Nights in are the new nights out, especially when it comes to scoffing popcorn while watching the latest movie releases. Alan Chow looks at how automation can help create the perfect cinematic experience at home.

Life has changed. Going out to watch movies on the big screen just isn’t what it used to be. COVID and lockdowns have really changed life as we know it and people are altering their viewing habits from a night out to a night in.

We, as the experts in the home entertainment and automation field, can lend a hand in making a night in feel like a night out.

As much as I would love to talk about how to create the perfect home cinema by selecting the right speakers, pre-amplifiers, amplifiers, projectors, sound proofing and other important AV items, I can’t. I’m not an AV expert. You guys are and I’m sure you will design something that is magnificent and will blow your customers socks off.

What I can talk about however is my expertise, automation. Automation is key to creating a simplified yet elegant user experience.

There are several key items that you can automate in a home cinema to ensure that your solution pops.

Selecting the right sources

Netflix, Disney+, Stan and other streaming sources has become the standard for home entertainment. However, in embracing these services, you sacrifice quality and additional automation benefits that sources like Zappiti and Kaleidescape media players provide.

When integrated using the right drivers, both Zappiti (Control4, ELAN) and Kaleidescape (Control4, ELAN, URC) can offer a tremendous amount of automation.

Zappiti and Kaleidescape integration offer the ability to navigate their respected libraries from the home automation touchscreen interfaces, with the ability to select movies and have the entire cinema turn on and initiate playback from a single press.

Kaleidescape integration takes it a step further with feedback for items such as masking, aspect ratio and events for when movie starts, intermission and when credits roll.

Projection modes, lens shifting and masking

Projection modes, lens shifting and masking work together to ensure that you maximise the viewing experience, by ensuring that the movie you are watching is displayed correctly without black bars or borders. Combined with the feedback we get from Kaleidescape, we can automate this experience based on the movie being watched.

No one wants to manually set the masking to change between 235 and 16:9 modes, adjust the zoom on the lens and tweak all the little settings every time they watch. Imagine having the cinema transform to match the content you’re watching without having to manually initiate the change – that’s what automation can do.

Lighting

Overhead, step, screen, poster and star lighting are all part of the experience. When you’re out for a night, watching the latest movie at your local Village or Hoyts cinemas, you’ll notice that lighting always works in the same fashion You get bright lights when you first walk in, dimmed lighting when previews start, all lights off when the movie is playing, then bright lights again when the credits roll.

This experience can be replicated in the home through automation. It’s simple to implement for any integrator with automated lighting and, boy, does it make all the difference when it comes to user experience.

Climate

Comfort – that one word describes what having a cinema at home should provide more effectively than a commercial cinema. We need to ensure that the home cinema room isn’t freezing cold or boiling hot.

It is important to control the climate of the room without interrupting the movie experience. Integration provides the customer with a method to treat the room prior to usage. There is even cinema seating nowadays that is heated as well.

Dual purpose rooms

For those of us who cannot dedicate a room to a home cinema (I know I can’t) it is possible to automate a dual-purpose room with motorised shades closing during the daytime to ensure that you block out any ambient lighting, automated motorised projector screens, and projector lifts.

This ensures that when a user interacts with the system, the room will transform from a lounge to a cinema with the push of a single button.

Servicing

Nothing is worse than going to watch a movie and your system does not work. As such, it is important for the integration to provide feedback on the state of the cinema. For example, projectors can provide lamp and filter hour feedback to the integrator who can proactively service their customer before a lamp or projector fails.

In summary home automation and home cinemas go hand-in-hand. The user doesn’t want the stress of manually turning devices on and switching sources to create that experience. They just want to take time to leave their worries behind and disappear for two hours, leaving the stress of the outside world behind and be immersed.

By doing everything manually, it takes away from the magic and when it comes down to it, that is what it is all about. It’s what we do as an industry – create magic.