Home theater receiver placement

A projector-based home theater system is the best way to get a large-screen experience in your own home. The good news is setting up a projector-based home theater is no more difficult than more traditional layouts, though it does need a bit more planning. The key is to put a bit of thought into your project before you start buying all of your equipment so you know the best places to spend your budget and how to make your space the best home theater it can be. One of the biggest differences when you set up a projector-based home theater is the way you think about light. Consider your immobile light sources, like windows and permanent light fixtures. The less light pollution reaches the projector lamp and screen, the brighter and sharper your picture will be.

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Content:

• Common Mistakes When Setting Up a Home Theater System
• Surround sound
• 161™ speaker system
• 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos Surround Sound Speaker Placement
• Five Suggestions for Converting a Small Space into a Home Theater
• Designing & Building a Home Theater #7 – Tips for Placing Screens, Projectors, and Speakers…
• The Ultimate Guide to Building a Home Theater

WATCH RELATED VIDEO: Home Theater Speaker Layout Options

Common Mistakes When Setting Up a Home Theater System

Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener surround channels. Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to surround sound, theater sound systems commonly had three screen channels of sound that played from three loudspeakers left, center, and right located in front of the audience.

Surround sound adds one or more channels from loudspeakers to the side or behind the listener that are able to create the sensation of sound coming from any horizontal direction at ground level around the listener. The technique enhances the perception of sound spatialization by exploiting sound localization : a listener's ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance.

This is achieved by using multiple discrete audio channels routed to an array of loudspeakers. Surround sound formats vary in reproduction and recording methods, along with the number and positioning of additional channels. The most common surround sound specification, the ITU 's 5. Though cinema and soundtracks represent the major uses of surround techniques, its scope of application is broader than that as surround sound permits creation of an audio-environment for all sorts of purposes.

Multichannel audio techniques may be used to reproduce contents as varied as music, speech, natural or synthetic sounds for cinema, television , broadcasting, or computers. In terms of music content for example, a live performance may use multichannel techniques in the context of an open-air concert, of a musical theatre performance or for broadcasting ; [2] for a film , specific techniques are adapted to movie theater or to home e. This applies mainly to cinema narratives, for example the speech of the characters of a film, [5] [6] [7] but may also be applied to plays performed in a theatre, to a conference, or to integrate voice-based comments in an archeological site or monument.

For example, an exhibition may be enhanced with topical ambient sound of water, birds, train or machine noise. Topical natural sounds may also be used in educational applications. Significant work has also been done using surround sound for enhanced situation awareness in military and public safety application. Cinema 5. Sony Dynamic Digital Sound SDDS is an 8 channel cinema configuration which features 5 independent audio channels across the front with two independent surround channels, and a Low-frequency effects channel.

Traditional 7. Most surround sound recordings are created by film production companies or video game producers; however some consumer camcorders have such capability either built-in or available separately. Surround sound technologies can also be used in music to enable new methods of artistic expression. After the failure of quadraphonic audio in the s, multichannel music has slowly been reintroduced since with the help of SACD and DVD-Audio formats. Some AV receivers , stereophonic systems, and computer sound cards contain integral digital signal processors or digital audio processors to simulate surround sound from a stereophonic source see fake stereo.

The first documented use of surround sound was in , for the Disney studio's animated film Fantasia. Walt Disney was inspired by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 's operatic piece Flight of the Bumblebee to have a bumblebee featured in his musical Fantasia and also sound as if it was flying in all parts of the theatre. The initial multichannel audio application was called ' Fantasound ', comprising three audio channels and speakers.

The sound was diffused throughout the cinema, controlled by an engineer using some 54 loudspeakers. The surround sound was achieved using the sum and the difference of the phase of the sound. However, this experimental use of surround sound was excluded from the film in later showings. In , "surround sound" successfully reappeared with the film "This is Cinerama", using discrete seven-channel sound, and the race to develop other surround sound methods took off.

Sound designers commonly regard this as the origin of the now standard concept of "surround sound. In , a concept devised by Max Bell for Dolby Laboratories called "split surround" was tested with the movie Superman. This led to the 70mm stereo surround release of Apocalypse Now , which became one of the first formal releases in cinemas with three channels in the front and two in the rear. The format was also deployed in with the stereo surround release of Blade Runner.

The 5. A French engineer, Dominique Bertrand used a mixing board specially designed in cooperation with Solid State Logic , based on series and including six channels. The same engineer had already achieved a 3. Surround sound is created in several ways.

The first and simplest method is using a surround sound recording technique—capturing two distinct stereo images, one for the front and one for the back or by using a dedicated setup, e. A second approach is processing the audio with psychoacoustic sound localization methods to simulate a two-dimensional 2-D sound field with headphones. A third approach, based on Huygens' principle , attempts reconstructing the recorded sound field wave fronts within the listening space; an "audio hologram" form.

One form, wave field synthesis WFS , produces a sound field with an even error field over the entire area. Commercial WFS systems, currently marketed by companies sonic emotion and Iosono , require many loudspeakers and significant computing power.

The 4th approach is using three mics, one for front, one for side and one for rear, also called Double MS recording. The Ambisonics form, also based on Huygens' principle , gives an exact sound reconstruction at the central point; however, it is less accurate away from the central point. There are many free and commercial software programs available for Ambisonics, which dominates most of the consumer market, especially musicians using electronic and computer music.

Moreover, Ambisonics products are the standard in surround sound hardware sold by Meridian Audio. In its simplest form, Ambisonics consumes few resources, however this is not true for recent developments, such as Near Field Compensated Higher Order Ambisonics. Finally, surround sound can also be achieved by mastering level, from stereophonic sources as with Penteo , which uses digital signal processing analysis of a stereo recording to parse out individual sounds to component panorama positions, then positions them, accordingly, into a five-channel field.

However, there are more ways to create surround sound out of stereo, for instance with the routines based on QS and SQ for encoding Quad sound, where instruments were divided over 4 speakers in the studio.

There are many alternative setups available for a surround sound experience, with a 3 front, 2 back speakers and a Low Frequency Effects channel configuration more commonly referred to as 5. The standard surround setup consists of three front speakers LCR left, center and right , two surround speakers LS and RS left and right surround respectively and a subwoofer for the Low Frequency Effects LFE channel, that is low-pass filtered at Hz. The angles between the speakers have been standardized by the ITU International Telecommunication Union recommendation and AES Audio Engineering Society as follows: 60 degrees between the L and R channels allows for two-channel stereo compatibility with the center speaker directly in front of the listener.

The Surround channels are placed degrees from the center channel, with the subwoofer's positioning not being critical due to the low directional factor of frequencies below Hz.

The channel setup consisting of one monophonic surround channel is such a case, where both LS and RS are fed by the monophonic signal at an attenuated level of -3 dB. The function of the center channel is to anchor the signal so that any central panned images do not shift when a listener is moving or is sitting away from the sweet spot. Motion Pictures tend to use the center channel for monophonic purposes with stereo being reserved purely for the left and right channels.

Surround microphones techniques have however been developed that fully use the potential of three-channel stereo. Most 2-channel stereophonic microphone techniques are compatible with a 3-channel setup LCR , as many of these techniques already contain a center microphone or microphone pair. Surround microphone techniques largely depend on the setup used, therefore being biased towards the 5.

Surround recording techniques can be differentiated into those that use single arrays of microphones placed in close proximity, and those treating front and rear channels with separate arrays.

Appropriate microphone techniques should therefore be used, if room impression is important. Although the reproduction of side images are very unstable in the 5. A distinguishing factor for the pickup of the front channels in surround is that less reverberation should be picked up, as the surround microphones will be responsible for the pickup of reverberation. To compensate for the lost low-end of directional pressure gradient microphones, additional omnidirectional pressure microphones , exhibiting an extended low-end response, can be added.

The microphone's output is usually low-pass filtered. If echoes are notable, the front array can be delayed appropriately. Alternatively, backward facing cardioid microphones can be placed closer to the front array for a similar reverberation pickup. The INA-5 Ideal Cardioid Arrangement is a surround microphone array that uses five cardioid microphones resembling the angles of the standardised surround loudspeaker configuration defined by the ITU Rec.

A well established microphone array is the Fukada Tree, which is a modified variant of the Decca Tree stereo technique. The array consists of five spaced cardioid microphones, three front microphones resembling a Decca Tree and two surround microphones. Two additional omnidirectional outriggers can be added to enlarge the perceived size of the orchestra or to better integrate the front and surround channels.

Spacing between these microphones should be about 1. This square formation is responsible for the room impressions. The center channel is placed a meter in front of the L and R channels, producing a strong center image. The surround microphones are usually placed at the critical distance where the direct and reverberant field is equal , with the full array usually situated several meters above and behind the conductor.

The NHK Japanese broadcasting company developed an alternative technique also involving five cardioid microphones. Here a baffle is used for separation between the front left and right channels, which are 30 cm apart. These compensate for the bass roll-off of the cardioid microphones and also add expansiveness.

The front array is designed for minimum crosstalk, with the front left and right microphones having supercardioid polar patterns and angled at 90 degrees relative to the center microphone. The surround microphones are backwards facing cardioid microphones, that are placed 40 cm back from the L and R microphones. The L, R, LS and RS microphones pick up early reflections from both the sides and the back of an acoustic venue, therefore giving significant room impressions.

Specialized microphone arrays have been developed for recording purely the ambience of a space. These arrays are used in combination with suitable front arrays, or can be added to above mentioned surround techniques.

Four figure-eight microphones are arranged in a square, ideally placed far away and high up in the hall. Spacing between the microphones should be between 1—3 meters. Here, four cardioid microphones, 90 degrees relative to one another, are placed in square formation, separated by 21—25 cm.

This technique therefore resembles back to back near-coincident stereo pairs. The disadvantage of this approach is that direct sound pickup is quite significant. Many recordings do not require pickup of side reflections. For Live Pop music concerts a more appropriate array for the pickup of ambience is the cardioid trapezium.

This is effective for the pickup of audience and ambience. All the above-mentioned microphone arrays take up considerable space, making them quite ineffective for field recordings. In this respect, the double MS Mid Side technique is quite advantageous. This array uses back to back cardioid microphones, one facing forward, the other backwards, combined with either one or two figure-eight microphone.

Different channels are obtained by sum and difference of the figure-eight and cardioid patterns. This technique also allows for postproduction changes of the pickup angle.

Surround replay systems may make use of bass management , the fundamental principle of which is that bass content in the incoming signal, irrespective of channel, should be directed only to loudspeakers capable of handling it, whether the latter are the main system loudspeakers or one or more special low-frequency speakers called subwoofers.

There is a notation difference before and after the bass management system. After the bass management system there is a subwoofer signal.

Surround sound

What connectivity options to look for? Other Miscellaneous Features. In-box contents and wires. Most of us might consider soundbars for our living rooms.

161™ speaker system

In this article, we are going to discuss how to figure out exactly where to place your speakers. Because this can get complicated quickly, this article addresses only the placement of speakers for 5. These two legacy formats matter a great deal because the placement of these speakers is the same when adding immersive formats such as Dolby Atmos. These layouts are the foundation for all movie audio you enjoy in a commercial theater as well as at home. In a future article, we will discuss adding the overhead speakers. We are also going to leave subwoofer placement for another article as it requires a lot of attention to separate the fact from opinion. The Perfect Room. Before we dive into the subject, please note that almost everyone reading this article will have some challenges in their room. Some problems could be columns, windows, or doors in the way preventing proper speaker placement.

5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos Surround Sound Speaker Placement

You spent hours researching high quality speakers. The center channel speaker projects the dialogue and is one of the most important speakers of your home theater system. Most homeowners know that the center speaker should be placed you guessed it at the center of the system- either above or below the tv. Example of a center speaker placed too low. Photo source: Klipsch.

Five Suggestions for Converting a Small Space into a Home Theater

Figuring out the best speaker placement for 7. Speaker placement can make or break the perfect movie and theatre experience. Picking the right speakers for your home, swallowing the cost of all the proper gear, and getting everything back to your house is hard enough. Why bother? Now that you have a great home surround sound system, why not find the best placement for your speakers?

Designing & Building a Home Theater #7 – Tips for Placing Screens, Projectors, and Speakers…

In both instances, the listening environment is going to be nothing like your home. Without a doubt, home speakers that you hear at a store will sound drastically different once you get them in your own home due to the size of your room, placement, furniture, electronics, floor material and ceiling height, just to name a few. In fact your room is more likely to affect the sound of the speakers than any of your other components. In-home auditions will answer the most important purchasing criteria which should be, if the speakers sound good to you, in your home, with your music an d is probably the most common home theater mistake that should be avoided. As I mentioned in common mistake 1, listening to your speakers in your own room is critical.

The Ultimate Guide to Building a Home Theater

The numbers in surround sound terminology mean the amount of speakers used. Example surround sound numbers are 2. When the number 5. First number: 7.

You see, before the coronavirus pandemic upended life as we knew it, theaters were in the midst of a renaissance of sorts. For instance, if you were watching an action movie and there was an explosion on the right side of the screen, half of the speakers in the theater would all play that same sound. With Atmos, the sounds in a theater could now come from distinct locations determined by the professional audio mixers that had arranged them. This meant that, theoretically, theater operators were limited only by their appetite to add extra speakers and amplification.

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Disappointment ensues. These demo modes remove all nuances of shadow, blacks, gray-scale and the color palette by overdriving the pixels so detail is sacrificed to brightness. Then readjust the color intensity and tint settings of your home theater setup for a natural picture and normal skin tone. If you are using a front projector and or inch screen in your home theater setup, invest in some blackout curtains to make the room dark and adjust the screen brightness so you get a full range of blacks, grays and white detail, as well as natural colors.

It may seem like a simple point, but there are several factors to consider. After all, every component and speaker in your system will need to be connected to your receiver. Correct placement of system components with respect to each other as well as within your room , is a major contributor towards achieving that much-desired movie experience in the home. It may not always be possible to opt for the best equipment placement if you are installing in a shared environment such as the living room.