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Going to the movies just isn’t the same as it used to be. We crowd into the huge multiplexes, put up with loud teenagers and ringing cell phones, and pay a small fortune for drinks and popcorn. Increasingly, people would rather stay home – in their own theater.
“As movie theaters started getting smaller and smaller, I think the thrill went away,” says Eric Davidson, president of American Automation & Communications Inc. in Bowie, MD. That’s where Davidson and others are filling the void, recreating the drama of the old movie palaces and providing even better technology than what’s available in commercial theaters.
Home theaters are designed “for maximum audio/visual effect,” says Tom Wells, CEO of Integrated Media Systems in Sterling, VA. “The screen image fills your vision properly, the audio sounds real – those are the kinds of things we’re trying to do,” he explains. “The sound quality is so much better than the commercial cinema that you go to, [and] most people are happy in their home, where they can control their environment.”
A Geek Gets His Way
Mike McClements, a self-proclaimed geek, had to keep convincing his wife Terri, an accountant, that building an elaborate home theater in their Clifton, VA, home was going to be worth the trouble and expense.
“Some people, they long for sports cars. This was my deal,” says McClements, an information technology manager for The Washington Times newspaper. “[But] for two years, she fought me.”
Terri changed her mind once Integrated Media Systems installed the theater electronics and sumptuous seating, and Oregon Woodmeister added the gorgeous millwork and built-in candy counter and cabinets. The first time Mike cranked a CD through the system, Terri and son Matthew, 8, found themselves dancing in the aisle and on the theater stage. “It took her about 15 seconds to ‘get it,’ ” Mike says.
Perfect for Entertaining
Dawn Hackney and Robert Kamba wanted a theater in their Potomac, MD, home for entertaining purposes. American Automation delivered.
“We’ve enjoyed it much more than we expected,” Hackney says. From casual gatherings with friends on the weekends to theme parties such as their Kentucky Derby mint julep affair, “it’s become a very big focal point.”
