Customer: The owner of new 10,000-square-foot suburban Chicago home
Location: Suburbs of Chicago, IL
Vertical Market: Home Theater
Product: HD8600

Pull Quotes:
“The Optoma HD8600 is really used for entertaining friends and family for sporting events with an occasional movie. We love the picture quality and are very impressed with the end results!”—Homeowner

“In the end, it came down to delivering an excellent picture. The HD8600’s HD capabilities were first and foremost for me.”—Dan Cochenour, owner of Audio Video Specialists

Home Theater Needs
In this large, open media room, successful viewing of sporting events and movies required excellent brightness and contrast ratio.

Expert Solution
The Optoma HD8600 delivered unmatched brightness and picture clarity while allowing the homeowner to maintain their budget.

Results
This media room is now an integrated part of the homeowner’s sophisticated home control system.  Family and friends gather regularly to watch sporting events and movies together.

Hed: Optoma HD8600 Delivers Sophisticated Home Theater Performance on a Budget

Often, building a new home is an exercise in compromise, of doing less to accommodate a limited budget. Audio Video Specialists, however, wanted to ensure that its customer, a Chicago-area homeowner, got all the high-technology audio visual bells and whistles that he wanted in his new house. 

As part of the system, the homeowner required a large media area and, with the help of the custom integrator, selected an Optoma HD8600 to deliver a bright, clear picture to create an impressive and exciting theater experience right at home. “Because we have such a large open area with the bar right behind the family room, brightness was a huge consideration,” said the homeowner. “We looked at other manufactures but they didn’t have anything that could provide enough brightness.”

Battling Sticker Shock

Initially, when building the new 10,000 square foot suburban Chicago home, the homeowner was shocked by the proposed cost of the home control system and home theater technology. In fact, the price tag was initially quoted at $480,000. Dan Cochenour, owner of Audio Video Specialists knew that it was possible to capture the same functionality and ease of use at a fraction of the price tag.

He knew, however, that each individual component of the system was important to delivering the promised functionality and to bringing the budget within acceptable levels. “I ended up charging far less what other guys were bidding and gave the homeowners more products,” said Cochenour.

From Hope to Reality

Now, the family room can readily be transformed into a complete home theater. “The Optoma HD8600 is really used for entertaining friends and family for sporting events with an occasional movie,” said the homeowner. “We love the picture quality and are very impressed with the end results!”

In choosing the projector for this home theater, Cochenour focused on finding a projector that would allow easy viewing even when there were some lights on in the room and found that the Optoma HD8600 fit the bill. “In the end, it came down to delivering an excellent picture,” he said. “The HD8600’s HD capabilities were first and foremost for me.”

The HD8600 delivered 1080p resolution, 1600 Lumens brightness and 50,000:1 contrast ratio (with Dynamic Black) to ensure that projected movies deliver bright, bold, high-quality vide. In addition, Optoma’s PureEngine image processing technologies seamlessly adapts film content to optimize for smooth motion and image depth ensuring that action-packed sporting events and movies deliver optimum viewing excitement.

During installation, Audio Video Specialists had a choice of three lens options, as well as lens shift capabilities, which let the projector be positioned for optimum performance in the room. The projector’s RS-232 port allowed it to be readily integrated into the home’s comprehensive home control system. 

A 106-inch motorized screen from Screen Innovations, a motorized theater curtain (to block sound) and a surround sound system complete the room.

Perfect Ending

Now, the family can enjoy movies and sporting events in the media room. The HD8600, integrated as a seamless part of this state-of-the-art home control system, will provide years of high-quality entertainment.