Media Room or Multimedia Room?

The Media Room Design Trend is the Entertainment Room

Media rooms often get mentioned in the same breath as home theaters. Truth be told, a home theater is a media room (perhaps more customized for movie watching), and a media room can always double as a home theater. What’s the difference, and should you care?

If you want a home theater or media room, we’re not concerned about what you call it. We will ask you specific questions about how you want to use it, and that will guide us on the path to the media room design that best fits your home lifestyle in Windermere, FL.

Media rooms and home theaters are going to have more similarities than differences. At the core, you want at least one large screen, a high-quality sound system to maximize the enjoyment of whatever content you like to watch, and comfortable seating. Beyond that, it’s all about what fits you.

Read on to learn more about what to consider designing your perfect media room.

See Also: Media Space, Home Theater, or Hybrid: Which One Is Best for You?

Questions to Consider

As with most projects, to get the best results, it’s critical to know what you want. Here are some examples of the questions we’d ask you to consider to define what kind of media room is right for you.

• Do you like to watch a lot of sports?
• Do you like to primarily watch movies?
• Do you watch a lot of TV, whether broadcast, cable, or satellite?
• When you do watch TV, are you doing other things in the room?
• Does your family enjoy video games?
• Do you sometimes like to listen to music on a full stereo or multichannel system – one that sounds big?

These questions help in narrowing down choices on screens, sound systems, room design, seating, and much more. Now let’s talk about a couple of different approaches to the media room.

The Home Theater Option

Home theaters are more optimized for an immersive viewing experience like a commercial theater. The seating may be more individualized, with comfortable details like cupholder, electric reclining, and sometimes even convenience lights. The seating is optimized so that every seat is the best seat in the house, and that may involve tiers where the back rows are higher. The room will typically be dark, and any windows may be completely covered up or light-controlled by manual or automated drapes and blinds. Finally, the decor might be designed to evoke either a modern movie emporium or classic ones from the past with soft fabrics, vintage movie posters, and much more.

The Media Room Option

Consider the media room as the SUV for entertainment. People like SUVs for their people and cargo-carrying versatility, as well as their go-anywhere capability. The media room can be the same. It can be darkened and used for dedicated movie watching, or it can be a place to enjoy Sunday football games. There may be a mix of seating, with both sofas and individual comfortable chairs. Importantly, there may be multiple screens, so various college or NFL games can be watched at the same time from different sources. The media room might also be a game room, with a pool table, ping pong, or other entertainment available, as well as a small kitchen for snacks, drinks, and entertaining.

While both home theaters and media rooms may have the same video and audio equipment, the choices might vary for each. Home theaters tend to favor projectors for the most cinematic large screen experience. Media rooms might also have projectors, but if daytime viewing is frequent and you don’t want a darkened room, LED or OLED flat panel displays may be a better choice for sports. Another option is a combination projector and screen that is designed to minimize ambient light. As for sound, both could have full surround sound speaker setups or high-end soundbars, depending on the size of the room and your preferences in sound quality and design considerations. The media room might consider more options since the layout might not be conducive to the most immersive sound experience, especially with multiple screens.

We Make it Easy

We understand that in designing your media space, you will have other professionals involved, like designers, builders, and architects. We can both help you optimize and think through the details of your media room,  as well as work with your professionals to ensure that the audio, video, and control technology are all integrated the way you want it. It’s your choice. We can design your media room from concept and take it through installation, or we can work with your chosen professionals to integrate the technology with the construction and design. Either way, you get the media room that’s right for you.

If you are looking to add any type of media space to your Windermere home, click here to connect with us. We look forward to working with you.