Front Row | Residential Entertainment Systems

What is a Home Theater?

A Home Theater or Home Cinema, as it is also called, is a dedicated room, often custom-designed within your residence whose main purpose is for viewing movies. The seating in these rooms is typically cinema seating which is fixed, often with multiple rows and risers, which elevate the viewers in the rear rows to be able to see over the people in front of them, offering everyone a clear sight line to the screen. These dedicated theaters usually resemble a commercial movie theater in look but are typically scaled back in size to accommodate the living space. Additionally, these dedicated Home Theaters can easily exceed the performance of a commercial theatre. Dedicated Theaters or Home Cinemas will most always use a front projector with a fixed projection screen for the video display.

What is a Media Room?

A Media Room is not necessarily a dedicated viewing space, as with Home Theaters. A Media Room can also be used for other purposes (such as living room, family room, or office in your home).. Additionally, there might be functions such as video conferencing, video gaming, and Internet surfing functionality built into the system. In many media rooms, the client will opt to have the majority of the equipment “hidden.” The furniture is not structured as it is in a home theater, and chairs are not laid out in rows as in dedicated Home Theaters. Finally, the front projection option is not always used and the projection screen may be a motorized screen coming down from the ceiling as opposed to a fixed screen as in a dedicated Home Cinema.

Why Should I Use Front Row?

One cannot buy electronics on specifications. The measurement of specifications differs by manufacturer and throughout the industry, and the end result is that the products with the best specifications are not necessarily the ones that will ultimately perform the best. Additionally, someone who talks to you for five minutes and mumbles a bunch of specs at you cannot possibly be entrusted with the complex task of designing an appropriate system for you. The choices are as numerous as picking fabric for your love seat and matching it to the carpet, and wrong choices just don’t work well together. Front Row will take the time to get you the best possible system within your budget and one that works for you the client. At Front Row, we will take the time to sit with you and get a full picture of your wants and needs.

Home Theater and Media Room systems have a complexity that requires real professionals who are genuinely concerned about, and will take the time to uncover your specific and personal needs, wants, and lifestyles. Sometimes something as simple as changing a few wires or cables can make a huge difference for you. Front Row’s know how, honesty, and concern certainly makes all the difference.

Simply put, you will most probably spend the same amount of money with us as you would with other types of firms. The Front Row difference is that you will get a system within your budget that will far outperform a system put together in hurry in a retail outlet or by so called Custom Installers. Designing a system properly requires a delicate balance and trained professionals to realize it properly. At Front Row, this is what we do best.

Finally, you are very important to us, and not just another number, as we take very good care of our valued clientele.

What really is Custom Installation?

Most of the firms that do “custom install” sell most every client the same design and products and have their installer put it into their home. Custom Installation is not that. Custom Installation is where a system is “custom” designed around you the client, including your needs, your likes, your desires, and your lifestyle. Each system that Front Row designs is unique to each customer and room. Each client is unique, and Front Row never designs two systems alike, as is often done in these mass retail, highway, and mall stores. Additionally, a custom-designed system will be much more satisfying in terms of picture quality and sound, as it will be tailored to each person’s unique personality. The types of changes that Front Row makes to a system are changes that everyone in your household would notice, and not some esoteric changes that only a select few will experience.

What steps are involved in arranging a custom Home Theater or Media Room design?

1. You are invited to visit and experience our “state of the art,” fully digital Theatre showroom, where we walk you through some of our product demos and have an initial consultation with you, the client. This step helps us to determine how you view and listen as well as enable you to make better decisions based upon what you have seen, heard, and have learned in your visit with us.

2. We come to your home or business to conduct an onsite evaluation and consultation. We also take all necessary measurements and perform a feasibility study to see what is and isn’t doable in your specific space. We also conduct more Q&A to find out more about you and your lifestyle as well as your specific needs and requirements. This step ensures that you will get a system customized to your exact specifications and one that will work in your environment.

3. Based on our collective knowledge about you, such as your familiarity, as well as your wants, needs, goals, and budget, we design a fully customized system design specification. This step ensures that you are getting a system design that is customized to your exact specifications.

4. We do the prewire. This step is the actual beginning of your system installation in which we put the cabling and wires for your electronic system into your home.

5. We then acquire all equipment as specified in your customized system design, and begin the complete installation of your new system.

6. We then program, calibrate, set up, customize, and maximize the entire system. This step brings you the system functionality and performance that you have requested and have come to expect from Front Row.

7. We then take all necessary time required to educate you on how to use your new system, to make sure you are completely at ease in operating it, and that it works to spec. This step will demonstrate the extraordinary capabilities of your special design.

How much does a custom Home Theater or Media Room cost?

It is very important for the client to understand that buying the cheapest or even the most expensive system doesn’t guarantee happiness or guarantee that you will get what you will ultimately want or like. Home theaters and Media rooms can be created at various levels of sophistication, performance and cost. This is why at Front Row we take extraordinary steps to evaluate you, your lifestyle, needs, wants, and desires to help you decide what is best for you. We will NOT sell you a high-end DVD player if you are not the customer who will ultimately appreciate that player or take full advantage of it’s functionality. Together, we might choose to use that money elsewhere in an area that will have more meaning to you so that you can get a more customized and better experience from your system or we might choose not to even spend that extra money at all.

1. Establishing your level of electronic sophistication, appreciation, and user comfort to determine what is the best system solution for you is “key” at Front Row.

2. Then we match the gear to create a system design that directly addresses your wants, personal needs, lifestyle, and home area for the absolute best performance possible within your budget.

3. We then maximize the choices to deliver extraordinary performance value to you.

What is a Prewire, and why should I have a Custom Installer do the Prewire as opposed to my contractor? Why do the Cables matter?

A prewire is when you have someone install all of the necessary wiring and cabling for your Home Theater or Media Room system. This is typically done during home construction and before the walls are sheetrocked. Major mistakes in this step are often made that can adversely and dramatically affect your system. More specifically speaking, cables can make the sound and picture between 10 to 1000% better and between 10 to 1000% worse if chosen incorrectly. Correctly choosing cables and wiring make up one of the most critical elements of a good Home Theater or Media Room. One should understand that proper cabling can make the difference between hearing “Turn it down” to “Wow, that sounds great” at nearly any volume. When wiring is matched incorrectly to the gear, the system becomes unbalanced and is an uncomfortable experience for the viewer.

Any wire just won’t do. Wiring must be matched to the equipment for not only proper functionality, but also for the best possible sound and picture quality. A delicate balance is absolutely crucial for top performance. Only trained professionals know which cable and wire you will need, its ideal placement, and the ideal choice for your specific system to assure optimal performance of your system and your enjoyment for years to come. By using trained and certified professionals to perform this critical step, one is assured that they have the wiring placed accurately for the best sound or video. Most important, the wiring and cabling will be properly matched to the equipment you wish to have installed as well as to your lifestyle and tastes.

What do better components, such as DVD players, Surround Sound Processors and Receivers, Speakers, Scalers, Projectors, Screens, Plasmas, and LCD’s offer me?

Above all, solid components offer significantly better quality and detail in both picture and sound, as well as giving you the ability to listen and watch for longer periods of time without fatigue. Better components will also often offer more functionality and a smoother presentation in both audio and video. Most important, your Front Row professional can match the component to the client and to other gear in your system, and not vice versa, as is common in highway big box and online stores. Each client is unique, and Front Row never designs two systems alike, as is often done in these mass retail, highway, and mall stores.

Can’t I just design and purchase my system based on the specifications?

No, and absolutely not! There are little to no standards of testing gear for real-world performance. Therefore, the specifications do NOT give you any idea of the ability of a specific piece of electronic equipment to satisfy you. A most common example is light output on a projector. There are no standards for measuring this, and every manufacturer will test their gear differently. Therefore, every projector manufacturer will claim different levels of brightness for the equipment. The same goes for audio gear. The answer is to find a Custom Installation company that you can trust to help to wade through the muck, to create the appropriate design that best matches your tastes and lifestyle. In addition, a solid Custom Installation company can help you choose the design that is built to stand the test of time, to give you the best performance and enjoyment possible for years to come.

What are the benefits of a custom-designed Home Theater or Media Room?

Cost doesn’t have to be more with a custom design, unless of course, the client is interested in additional options. The benefit of a custom-designed Home Cinema or Media Room is that it has been specifically created with all of your needs and wants in mind, and that you will not have to adapt your lifestyle to fit it. This is very important as people don’t want to have to adapt themselves to things that should be relaxing experiences for them. Each client is unique, and Front Row never designs two systems alike, as is often done in these mass retail, highway, and mall stores. Additionally, a custom-designed system will be much more satisfying in terms of picture quality and sound, as it will be tailored to each person’s unique personality. The types of changes that Front Row makes to a system are changes that everyone in your household would notice, and not some esoteric changes that only a select few will experience.

Can I tell what the best products are for me from retail store displays?

Absolutely not! Our experience has shown that retail store displays tell the consumer nothing about a product, except which one has a better physical appearance and which one's cost more or less. Unless you know key pieces of information as detailed below, this will dramatically affect system performance and your judgment. For example:

On the Video side:

How can you tell if a Plasma, LCD, RPTV, CRT TV, or Projector is right for you if you don't know the following?

a) If all of the Video Displays (i.e., TV's, projectors, etc.) are being fed the same information, are they all getting the same amount of signal or are some getting more signal and others getting less or even a distorted signal? This can happen because of poor wiring or poor connectivity from the gear being repeatedly moved around in these stores.

b) Are all of the Video Display devices calibrated properly, or are they just "out of the box" examples of stock merchandise? Additionally, are some of these pieces calibrated properly simply to affect your opinion and purchasing decision?

c) Are all of the Video display devices using the same quality and brand of cables, and do they all have the same hidden components attached to them?

On the Audio side:

How can you properly choose Audio equipment in a retail store in light of the following issues?

a) Are all of the Audio devices (speakers, surround receivers, amplifiers, etc.) using the same quality and brand cables, and do they all have the same hidden components attached to them?

b) When many speakers are in a room together, each speaker is affected by the other speakers' presence near them. This will give you an incorrect demonstration of how the speaker can actually sound.

c) Is all of the equipment broken in properly? Some audio equipment sounds absolutely horrible out of the box, but after it is broken in properly, it sounds awesome. All audio gear takes a minimum of 100 hours of break-in time to realize its character and to display its proper sound.

d) The store is not your home, and is constructed specifically to display audio gear. In your home, there are many factors that will affect audio performance, which you cannot possibly conclude from any in-store display.

Choosing components based on a retail store display leaves you not only confused at best, but comes with a host of hidden problems. These problems will only surface after you have the gear in your home, and are wondering why it doesn't look and sound like it did in the store. Having a trained professional who is genuinely concerned about you, your tastes, likes, and dislikes, is of utmost importance when designing your system.

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