by Paulina Lays
If you’ve invested a good amount of time and energy into your home theatre, there’s a decent chance that you have several enhancements in place already. Perhaps you’ve got a popcorn maker and a good selection of candy and beverages. Maybe you even have some nicotine supplementation available, so the smokers in your viewing group can grab a disposable vape instead of stepping outside to smoke. Your viewing environment seems to have everything, but no home theatre is truly complete. You’re looking for some ideas that can take your home theatre to the next level, and we’ve got five simple and affordable home theatre enhancements right here. Let’s dive in!
Position Your Screen and Seats Correctly
Film viewing is primarily a visual experience, so your screen should get the most attention as you look for ideas to enhance your home theatre. Obviously, there’s a lot of value in having the biggest display possible. You can get that by using a large TV, or you can buy a screen and projector. Any screen can look sufficiently large, though, if viewers are sitting close enough that they can see fine details. Make sure that the screen is installed at eye level. If the screen is above eye level, you’ll want to angle it down slightly. If your home theatre uses stadium seating, you’ll want to optimise the viewing experience for the middle rows.
Don’t forget the importance of using a screen calibration disc. They’re available online and in many electronics stores. A calibration disc has test images that you can use to set your screen’s brightness, contrast and colour balance levels properly. Ideal calibration ensures that dark movie scenes are bright enough to be viewable, but brighter scenes aren’t washed out. If you’re using a TV with motion interpolation, you’ll want to disable that feature when viewing movies because it tends to create a “soap opera effect” that viewers often find off-putting.
Improve Your Sound System
Once you’ve done everything you can to improve your home theatre’s screen, your audio setup is the next thing you’ll want to address. A movie’s soundtrack typically has a very wide range of frequencies from soaring strings to booming explosions – and when it comes to recreating those sounds, a TV’s built-in speakers just won’t cut it. A great sound system increases audience immersion, and that can make a modest TV screen seem bigger than it actually is.
The ideal sound setup for a home theatre is a multi-speaker surround system with a subwoofer. If you decide to go in that direction, don’t just put your speakers on the floor; put them on stands or mount them to your wall. For the best possible sound quality, speakers should never be on the floor. Don’t forget to use an audio calibration utility to ensure that your speaker positioning is correct.
Can’t afford a surround system? You can upgrade your home theatre’s audio setup more affordably by purchasing a sound bar and subwoofer. A sound bar has speakers that point in slightly different directions to simulate a surround effect, and you’ll find that the audio quality is far superior to what your TV’s internal speakers can produce. A few TVs also have sound bars built in, so you might consider looking for one of those if you’re still building your home theatre and haven’t bought a screen yet.
Everyone loves to hear big, booming explosions when they watch movies. In a large room with smooth walls and flooring, though, echoes can cause low-frequency sounds to drown everything else out. You’ll want to deaden those low-frequency sounds, and you can do that by installing sound deadening foam or baffles. Before you do that, though, you might want to read our next tip.
Install Blackout Curtains
If you want your home theatre to be as great as it can be, it’s extremely important to control the illumination as much as possible. That’s difficult to do if your home theatre has windows, and you’d like to watch movies during the day. To prevent your home theatre’s windows from letting light in and distracting viewers, install blackout curtains like the ones used in hotel rooms. In addition to preventing light from flooding the viewing area, blackout curtains are also excellent for deadening sound and eliminating echoes. If your home theatre has blackout curtains, you may not need to worry about using sound baffles.
Use a Bias Light
A bias light is a dim light that’s placed behind a screen and emits a subtle glow visible around the screen’s edge – and if your home theatre screen doesn’t have bias lighting yet, it’s something that you should think seriously about implementing. Bias lighting enhances the movie viewing experience because it reduces the eyestrain that can result from viewing a bright display set against a dark background. Moreover, bias lighting also increases the perceived brightness and contrast of the display. Most bias lighting is white, but it’s also possible to find bias lights that automatically adjust their colours to match what’s on the display.
Install Ambient Floor Lighting
The last tip on our list of home theatre enhancements has nothing to do with the audio-visual experience – rather, it’s a matter of convenience for you and your guests. A major part of building a perfect home theatre involves controlling the illumination as much as possible to reduce distractions and glare. Once you’ve done that, though, you’re going to have a room that’s almost completely dark – aside from the screen, of course – during film viewing. The problem with a completely darkened viewing environment, though, is that people might have trouble finding their way around if they want to get up to grab a snack or use the restroom. Installing ambient floor lighting is an easy way to resolve that issue. It’ll provide just enough illumination to allow people to get around – but not so much illumination that it distracts from the viewing experience.
