A fully immersive experience

At 7.30pm on Wednesday, 1 June 1960, the first official television broadcast was beamed into Auckland homes. The broadcast lasted three hours and included an episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood, a live interview with visiting British ballerina, Beryl Grey and a performance by the Howard Morrison Quartet.

A year later, broadcasts began in Christchurch and Wellington and then Dunedin followed in 1962. By 1965, 300,000 households across the country were settling down to enjoy 50 hours of television a week on 23-inch black and white televisions that cost the equivalent in today’s money of $5,000.

It is safe to say that television technology has come along in leaps and bounds since then and it’s easy to take advantage of the latest cinematic-like experience in the comfort of your own home, says Chris Maxwell, director at Oceans Automation.

“Home theatre as a concept is wide ranging and open to interpretation. While the term traditionally conjures images of dedicated cinema rooms, the reality is that ‘home theatre’ is actually any system where you integrate your television with some sort of surround sound; even a soundbar with subwoofer—anything more than a television on a wall, basically.”

In this large family home a custom built system controls an extensive list within the home: interior and exterior lighting including garden lighting, with scene management so the family have presets for different times of the day.

Oceans Automation: smart living made simple

“The secret to a home theatre experience is that it’s fairly accessible to most, even if you don’t think it is. We handle everything from a simple 3.1 set up through to full Dolby Atmos with ceiling-mounted projector and 12-channel amplifier for multiroom sound distribution.

“The key—as with any home automation component—is ease of use and that is what we specialise in; plus, every solution is tailored to your home, taste and budget.”

Chris says that as little as $2,000 plus GST is enough for them to start building your surround sound system and integration.

“Most people want their home automation to serve more than one purpose, which is what we can deliver—full integration. Big box retail won’t give you the integration or accessibility. A lot of what we do is in the home automation sphere: whole house automation including blinds, lighting, video security and home theatre—most of which can be retro-fitted.

“We are realistic that we’re usually at the end of the build/renovation process, so we will always work within your budget and have different grades of home theatre/automation solutions at different price points—we can even set up a system that incorporates custom audio with an existing television.”

This Coatesville house has been installed with an eight zone multi-room audio system with eight pairs of high quality recessed speakers. An audio matrix gives the client the ability to play multiple streams of digital and analogue music.

Oceans Automation: expertise through experience

The Oceans Automation team brings with it more than 60 years’ combined experience in the electrical industry, which means they have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to home theatre systems and home automation.

“We’re happy to get involved on a project at any point but to get the most out of our experience, we recommend clients get in touch with us at the design stage, particularly if the project is a new build, where we can open discussion around issues such as sound proofing and insulation etc.

“In most instances, clients are wanting a solution that they can incorporate into their living room, which may include ceiling-mounted surround-sound speakers with additional phone/tablet accessibility to utilise Spotify, while the television may also include a soundbar and subwoofer—we can produce the right solution for any environment.”

The critical point, says Chris, is that the technology needs to work with the space; for example, a ceiling-mounted projector and screen that can be lowered over a television in a multipurpose living/media room set up—allowing casual television viewing and fully immersive family movie nights.

“The first factor we establish is how much technology the client wants to integrate, from audio componentry through to fully immersive home cinema and home automation, from which point we build their solution. Most programming can be done off site, prior to the pre-wire process, which, depending on the size of the job, is usually 1–2 days. All of the electrical work for our systems is carried out by us.

“Installation of the system then takes another couple of days. Following that, a couple of weeks after the system has been commissioned, we visit the customers again to review the set up and make any adjustments that may need to be made.

“While many of our clients are technologically proficient in their own right, we will always design our systems for a client who is totally hands-off making them as simple as possible to use. All of our systems are futureproofed so it’s easy to integrate newer components as and when clients choose to upgrade.”

Oceans Automation are also networking experts and can help solve pain points by delivering a reliable wifi experience.

"We do this with smart networking equipment specified for remote management and by creating a quicker response for managing network issues. We also install new routers to efficiently manage data traffic, delivering a high speed network and reducing bottlenecks."

Chris says the team carries out projects from Waikato through to Whangarei and while warranties depend on products chosen, Oceans Automation generally offers a two-year warranty on the main system and a two-year warranty on workmanship.

Learn more about turning your audio-visual set up into a fully fledged home theatre experience.