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The digital
age of home entertainment and what you need to know.
By Adam Rackham
Click on the below links to learn more about home entertainment,
if you have any questions please email Adam@intoav.com |
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Using
computers for your film and music - Why computers
are fast becoming the replacement for high quality DVD
and CD players
Multi-room
Systems - Supply music throughout your home
and storing your collection on a central server
Creating your home cinema-
What you need to know about projectors, screens and
sound systems
Lighting
Control - lighting your cinema room and home
with digital lighting control
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| Using
computers for film and music |
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The Media PC
The Audio Visual industry is at a stage when watching
a film or listening to your favourite music is quicker,
easier and in many ways cheaper than ever before.
Computers have now become so powerful that they can
be the heart and soul of your entertainment system.
The ability to store High Definition movies and uncompressed
music has meant that quality is high enough to impress
the most concerning film and music fan.
Computers built with this use in mind are known as Media
Centres.
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| Picture quality |
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A good quality graphics
card with a DVI output is capable of running alongside
some of the best DVD players on the market without
so much as straining a diode.
For as little as £299 Pixel
Magic make a small unit that networks to your
computer and automatically looks for music, film
and picture files. Using it's built in navigation
software and infra-red remote you can easily find
your desired film or music file.
On top of that the quality is amazing, it is designed
and built by the same people who make the video
processing for many high end commercial cinema
and home projectors. The unit is capable of delivering
a full high definition picture and features HDMI,
VGA and component outputs.
Sound Quality
For under £20 a PCI sound card comes specified
with 24bit 44.1Khz digital to analogue converters
and a 7.1 digital output, so you can imagine how
good a £100 sound card is now.
I recently spoke to the founder of a large well
known British speaker manufacturer who recently
tested a number of hi-end CD players to establish
what unit they should use to demo their speakers.
He was surprised to find that the line output
of his new Apple Mac Mini computer outperformed
most of them! On top of that its under £600
and will play not one CD but store thousands at
a time, as well as doing everything a normal computer
can do.
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Multi-room
Multi-room is a
term used to describe an Audio Visual system that controls
music or video in two or more rooms. Each room is classed
as a zone and typically features a pair of ceiling
speakers and a wall mounted control pad.
Each zone is wired to a main controller that intern
is linked to a music server. Using the control pad the
user can search and select music stored on the server
and listen to other devices such as DAB radio. More
sophisticated systems also control TV and DVD pictures
to your plasma, projector or LCD screen.
Living
Control for example is one of the better multi-room
systems on the market.
Its clever design, ease of use and sound quality has
made it an increasingly popular and respected system.
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| Example
of a music based 6 zone Living Control system |
Zones
Zone 1: Living room
Zone 2: Dining room
Zone 3: Kitchen
Zone 4: Master bedroom
Zone 5: Master ensuite
Zone 6: Guest bedroom
Equipment
1 x Living Control
Room box 6 (powers and controls the six zones)
1 x Living Control
Music box 6 (stores your music collection)
1 x Pure DAB Radio (to provide digital radio)
6 x Living Control SL
Control pads
6 x Pairs of Speakercraft
ceiling speakers
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| Wireless Multi-room |
| A multi-room system does
require allot of wiring so is often installed in
a new property or during major refurbishment. Wireless
Multi-room systems are now available, though sometimes
their capabilities are restricted. These systems
are becoming very good and are often more economically
priced due to ease of installation. |
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| Sonos
is currently one of the best systems on the market
featuring a full colour LCD remote that wireless
links to a zone player. Each zone player powers
the speakers and links wirelessly to the next zone
player. The last zone player in the line networks
to your existing computer and accesses all your
music files. |
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Home
Cinema Systems
A basic home cinema
system typically consists of a projector, projection screen
and a surround sound system. Dedicated cinema rooms can
also feature intelligent lighting control, acoustically
treated walls, cinematic interior design and even genuine
cinema seating.
With the right choice of equipment from specialist manufacturers
that is installed correctly a true cinematic experience
can be achieved.
The whole system can be operated by a programmed learning
remote, so with a press of a single button a sequence
of events can be triggered. The projector will turn on,
the screen come down, the curtains close, the lights dim
and the DVD play! |
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The
Projector
When it comes to getting as close as possible to
a real cinema in your own home you cant beat a quality
projection system. Digital Projector technology
has improved so much in the last few years that
the quality of home
cinema projectors is now getting very close
to the ones used in commercial cinemas.
The range of projectors available is staggering
and very confusing. To narrow down your choice it
is advisable to stick with a specialist brand due
to their expertise in the field and often superior
customer service.
Three such manufactures are Sim2,
Infocus
Screenplay and Themescene.
All use the latest in DLP (Digital Light Processor)
chips and offer superior overall picture quality
to most other brands.
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Home cinema
projectors have specific specifications that make them
more suitable for showing high quality video images. The
contrast is high, typically 1500:1 and above, while the
brightness is low at around 1000 lumens.
All home cinema projectors are now 16:9 (widescreen) as
most DVD`s and produced in this format and feature high
quality inputs such as component and HDMI.
The projector is installed
on the ceiling towards the back of the room at a distance
from the screen determined by the lens of the projector
and the screen size.
Video cables are run from the projector to the connecting
equipment such as a DVD player, SKY or surround amplifier.
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| The Projection Screen |
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Projection screens
are available in a number of different types such
as manual
pull down, electric and fixed frame designs.
Most dedicated cinema rooms use a
fixed frame screen as these offer a very flat
projection surface and look similar to the screens
used in commercial cinemas. When installing a
system in a used room such as the lounge electric
screens are better suited as they roll up
into a discrete ceiling mounted case. For an even
more discrete system, a recessed in
ceiling screen can be used, which hides the
case completely. Cinema screens should have a
low gain (low reflection) in order to keep the
contrast high and an even amount of brightness
across the screen. A good screen will have thick
material, often consisting of two or more layers.
The biggest mistake that people make is buying
a screen that is smiply to large, this results
in motion blur and neck strain. The width of the
screen should be approximately half the size of
the distance from the screen to the audiance.
ie If the audiance is 14ft away, the screen should
be 7ft wide.
For more information
on Projector screens and what to look for
click
here
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| The Surround Sound System |
| Surround sound typically consists
of five or more wall mounted or floor standing speakers
and a subwoofer. The most common setup being "5.1"
uses a centre, left front, right front, left rear and
right rear speaker and a subwoofer for the lower frequencies.
The Speakers are powered be an AV surround amplifier that
also decodes the digital sound signal from the DVD or
other source. |
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| Speakers are
often the most imposing part of the system but are available
in a number of different designs to suit the room. Ceiling
speakers that can aim the sound to the listener such as
the Speaker
Craft Aim series are a good way of keeping the speakers
as discrete as possible while retaining sound quality.
In-wall
speakers are another way of producing quality audio
with the minimum of intrusion to the décor of the
room. Small wall mounted satellite speakers such as the
models produced by specialist speaker manufacturer Canton
are also very effective.
Dedicated cinema rooms
often make more of a feature of the speakers and cinema
sound quality is the priority. Speaker systems that
are THX certified are becoming increasing popular due
to their high specification and no compromise sound
quality. THX
was developed by Director George Lucas and his colleges
and his renowned Sky Walker Studios. For a system to
achieve the THX
mark the speakers have to meet strict specifications
and design parameters. This means the sound produced
will be as close as possible to what the film makers
intended for you to hear.
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| Lighting
Control and Design |
Lighting control is
becoming a popular addition to the home automation market.
There are some major advantages to using electronic lighting
control ,including being able to save and recall settings
as well as using less energy when the lights are dimmed.
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Rako
is one manufacturer that leading the way in lighting
control with its unique wireless control system.
Normal light switches are replaced with radio control
key pads and a wireless dimmer module is fitted
to each lighting circuit.
A single keypad stores 4 lighting settings as well
as total dimming and all off.
Fifteen dimmers can be used in each room and over
250 rooms can be catered for.
A typical application would
include controlling the lights in a home cinema.
Bellow is an example of a normal setup.
Circuit 1: 6 x Ceiling
12v halogen down-lights
Circuit 2: 2 x Ceiling 12v halogen down-lights
above projection screen
Circuit 3: 4 x Wall mounted up-lighters
Circuit 4: 8 x Floor LED`s
Rako
Equipment
4 x RDL-500C 500w dimmer modules
1 x RCPO7 seven button key pad
The Rako system can also
be controlled by any LCD learning remote. .
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