KOCHI:You know how they say go big or go home. You now have a third option: Go big at home, with Kakkanad-based Metro Digital Media launching the latest 4K projection technology for home theatres – to put it simply, a big-screen experience that is sharper than full HD – at affordable rates.
Home theatres are no longer a big screen with a good sound system. Metro Digital has a fully equipped home theatre set up at their office to allow customers to experience the theatre-style acoustics, lighting and furniture that can be reproduced in the home, creating a cinematic experience that almost literally wraps you up. This is how films are meant to be watched, says Malayalam film editor, colourist and film addict Sreekumar Nair. He roped in Metro Digital while constructing his house in Vennala to advise on transforming a space into a home theatre.
“They make maximum and proper use of a space and they are one step ahead with the solutions. With the latest films now accessible in the best quality on Netflix and Amazon, I can watch movies on my home theatre with no difference from a theatre; there is no other way in which I would watch a movie,” says Sreekumar.
Prompted by their experience as a digital audio/video post-production studio and a passion for the craft, the Kochi-based home theatre company began transforming the experience of watching movies at home four years back. “A half-hour serial episode had 18-20 hours of post-production effort put into it; the same effort that goes into a film,” said Dins Paul, one of the four partners – along with in the business that started four years back. “But people were missing out by viewing this effort through a small TV and speaker. We wanted to change that.”
Anything on a big screen was considered a home theatre; they wanted to show something different. So Metro Digital stepped in with the full suite of services, from not just the projection and sound, but also the lighting and the furniture in the room. So while home theatres were being set up from a carry pack, they studied the technology and found there was an international standard named THX for audio and got certified speakers according to this standard. The visual standard moved from HD to full HD.
In the second phase, theatres moved to the upgraded resolution of 2K and now to 4K. The home theatre experience that started at Rs 15 lakh is today much more affordable, priced at around Rs 2 lakh. Metro Digital has a home theatre set up at their office to allow customers to view the experience for themselves.