Ambiance - Volume 4 Issue 1 Page 3

4/1 Page 3

Creating Total Cinema Ambience (cont'd)

How can a digital dimmer improve a Home Cinema setup? Dimming room lights increases image contrast, improving detail, clarity and colour. However, viewing can be stressful rather than relaxing if the home cinema room is too dark. Movie theatres create the ideal film-watching environment by adjusting and dimming lights. In recreating this atmosphere for the home you must get to grips with the lighting.

Hitherto the size and price of dimmers have deterred most consumers. However, a modern digital dimmer now shouldn't cost more than a length of high-end speaker cable. High-profile players in digital lighting since 1989, Futronix were the first company to introduce 'scene dimmers' to the Home Cinema market back in 1993. Different circuits of lighting in a room can be adjusted in brightness independently, then set as a 'scene' for recall via remote control or switch panel. With 20 scenes available, one can be set for every occasion - watching a movie, entertaining guests, or creating that certain romantic ambience.

Ideal for such an application are the stand-alone Futronix P400/P800 units, which control 4 and 8 circuits of lighting respectively to programme your 'scenes', including 'fading' from one scene to the next to add to the whole cinematic experience. These dimmers are ideal for Home Cinema lighting – the slimmest available to minimize installation holes. What you do see is undeniably elegant – the switch plates. Minimalist design, striking yet unobtrusive, and available in finishes of brushed or polished stainless steel, brass and white metal. No unsightly plastic plates here!

Futronix also manufactures two compatible systems ideally suited for home cinema or whole house light-dimming control. The popular, compact and affordable Futronix Enviroscene multi-room system links to a modular system of dimmers and switch panels. Futronix' Home-Icon system not only links dimmers together, it can also control curtains, blinds, motorised projection screen, AV equipment, PCs, security alarms, A/C, heating and phones to provide total home cinema (or whole-house) master control. And at the top end, even IMAX have selected Futronix' PFX System's incredibly sophisticated dimmer for their high-end specialty cinemas.

For the more modest user, though, the domestic/home cinema Futronix systems are surprisingly reasonable in price. Bearing in mind the visual impact that a digital dimming unit can have on a home, along with the practical, time-saving, and security benefits that come with it, a few hundred pounds for a P400 is pretty good value. Popcorn not included.

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