COMPANY FOCUS CONNECTED DISTRIBUTION

CINEMA SPEAKERS

Connected Distribution’s Mike Bonnette explains why it is important to specify specialist cinema speakers for home cinema installations and why standards are important.

“The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.”

George Lucas

If there’s anyone who knows what they’re talking about with cinema sound it’s George Lucas. Not only is he the man behind Star Wars and so many other massive blockbusters, but most importantly he’s the man who founded THX. He founded it because he wanted to ensure that the soundtrack of Return of the Jedi would be accurately reproduced in cinemas, which at the time had no standards for audio playback – some were mono, some stereo, many had poor acoustics. Lucas wanted to make sure the reproduction in the cinema was the same as the mix in the studio – something that could only be achieved through consistent audio design from mixing to playback.

From that initial requirement for better sound in cinemas was born the certification process for domestic equipment, designed to provide high quality, predictable and accurate sound in home cinemas. The standards were very rigid, with everything from processors, to amps and speakers covered by it. The standard also applied to screen size, sitting distance, creation of a baffle wall for the screen and use of non-parallel walls in the room. If correctly applied the results in a home cinema can be outstanding.

Today THX has fallen a little out of fashion as the company has changed hands and some feel the standard has been watered down. But I would argue that this isn’t quite fair, as it would be better to say the standard has been widened to take in other products – some of which are of no relevance to the home cinema market. But the home cinema specs are the same - THX Ultra Certification for large rooms, ‘Select’ for medium rooms, ‘Compact ‘for small and ‘Dominus’ for expansive rooms. They still require the same conventions be met and so are still relevant and will still provide one of the best home cinema experiences for your customers.

And despite what some may say, THX is still a suitable standard even for immersive cinema installations, e.g. Dolby Atmos. It’s not incompatible and we would always recommend trying to follow its basic principles for room design and use of THX certified equipment.

There is a reason why the manufacturers of commercial cinema speakers and domestic cinema speakers still get their products THX certified. And it’s for this reason that our two major cinema brands are THX certified. Both Parasound amps and Atlantic Technology speakers carry the THX Ultra certification and are a fantastic combination for serious home cinema systems.

Indeed, Atlantic Technology was founded by a guy called Peter Tribeman, who was the lead engineer on a project undertaken with Lucasfilm to develop a home decoder for the ground-breaking surround audio track on The Empire Strikes Back, so the company’s THX routes go very deep. Today it is one of the largest specialist THX loudspeaker manufacturers in the world.

So, what makes a THX speaker any better than a non THX speaker? It’s basically that they have been designed to a set of standards to ensure that consistent reproduction factors such as sensitivity, vertical and horizontal sound dispersion, sound pressure levels and low distortion are tested to make sure they meet the criteria before certification is possible. To reach these required performance levels, it is important to make sure you specify speakers that have been designed specifically for use in cinemas when planning your customers’ installations. A set of hi-fi speakers just won’t cut it. For a start they are generally designed to work in smaller rooms than cinemas, they tend to be less sensitive (i.e. won’t go as loud for a given amplifier power output) and they usually have a much narrower dispersion pattern, which is perfect for trying to achieve an accurate stereo effect at one listening position, but no good for home cinemas where everyone in the room needs to get the same experience. That needs a wide, even dispersion of sound and the ability to play loud to meet the specified cinema reference SPL level without distorting – hence the THX specification.

Use Atlantic Technology THX certified speakers and in-wall subwoofers, together with Parasound THX amplifiers, for your home cinema installations and give your customers the performance boost they deserve.

Connected Distribution. connecteddistribution.com