The COVID-2019 pandemic led to thousands of cinemas and theaters shutting down nearly everywhere globally. This shutdown gave a massive boom to the market of home theaters.
People all over the world with sufficient space in their homes decided to invest in building custom in-home cinemas in their private homes. These home theaters provide a safe way to enjoy movies without risking going to crowded cinemas. They offer a relaxing, private and free theater experience that one cannot have at a commercial theater.
Want your home theater now? Do not worry; we have you covered.
Keep reading below for the complete guideline to set up your own home theater.
1. Set Your Budget
Like everything else, setting up a home theater also has a cost. The cost will depend on how many features you want your home theater to have. The seats you pick, the projector you buy, and your sound system will have an impact on the overall home cinema experience. However, don’t go over budget to get the best equipment. You can still create a decent setup without breaking your bank.
2. Select the Location
Once you have decided to invest in setting up your home theater, the first step is to decide where you want to do it. Some people may have homes large enough to build a separate media room designed for this purpose. However, if your house does not have a media room, you can still build it in your living room, any empty spare room, basement, or even your garage if it has enough empty space.
You can even build a small room in your backyard for this purpose, but that would add to your total cost.
The place you pick needs to be wide and spacious, with amenities that allow you to block out light and sounds from the outside. The design of the place will determine where the screen and projector can go, where and how many seats can fit in, and how many speakers you need.
3. Select Your Seats
You can get any arrangement of seats you want, depending on what you can afford. It is all up to what you want to do. You can install two theater seats, multiple rows of seats, or a large cozy sofa.
Multiple seats would be a very costly investment as the back rows would have to be slightly elevated. If you can spare the budget, you can get seats that have a footrest and cup holders. You can also choose the seat covers according to your choice and budget.
If you’re on a tight budget, you can find cheaper Chinese brands that offer dupes for expensive European brands to choose from. The seat prices can range from $700/seat to $8000/seat.
Many brands allow their buyers customizations in terms of the fabric, color, size, and pattern or embroidery. All these customizations have their added costs. So make sure you make choices carefully.
4. Projector, screen, and sound system
A huge variety of projectors are available in the market. Rooms that are very spacious need a costlier higher resolution wide display projector, while smaller rooms do well with less costly short throw projectors. If you want a projector of an average-level brand, you need around $3000. However, if you have a media room and want to invest in the latest projector in the market, you might find one for $40,000 to $60,000.
The price of the projector will also depend on the projector lamp. Most new projector lamps have 6000 hours of performance allowance. Cheaper ones will offer fewer hours.
Similarly, the size and cost of the screen would also depend on the size of the room and how far your seats are going to be. A simple yet good 16:9 screen will cost you around $1750, while bigger ones can go over $3000.
A good sound or acoustic system is probably one of the most important components of your home theater. It does not matter how excellent the resolution of your projector; you probably will not enjoy your movie if you cannot hear properly. A very basic sound system would cost you under $500, while an extensive sound system could cross even $30,000!
A home theater needs a front as well as a center speaker. The front speakers are the most important and are mostly two or three. Then there is one center channel speaker that helps you hear dialogues and distinct sounds more clearly. A total of these speakers would roughly cost you $1500USD price.
However, if your media room is tiny, a sound system that big would blow your ears. Hence, the sound system your home theater needs depends on the side of your media room.
5. Professional Installation
Your home theater would need many cables to be connected to an outlet to bring the home theater to life. A layperson would not know how to connect all wires and cables.
You would have to hire professionals to set up your home theater for you. It’s better to get their professional expertise and experience from the start to get the job done perfectly.
They will take the necessary measurements of your media room, help you decide the right projector and screen location as well as help you choose the best budget-friendly brand. Placement of the speakers also needs experienced calculations, which is why professionals offer this service.
They will also help install the seats you select.
The team of professionals will ensure your money is invested in the equipment best suited to your media room requirements.
6. Final Touches
Once your screen, projector, speakers, and seats are taken care of, your home theater is ready to go. However, you can add a few final touches and features to make your home theater experiences even better than going to commercial cinemas.
You can choose the paint color of your media room, the carpets, the window drapes, and make it all match your seat covers.
You can install a popcorn machine and a mini-fridge, so you do not have to make multiple trips to the kitchen.
A home theater could be an amazing addition to your home. It would make family movie nights much more enjoyable and increase the value of your house.
They allow you privacy and liberty to choose which movie you want to watch and save you from standing in long queues.
All you need to do is choose the right room, pick the best theater equipment and get some nice seats. Then every day could be movie day!
