Integrating Multi-Channel Audio In More Rooms Of The House

While there is nothing like a dedicated home theater room to wow your clients and make movie night a memorable experience, the reality is that most people spend more time watching TV and movies in their bedroom, den, or even in the kitchen. If you are not showing your clients what you can do with those rooms as well, you’re missing out on a huge market for high-quality audio systems in these smaller, “secondary” rooms.

Soundbars, like KEF’s HTF8003, are attractive, easy-to-install, and have benefited from some really outstanding research and development work over the past few years

THEATER-QUALITY IN SMALLER SPACES
Selling secondary systems is fundamentally no different than selling a full-scale theater room. Getting good video is not the issue; there are stunning HD video screens available in any size. The selling point is your ability to put theater-quality audio in smaller spaces.

First, you’ve got to give your clients an alternative to the small single-speaker “virtual surround system” that they might otherwise buy from their local big-box store. These all-in-one systems typically use a single speaker enclosure that contains amplifiers and a set of electronic processing algorithms to trick the listener into thinking they’re hearing multi-directional sound.

These systems can work reasonably well if the listener sits directly in front of the screen, looking directly at it. It’s a very small “sweet spot.” If you move a couple of feet to the left or turn your head, then the illusion is broken. The sound collapses to a not-so-impressive single-point source again. Point this out to people, and these systems lose much of their appeal. After all, who wants to be trapped in a small spot to get good sound in their bedroom?

In rooms where the entertainment system is not the primary function, like a bedroom, a ceilingspeaker- based audio system, like SnapAV’s new Episode line, makes a lot of sense.

IN-CEILING OPTIONS
There are better solutions, and clients will jump at them once they have had the chance to hear them in action. In rooms where the entertainment system is not the primary function, like a bedroom, a ceiling-speaker-based audio system makes a lot of sense. Many manufacturers offer purpose-built in-ceiling LCRs with midrange/high-frequency drivers that are angled right at the listening area, providing excellent intelligibility. Similarly, there are in-ceiling surround speakers that perform quite well in delivering immersive, non-localizable surround information. Combine these with any number of small, affordable, easy-to-hide subwoofers, and you have a quality audio system that integrates nicely into a room that was not “designed” for a theater system.

CONSIDER THE SOUNDBAR
Another way to go, which is even easier to install, is to use a soundbar. A soundbar is a long, slender cabinet that c...

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