Home cinemas – the ultimate kit out
Home cinemas are a must-have for many customers today – and there’s more to think about than just screen size. We get the home cinema low-down from Gemcell suppliers.
| With a load of streaming services available at the click of a button, many customers now find it easier — and cheaper — to watch movies in the comfort of their own screening rooms. Or at least a dedicated corner of the lounge room.
And that presents a load of opportunities for contractors, too. Here’s what you need to know. Home cinema – the network And while there’s been a shift to OTT streaming over the past decade, demand for conventional free-to-air TV via aerials has remained robust because it continues to be the simplest and most reliable connection method. “An aerial ensures uninterrupted service even if the ISP (internet service provider) is down,” says Timothy. |
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“The challenge for broadcasters and content providers moving forward is maintaining prominence by integrating their services natively into smart TVs and other viewing devices.”
Look out for other critical home cinema products at Matchmaster including HDMI cables, HDMI extenders or splitters, recessed wall plates and enclosures for cable management, TV mounting brackets, audio cables and essential television reception components such as aerials, coaxial cables, and mounting hardware.
Home Cinema – The Lighting
A good lighting plan will set the right ambience, but it will also take the practical experience of watching a film to the next level for customers.
| As with most lighting applications, a mix of direct and indirect lighting creates the right atmosphere.“As home theatres have become more accessible, simple ceiling lighting has become cove lighting,” says Simon O’Donnelly, Cluster Marketing Leader at Signify.“Strip lighting in concealed areas washes the room instead of directing light into the room, and the quality of light is now more important than ever.“Signify provides a full range of lighting and control solutions that would suit home cinemas through our Philips and Pierlite product brands.”And it’s not just a case of dimming the lights as the movie starts — if your customers are lucky enough to have the space for a whole-room home cinema, you can make it a truly immersive experience with the right lighting.“With technology now, you can track the changes on screen with coloured lighting that mirrors the action in your customers’ favourite films,” says Simon.“Think lightning flashes and bursts of colour now filling not just the screen but the room as well. Products such as Hue Sync Box have brought the power and imagination of cinematography into home theatre lighting systems.” Home cinema – the sockets Audio and video connections are a key part of the infrastructure of a home cinema system. The end user expects a hassle-free installation in terms of the quantity of devices provided, to avoid multiple cable extensions and power boards.“Legrand’s Excel Life offers the needed connectivity for home cinema,” says Fabienne Herault, Legrand’s Marketing Director.“The RCA socket will typically connect the home cinema to the speakers, while an HDMI socket transmits high-definition video and audio from one device to another. An RJ45 socket through a structured cabling network will ensure a stable internet network.” |
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One of the key benefits of this is that you can connect the customer’s home cinema system to their local network and then stream media from other devices.
“Most of the home cinema systems provide USB connection for power supply or an external storage device,” says Fabienne. “Our USB offers A+C and C+C connection.”
| And if the cinema setup comes with the right lights and blinds, you’re going to need switches that allow the user to adapt the intensity of the light.
“Our dimmer switches allow the user to adapt the light through a dimmable light source. They can also be replaced by smart devices — without any additional cabling — to use voice control or manage through our H+C app for more comfort of use,” says Fabienne. Last but not least, you will need power points. “Like the switches, they can be smart so your customer can control them and also monitor the consumption of the equipment.” Home cinema – the cabling “You may need to run some figure 8 speaker wire to the speakers in a 5.1 system,” says David Janetzki, Technical Director ANZ at Nexans Olex. Speaker placement plays a crucial role in achieving optimal sound, and with multiple speakers, they need to be placed at different locations in a good home cinema setup, which takes some careful planning. “In the context of home theatre systems, installing speaker wire behind plaster walls can be tricky, and once completed, not easy to reposition,” says David. |
2000s HD video, Blu-ray discs and OLED TV’s bring home theatre quality closer to a real cinema experience.
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“You need to have the speaker locations very well planned before the cable installation takes place.”
Home cinema – don’t forget
While it’s easy to get caught up in the specs of the screen or the sound system, surge protectors are the unsung heroes of a home cinema system. Providing the system with some sort of surge protection will safeguard the home theatre equipment from damage caused by electrical surges due to power outage or brownout.
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