Home Theater's Color Science

OnSwitch 1.1.2 is now available and brings iPad support as well as new lighting scenes for your Home Theater!

We worked on those scene's colors and animations to make your living room feel as much like a real movie theater as possible. These scenes are also designed to work with your eyes to enhance your viewing experience.

1. Lights Down
   This simulates a movie theater’s slow dimming of the lights when the movie begins. The fade is 8 seconds long. For example, you can watch a few trailers before you start the night's movie, then dim the lights with the Lights Down scene, it’s a fun and effective way to start watching a movie with the people you care about.

2. Intermission
   The lights slowly turn on and stay red, until you turn the Lights Down again. The color red preserves your pupil dilation, that way your eyes stay adapted to the dark room and you don't feel like you just woke up when you turn on the lights! You can get right back to your movie without waiting for your eyes to adjust again.

3. Lights Up
   The movie is over. Did the good guys win, or did the zombies take over? Back to real life! The lights up scene slowly increases the brightness to 100% over 8 second. The color temperature ends on 2700 Kelvin which is the same as our “Standard” scene in Everyday Lighting album.

4. Color Accurate Lighting
   The lights dim slowly over 8 seconds, but NOT all the way off. The lights stay on at a very dim level to soften the contrast between the room and the screen. That’s easier on your eyes. (Even better put a light strip behind your TV, for true home theater “bias lighting.” ) Most important, the color of that light is a bright-white 6500 Kelvin color temperature. (It’s the same color as our Fluorescent scene in everyday lighting.) That color is the same as the light that’s shining through most LCD TV panels and allows for accurate color perception. Try watching 10 minutes of your favorite colorful movie with this scene vs. the lights off or dimmed Standard lighting and you should see the difference! This has become one of our most popular scenes.

Further reading: http://www.cepro.com/article/6_lighting_ideas_for_home_theaters/