Home theater installation · Lee's Summit.

What a home theater project in Lee's Summit involves

Lee's Summit houses are stick-framed with full basements, and many of the newer ones are walkouts on rolling ground. That gives a theater two possible homes. The interior side of the basement, away from the glass, is dark, enclosed and ready for a dedicated room. The walkout side is bright and beautiful, with a glass wall pointed at the yard, which is exactly wrong for a projector unless the light is controlled.

So the first decision is placement. We either automate the shades on the walkout glass and choose optics for the light that remains, or we place the dedicated theater on the interior side and let the daylight room be a family space with a large display. Both are good outcomes. The mistake is a projector on the glass side with nothing between it and the afternoon.

Then the measurements. Clear height under the lowest duct run and the beams, and the throw from the back wall to the screen wall, settle projection versus display, the number of rows and whether an overhead Atmos layout fits. Those numbers are taken with a tape on the first visit, before any product is named.

• Dedicated theater. On the interior side of the basement: light-controlled, acoustically treated, tiered seating and an overhead immersive layout where the ceiling height allows.
• Walkout media room. A large display in the daylight room, with motorized shades on the glass so the picture holds up in the afternoon.
• Projection with shades. A projector in a walkout room once the shades are automated and the screen and optics are chosen for the light that remains.

Concealment, treatment and the room itself

Architectural speakers from Sonance and Triad finish flush and can be painted into the ceiling plane; the work is in the backing and in coordinating the cutouts with whoever finishes the drywall. The rack lives outside the room, in a ventilated closet or the mechanical room, so its fans do not become part of the noise floor and the furnace does not cycle mid-film on the other side of a thin wall.

Treatment planned at rough-in is inexpensive and invisible. A rectangular basement room with hard surfaces is predictable, which helps, and reflective, which does not. First-reflection points, the back wall and the ceiling in front of the screen do more for how a film sounds than the next equipment tier would. Calibration comes last, after the seats are in, from the actual listening positions.

A theater never stops at its door. The lights come down on the same press that starts the film, so the room's scenes belong to the house lighting system. The shades on the walkout glass close on the same press. And the control system makes one button do all of it, or the family defaults to the television upstairs.

Built to be serviced from forty minutes away

The drive from Overland Park is a design constraint, and a theater is the room where it shows first: an HDMI handshake that stops working, a processor that needs a firmware update, a projector that will not wake. We build the rack so the equipment reports its own health and can be power-cycled remotely, and we document what is in it so the next person can read it.

Our own crew does the work rather than subcontractors, the wiring is photographed before it disappears behind drywall, and the proposal carries one fixed price for equipment, labor and timeline, written after the walk rather than estimated over email. When someone does need to be on site, the visit is scheduled. The workmanship warranty is five years.

Control4, Crestron and Lutron in Lee's Summit

IntegrateIT is a Control4 Platinum Dealer with a Control4 Certified Showroom, a Crestron Elite Partner and a Lutron Certified Installer, so the platform is chosen for the house rather than for the dealer. Here is what each one does for home theater installation in Lee's Summit.

Choosing between them? Lutron vs Control4 vs Crestron, compared head to head.