During football season, you know how important it is to make sure everyone catches each impressive play and suspenseful moment of the big game.  But there’s nothing worse than garbled audio and a glitch-riddled screen to ruin the fun.  Give you and your guests the ultimate game day experience in your Dallas, TX home with an elevated audio video system.  Read on to learn why your upgraded media room is the perfect place to enjoy football with friends and family this fall.

New AV Technology

The next best thing to standing in the stadium with your sportswear and team gear on is reveling in an immersive experience at home with your bowl of buffalo chicken dip.  But with the latest audio video tech available, being at home might just jump to first place.  With a 4K Ultra High-Definition flat screen or projector, you’ll feel like you’re right there cheering your team on – in the comfort of your own home.  4K guarantees a crisp and clear picture quality, and lets you get as close to the screen as you need to without worrying about seeing the individual pixels. 

Installing a surround sound system will also ensure that you never miss a commentary or call.  You can enjoy everything about the stadium experience, but on your comfy sofa surrounded by your fellow fans.

SEE ALSO: GET READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS WITH AN AUDIO/VIDEO SYSTEM UPGRADE

Rid Yourself of the Glare

Imagine your team is about to score a touchdown, but then the sun shines intensely into the living room – causing a major glare on the screen and hindering your view completely.  You might think there’s not much to be done against the sun’s power without a huge hassle involved.  But motorized shades can make sure you never miss a beat. 

With a single push of a button, lower the shades so that no light touches the TV, or have automatic sensors cause the shades to automatically roll down when the sun is shifted to shine directly through your windows.  Take the control into your hands, and only worry about refilling your guests’ drinks and plates.

Double the Screens

With so many games to stay on top of, you might find not every viewer is in agreement over which to catch up on and watch.  Multiple screens are guaranteed to keep everyone happy and up to date on the various games.  With more than one screen, the opportunities are endless.  You can install an outdoor TV with a weather-proof and glare-free screen.  If your friends are grilling and tailgating on the patio, then you can easily pop into the kitchen for more dishes and never miss a moment on your media or kitchen’s TV.  Having more screens means more game-watching capabilities, and less time figuring out what channel to switch back to.

So you’ve decided to upgrade the media room in your Dallas, TX home. Instead of the standard 1080p HD you’ve become accustomed to, you want a video display that truly pops. You want to upgrade to 4K. But now that you’ve chosen to make the move, there are some questions you need answered, like: what exactly is 4K? How do you achieve full 4K picture? In this blog, we’ll answer your questions. Read on to learn more.

See Also: 4 Unique Uses for Your Brand New Media Room

What Is 4K?

By now you’ve probably heard the term 4K so much you might think it’s a standard feature on most TV displays. But actually, 4K has only become popular over the past couple of years. But do you really know what it means?

Also known as UHD, 4K is an image standard that’s four times the picture resolution of 1080p HD. Think of picture resolution like thread count on bedsheets: if 1080p equals 400 thread count, then 4K equals 1600. And, typically speaking, the higher the thread count, the better the quality.

The world has changed a lot in the last decade. Before 2007, iPhones didn’t even exist, and technology in the home was far from commonplace. Now, it’s not unusual to have televisions and smart devices in every room of the home. You might think that the more technology you have, the harder it is to manage it all, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Solutions like home video distribution allow you to easily control all your media across multiple devices.

In a previous post, we covered how home video distribution works, but let’s delve deeper into how you can make the most of this system in each room of your home.

1. Living Room

Let’s get the obvious room out of the way first. The living room is typically what comes to mind when somebody mentions televisions, and it’s usually the main reason why homeowners decide to go for a video distribution system. Either they’re tired of cluttering up the living room décor with countless media devices or they’re tired of being limited to a single room just to watch a movie or enjoy the latest episode of a TV show. Whatever the reason, consider the living room a must-have for video distribution.

2. Kitchen

There are plenty of great reasons to add a TV to your kitchen. You can try a new recipe alongside an episode of your favorite cooking show or have reruns playing in the background while you prep dinner. However, a TV in the kitchen isn’t much good if it can’t play the TV show or movie that you want to watch. With a video distribution system, your waterproof kitchen TV can have access to all the same media as the TV in your living room—sans cords or equipment.

3. Home Theater/Media Room

Like the living room, any home theater or media room worth its weight will have a video distribution system in place. A large part of what makes home theaters special is the ability to sit down, press play, and enjoy the immersive cinema experience. That experience shouldn’t involve sifting through different Blu-rays, booting up the Blu-ray player, finding the right remote for the projector, and so forth. Instead, all the devices are connected to one central control system that you can access right from your smartphone or tablet.

Different rooms have different audio needs, and a “one size fits all” music system isn’t going to get you the same level of quality sound that you can enjoy when you take a more tailored approach. At DB Media Solutions, we have more than a decade of experience designing and implementing high-fidelity multi-room music systems. Based on that unique insight, here’s an overview of the best setups for speakers in each room of your Colleyville, Texas area home.

In Dedicated Listening Rooms

The speaker layout and type in a dedicated listening room should be different from your typical media room setup. Believe it or not, the type of music you most enjoy listening to will affect how you set up the space. In fact, the right room size for listening to classical music might not be the perfect fit for enjoying jazz.

The speakers are typically placed on one end of the room, all directed toward a chair or sofa where you would sit to enjoy the music. Acoustic treatments on the side walls ensure that the best sound possible is directed toward your ears.

SEE ALSO: How to Build the Perfect Listening Room

In Common Areas

The kitchens, hallways, bathrooms, etc. are not places you would normally think to put a high-end audio system, but the beauty of multi-room music is that you are not limited to listening to music in one particular room. To achieve this unified sound across the entire home, you’ll want speakers strategically placed in high-traffic areas.

For Westlake, Texas homeowners who want something a little more flexible than a dedicated home theater system, a media room provides an excellent option for entertainment of all sorts. However, with any multipurpose room, the most common mistake is taking a “jack of all trades, master of none” approach. To create a space that provides a top-notch environment for all of your favorite activities, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. We’ve listed the top design mistakes and how to fix them below.

DON’T Permanently Block Out Natural Light

Sunlight is the bane of any dedicated home theater. It washes out projector visuals and creates a glare on television screens. Since you’ll likely want to enjoy movies and shows in your media room, your first instinct is probably to create a room without any windows. The problem is that the room needs to be available for other activities, like chatting with friends or playing a game of cards. In those cases, natural sunlight is great to have.

DO Install Blackout Shades on the Windows

The solution is to keep the windows, but include motorized shades that completely block out the light when you need a dark environment. With motorized shades, you have more flexibility for creating the perfect lighting for each activity, and changing the lighting is as easy as pushing a button.

DON’T Clutter the Room with Equipment

Bulky speakers, gaming equipment, and a pile of remotes on the coffee table create the distinct feeling that everyone is supposed to stare at the screen and jump right into a movie or video game. If you want the space to be open for other activities such as a fun party or relaxing with a good book, you don’t want to be distracted by the presence of AV equipment.

SEE MORE: 4 Unique Uses for Your Brand New Media Room

Connected devices have exploded in popularity in recent years. With the rise of the Internet of Things, devices communicate with each other throughout your Southlake, Texas home, from your refrigerator to your speakers. Many times when these products malfunction, it's not because of faulty manufacturing but rather a bad network. As people upgrade their technology, they fail to improve what matters most: the home network that serves as its foundation. In this blog, we guide you through some of the questions you need to ask to make sure your network is up to the task.

SEE MORE: What Are Some Perks of Living in a Smart Home?

How Do You Plan to Use Your Network?

The first step is knowing what you want out of your network. The hardware offered by your internet service providers works fine for basic functions: checking emails, browsing the web, watching videos on your computer, etc. However, if you are planning on using it as part of a connected home, you’re going to need an upgrade.

Sometimes, it may be enough to add a couple of routers and invest in a more expensive internet package to bolster your signal. Sometimes you need to upgrade to a router that can handle bigger bandwidths (if you expect to do a lot of media streaming, for example). In the case of a connected home, you may even need subnetworks called VLANS to divide up your traffic.

Getting the family to agree on anything can be difficult. Your sixteen-year-old daughter's ideal media room is going to be much different than yours. It may be enticing to say, "I've got the money, so I choose what we get." But you don't want one of the most important rooms in your Colleyville, Texas house to be a source of resentment. We specialize in creating multi-purpose media rooms that are sure to please the entire family. 

SEE MORE: 3 Ways to Fill Your Home With Music

Mellow Out With Your Favorite Music

With bookshelf speakers, ceiling speakers and in-wall speakers expertly laid out throughout the room you can have a versatile listening space. You don't need a dedicated 2-channel stereo system to break out the scotch and listen to your favorite albums. Many actually sound great on 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setups as well. Whether you're breaking out Pink Floyd or B.B King, you can get an immersive experience and truly natural sound. While you enjoy your favorite albums, your daughter can use the same system to stream her favorite Pandora channel or Spotify playlist when she’s hosting friends.

Challenge Friends to a Gaming Marathon

A great way to use your 4K Ultra HD television and surround sound is playing games with friends. Create the perfect environment when playing your favorite first-person shooter game. Like a TV show or movie, video game soundtracks are edited to give you a greater sense of the action. Get ahead of the competition with a system that lets you know exactly where your enemies are coming from.

There are a few other ways we can deck out your media room to make it the best place for an Overwatch marathon. In PC gaming, many players opt for multi-monitor systems to increase their peripheral vision. We can recreate this set-up with a multi-screen media room. We also increase the strength of your home network, so your play is never interrupted due to a bad connection.