A big-screen home theater makes for wonderful movie-watching experiences, but what if you want to invite a lot of friends over to share the movie? Few people have the room in their home theater to seat a crowd, but a backyard outdoor home theater is a different story. This article in the new issue of Electronics House explains what you need to set up a temporary backyard home theater.
The main component in any home theater is the projector, and for a backyard movie theater, the projector is critical. You need one that’s easily portable, but also puts out a ton of light. While you’ll obviously wait until nightfall to start your movie, there’s always some light around at night, and it may be difficult to control—for example, you might not be able to cut out the glare from a nearby streetlamp or the light shining from a neighbor’s back porch. An extremely bright projector can fight through that extra ambient light to deliver an excellent movie picture. This article suggests several projectors that will do the job well.
What do you shine that outdoor projector on? You might be tempted to just use an old white sheet, but you’ll get a much better movie picture with a projector screen designed for the purpose. There are several home theater screen manufacturers that offer outdoor screens. Some are designed to be portable, while others can be permanently installed, if you intend to use your system frequently. This article offers a few quite affordable screen suggestions.
After the projector and screen, you’ll need to think about audio (speakers, audio processing and input selection) and your movie source components. You could carry outside a whole 5.1 speaker system and a surround sound receiver, or have outdoor speakers permanently installed, but most people will want a more temporary solution that’s easy to carry and set up. Several smart suggestions are made in this article, and you’ll be surprised how easy they are to use.
Finally, an outdoor home theater needs seats, snacks and guests. For those, you’re on your own. Read about how to set up an easy outdoor home theater here.
Leave a Reply