Electronic House Magazine features Illuminations Lighting Design home theater in December 2007 issue. The article titled "Playroom Transformed into Home Theater" describes how a simple kid's playroom was converted into a high tech home media room. This home theater system installed by Illuminations Lighting combines the highest professional grade equipment with a custom configuration built according to the specific dynamics of an individual home. While less expensive retail equipment offers a tempting do-it-yourself savings, a home theater from Illuminations Lighting Design represents one domain that requires maximum investment for full enjoyment and satisfaction.
Playroom Transformed into Home Theater
From stuffed animals to subwoofers, with children grown, this family updates a forgotten playroom into a well-used home theater.
This bonus room functioned admirably for many years as a child’s playroom. Stuffed with games, toys and a 24-inch analog TV, it had everything a kid could want. But that was then. Now that the owners’ kids are 10 and 15, the family craves a space that’s more grown up. Illuminations Lighting Design of Houston, TX, had just the thing. The home theater design and home automation installers would convert this outdated 20' x 24' extra room into an age-appropriate home theater and gaming mecca. The bookcase was reconfigured slightly to make room for an 84-inch-wide Stewart Filmscreen screen, three Vienna Acoustics Grand Series Haydn bookshelf speakers (the two rear surround speakers were placed on stands near the back of the room), and two REL R-Series sub woofers. Also tucked inside were a high-def cable box, Marantz 5.1 surround-sound receiver and DVD player, Sony VCR, APC H-Series power conditioner with surge suppression and battery backup, and PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 gaming consoles. Phantom LED light strips were installed as showcase lighting and to provide a home theater lighting source when watching movies or relaxing in the room.
A specially programmed Universal Remote Control MX350 handheld controller lets the family switch between movies and games with the touch of one button. No matter what digital media the family chooses to watch, the ceiling-mounted Runco CL-420 video projector is up for the challenge. During daytime viewing, the machine receives a helping hand from motorized Lutron blackout shades that lower over the windows on command from the MX350.
For clientele who have an ardent interest in stereo or high fidelity sound reproduction the decision to invest wisely in a media system design are never disappointed when they turn to ILD to make their dreams for a home theater system become a tangible, personalized reality tailor-made for their home and individual lifestyle.
Need help planning a home theater?
Contact us to learn more about our home automation services or by calling 800-863-1184. See what your home can do that no other home—or even public cinema—can even come close to doing when you hire a professional audio/video consultant.
Labels: Home Theater Design, Home Theater Experience, Houston Home Theaters, Lighting and Home Automation
In one sense, interactive media design reverses the information age, where machines feed content to the Mind of Man. With interactive media design, it is different. Home automation connects the human mind to a computer network that links all home subsystems together into a command center of audio visual feeds and push button convenience.
It sounds simple, and it really is, at least from the end user’s perspective. Interactive media design links every lifestyle element together into a central computer that is programmed with multiple subroutines containing embedded algorithms that regulate everything from climate control to home theater and home security to audio and video feeds. Interactive media design touch panels installed on walls and hand-held wireless remotes allow anyone familiar with a few basic command sequences to activate the most advanced electrical design and lighting technology available on today’s market.
No two of these systems are identical. We design interactive media systems custom to the client’s home environment, daily lifestyle, and personal desires. As we receive increasing numbers of calls daily from inquirers wanting to know more about our services, we decided to post a few of our question/answer sessions for quick reference.
Q: If media refers to broadcast information, how can you say home automation is actually a form of interactive media design?
A: Actually it is the other way around. Home automation is any computer-driven network that operates on a series of embedded commands that operate various home sub systems and network. Home automation itself is combination electrical design and computer programming. Interactive media design extends home automation control and interface to audio and video devices so that information can be sent back to the person and not just from the person.
Q: What elements of home media does interactive design tie together?
A: Essentially, interactive media unites the phone system, indoor television with outdoor security cameras and gate access control. We also tie our home automation section in with the HVAC system, allowing a homeowner to regulate the temperature even while traveling on the road. HVAC controls can be turned on and off at will whenever!
Q: Is interactive media designed provide updates, weather reports, and entertainment like traditional meda?
A: It can be. Our home theater customers enjoy one-touch control of music and video anytime they want to watch their favorite movie with background music. We have been asked on occasions to link computers and flat panels together, thus uniting TV and Internet for a client so they can watch satellite TV feeds through DSL or cable. This is rare, but we do get these requests at times.
Q: How extensively does interactive media design depend on the Internet? What if DSL goes down?
A: Interactive media does not depend on the Internet at all. The Internet is only one of many tools that clients can use to control the system. The central computer controls indoor and landscape lighting and the HVAC system. Homeowners can log into their home automation network and turn the lights on and off and control climate within the home while online. If your DSL or Cable goes down, your home automation system will still work, as the backbone of this system is the sophisticated electrical designing and programming, not the home computer.
Contact Illuminations Lighting Design at 713-863-1133 to learn more about interactive media design systems. Labels: Home Automation Specialists, Home Theater Experience, Houston Home Theaters, Interactive Media Design, Media Design Company
Illuminations Lighting professionals design media rooms for Houston clients seeking an experience that surpasses that of public cinema. We build each project around four key elements that we then customize and personalize specific to each clients desires, lifestyle, and home environment. This multi-specialty approach to media room design differentiates the genius of our Houston home automation division from our competitors and offers an unparalleled, one-source synthesis of aesthetic effects and state of the art equipment. Each aspect of media room design is treated as a specialty unto itself, requiring a synthesis of interdisciplinary designer cross training, technical expertise, and advanced automation programming and controls to effectively create. The following summaries indicate these basic elements of media room design and the core from which we expand and customize each project into a truly home theater system.
Video Sourcing and Positioning:
It is important to consider that film is first and foremost a visual medium. Every Media room design must give priority attention to the screen as the visual focal point for the audience. Our clients are often surprised to learn that we do not always recommend the largest room in the home as the location for the home theater. Our primary concern is video sourcing and positioning.
Audio Equipment and Positioning:
Two major factors determine acoustical equipment and positioning: the size and shape of the room itself, and the acoustical qualities of the materials composing the ceilings, floors, and walls. Developing the audio segment of the media rooms design requires the type of advanced architectural and construction cross training our specialists undergo.
Lighting Design and Effects:
To design a media room for Houston residents that never makes them want to leave home again requires us to go beyond the normal lighting fixtures of public theater houses. Our lighting design for media rooms must do three things to accomplish this task. Click here to learn what they…
Multifunctional Control:
All of the drafting, development, and labor we invest in media room design would offer little value if it was as complicated to operate as it is to plan and install. The good news for Houston clients is, we make it just as easy on clients as we make it challenging to ourselves. Thanks to our trained and certified home automation team, we link all key elements of home automation and theater together and directly tie their functionality to themes that we pre-program into a central processing controller.
ILD professionals offer every individual not only the best in home theater and automation, but also the most unique and personalized media rooms designs directly under the control of the homeowner—something public theater cannot offer.
Read the full-length article on home theater designs now by clicking here, or call us now at 713-863-1133 for a free consultation.
Labels: Home Theater Experience, Houston Home Theaters, Media Design Company, Media Room Lighting Designs
Illuminations Lighting Design home theater designs offer the astute consumer a truly superior cinematic experience. Home theater designs must reflect, balance, and work in complete harmony with its immediate environment and end-user commands. Audio and video are both directly affected by architectural acoustics, interior lighting, and natural light encroaching into the home, so truly exceptional home theater designs must consist of multiple design layers where key components are balanced and networked together to provide a harmonious audiovisual unity that works in tandem with homeowner controls and automation and lighting programs. Lighting also plays a critical role in home theater design, requiring a tricky balance at all times between functional illumination for comfort and safety and dimmer, specialty light for film viewing and appropriate special effects. Automated, home theater seats are the latest innovation in home theater design, adding physical movement to motion pictures and making home theater a truly moving experience that movie houses still do not offer to this day.
Every home theater design we produce is custom-developed through a series of consultations we conduct at your residence. We use advanced CAD software to designate control locations and wiring designs for automated controls and subsystems, and we build visual models of layered lighting and acoustical affects. The resulting 3-D visual schematic of our proposed home theater design allows you to clearly visualize the outcome and to play an interactive role in the design process. Upon approval of the proposal, our team then conducts a series of highly detailed, systematic tests on room acoustics and lighting levels. We use this data to then select the very best audiovisual equipment for your particular home theater design.
Our certification and extensive experience in electrical design and home automation makes it possible to design a home theater in virtually any size room or custom floor plan, provided the environment offers exceptional acoustic potential. We partner with top architectural firms to learn the nuances of their industry, and then we apply that to your custom project. We analyze acoustical qualities of wood, stone, interior brick, and other composite materials that will function as the physical housing of the new home theater. Systematic analysis of ceiling height and corner angles enable us to precisely anticipate the optimal audio frequency that will deliver the maximum quality of sound in that particular room. This data in turn helps us determine the size, number, manufacture, and placement of forward and surround sound speakers and audio distribution systems.
As distributors of every major television and sound system manufacturer in the world, we have an available inventory that is actually larger than that of any home theater store, and we choose that equipment after we develop the superior acoustics and lighting effects so there is never a conflict between theory and form. It is so much better to hire ILD for your home theater design than to spend gas and travel time going to a home theater store. We not only build the system just for you, but we build it with manufacturer grade lights and theater that only that only authorized distributors such as ILD can legally resell.
As home theater design becomes increasingly popular and sophisticated, more people are calling ILD to give an experience beyond retail that makes staying at home more fun that going to the movies ever was. Why not become a part of that growing group of satisfied clientele?
Call 713-863-1133 today for a free consultation, and line up friends and family at home for a whole new kind of movie adventure.
Labels: Home Theater Design, Home Theater Experience, Houston Home Theaters, Lighting and Home Automation
The main drawback of self-installed home theater systems is the inability of retail grade components to exactly match acoustics with the size and configuration of a room’s interior architecture. Retail components of home theater systems are engineered for mass production and sale, and consequently manufacturers use less expensive materials in building these components. While self-installations can sometimes produce a close equivalent to public theater, sound produced by retail components will never completely eliminate muffling, reverb, and acoustical dead spots that only professionally fine-tuned, manufacturer grade components can accomplish. However, when a multi-specialty distributor such as Illuminations Lighting builds a home theater system with any number and combination of literally thousands of possible professional grade components, it becomes not only possible to equal public entertainment, but to surpass it altogether.
Representing companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Runco, Sharp, Boston Acoustics, Vienna, and Triad, ILD also provides superior sound, video, and audio distribution equipment for home theater systems. We can select any size and configuration of speaker, front or rear end projector, flat panel television, and surround sound distribution system and literally build a home theater system into the existing floor plan, physical size, interior design, and specific location and architecture of the room. We even install special home theater seats that move with the action of the movie---something public cinema has yet to do.
Because of their extensive cross training in architecture and interior design, ILD engineers can actually assist a homeowner choose the ideal location to set up the home theater system. Such factors as ceiling height, wall and ceiling material build, and even the angles and positions of corners and large decorations play a major role in how sound travels and reflects in a room. Lighting represents another critical factor that requires a trained, professional eye to design. Few rooms in modern homes are windowless, so limiting natural light and creating special lighting effects require not only commercial grade lighting equipment, but also lighting automation programming that is only available through a team trained in home automation technology. We program hundreds of lighting combinations, colored lighting effects, and dimmable lighting options into your system and bring them directly under your control at the touch of a button.
Clients who make the wise decision to invest in high expectations are never disappointed when they turn to ILD to make their dreams for a home theater system become a tangible, personalized reality. Why not become one of these satisfied clients day by calling 713-863-1133 . See what your home can do that no other home—or even public cinema—can even come close to doing. Labels: Home Theater Design, Home Theater Experience, Houston Home Theaters, Lighting and Home Automation
Illuminations Lighting and Design delivers specific audiovisual services combined with the latest strategies and controls for home automation technology. ILD’s trained and fully certified staff consults extensively with homeowners to determine key areas of need and entertainment preference. After developing a customized procurement list from the world’s top manufacturers, our audiovisual services team layout a plan of action that unfolds step by step into an audiovisual solution unparalleled in its ability to meet every detail of client need and desire. We build our audiovisual service methodology around four key areas of home automation that not only deliver the very best in video output and sound like you’ve never heard before, but that also integrate seamlessly into centralized computer control and user-friendly access to a whole-house living experience.
The goal of our audiovisual services team is to accommodate the highly American (and especially Texan) high expectations of personal space and freedom. Even when relaxing with family at home, people often separate and claim their own personal spots. Families with children often observe new territorial boundaries established and renegotiated daily between growing siblings. Servicing the audiovisual needs of the average family requires innovative thinking and design strategies to say the least. Our audiovisual services team therefore plans from the beginning to deliver an equal level of sound and video quality throughout the entire structure. Once installed, the new audiovisual system can deliver an equal level of superior entertainment to both private bedrooms and spacious living areas all under master control.
Audiovisual services specialists deliver and regulate sound distribution throughout the home automation network with a series of touch panels and keypads that regulate every subtlety of music. Our systems are fully digital and employ technologies from audio giants such as Boston Acoustics, Triad, Vienna, AMX, and Niles, just to name some. Our audiovisual services include all electrical remodeling and cabling required to fully integrate your new entertainment experience with both existing home wiring and new home automation. The multiple certifications and cross-disciplinary experience our audiovisual services team brings to your table ensures safe operation and aesthetically pleasing, easy to use controls that require little, if any, maintenance and support. With keypads, touch panels, IR and remote controls designed with a sheik appearance equivalent to technical delivery power, clients can enjoy a home theatre and stereo experience that not only looks good on the flat screen and sounds like nothing else on the speakers, but they can also count on the equipment that runs the show to blend beautifully into the home’s architecture and decorum.
ILD’s audiovisual service professionals strive to create a home theatre experience that surpasses that of the largest and most sophisticated movie houses. With dedicated surround sound solutions, we can deliver audio feeds straight from the DVD to every corner of the home with full Hollywood sound effects customized to the acoustics of your homes unique design. Our home automation specialists will then take the experience to a whole new level, tying lighting control into audiovisual control and allowing hosts to either dim or increase lighting levels to provide an optimized audiovisual environment specific to the tastes of those gathered. No movie theatre can do that. Illuminations Lighting and Design can.
Call ILD today at 713-863-1133 to talk to an audiovisual specialist and start planning a home theatre experience that will exceed your expectations and dazzle the minds of your friends and family.
Labels: Audio Video Employment, Home Theater Experience, Houston Texas Contractors, Lighting and Home Automation
Home Theater Lighting creates an ambient environment that motivates friends and family to come to a private residence for a superior movie-going experience. Home theater lighting and automation, when done correctly, not only equals the quality of public cinema, but in many respects exceeds it. Home theater lighting accommodates direct control of lighting intensity so the host can dim the room to levels optimal for movie viewing. Sufficient task and accent lighting must remain on to some degree, however, so guests can move freely in and out the room without hazard or inconvenience. This skillful blend of light and darkness takes an expert home automation team like the one that makes Illuminations Lighting and Design a leader in home theater equipment and customization.
First and foremost to any home theater lighting job is direct remote control over the lighting levels and multiple lighting themes we program into a home automation lighting system. We link an AMX hand-held remote to both the audiovisual equipment and the lighting control system superstructure. When the host hits play, a pre-programmed timer begins to dim the lights as the movie credits begin to roll. This emulates the dimmable lights of theater that focus attention on the screen and set the mood for an altered state of reality. At the same time, it offers personal control and customization that public cinemas do not provide. Based on the size of the room, the type of projector used, and the overall layout of furniture and decorations, home theater lighting specialists pre-program multiple themes into the home theater system that allow the host to not only choose the amount of time it takes to dim the lights, but also offers a variety of individual light levels and effects that compliment the genre and theme of the specific movie the guests have come to enjoy.
Home theater lighting depends on layers of specific types of illumination in order to out compete the major cinemas. Colored lighting triggers emotion on an unconscious level and can transform the white light of normal illumination into a mood-altering compliment to the nature and theme of the film. This is a very subtle effect that guests seldom consciously notice but unconsciously respond to with a desire to "come back again next week." Dimmable lights generate optimal, low lighting for home theaters that focuses attention away from an obscured environment directly onto the projections screen—just as the lights in a cinema do. ILD dimmable lighting offers more versatility, however, than public cinema lighting because home automation systems contain a memory feature that allows us to pre-program any number of lighting levels and themes, each with its own preset timing control. We can then link this to indirect lighting sources that use very low levels of light reflected from key points in the room to create an aura of specific colors and luminosity that compliments both the room and the feature film. With thousands of lamps, luminaries, and fixtures for specialty lighting from which we can choose, we can automate and control necessary illumination with an aesthetic flare that enhances the decorative and special effects that make home theater lighting a prime motivation to stay indoors over the weekend. The home theater lighting system will also keep specific task lights powered on at low levels so guests can leave the room if necessary. We overlay these lighting effects in such a way as to create a sense of total darkness when in reality there is always enough light where it needs to be to accommodate safe movement and special effects.
Every home theater lighting design must also be customized to the personality and lifestyle of the client and properly illuminate the physical floor plan and interior architecture of the audio/visual room itself. In order to guarantee that we can truly deliver a custom solution to every client who comes to us, we have spent many years building relationships with the world's leading manufacturers of home automation controls, task lighting, accent lighting, and decorative lighting equipment. With access to specialties like ceiling lights and wall mounted lights for indirect lighting, we can create an aesthetic that goes beyond the public domain. Call us today at 713-863-1133 to host the next grand opening at your home and amaze your guests with an experience never to be forgotten!
Labels: Home Automation Specialists, Home Theater Experience, Home Theater Lighting, home theaters, Media Room Lighting Designs
Home automation represents a rising and rapidly evolving industry. Home automation installers are highly trained professionals who are equally savvy as technical experts, licensed electrical contractors, and creative designers. Illuminations Lighting and Design, Houston's premier lighting design and electrical consulting firm, heads up the city's most impeccable home automation department, with installers trained and cross-trained in every nuance of equipment selection, installation, and project development strategy.
Home automation clients can be new homeowners or existing homeowners who decide to take their lifestyles to the next level. Often we encounter new clients who have already installed or had installed a measure of home automation from either a retail source or a competitive entity. The first thing these clients usually tell us is that their existing home automation network fails to deliver control over every element of life. A client with a state of the art home theatre system may suddenly realize he or she has to get up and walk across the room to close the shades or dim the lights. Clients hosting parties at home quickly realize that remote control of the air conditioner would not only add convenience to the event but help them save on energy costs as guests fan the doors all night and move back and forth between the home theatre, the garden, the patio, and the spa. Such integrated and centralized control is the difference that sets a custom home automation project by ILD apart from competitive entities specializing only in the equipment itself or limited home automation installation specific only to segments of the lifestyle rather than comprehensively accommodating the entire lifestyle.
When our home automation installers step into such an arena, they carefully evaluate existing technology and retrofit the very best in new technology for a home automation network that leaves room for future growth and evolution of technology. Since most home automation installation in today's market requires customizing or creating a home theatre system, we require all of our home automation installation consultants to train and certify in high-end home theatre systems by Sony, Boston, and Vienna Acoustics. This way, our clients are assured that every element of living is not only automated, but also fully optimized to manufacturer standards and equipment specifications.
ILD's home automation installers spend many years in training and continuing professional education programs to develop the knowledge base required to meet the high demands of this intense, technically demanding industry. Additionally, each ILD technician mentors as an apprentice under a veteran technician to learn the proprietary methodologies exclusive to Illuminations Lighting and Design. The result of our intensive training and apprenticeship programs is a knowledgeable, experienced team of home automation installers whose expertise in current and upcoming technologies enable us to install home automation networks that are completely unique and individualize to each specific client we service. The safety, reliability, and exceptional value of our work are backed up with tangibles every time at the end of the day. Our home automation installation specialists carry design certifications and undergo frequent cross-training with other industries such as architecture, construction, and landscaping as well to ensure that our solutions truly address every aspect of home build and home living.
Throughout Houston and now Greater Texas, our division of home automation installers is rapidly gaining not only notoriety, but also an outstanding reputation for being the single source of the most comprehensive home automation designs that apply only the very latest and advanced technology in a one of kind design. Best of all, our home automation installers are good communicators and even better listeners who know how to make a project not only a technology upgrade, but a lifestyle upgrade as well that exceeds the expectations of clients. Call today 713-863-1133 to see what our team can do for your world starting now.
Labels: Home Lighting Controls, Home Theater Experience, home theaters, Houston Texas Contractors, Lighting and Home Automation, Lutron Homeworks Lighting Controls
Have you ever wanted to turn a room in your house into an awesome home theater? That's what we do here at Illuminations Lighting Design. As lighting designers, electrical contractors and home automation specialists, we build excitement into your lifestyle!
On a recent residential project we transformed a simple kid's playroom into a awesome home theater and XBOX360 gaming Mecca. The before and after pictures show how the room was altered to be both a serious theater for the parents and a great space for the children to play games and watch Television.
Like all home theater projects we met with the clients first to discuss their requirements, talk through the plethora of options and establish a preliminary budget. Once a budget was established we began looking at various plasma TVs, surround sound systems, DVD players and of course, speakers.
After careful consideration it was decided that we should alter the existing cabinets to incorporate the new A/V equipment and provide enough wall space for a screen. The customer was pleased that we did not have to move the furniture and kept the same room orientation. Once we got the decorating out of the way, it was time for selecting the components.
Here is what we installed:
(1) Runco DLP Projector
(1) 84" Stewart Film Screen
(1) Marantz Surround Sound Receiver
(1) Marantz DVD Player
(1) HD Cable Box w/DVR
(1) APC Power Conditioner & Battery Backup
(1) Vienna Acoustic Speaker (Center)
(2) Vienna Acoustic Bookshelf Speakers (Front)
(2) Vienna Acoustic Bookshelf Speakers & Stands (Rear)
(2) Vienna Acoustic Sub Woofers
(1) Programmable Remote Control
(1) XBOX360 (For the kid's)
You have to see this one in person to appreciate the clarity of the picture and the quality of the sound. If you are interested in creating an entertainment center at your home contact the professionals at Illuminations Lighting Design. Call toll free at 800-863-1184 or visit us online at http://www.illuminationslighting.com/.
Your one stop resource for everthing cool!
Labels: Austin Home Theater Installation, Home Theater Experience, Home Theater Lighting, Home Theater Lighting Control, home theaters
Runco's award-winning home theater and home cinema products are now availalble at Illuminations Lighting Design.
As one of
Texas fastest growing custom home theater and home automation companies we are proud to add Runco home theater and home cinema products to our list of
credentials . Runco equipment easily integrates with any decor or lifestyle. If you are looking for the highest quality large screen viewing experience, Runco from Illuminations Lighting Design is the answer!
The Runco CL-610 (pictured above) and CL-610LT offer 1280 x 720 native resolution DLP light engines featuring Runco's powerful SuperOnyx technology for bright, pristine, high definition images. Black levels, brightness and contrast exceed anything previously available in this projector class.
Key features of the Runco CL-610 DLP projector:
1280 x 720 (16:9), high-definition native resolution
Selectable Lamp Intensity Control (SLIC) provides two lamp intensity levels for varied lighting conditions
Internal aspect ratio control with 5 available settings
Creates bold pictures on screens up to 96 inches wide
Since 1986, Runco has been a leader in the large screen projection industry through its commitment to research and development toward cultivating the latest refinements in video display technology.
Runco offers other home theater products such as:
DLP Projectors
Plasma Display Monitors
LCD Display Monitors
Video Processors
Video Signal Enhancers
Product Archive Products
Illuminations is a full service design build firm specializing in residential and commercial indoor lighting and
outdoor lighting installation, service and maintenance as well as
home automation, home theaters and lighting control systems. They are a member of
CEDIA -
Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association. can visit them online at
http://www.illuminationslighting.com/ or give them a call toll free at 800-863-1184 for more information on home theaters or Runco products.
Like Music.... Lighting Sets The Mood!
SuperOnyx, Imagng Science Foundation, Vivix are registered trademarks of Runco International.Labels: Home Theater Design, Home Theater Experience, Home Theater Lighting, home theaters, Houston Theater Deigners
Ever found yourself in a retail store with rows and rows of televisions, showing the same video and each looks better than the other? Well you are not alone. With the mix of new technologies and standard technologies, today's television market is rapidly changing, and can get confusing. It's important, as a consumer purchasing a new television, to understand the differences, pros and cons in the varied offerings.
Basically, there are 4 types of televisions in the market, not to be confused with type of signal (SDTV, EDTV or HDTV).
Tube TV
Tube televisions are the old stand-bys. Also known as direct view, these are the bulky, big, heavy television with the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) technology, which is a specialized vacuum tube. Newer models can display HDTV video signal. These televisions are less expensive compared to their counterparts and have a very long lifespan.
DLP TV
DLP televisions are based on a technology invented by Texas Instruments back in 1987 called Digital Light Processing. The technology is based on an optical semiconductor called DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) chip. The chip consists of over one million mirrors to process light. They come in either single chip or 3 chip configurations. One-chip DLP systems use a projection lamp to pass white light through a color wheel that sends red-green-blue colors to the DMD chip in a sequential order to create an image on-screen. Only one DMD chip is used to process the primary RGB colors. Three-chip DLP systems use a projection lamp to send white light through a prism, which creates separate red, green, and blue light beams. Each beam is sent to their respective red, green, and blue DMD chip to process the image for display on-screen. One-chip models are said to produce a display of over 16-million colors. Three-chip models can produce a display of over 35-trillion colors.They are not susceptible to burn-ins however; they do require a lamp replacement every 1000 hours to 2000 hours, depending on the manufacturer. DLP do not come in flat panel configuration. The advantages of DLP are cost and picture quality. To see a demo of DLP technology visit the DLP technology website.
LCD TV
LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. The Display comes either in flat panel or rear projection configuration. These panels are popular due to their light weight, thin construction, vivid colors and ability to be used as computer monitors. LCD tends to show a ghosting effect if the refresh rate is too slow while others tend to show a screen door effect, which nothing more than a pixilation effect or in other words gaps between mirrors. The best criteria to select and LCD is actually to view it, checking for those to effects before buying. LCD panels are not susceptible to burn-ins.
Plasma TV
PlasmaTV'ss or PDP (Plasma Display Panel) are considered to be top of the line in picture quality and because of this are also considered to be the first choice for high end home electronics. All plasmas come in flat panel configurations, which make them ideal when space is limited or where the aesthetics of the TV body are important. The panels consist of gases which emit colors under different temperatures. It is a common misconception that Plasmas leak gases and can be refilled. Plasmas cannot be refilled. Plasma panels are susceptible to burn-ins.Ann average life span of 6 to 8 years is typical for these panels.
As with any home theater decisions, the best choice is to have a professional guide you through the many options out there. The professional home automation specialists at Illuminations can guide you through the process to ensure that you select the right products for your space, needs, wants, and budget.
For more information about televisions and the Home Theater and HOME AUTOMATION SERVICES at Illuminations call 800-863-1184. One of our CEDIA CERTIFIED DESIGNERS will be glad to answer any questions you have or schedule a time to meet and discuss your home automation and lighting control needs.
Illuminations Lighting Design is a full service design build firm specializing in residential and commercial indoor lighting and outdoor lighting installation, service and maintenance as well as home automation, home theaters and lighting control systems.
Labels: Home Theater Design, Home Theater Experience, Home Theater Lighting, Sony Home Theaters
