Skip to main content
The Home Theatre EngineerLet's Talk Client login
Menu
Home / Calibration
Measured performance

Calibration isn't guesswork.

Measure what the system is doing. Understand why. Make controlled changes. Measure again. Document the result.

Real home theatre calibration setup with test pattern and measurement microphone
Why calibrate?

Good equipment doesn't set itself up.

New loudspeakers, processors, projectors and TVs rarely perform at their best out of the box. Factory settings and automatic setup routines are generic, while your room, seating and system are not.

Sound

The room has as much influence on what you hear as the loudspeakers do. Reflections and room modes create boomy or missing bass that changes from seat to seat, and automatic setup routines often get levels, distances, crossovers and subwoofer integration wrong.

  • Bass that booms in one seat and disappears in another
  • Subwoofers working against each other
  • Dialogue that's hard to follow
  • Effects that don't move cleanly around the room

Picture

Displays are set up to stand out in a bright showroom, so default modes push brightness, colour and sharpness beyond what the film-maker intended. Every unit is slightly different, and your room's lighting and source devices matter too.

  • An image that's too bright, too dark or tiring to watch
  • Lost detail in dark scenes or bright highlights
  • Skin tones and colours that look unnatural
  • HDR that looks dim, clipped or inconsistent
Levels of calibration

Standard or advanced: matched to your system.

Not every system needs the same depth of work. The level depends on the equipment, the room and what you want to achieve.

Standard calibration

For typical home theatre and living-room systems.

  • Sound: speaker levels, distances and timing, crossovers and bass management, subwoofer integration, and room-correction setup and verification
  • Picture: projector or TV calibration of brightness, black level, greyscale, gamma and colour, for SDR and HDR, with day and night presets

Advanced calibration

For high-performance theatres and specialist processors.

  • Sound: high channel-count immersive systems, multiple subwoofers, and advanced processors such as StormAudio and Trinnov, with multiple presets for different listening needs
  • Picture: 3D LUT calibration with madVR Envy and Lumagen Radiance Pro, HDR tone-mapping setup, and multiple presets for different content and conditions
The process

Measure → understand → calibrate → verify.

  • Establish system condition and configuration
  • Capture baseline measurements
  • Identify the limiting issues
  • Make controlled configuration/calibration changes
  • Re-measure and verify
  • Explain what changed and why
  • Provide qualifying documentation
Measured. Verified. Documented.

Two documents. Two different purposes.

A Certificate of Performance recognises a demonstrated result. A Calibration Report explains the measurements and decisions behind it. They are separate deliverables, and the documentation provided depends on the work undertaken.

01 / Client-facing confirmation

Certificate of Performance

A concise, presentable record of the project, the work performed and the outcomes actually verified. Where a particular performance criterion is stated, it must be supported by the measurements and scope of that project.

Example Certificate of Performance for The Smith Theatre, signed by Andrew Poole
Example of a previously issued certificate. Project-specific claims are not automatically applicable to other rooms.
02 / Technical evidence

Calibration Report

The technical record of what was measured, what was adjusted, and what the system achieved after calibration. It may also document limitations and targets that could not be met.

Example before-and-after video calibration report with gamut and colour-error measurements
Example before-and-after calibration report. Select the image to view it full size. Results shown are from an example project, not a performance guarantee.

Important: A calibration report can document a useful improvement even when a system cannot meet every target. A Certificate of Performance must not imply compliance with untested or unmet criteria.

Evidence, not theatre

“It sounds better” isn't the end of the job.

Where appropriate, the customer should be able to see what was measured, what changed and what the final system is doing.

Enquire about calibration