Gamers know that the difference between a good experience and an unforgettable one lies in the details. 

As gaming continues to grow in popularity, more enthusiasts are transforming their homes into immersive gaming sanctuaries. 

If you’ve been searching for Atlanta home theater installation companies, you’re not alone—dedicated gaming spaces are becoming a hot trend in home theater design.

But here’s the thing: creating the perfect gaming setup requires more than just a powerful console and a big screen. 

To truly level up, you need the right combination of audio-visual technology, ergonomics, and a professional installation to bring it all together.

Modern Atlanta Home Theater

Experience unforgettable holiday movie nights with a state-of-the-art home theater in your Atlanta home. Discover immersive viewing, tailored design, and more.

In our blog, we write a lot about how a home theater enhances your movie- and sports-watching experience. One aspect that we rarely touch on, though, is how it affects gaming. With the recent announcements of the 4K-capable Playstation 4 Pro and Xbox One S, now’s the perfect time to begin planning your video game upgrade. But how does smart automation improve your gaming? We’ll show you after the jump.

See Also: Designing the Perfect Home Theater for Football Season

Earlier this month, Sony announced they would be taking pre-orders for the Playstation 4 Pro, according to The Verge:

“The console — codenamed Neo, which the company discussed in brief just ahead of E3 in June — upgrades the three-year-old PS4 hardware with a faster processor, better graphics, and support for 4K resolution. It launches November 10th, and it will cost $399.”

The new version of the system will also sport HDR compatibility, an upgraded GPU and an improved clock rate. Sony’s console also currently supports Dolby Atmos, and the new version will as well, making it an excellent addition to a modern home theater setting.

It’s not as fun as talking about Dolby Atmos. It’s not as technical as analyzing receiver specs. But if you want to get the most out of your home theater surround sound system, you’re going to need specialized acoustic treatments. We spend a lot of time talking about the different components you can put into your Atlanta home to get great sound, but if the room isn’t properly designed to both absorb and reflect sound in the proper way, your components can sound muffled, muddled and will generally go to waste. Read on to find out why your home theater needs acoustic treatments.

SEE ALSO: Get the Most Out of Your Dolby Atmos Home Theater

"The Best Seat In The House" Control4; Accessed August 11th 2021

The Best Seat In The House

A home theater should feel like a special destination in your house—the one place you can retreat for a couple of hours to escape from reality and be transported into another world. The place you like to visit frequently with friends and family to enjoy the latest blockbuster releases—but without walking out with a backache from sitting in a poorly constructed seat.

Feel Like You’re Sitting Courtside with a Proper Home Theater or Media Room Setup

The time is near for collegiate basketball fans to turn their hearts and souls to the nearest TV for three weeks of NCAA frenzy. March Madness is a perfect reason to bring friends and family together within your Atlanta, GA home to celebrate camaraderie, conversation, and bonding over basketball. 

If you’re planning to be the host this season, consider these three audiovisual tips to ensure your home theater or media room is properly set up for weeks of immersive basketball viewing.

"Home Theater Design - 3 Essential Ingredients" HTA Certified; Accessed July 6th 2021

Home Theater Design - 3 Essential Ingredients

"Are you in the process of planning a home theater? Possibly you are well into the design or even already have some construction underway. Or, you may have only recently started to consider the possibility. In any case, you have likely been overwhelmed with copious, confusing and often misleading information on just exactly what creates a great home theater experience. To make sense of it all, it is a good idea to step back and consider what is possible, and what is essential to attain the results you desire. This article will consider three key ingredients of proper home theater design.

To be clear by what is meant by the term "home theater" in this article, we are referring to a room dedicated and optimized for movie, music, TV, and increasingly, video gaming. Other synonyms home technology professionals may use interchangeable for the term "home theater" are "home cinema" and private "screening room". What we are not referring to here are dual-purpose rooms that may double as the Living Room, Great Room, etc, that are open to other rooms in the home and that are not able to be optimized for high-performance audio and video. In home technology professional speak, these dual-purpose, more casual rooms are called "media rooms".

Sports fans rejoice! Football season is almost here and you’re in for a memorable season. But the one thing that would make it even more perfect is watching the game in the comfort of your very own Georgia home theater. As the season draws near, it’s time to start planning how you’re going to catch every second of the game. In this blog, we’ll take you through some of the smartest solutions for upgrading your system with smart AV. Read on for more.

See Also:  Set up for Spring Championships With a Smart Home Theater

Choose an Aesthetic

Ok, so you know you want a man cave, but you don’t know how you want it to look. Well, that’s perfectly fine, but you’re going to want to get an idea before your designer breaks ground. Whether you want a warm and cozy den, or the ultimate sports bar feel, you just have to keep in mind that the materials and textures you use will ultimately affect the way your AV gear looks and sounds.

For instance, you can integrate rocky textured walls for a nice, modernist throwback facade, but that may disperse your audio more than you would prefer. On the other hand, you can choose a sleek, metallic sheen for the walls, but the flat, reflective surfaces could bounce sound and light right back at you.

"Home Theater vs. Media Room - What's the Difference?" HTA Certified; Accessed July 27th 2021

Home Theater vs. Media Room - What's the Difference?

Nomenclature is a challenge when it comes to home technology. We struggle with terms that resonate with homeowners. From the “AV guy" to system integrators to custom installers to technology designers to low-voltage contractors, the home technology industry seems to have an identity crisis, even though all those terms mean essentially the same thing to an insider. The same goes for the terms that we use to define rooms in the home, which brings us to the topic du jour: What is the difference between a media room and a home theater?

Most homeowners do not know or even care about the difference.

You will hear them referring to their dedicated home theater space as a media room and vice versa. For architects, interior designers, builders, lighting designers, and other contractors, however, these distinctions can be important in defining your vision and communicating with each other. In other words, it’s good to know the difference between the two.

Expert Home Theater Installation

Creating an exceptional home theater goes beyond just owning a big TV. It's about finding the right balance between sound, visuals, comfort, and aesthetics to create an amazing sensory experience. Atlanta Audio & Automation, as pioneers in home theater installation, is here to help you achieve the ultimate cinematic setup.

Modern Customized Home Theater

For homeowners seeking a luxury home entertainment experience, adding a custom modern home theater can take movie nights and game days to the next level. More than a trendy accessory, a home theater system provides unparalleled entertainment, delivering crisp sound, high-quality images, and multiple screens. This article outlines the benefits of custom modern home theaters, the various components that make up these systems, and how homeowners can choose the right installation company near them.

Now that CEDIA has hit, technology season is in full swing. Just in time for the holidays, we’ve seen some interesting things coming out of one of the biggest custom electronics expos in the country. Whether you’re looking to install massive flat-panel TVs to enjoy beautiful Ultra HD Blu-rays or you’re just now considering the perfect additions to your home theater, CEDIA 2016 had something for you. After the jump, we’ll take a look at some of our favorite products.

See Also: Big Changes Coming to Control4 in the New Year

Sony’s Big Surprise

When we say “big,” we mean it. Sony unveiled one of the largest and brightest TV displays at this year’s event: the 100” Z9D. It’s part of their Z-series of TVs, which aim to challenge LG’s OLED units for the best-looking 4K HDR images available.

If you’re a fan of home theater tech, you know that OLED is widely considered the best display technology around. It gained praise from industry professionals in recent years because unlike more traditional LED displays, which use white LED backlighting but LCD technology for color and clarity, OLED does away with LCDs, allowing for a deeper, more natural black and sharper contrast between pixels.

Find The Home Theater Design That Fits You and Your Georgia Home  

Your home theater is where you come to relax and unwind. It’s probably also the space that all of your family likes to gather in and spend the most time together. In a lot of ways, it’s replaced the dinner table. And while we might not talk as much during a movie as we would eating spaghetti, it’s still a great way to spend quality time in a relaxed environment with the people that mean the most to us. 

So designing a home theater that fits your Atlanta residenceis important. Because you need the type of screen, sound, and seating that is conducive to the viewing experience that you want to have. And with help from one of our entertainment and AV experts, you can design the home theater you’ve always wanted. 

Over the past few years, Dolby Atmos has been taking over home theater audio systems. The reason is simple: it sounds better than anything you’ve ever heard before. And it didn’t just improve movie soundtracks – it made music sound incredible as well. The only problem was that it couldn’t reproduce live music with the same impact. If you wanted to experience a live concert in your home, you’d have to settle for stereo. But recently, Dolby devised a way to improve live sound mixing, giving you a more immersive experience when listening to your favorite bands.

See Also: Get the Most Out of Your Dolby Atmos Home Theater

Live Music – the Atmos Difference

While movie buffs have enjoyed the detailed sound mixing of Dolby Atmos for a couple of years now, live music has remained behind the curve. Why? Because of the complexity of mixing multiple sounds at once as individual “objects” – the method that Atmos uses to create the immersive effect – was simply too difficult.

Earlier this year, however, Dolby figured out a solution. And it turns out the translation was easier than expected. According to Ian Morris at Forbes, “The files [used to record live music] contain key parts of the track separated out, so vocals, bassline, melody and drums are all given their own tracks. This is much like a multitrack sound system in a recording studio, but greatly simplified.” Ultimately, Dolby realized the technology already existed, and they improved on it.

That means you can hear live music with the same directional sphere of sound reproduced in your home theater. Venues like London’s Ministry of Sound now offer better-than-ever listening experiences. It also means that live concert streams and broadcasts can now air in the format. So if you’re a music buff who loves concerts, you’ll potentially be able to stream concerts with full Dolby Atmos on services like Vimeo.

If you’re a fan of technology, you’ve probably already had a home theater integrated in your Atlanta property. For some homeowners though, they expect limited content when it comes to 4K. After all, 4K Ultra HD was a big shift from now-standard 1080p, which requires increases in network bandwidth and upgrades to some of your home technology. But if you’ve gone through the trouble of integrating that new tech, you don’t want it to go to waste. In this blog, we’ll cover some of the ways you can enjoy 4K Ultra HD resolution right now. Read on for more.

See Also: Using Sonos for Excellent Audio in Your Georgia Home Theater Part 2

4K Physical Media and Digital Downloads

It seems like forever ago that we were talking about 4K Blu-ray first hitting shelves. Today, many of your favorite movies are getting prestigious 4K UHD re-releases on home video. And just about every major studio blockbuster of 2016 received a simultaneous HD and UHD release when they hit home video. If you’re in the market to bolster your collection with more discs featuring 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos compatibility, you won’t be shortchanged at the local video store.

However, as 4K UHD continues to grow, digital downloads are becoming more and more common. Homeowners are waving goodbye to their physical collections and replacing them with digital downloads. Companies are offering full 4K video storage servers that minimize space requirements while hosting a wide selection of full Ultra HD movies.

You have always dreamed of having your own custom home theater where you can enjoy your favorite shows and movies with family and friends. But now that you're in the process of designing your dream home theater, you don't know exactly where to start.

Before you feel overwhelmed, here are some useful tips to use as your guide:

AV Solutions, Acoustics, & Comfy Seating

A home theater should bring everything you’d find at the local cinema right into the comfort of your own home – but leave all the negative features at the door! No more sticky floors, overpriced snacks, or too-talkative seat neighbors. Well, that last one might still be unavoidable – however, your dedicated home theater design can instead match the views, sounds, and comforts of a commercial cinema and improve them tenfold!

In this blog, we’ll dive into what design aspects truly make up the ultimate home theater in your Atlanta, GA living space and how these features can take your entertainment setup to the next level. Keep reading below to find out more.

The Options Are Truly Endless!

A professional home theater installation from our team at Atlanta Audio & Automation entails so many components – from the room’s acoustics and seating to the overall setup. But what about arguably the most important, certainly eye-catching, part of the room?

Your screen display is crucial to the appearance and performance of your Alpharetta, GA home cinema – and when it comes to the sizing, resolution, and type, you have endless options. Keep reading below to explore the possibilities!

Embrace the Power of Hidden Technology in Your Home Entertainment

With the rollout of a new generation of smart home tech, home audio and video has become more powerful and more accessible than ever before.

We recently worked with a client in Sandy Springs, GA who wanted a powerful home audio system without the unsightly wires and cobbled-together feel of even some of today’s most powerful audio tech.

Large speakers that give you the audio experience you crave can often take up far too much space and change the look and feel of the rooms of your home. When you’ve worked hard on your decor and the arrangement of each space, you want home audio and video solutions that integrate seamlessly with the rest of your home.

We were able to provide our client in Sandy Springs with a solution that allowed them to create beautiful soundscapes in their home without the tech dominating the space visually.

There are plenty of hidden tech options that allow you to integrate audio throughout the entirety of your home—here’s what we recommend.

LG's wall-size direct-view LED TV.

Don't rule out switching to a larger size based on assumptions, but keep these TV buying tips in mind.

If it's been a while since you last bought a TV, you might be surprised to learn that what's considered "big" has changed a lot. These days even 42 and 50 inches are barely considered "midsize." This is thanks to manufacturers being able to make larger screens more cheaply, and also 4K and 8K resolutions making huge TVs more usable. Ultraslim designs also mean that larger screens take up less space.

So if you're considering a new TV, it's understandable if you're thinking of getting the same size, give or take a few inches. But the reality is, you can probably go a lot bigger. How big? Maybe you don't need a TV the size of a wall or a TV that is a wall, but in most homes a 65- or 75-inch TV will fit just fine.

Overall our advice is simple: Get as big a TV as you can afford. The longer answer depends on your room, your seating distance and the acceptance factor of any cohabiting co-deciders. Here's how to figure out how big you can go.