Home Theater Installation Services
Francis Audio Visual extends their expertise into your home! Safely and respectfully.
1-800-535-4328
Francis Audio Visual extends their expertise into your home! Safely and respectfully.
1-800-535-4328
Francis Audio-Visual is here to help you with:
As your home theater advisors, we want to make it clear our specialty is home theater installations. There are lots of other opportunities for advisors….Home automation, security, IT, décor, etc., but then you end up being a jack of all trades and master of none. Your home theater room is where we shine.
Advisors should stick to one area of expertise. Coming from a Pro AV background, we have unique insight into what is important in your new or existing home theater setup / installation. Aside from putting a great image up on the screen, as with Pro AV, having pristine, intelligible sound is a critical. Your home theater setup / installation, whether it be in that spare room in the basement of your house or by the backyard swimming pool is where our home theater expertise lies.
A home theater setup provided by Francis AV is typically for one or more rooms or spaces, to provide entertainment for each of those rooms separately. If you’re looking for a ”smart-home” where everything is tied into one central control system (heating, AC, sound, lighting, etc.), we are not “that guy”.
And when we say advisors, yes that is plural. We don’t send out a sales guy to load you up with lots of unnecessary equipment, we send out an Advisors Team where each member brings unique insight and experience to the table.
“Advisors” means… A senior advisor who can address the big picture stuff – pricing, terms, delivery times, logistics. Our technicians are also present, that know the little installation details to look for. Wiring paths, audio requirements, best screen size, mounting methods, existing structural issues, lighting, etc. Our advisors team creates a true synergy. Three brains and sets of eyes and ears focused on the same project at the same time is super-efficient and engaging. It really gets the creative juices flowing. Wouldn’t you rather have three individuals in your home for one hour than one individual for three hours? In no time at all you’ll have home theater ideas that you never imagined possible.
Our Advisors Team doesn’t work on commission so there is no inflating the bill with unnecessary materials to try and get more of your hard-earned money.
A team of advisors means we save you time by cutting right to the chase and finding the best setup for your home theater installation in the shortest period of time. Our advisors work together to formulate the highest performing and most economic setup for you.
Because of our Pro AV background we have experience selecting the best outdoor speakers for outdoor home theater installations. You may simply want background music, low sound level speakers that look like rocks and blend into your landscaping. Installation of larger speakers that are all the neighbors will allow are also possible. Outdoor TVs that standup to daylight are also now popular for home theater installations. Want to watch golf or the Yankees at 2 o’clock in the afternoon by the swimming pool? Very do-able. Home theater is many things to many people.
Great sound does not mean making your eardrums bleed. In this case, less is more. Unlike some big box stores, as advisors in home theater, we don’t try to load you up with big systems that are overkill. We want you to be happy with the highest performing home theater installation your budget will allow. Whether you have a 5.1 surround system or want a 7.1.4 system, sound where you want it, at the level you want it is very important. Speaker placement in your home theater installation as well as physical appearance in your house is also important.
Great sound does not mean making your eardrums bleed. In this case, less is more. Unlike some big box stores, as advisors in home theater, we don’t try to load you up with big systems that are overkill. We want you to be happy with the highest performing home theater installation your budget will allow. Whether you have a 5.1 surround system or want a 7.1.4 system, sound where you want it, at the level you want it is very important. Speaker placement in your home theater installation as well as physical appearance in your house is also important.
Again, bigger is not better. Your home theater setup is all about the experience. Poor or overly loud sound is a major faux pas / mistake. Speaker size and type depends largely on your room size, walls and budget, but quite often as long as you have a good subwoofer, inexpensive six inch speakers, either recessed in the walls or surface mounted are more than adequate for a high performance home theater setup / installation.
We’re big advocates of Samsung TV installations when it comes to great TV screens for your home theater. Why? Just like with their cell phones, they put an epic image on the screen. Want the deepest black for the best price in your house? We feel the Samsung QLED line gives you the most bang for your buck. Want the deepest black and the thinnest, coolest TV to show off to your friends? Spend $3000 and buy an LG OLED screen at Best Buy. They are impressive.
Although our prices will be close to BB retail prices for TVs we are not the cheapest and don’t try to be. And no, we don’t install TVs that you buy online from someone else. What we have of value is expertise and experience. Need to hang a TV above a fireplace? We know what to expect in the inner workings of your wall and can suggest something that is safe, practical and puts your TV setup at the best height for viewing when movie night or the Super Bowl roll around. A pleasurable home theater viewing experience in your house should be a top priority and you don’t have to spend a fortune to get the setup that is right for you and is budget friendly.
Maybe you don’t live in a house….You instead live in an apartment…..A home theater experience can even be realized in a small living room. There are some impressive sound bars on the market now that perform incredibly. You don’t have to have a bunch of speakers circling your living room taking up floor space to have a great home theater experience. Your setup can be discreet and high performance at the same time. Allow our advisors to take a look and see what recommendations can be made.
To many people, “home theater” is all encompassing and means watching everything from the world news to the Masters golf tournament on a larger than life screen with larger than life sound everyday. If you want to really simulate the home theater experience and if you have a room large enough, today’s projectors with a good projection screen put an incredible image up on the screen. We recommend projectors for special showings / events rather than daily TV watching....
Reserve it for movie night, SU basketball games, Super Bowl, Kentucky Derby. As long as you have lighting control, choose high resolution (4K) and good contrast over super high brightness. High brightness is required in the conference room at the office, not necessarily for a home theater installation. Save yourself some money and get a brightness that is appropriate for your needs. For home theater movie viewing, 2000 or 3000 lumens is normally adequate. Especially if you are going with a laser projector. For watching sports with the room lights up, a brighter projector is preferred.
Speaking of laser projectors, laser projectors don’t use lamps and are great for longevity, image sharpness and low cost of ownership. Your new home theater can be cool but why not make it economical at the same time. And one more thing you probably already know, projectors don’t work outside during daytime hours. They simply cannot compete with direct daylight. In the evening or under a canopy, that’s another story.
And on that note, for the new James Bond release (when it finally does arrive) you will want lighting at a certain low level. When friends come over Super Bowl Sunday, you want lighting much higher so you can see your guests’ faces. Lighting presets are easy to accomplish and make the room user friendly. We also have experience with mood / ambient lighting if you want to bypass your typical fluorescent lighting fixtures and give your guests a special experience and really set a specific mood.
Good “zoned” lighting is a nice luxury when planning your room. The ability to dim the lights near the screen while raising slightly the lights at the entrance to your home theater is pretty important. Again, it’s those little things that count.
Yamaha is a highly regarded home theater staple and is our first recommendation in most cases. Through remote control, your receiver and other rack items don’t have to be out in plain sight.
As with Pro-AV, ease of use in home theater installations is super important. If your family cannot easily navigate your new system, it’s not good for you or us. We generally recommend Logitech Harmony products for complete control of all things. These can be integrated with Alexa for a truly modern user interface.
We specialize in making that home theater room a special retreat in your house where you can escape the crazy world we live in for a few hours.
How we got from where we were to where we are…. Although we have only recently decided to become home theater advisors, our roots come from a related field. As we said in the beginning, our parallel life is in the Pro AV industry where we have been advisors to probably many of the same people in their professional lives. We have been doing installations in meeting rooms for decades that involve audio, video, big screens, cameras and of late, video conferencing products and solutions. Installations in both houses and professional buildings are challenging.
Any existing building is somewhat of a mystery until you do a site survey. Even then, there can be surprises inside of walls and ceilings and floors. As advisors in home theater, we have built up decades of relationships with other trades such as electricians, carpentry, IT people, painters, security camera people, etc. “We know a guy” for just about every situation. This puts a whole new spin on advisors. You will not get this added value in retail stores.
Just as financial, legal, accounting advisors charge for their time, when you get a price quote from us, when wearing our “advisors” cap, we itemize the price of our advice and expertise. Advisors charge for bringing experience and knowledge to the table. Site surveys, needs analysis time, design time, research time, idea development are all things that we as your home theater advisors have to offer that are foreign to the Best Buy retail sales rep. Advisors offer advice, not boxes.
But it’s not all about the money. We do what we like and we have fun doing it. Although “advisors” brings with it a stigma of someone in a suit and tie keeping track of every minute, we are nothing like that. Our “advisors” are men that have in addition to their home theater background, experience in theater lighting and sound and video projection. Not to toot our own horn, but we bring a lot to the table.
A new trend now especially since COVID, is the rise of “online advisors”. Although online advisors such as beauty experts, shoe and apparel, even car shopping and insurance experts may be viable, advisors for what we provide need to be hands-on and there in person. We spend the extra time and money to see what your current setup is and listen to your vision of what your new setup might be.
If you notice, this information and our website is not all about specific brands such as Sony or LG or Samsung or others. That’s because installations should be about matching the best products to the job requirements, regardless of what brand they are. No, we are not brand loyal and we believe that is a benefit to you because we are working for you, not the manufacturer.
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Give us a call, we try to answer all inquiries within 24 hours on business days.
OFFICE HOURS
Mon-Fri: 8:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday by appointment.
6780 Northern Blvd, Suite 400
East Syracuse, NY 13057