to access and hear all this extra information you need a dedicated home theatre audio system.

The basic home theatre audio system consists of an amplifier and multi-channel speaker set. The job of the amplifier is to decode and then amplify the multiple audio tracks present on the disc. To do this, it needs to be connected to the DVD or Blu-Ray player by a data-cable. A fiber-optic digital audio cable (also known as a TOS-link cable) will be needed for DVD’s, but to decode next-generation hi-def audio will require a HDMI cable connection. The HDMI cable also carries the video stream, so most amplifiers will have a HDMI out socket, allowing the video information to continue on to the TV or projector.

In terms of power, a quality separate amplifier be marked somewhere in the 80-100 watt range, which is plenty for watching a movie in the average family home. Beware amplifiers that are built into DVD players, or into a speaker set, they are usually underpowered and will perform poorly. The most demanding audio signals to reproduce are the low-frequency type; so many speaker-sets will have “active” sub-woofers, which have small dedicated amplifiers built in.

Speakers for home-cinema can be purchased in packages of matched sets, or individually, allowing you to mix fronts from one manufacturer with rears from another. In general, purchasing a set of matched speakers is the best option for beginners and will produce a very good sound. Unlike regular stereo speakers, home cinema speaker-sets are generally split into dedicated low and mid/high frequency speakers, with the sub-woofer speaker handling the low-frequency sounds by itself. This works because it is very difficult to detect the direction of low-frequency sounds, so it does not matter where in the room the sub-woofer is placed. By contrast the direction of mid and high frequency sounds is easier to detect, so speaker-placement is key, with left/ right speakers best positioned level with the screen and widely spaced apart, the central speaker positioned directly beneath the screen, and the rear speakers positioned diagonally facing the viewer from behind. This setup is for a 5.1 speaker set, which is all that is really required for proper directionality, although 6.1 and 7.1 sets are available.

Houston home theater clients reside in some of the city’s most upscale neighborhoods. Over the years, we have worked with many families in River Oaks, West University, Bellaire, Hedwig Village, Spring Valley, Memorial, Sugar Land, Clear Lake, and The Woodlands. These neighborhoods are home to a significant number of custom houses, and homes exceeding 10,000 square feet are ideal environments for Houston home theater equipment and home automation services. Families in these residences have grown accustomed to lifestyles of privacy and spaciousness. The increasingly crowded conditions of Houston’s ever-reconstructing road system, along with the full capacity crowds at many public theaters, have made eclectic Houston residents more inclined toward a home theater experience that accommodates personal preferences and exceeds the generics of public cinema.

Most Houston home theater systems that are purchased through retail channels consist of a set of very sophisticated, yet standard components. All have a video processor and an audio processor that allows them to render both sound and image in high definition quality. Amplifiers are also a standard component of Houston home theater systems because they are necessary to the proper reproduction and magnification of sound. All feature exceptionally high-end speakers that provide exceptional reproduction of voice, music, and sound effects. Smaller home theater systems may rely upon a flat-screen plasma television for video, but most of the larger systems utilize a projector and projection screen to create a fully cinematic experience.

While there certainly are many Houston home theater and automation stores that sell premium quality equipment of this nature, installing it can be problematic for the homeowner, to say the least. Stores only provide equipment; they do not offer installation or technical support. Some refer customers to local electrical contractors who can install the various system components. The next challenge becomes that of tuning the acoustics of the system. Even if one is working with an electrical contractor who has some knowledge of acoustics, tuning a home theater system is almost impossible without some very detailed knowledge of interior architecture.

Illuminations Lighting offers a more full-service approach to Houston home theater design, sales and installation. Before recommending any brand or piece of equipment, we first take a careful look at the acoustical environment of each room in the home. Because the houses we work in are so large, there are often several rooms to choose from which can be converted into home theaters. However, there is always one room in the home that will provide the very best sound effects, and this is the room we want to target for installation. Once we locate that room, we will contact the architect or interior designer who designed it to gather more specifics of the acoustical qualities of the materials used to build the interior.

Understanding how the room was constructed to begin with will tell us a great deal about what speakers, amplifiers, and controls to install. This approach allows us to use technology in harmony with home architecture in a way that maximizes sound quality, and it makes it much easier to tune the audio systems once installed. One thing that is common to all Houston home theaters and Houston media room designs by ILD is that we do not install wall or ceiling mounted speakers. While such configurations may appear highly sophisticated, they do not amplify nor reflect sound waves correctly in relation to the seating of the audience.

Other components of Houston home theater and media room design are much easier to select once the acoustical qualities of the system have been established. Any number of projectors and screens can be installed for premium high-definition rendering, including DVD Servers that can hold up to 500 DVD’s and CD Servers than can record 12,000 CD’s. Elite home theater seats that electronically recline and a wide range of lighting and home automation control options can top of the home theater system to rival the best of Houston’s public venues-all in the privacy and luxury of one’s personal estate.