Screen Placement
If you want a high-performance entertainment experience without dedicating an entire room to a home theater, a media room can be a great solution. In many homes, that space is the family room. Often, the focal point is a fireplace centered on the wall, with open wall space or built-in cabinetry on either side.
Mounting a flat-screen TV above the fireplace is a very popular option, and it can work well if your seating is positioned far enough back so you are not craning your neck or feeling like you are staring at the ceiling. When deciding on screen size and placement, a simple trick is to cut a cardboard or poster board template to match the TV’s dimensions and hold it in the proposed location. Sit in your normal viewing position and watch for a few minutes. If it feels comfortable, you are on the right track. If not, lowering the TV or placing it to one side of the fireplace, or even on another wall, can dramatically improve your viewing experience without compromising the style of your room.
Sunlight Effect
If you plan to use your media room during the day for more than casual viewing, it’s important to consider how sunlight coming through the windows will affect your TV. Direct glare can wash out the picture and reduce image clarity. Fortunately, this is an easy issue to solve with the right window treatments that blend seamlessly into your space.
Speaker Placement Options
If you get one thing right, make sure to get the best center channel speaker you can afford and position it properly. All the dialogue in a movie comes out of the center channel speaker and if you can’t understand dialogue, you can’t follow the plot! Ideally, your center channel should be located directly above or below the TV. If you decide to place your TV above a mantle, you can put the center channel speaker over it to get the screen a bit lower. Some center channels can be customized to match the width of your TV to create a complementary look. Hippo’s has a wide selection of center channel speakers for every design consideration.
Follow this general rule for the best placement of your left and right speakers: create a 45 to 60 degree angle between the speakers and your main seating position. Each room is different, of course, and our trained staff can help plot the best angle for you.
Your subwoofer (the speaker providing deep bass effects) can sometimes be hidden in a cabinet. Two things you should remember are: the worst spot for a subwoofer is in the middle of your room, and the best place is close to a corner. Again, we can help you with placement options.
Surround sound speakers can be positioned on side walls or the rear wall. In media rooms, location usually depends on architectural elements of the room such as windows and doorways. In an existing home, wiring for wall-mounted speakers is typically much less time consuming and invasive than for ceiling speakers. Sketch out your room for us and we can advise you on your best surround speaker options. Speaker possibilities may be dipole, bipole, or directional depending on your room and your seating.
If you are creating a media room from scratch or have easy ceiling access, there are many ceiling mount speakers that can be angled toward the listening position. If properly planned, these can be very inconspicuous while not sacrificing audio quality.
In situations where you absolutely have no room for a speaker anywhere other than at the TV, you may want to consider a speaker bar, which is multiple speakers in one compact cabinet.
Ventilation
In many rooms, existing cabinets can be adapted to house components and cabling. However, it’s critical for your components’ life expectancy that they have adequate ventilation. Your amplifier or receiver will generate heat. The cable box, satellite box, or video game system will also radiate huge amounts of heat. Drilling holes for passive ventilation is usually not enough, so Hippo’s typically installs a ventilation fan in the cabinet to exhaust hot air. A remote mounted, thermostat controlled fan is even better. We can mount one of these fans in your crawl space so you never hear the fan noise!
Acoustics
A typical family room usually has adequate acoustic properties. Window treatments are a plus, as are plants, furniture, rugs, bookcases full of books, wall hangings, or anything else that breaks up reflected sound. An example of a challenging room is one with very high ceilings and lots of sheetrock walls that reflect sound quite a bit, making it very difficult to understand movie dialogue tracks. When Hippo’s calibrates a room like this, we make adjustments to provide the best possible dialogue reproduction. If you deal with this kind of room, consider adding enough furniture and fabric to absorb sound reflections and keeping the center channel height close to your seated ear level.
Controlling Everything
If no one knows how to turn the system on and select his or her options, it’s obvious that enjoyment will drop! A well-planned and programmed remote control makes all of the difference. Reliable system controls are available so you can conceal all your components and perfectly transmit signals to them. Hippo’s offers a wide range of control options that are dependable and easy to use. Have an existing smart home system? We can integrate your media room’s technology into your existing system, allowing you to easily control audio, video, lighting, shading, and more from a single interface.
The Ultimate Media Room
Imagine a room with a medium sized flat panel TV for casual daytime viewing. When evening movie time arrives, one simple button push on your remote control causes sleek, motorized blackout shades to descend as your lights dim. Your theater screen quietly lowers from its ceiling hiding place at the same time. The screen is filled with bright, crystal clear images from your hidden projector, as music from the soundtrack envelops you, creating a complete motion picture experience. The Hippo’s design team can help you create this ultimate media room experience in your Columbia County home and help make your other home entertainment dreams come true!