A lot goes into creating an amazing home theater. You need the larger-than-life screen, stellar surround sound system, and comfy theater seating in your Bel-Air, CA theater. But before all of that, there’s a crucial step in the home theater installation process that sometimes gets overlooked: acoustic preparation.

The wrong acoustics can ruin your movie-watching experience. What should be immersive and awe-inspiring can instead fall flat. Instead of focusing on a poignant scene or an action-packed moment in the movie, you could be distracted by echoes or left disappointed by audio that falls flat.

 

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Especially in dedicated home theaters, acoustics can be tricky. There’s a lot involved in making the movie audio sound its best, including:

• Strategically laying out the seating, screen, and speakers to fit the room’s size and dimensions

• Soundproofing the room to keep the theater audio in and the other rooms’ sounds out

• Minimizing sound reflections from the speakers placed throughout the room

The third item in the list is where acoustic treatments come in. As sound travels throughout the room, it bounces off of hard surfaces. The speakers can be painstakingly placed to point sound in certain directions, but those sound waves aren’t spontaneously going to stop once they reach the theater seating. Instead, they’re going to keep moving, bouncing around the room from one hard surface to the next. That is, unless the home theater installation includes acoustic treatments.

Acoustic treatments are specifically designed to absorb unwanted sound waves, reducing those audio reflections from hard surfaces. As strategically as the speakers are placed and pointed in certain directions, the treatments are placed throughout the room to ensure sound stops at the right spots. It’s not about sticking acoustic paneling all over everything – that would deaden too much sound, canceling out the high-end speakers throughout the room. Instead, it’s about putting the right treatments in the right areas.

Acoustic treatments can have a wide range of designs and styles, such as wide panels that cover the entire walls to pieces that look more like modern art – all chosen to match your home theater installation’s theme and décor.

Choosing and installing acoustic treatments is something best left to professionals. Your home theater installation company will be able to recommend the right brands and styles for your cinema’s unique layout, seating, décor, and more.

If you would like to speak with one of our audio/visual experts about adding a home theater to your property or upgrading an existing theater with better acoustics, contact us today by filling out this quick form, clicking the live chat button at the bottom of the page, or calling (858) 798-9130. We look forward to hearing from you.