What’s the Secret to a Visually Stunning Home Theater Setup?

As a family, nothing is better than gathering in the living room to watch your favorite action movie or sports team. Wait, there is something better — doing so with the big-screen quality and surround sound of an exceptional home theater setup!

You’ve likely already got a quality arrangement, but wouldn’t the sound and visuals be so much better if you added a bigger TV and maybe jazzed up the appearance of your current system? What do you still need to create that totally immersive and visually stunning home theater setup?

1. Invest in a Large Screen

The bigger your screen, the easier it will be to immerse yourself in the action. Ideally, you’ll feel like you’re at Nakatomi Plaza when John McClane takes down the bad guys or smell the excitement at your football watch party when Patrick Mahomes throws that touchdown pass.

The only way to get that feeling of being in the thick of things is to eliminate all chances of distraction by surrounding yourself with crisp visuals and high-quality sound. However, you need a large enough viewing area to incorporate a big screen, or you’ll end up watching pixels.

What Is a Good Screen Size?

You measure TV and screen sizes diagonally, so consider this when planning your upgrade. You’ll ideally want the screen to cover your whole vision, excluding your peripherals, so if you have a medium to large-sized living room, consider one between 70 and 75 inches. According to experts, your recommended viewing distance is 120 inches for this size screen.

What Is the Best Type of Screen?

Consider the cost of the TV itself and its power consumption. LED displays are your most energy-efficient choice, and you’ll save more than half the energy compared with similar-sized fluorescent or incandescent screens. Therefore, the LED option also makes perfect sense from a sustainability perspective.

You can also opt for a front projector, but this will cost more and can be tricky to set up, depending on your room. You’ll need to darken the entire room for the best effect or invest in a projector with capable contrast and brightness ratios. Projectors work best in established home theaters designed specifically for viewing.

2. Optimal Surround Sound Is Essential

Immersive visuals are essential, but quality sound is the deal-clincher. You can enjoy the power of Led Zeppelin or Jay-Z’s expert vibe over Spotify without watching live performance video, but the experience will fall flat without the accompanying sound.

The only way to immerse yourself in your home theater’s visuals is to have impactful surround sound that covers all the audible bandwidth at your disposal. Your bass, mids and treble are all pivotal in recreating the realistic sound of the dialogue, music and other effects in movies, series, sports events and video games.

How to Achieve Perfect Sound Quality

Firstly, invest in a 5.1 or a 7.1 surround sound system. You’ll struggle to get that three-dimensional, immersive cinema feel with anything less. Every audio channel should include adaptable bandwidth and frequency settings for optimal speaker positioning anywhere in your home theater locale.

Seamless blending of sound from each speaker means you can identify where each sound from a soundtrack comes from. Position your speakers to encourage the precedence effect — it feels like the combined experience originates from the same source.

What About the Center Speaker?

The center speaker channel allows for sound continuity across your system’s front speaker section, acting like a sonic bridge between them. Without a center speaker in your surround sound setup, you won’t get the sensation that the person on screen is speaking the words. As such, the center speaker is vital to your whole authentic audio-visual experience.

3. Include Smart Lighting

Sound and visuals are imperative components of a home theater setup, but if you want an authentic ambience when you settle down with your family for movie night, the proper lighting sets the tone for the total immersive experience. Smart lights should be your go-to, as they are adaptable and can create a tone and feel for whatever you’ve chosen to view.

You connect these lights via Wi-Fi or a home hub and control them through your smartphone, tablet or any other portable device within your network range. They come with color change, brightness settings, custom themes and scheduling capabilities. They can sync with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and your automated smart home system.

Why Use Smart Lighting?

The best smart lights are LEDs, which come in standard A19 or light strips. LED bulbs and strips are energy-efficient, and as smart lights, you can set them up individually or in groups to create the desired effect. Whether you’re looking for a soft pink for a romantic evening while the kids are at Grandma’s or a bright orange for the latest blockbuster action film, you can change your setting by pushing a button.

Think about it. With a voice command, auto-trigger or app control, you can create a routine leading into an upcoming show or sports event. You can trigger specific lights, adjust color schemes and brighten or fade specific lights to create the perfect ambience for a pre-show experience. Smart lights are fun to use, and with LEDs, you’re being eco-friendly while using them.

Your Home Theater Will Wow the Family and Visitors

When you settle down in front of the screen for your first family evening, surprise them visually and audibly with your home theater masterpiece. The sheer quality of your screen, surround sound speaker setup and custom-designed lighting theme will have the kids making your coffee without argument for weeks to come!