AliceTHX Ltd has partnered with Home Acoustics Alliance (HAA) to create premium home theatre training courses, further enhancing the THX Certified Professional Training Program.
Courses include theory and hands-on workshops on the essentials of home theatre equipment, technologies and high-performance acoustic design. Students who attend each course and pass the exit exam will receive THX and HAA Certification and will be listed on websites of both companies.
The comprehensive program is designed to help custom integrators achieve the best possible home theatre experience in any environment, from multi-purpose family rooms to dedicated home theatres.
“I’ve always respected THX’s integrity and their unwillingness to compromise on performance,” says Gerry Lemay, director of HAA. “THX Certified products are some of the best home theatre components in the world and it’s important to THX, their CE partners and the consumer that this equipment be installed and set-up properly. That has always been the goal of HAA training courses and throughout the years we received a reputation for offering the industry’s most comprehensive training programmes. Now we’re thrilled to partner with THX in educating the world’s best custom integrators.”
The THX-HAA Home Theatre Training programme is comprised of three certification levels totalling six days of training: Home Theatre Advisor (one-day course), Home Theatre Integrator (two-day course), and Home Theatre Advanced Integrator (three-day course).
All three THX-HAA Home Theatre Training courses will be offered at CEDIA 2016 in Dallas, Texas in September.
To support the Home Theatre and Video Calibration training programmes, THX is launching an all-new Professional’s Portal hosted on THX.com where students can access course materials, exams and certified professional resources.
The portal will be available only to those students who take THX home theatre or video calibration training courses.
“Over the past three decades we’ve had over 5,000 individuals take THX training courses demonstrating their commitment to providing consumers with the best audio visual experience possible,” says Bill Rusitzky, THX’s chief revenue officer. “Today we renew our commitment to the integrator community by partnering with one of the most respected names in the industry (HAA) and launching a new Professionals web portal to be a resource for those who entrust us with their learning.
Course Schedule:
Mumbai, India:
Home Theatre Advisor Certification Seminar: July 25, 2016
Home Theatre Integrator Certification Workshop: July 26-27, 2016
Home Theatre Advanced Integrator Certification: July 28-29, 2016
Stanstead, UK:
Home Theatre Advisor Certification Seminar: August 22, 2016
Home Theatre Integrator Certification Workshop: August 23-24, 2016
Home Theatre Advanced Integrator Certification: August 25-26, 2016
Dallas, Texas, USA:
Home Theatre Advisor Certification Seminar: September 13, 2016
Home Theatre Integrator Certification Workshop: September 18-19, 2016
Home Theatre Advanced Integrator Certification: September 20-21, 2016
Melbourne, Australia:
Home Theatre Advisor Certification Seminar: October 15, 2016
Home Theatre Integrator Certification Workshop: October 16-17, 2016
Home Theatre Advanced Integrator Certification: October 18-19, 2016
Click here to enrol.
About THX
One week after Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back debuted in theatres in 1980, George Lucas hired audio scientist, Tomlinson Holman, to design the audio mixing facilities at Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in Northern California.
To begin the project, Lucas gave Tomlinson one year to examine film audio throughout the entire production chain – from the set to the theatre, and everything in between.
Tomlinson’s goal was to find a way to improve cinematic sound production and create specifications to design the state-of-the-art audio mixing rooms that would eventually house Skywalker Sound.
During that year, Tomlinson was shocked to discover the state of most commercial cinemas. While Dolby Laboratories had made significant contributions to how sound was recorded and played back on film, no one had control over what happened on the production set or in the theatre itself.
He found that most commercial theatres had not seen significant technology improvements since World War II, commenting that viewing angles were poor, there were inadequate light levels distorted images, adding that the quality of sound systems and auditorium acoustics made it impossible to hear the dialogue, let alone experience the filmmaker’s vision.
Bringing the THX Experience to Moviegoers
After the Skywalker Sound audio facilities and Stag Theatre were completed, Lucasfilm began receiving requests from visiting commercial theatre owners and Hollywood studio executives to incorporate the Ranch’s performance standards into their cinema auditoriums and aging mixing rooms.
Realising that this could change the way moviegoers experienced feature films, Lucas and the soon-to-be THX team designed a certification program to go beyond the walls of Skywalker Ranch.
Thus, THX was born, and made available to movie audiences to coincide with the release of Lucas’ next film, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi in 1983.
Over the past 30 years THX has expanded its certification categories past studio and cinema, to consumer electronics, content, automotive systems and live entertainment.