Houston Outdoor Lighting, Indoor Art Lights, Landscape Lighting Designs, Home Automation Blog

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Our multi-specialty approach to media room design differentiates us from other Houston home automation and home theater companies.

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

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Home Theater Lighting is a major component of any upscale media room.

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