THE JOY OF MEDIA ROOMS

When Bill Black was first introduced to the concept of integrating a media room into his home in S. Barrington, Illinois, he admittedly had no idea what that entailed. Twelve months later, Bill has not only remodeled his family room into a media room but has helped Barrett’s Home Theater redefine their concept of what applications that encompasses.

Over the years, Barrett’s Home Theater Chicago has custom installed hundreds of home theaters. However, in addition to installing home theaters and educating consumers about the evolving world of technologies, the staff at Barrett’s Home Theater is now educating consumers about media rooms and the difference between a home theater and a media room.

On average, home theaters are usually darker spaces with assembled seating revolved around flat screen televisions often with insulated walls and surround sound systems located away from the nosiest parts of the home. These are usually installed in basements. The hottest televisions in these home theaters are Samsung flat screens with B&W speakers that play back every sound imaginable and enhance the audio experience.

By contrast, the recent media room designed at the Black residence was located within close range of the kitchen where mom and dad can keep tabs on what their kids are engaged in, albeit computers, television viewing, iPods, or Blu-ray movies.

According to Jay Johnson, architect for many of Barrett’s designs, “Keeping the media room centrally located makes the most sense in order to keep all the wiring at the shortest distance. Some media control is affected or limited by the length of wiring or cabling, so this makes the most sense. However, in a home it is not critical.”

What seems to be a hot trend in integrating technologies these days is the media room, says John Wettlaufer, Custom Sales Manger of Barrett’s Home Theater.
“The beauty of these rooms becomes apparent when the family gathers and does what most families do: eat, drink, socialize, often hashing up old memories or escaping from everyday dramas.”

Johnson could not agree more, “The benefits of a media room can provide the owner with the ability to control multiple media applications instead of just video and audio.” Johnson has teamed up with Wettlaufer on several jobs throughout the Chicago area.

In his designs for our clients, Johnson incorporates the integration of HVAC, lights, window treatments, security, and phone applications. Both Wettlaufer and Johnson utilize Crestron control panels which are user friendly and can ultimately save the customer thousands of dollars a year in energy costs by programming the above applications for different seasons and hours in the day.

Maybe that is why Black always returns so promptly Saturday mornings to his media room. With remote in hand, the Saturday morning entertainment begins just after his daughter Mary’s soccer games. Upon returning from their favorite doughnut shop with hot coffee and doughnuts, they dash home to download the game they just witnessed moments ago and their media room comes alive with screams and laughter. And with instant replay the family can watch those magical moments over and over. Now this is a good way to kick off a weekend!

By Dianne Barrett

Comments

About Author