Media Rooms, Audio, and Flexible Family Spaces

Your home entertainment shouldn't be confined to one room. A dedicated theater is wonderful when you want a private space to get immersed in your favorite entertainment. On most nights, it sits dark while the family watches the game in the living room on a TV with thin built-in speakers.

You don't have to give up the theater or build a second one. The better move is to bring big-screen visuals and room-filling sound into the places you already gather, while incorporating intuitive controls that make it easy to create multipurpose spaces geared for hosting, listening to music, and more. 

SEE ALSO: The Ultimate Upgrade for Home Media Rooms

Media Rooms Built for Everyday Use

A media room trades the strict darkness of a theater for flexibility. Pair a Sony projector with an ambient light-rejecting screen, or choose a large Sony display, and the picture holds up far better when daylight is in the room.

The lighting, shades, and screen all answer to one Control4 system. One scene lowers the shades against the Carolina afternoon sun, sets the lights to a level that keeps the picture sharp, and tunes the Sony display to the game. 

Music Always At Your Command 

Music should flow freely throughout the house. A whole-home audio system divides your home into zones. Each zone can play its own source at its own volume, or you can send music to multiple zones at once. Have soft music in the kitchen while guests talk, while music plays more loudly on the patio. .

In-wall and in-ceiling speakers stay hidden from view while providing high-performance sound. On game day, the broadcast follows you from the family room to the kitchen to the patio, so you never miss a play while you refill drinks. When the final whistle blows, switch from the game to a playlist with one tap to keep the get-together going strong. 

Theater-Style Sound in Everyday Rooms

You don't need a dedicated theater to get sound that pulls you into the picture. In a family room or great room, we build a surround layout around your seating, and where the ceiling allows, we add overhead speakers for Dolby Atmos, so effects move above you as well as around you. The speakers sit on the walls and ceiling, so the room still looks like a place to live.

Atmos only works when the content, the receiver, and the speakers all support it. Movies, series, and music offer plenty of Atmos titles to choose from. We size the layout to your room so dialogue is easy to follow, and effects stay in proportion to the room and content rather than simply loud.

Video Distribution for Every Screen 

Most homes collect boxes filled with content. Your living room TV alone might have a cable box, streaming player, Apple TV stick and Blu-ray. Video distribution moves those sources into one hidden equipment rack and sends them to any screen in the house. You can watch the same program on the family room TV, the kitchen display, and the patio TV, and any screen can switch to its own source when someone wants something different. When a source needs an upgrade or a repair, it happens in one place instead of three.

One Space for Movies, Sports, and Gaming

The real payoff is how the pieces work together. A Game Day scene turns on the TV, sets the volume, and brightens the lights. A Movie Night scene dims the lights, lowers the shades, and sets the sound for the room. A Gaming scene switches to the console and keeps the lights low enough to see the screen.

Each scene is one press on a keypad or in the app, or a spoken request through voice control with a system like Josh.ai.

Some homeowners go further and add a golf simulator bay. It can join the same system, so the room does double duty as a spot for family game night.

Where to Start 

Start with the room your family uses most, usually the family room or the great room, and add zones and screens over time. Wiring is the part that is hard to change later, so plan it early. If you are building or renovating, bring your integrator in early alongside your builder and designer.

Ready to Plan Your Entertainment Space?

If you want a home that's as good at entertaining as it is at everyday life, The Integrated Home can help. Contact our team to book a free, no-obligation consultation, or send us a live chat on our site.