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HDMI Case Studies

Upgrading Walls of Sound and Video

Paramount Home Theater is a successful installer of home theaters that traditionally have emphasized a combination of form and function in a high-value configuration that has been and remains popular today: the complete video wall, including cabinetry, with a "wall" of sound to match.

The Job

To retrofit an existing home theater with HDMI interfaces using a mix of new and existing equipment. Emphasize simplicity, focused performance, and low incremental costs for maximum consumer value.

Challenges

1. Respond to burgeoning consumer demand for 1080p-resolution display devices on existing installations.
2. Upgrade existing home theater installations with minimal of installation flexibility and complexity.

Solution

South Florida-based Paramount Home Theater popularized a home-theater configuration commonly referred to as a "wall of sound and video." In the 80s and 90s, Paramount Home Theater (then called Avex) hit upon an important aspect of home theater – beautiful design – to garner the attention of the nascent home-theater market, eschewing complexity in favor of beauty and performance.

These home theaters performed superbly in terms of image and sound quality; the installations had a unique and elegant look to them as well. Paramount Home Theater tamed the "techy" look of home-theater components by installing them behind beautiful cabinetry. Typically, a cabinet covered almost an entire wall of a media room and included a 60-inch rear-projection screen flush mounted in the middle of the cabinet. Often, two to four CRT televisions were placed above the RPTV so that customers could keep an eye on CNN while a movie played on the main screen.

Paramount Home Theaters look became famous throughout the South Florida region, and many celebrity residents were not ashamed to have a system built into their multi-million-dollar houses, including in the home of Hall of Fame football coach Don Shula.

While these installations are still prized for their beautiful design, the RPTV and CRT displays have quickly become obsolete. These same customers now want to upgrade to 1080p and replacing the built-in RPTVs and CRTs requires a complete rewiring and reconfiguration of the all devices within the cabinetry.

Paramount has continued to install a combination of hardware that provides the highest level of performance and aesthetic elegance at an excellent value. Customers typically get a complete home theater for $20K - $40K. Achieving this value combination required standardizing around a few hardware choices to minimize installation and support costs.

With consumer request for all-digital upgrades increasing, Paramount needed to find a solution for a few minor "synching" issues that Paramount's preferred DVD hardware experienced then sending the HDMI signal through its standard AV receiver. They found a plethora of reliable solutions that enabled the firm to proceed efficiently with HDMI upgrades.

To provide the excellent performance and value, Paramount standardized around the following equipment: Marantz receivers and DVD players (e.g., SR7002 and DV4001, respectively), an MX-3000 universal remote, and either Earthquake or Triad speakers. Besides exhibiting superior quality, Marantz maintains keeps customers from being continually barraged with a confusing range of prices for the same product. The choice of speakers allows for creative use of two center speakers to create the "Wall of Sound" that Paramount home theaters are famous for.

Paramount Home Theaters has opted not to sell upgraded HDTVs due to volatility in the category's margins. However, it helps customers choose the right replacement in terms of size, performance and capabilities. At that point, Paramount upgrades the entire home theater to all-digital full resolution from source to display. The large screen television is usually either a Pioneer or Samsung brand. The secondary televisions are LCD-TVs manufactured by a wide variety of brands.

Paramount Home Theaters has also found that choosing specific HDMI cables has become less critical than in previous years. This improvement is likely due, in some respect to increasing cable quality, but more importantly with improved interoperability and signal management among components of the home theater. Paramount is confident that the DVD and AV receiver brand around which it had previously standardized has similarly resolved any remaining synchronization issues in their new models.

For Paramount Home Theaters, the resolution of several HDMI issues, especially those involving handshaking across an AV receiver, has opened up a new revenue stream. Installers and customers alike would both rather re-enter a home to upgrade equipment, rather than troubleshoot. HDMI's progress as the interoperable standard between high-definition home-theater components brought new satisfaction to our existing customers and significant adjunct sales to our installation business.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of HDMI Licensing, LLC, the HDMI Founders or any of their respective parent organizations or affiliates.