By Ryan Hubers
(NC)-When some people think of a home theatre what comes to mind is a large room with a giant projection screen, tiered seating with oversized chairs, lights on dimmers, possibly a hand-painted mural on the ceiling, and expensive acoustic equipment. These high-end theatre rooms are impressive but unrealistic unless you have a large budget to work with, and a room you don't mind sacrificing for the single purpose of watching movies.
The good news is creating a home theatre is a lot easier than most people think and affordable on a smaller scale. Many modern home theatre systems are versatile enough to be used in a family room or any place where any number of daily activities takes place.
Oftentimes, you can find all the elements you need to create a home theatre from the same manufacturer. This makes shopping easy because you can do it all online and have the products shipped to you. One company that offers a complete home theatre solution is mount and furniture manufacturer Sanus Systems. Sanus offers TV mounts for virtually every flat-panel TV, and even offers an online mount finder to help you determine which mounts are compatible with your TV.
"One of the hottest new trends in home theatre design is to combine a wall-mounted flat-panel TV with a wall-mountable furniture unit," says Jim Wohlford, general manager for Sanus.
On-wall furniture units such as the Foundations Vertical series attach to the wall directly beneath your mounted TV for a seamless look. This is a great solution for people who have more electronics than they know what to do with. With on-wall furniture, DVD players, video games, cable boxes and speakers can be placed on the wall, up and out of the way. Placing everything on the wall also saves valuable floor space, and the unobtrusive design of the Vertical units let them blend in with any home décor.
You might consider adding some additional products to your system, such as side and center-channel speaker mounts that attach to the wall mount so the sound moves with the direction of the TV as you change the viewing angle; speaker pedestals that can be placed around the room for the ultimate surround sound experience; and Click Fit accessories such as surge suppressors and electrical boxes that easily snap onto select Sanus mounts and remain hidden behind the TV. All of these products can be found online at www.sanus.com or at audio/video and consumer electronics stores.
With a little bit of planning, you'll have a versatile home theatre system that won't cost you a fortune. Even better yet, all of them are fairly easy to install and you can do so yourself with a few household tools.
- News Canada