Home Cinema vs Media Rooms

What’s the Difference, and Does it Really Matter? Which is right for me?

Generally speaking, a Home Cinema is a dedicated room that houses all the electronics for the audio and video, along with a lighting and seating system that allows us to give you the same feeling you get when you go to see the latest movie on the Big Screen. This room should be immersive, and when a visitor sees it for the first time they should have no doubt, that they are in a cinema.
Typically, when designing a movie theater we design them with a higher volume in mind, we can also be much more precise with our speaker layout, since they traditionally don’t have windows. Frequently this leads to using a large rack of processors and amplifiers to power each speaker to its peak performance.
Acoustics in a Home Cinema can actually get quite elaborate. The more speakers you have the more angles of reflection you can have, which means if the room isn’t properly acoustically treated it just want sound good. Think listening to a concert pianist over a public-school intercom. And remember no one wants to be called to the principal’s office, so do it right!
It used to be a common thought that you had to have a projector in a room to call it a movie theater, well the fact is with companies like Samsung and LG now producing 8K panels in stock sizes up to 98″ why would you use a projector? Well sometimes for larger, wider theaters even 98″ isn’t quite enough to get that truly immersive feeling your seeking in a home theater, so that would be the perfect opportunity to use a specially designed projector and screen to throw that movie 140+”
A Media Room, evolved over time and continues to evolve to this day. But whereas a Home Cinema is a room designed for immersive movie watching in a theater like setting. A media room is most commonly a multipurpose room. Media Rooms also have all the Audio and Video equipment typically associated with a Home Cinema but generally scaled back. Think more along the lines of a game room or man cave.
Since a media room typically has other things going on inside it, plus they frequently have windows in them generally less speakers are used therefore we use less power. Which can lead to a quicker, and sometimes simpler installation.
With so much going on in a Media room, Different surfaces, rugs, throw pillows, the pin ball machine in the corner. All of these surfaces break up the reflections you would normally get in rectangular home Theater. Often times a Media room will not require the same extensive acoustical treatment. Most commonly we can do it as an artistic piece that looks more like an accent wall, etc
There is no set rule that a Media room has to have a TV versus a projection system, but what we commonly find in Media rooms is with everything going on its more common to find one larger TV followed by a series of smaller TV’s all wall mounted in a clean fashion. Then when game day rolls around you can put your favorite team on the big screen and the other teams your hoping will lose on all the other small screens.

Whatever your needs may be, we can help you navigate these decisions, and create the perfect room for your family entertainment. We have partnered with only the best companies to design and install your perfect home cinema, media room, or both.