We all love and have an affinity toward watching a good movie with our friends and or family, so when it comes to creating affordable home theaters for our clients, I get really excited because I am all about that life. But when it comes to homeowners who want to attempt to do it yourself home theater installation, I would say you want to proceed with caution. As more and more devices fight for both space and attention in our living rooms, customers want their devices to play nicely together while not seeing a myriad of tangled wires. From huge flat screens to DVRs to cable or satellite dishes to video streaming devices or gaming consoles. Our typical living room setup today likely involves at least four or five devices, all of which need power coupled with audio and visual cabling.
Challenges of DIY Home Theater Installation
This doesn’t even factor in home theater setups, which have to be thoughtful of function, space and how to incorporate high-end audio speakers and sometimes even high tech projectors. Home theaters most of the time are installed with smart lighting and other automated home technologies. Furthermore, today’s systems are often heavily reliant on a solid and fast internet connection, so whole-house Wi-Fi networks are imperative. With all of these electronic devices, setting up a proper home theater system can become quite complex.
Why Hiring Professionals Makes Sense: Overcoming Network Complexities
Our advice here at Mitchell Construction is to leave the installation and design process to the professionals! They’re all computers and increasingly more complex to network with other devices. It is far and few between to that any house older than even six years to have walls that are hardwired for all of the cablings that’s needed to run and access these new devices. While some will work on a wireless, whole-house network, many do require multiple connections, and signal strength is always better if hardwired.
The Cabling Maze
The other thing that most people do not realize is that every home theater component requires its own set of cables running from the component storage location to the TV. This sometimes will require additional drywall work, painting, adding outlets, and sometimes conduit, and that is just for the really easy installs.
The more complicated items whole-home stereo, movie theaters, Smart Home Technology, these devices require multiple trades, a lot of programming, and a support team that can keep such systems running efficiently.
Like most do it yourself type of projects, I feel that they are still better left to the professionals for anyone who values quality, efficiency and their own time off work better spent on things that do not inevitably lead to frustration, and oftentimes more money long-term as well. In other words, installing a home theater on your own is possible, but you will likely run into issues that you didn’t foresee because you may have failed to take into account the hundreds of variables at play in such a complex installation. But, by relying on the knowledge and experience of professional home theater installers, you can rest assured that your devices will function and play well with one another all while consolidating the multitude of wires.
If you have any questions on home theater design and installation call Mitchell Construction today for a free in-home consultation!
