The Hidden Home Theater: Hiding Surround Sound in an Older Home

My grandma always told me that children should be seen and not heard. I live in an historic part of the city and when it comes to home theater, the exact opposite is true. Around here, people care about what their houses look like and home theater ruins the décor, if you know what I mean. So what do you do? Do you swear off good quality surround sound or do you pick a fight, hoping to win over your significant other to the idea of putting a rack of AV gear in the living room—you know, right next to the mantel.

There is hope. You don't have to give up on home theater just because you live in an older home. In fact, there are ways for your theater to be one of the most impressive parts of the house. Here are seven tips that will ensure the successful integration of a fully functional home theater surround sound system in an older home—without destroying the look and feel of the architecture in the process.

1. Consider a Picture Frame TV

The first thing you see in a living room is the television. You just do. There it is on the wall, often above a fireplace (which can be a bad or good idea depending upon how the fireplace is constructed and whether or not you actually use it). It sticks out like a sore thumb. After all, how many flat screen TVs do you think they had back in 1915? These homes simply aren't designed for electronics, and so the first thing that often comes to mind is how to hide that big screen television.

Fortunately there's a solution.

You see, back then one thing was common to see hanging on walls—giant framed pictures. Artwork was the thing. Manufacturers like VisionArt not only allow you to select from predefined photography and artwork, they let you submit your own. You pick the art, the frame...and then you can mask your TV behind a beautiful picture, making it look just like, well...a picture. When you turn the TV on, the picture rolls up and reveals the screen underneath. It's a great system and one that really does well to integrate new technology into older homes.

2. Equipment Can Be Placed Elsewhere

The biggest eyesore for an older home, next to the television, is a visible rack full of gear. Wait. Scratch that. The biggest eyesore is one of those 1980's entertainment centers that are built for that 32" television that served you so well for 20 years. When flat screen TVs came out people were so used to them they ran out and bought ones that were wider to fit their new TVs. That ship has sailed, people. If you still have one of these monstrosities in your home, please go directly to your shed or garage and grab a screwdriver to disassemble it...or a chainsaw (your choice). But aside from that, an AV rack simply doesn't fit the décor of an older home.

The solution is to take all that gear and move it into a closet. I know closet space is precious in an older home, but you can usually find some sot of nook or cranny that is ventilated enough to allow you to place your gear within. Once you do that, the next challenge will be running the wiring necessary to connect that gear with the speakers and displays throughout the rest of your home. Older homes tend to have great crawl spaces and/or attics, however, which is a great thing for making this monumental task rather simple.

Seriously, you can put your equipment anywhere

3. Control is Everything

The final challenge is control. You're going to need a way to make all of that gear work—from the living room or wherever you happen to be. In my opinion, if you're going through all that trouble, you might as well wire up the entire house while you're at it. But the real trick is to decide upon a control system. While you can opt for simple (a remote IR sensor to broadcast your remotes to the location of the equipment), the best solution is going to involve a touchscreen. Imagine pressing just one button and having everything turn on, tune to the proper input and allow you to browse your movie or music collection. That's what a fully functioning remote system can do for you. It can also control your lighting, adjust your thermostat and activate security cameras—but that's a different article.

4. Consider In-Ceiling and In-Wall Speakers

There's no good way to place large tower speaker in your living area when you're goal is to hide things out of sight. Why would you want to hide things? Well you might not want to but your spouse may have other ideas...or you just may have a really cool house that would look rather odd having a standing speaker out in front of the wall or bookcase.

My recommendation is to go with speakers designed to be hidden—namely, in-ceiling and in-wall speakers. In-ceiling speakers are perfect for out-of-the-way surround sound as well as for whole-home audio distribution. You can get them sized for the room they are in or configure them in such as way as to provide coverage for various areas, or "zones" in your home. 

What in-ceiling speakers are not good for is main speakers for home theater. Your main speakers (left, center, right) need to be closer to the television or display, so that the sound seems to be coming straight from the action. You don't want dialogue coming from the ceiling when you watch a movie, you want to feel like the people are speaking directly to you. On top of that, in-ceiling speakers are bandwidth-limited, meaning they can't really produce enough midrange and low-end to satisfy my tastes. The alternative is in-wall speakers. In-walls present a much wider range of options for how much quality you can achieve and how well they can simulate a good pair of in-room speakers.

Of course, if your room is situated in such a way as to not allow for in-walls, then a good pair of smaller bookshelf speakers might just be the ticket. These can literally be placed on a bookshelf, or just set on diminutive stands with the wiring tucked neatly out of sight. In any case, there are enough options to allow you to try out at least one to fit the bill and better hide the audio in your room.

5. Do NOT Skimp on the Subwoofer

I'm not going to let you off on the sub. I'm just not. Subwoofers are the best speaker in home theater. They may not be the most important, but they are the most impressive. When done right, a subwoofer will be capable of causing your heart to skip a beat, of knocking pictures off the wall, of moving you and your couch several inches backwards during that scene when the Hulk punches the alien in The Avengers.

Subwoofers are awesome. You totally need one. Or Two.

The great thing about a subwoofer is that it's basically a black box. (Actually,it can really be other colors depending on the manufacturer.) You can put it anywhere because it's designed to play frequencies that aren't localizable. That means that you can't tell where the sound's coming from. While you can't really hide it, you can put stuff on it, or place a table over it. And the sub will bring your movies to life. It really will—so don't skimp here and definitely don't leave it off your list. Find a place for it.

6. Hide a Projector Screen

Ever since 1080p projectors started dropping in price—and I mean really dropping (You can get one for well under $1000 now.), big screen viewing has been a new temptation for many. But how do you get a giant projector screen into a home with classic architecture? Simple, you hide the screen. The best way I've seen to do this is through the use of crown moulding to frame out the projector. The other way depends on your rafters. If they are running in the proper direction you may be able to simply secure the projector screen in the attic and allow it to drop down through the ceiling into the room on command.

Electric screens have changed as well. It used to be that a tensioned screen—the type that keep the image flat instead of allowing the edges to curl—cost thousands of dollars. Now you can find them for around $500. Combined with the aforementioned projector, you've got a 106" display for under $1500. Try that with a flat panel TV! Hiding the projector is the same as the screen. You can box it out with moulding, or you can purchase a system that will drop it down from between the rafters above. And of course, all of this can be automated so that when the system is turned on, the screen descends and the projector fires up automatically.

7. Get It Done Right by Hiring an A/V Custom Installer

I know that you might think you can do this all on your own. And some of you really can (but probably not the ones who are nodding their heads right now). In either case, I would strongly suggest, for the sake of your home's architecture, that you contact a custom installer to help you get everything installed perfectly and completely the first time. Every one of these issues is a big deal in and of itself, and having someone tackle it who's been there before is going to be worth every penny. Still, if you're brave enough to tackle it on your own, then this will be a project and labor of love that will pay off dividends for years to come.