When cinemas were closed during ‘Circuit Breaker’, many of us curled up in bed with our phones & laptops, devouring episode after episode of dramas & sitcoms to cope.
Of course, those teensy screens could never hold a candle to the OG theatre experience we know and love — the scent of freshly buttered popcorn, a massive flickering screen & Dolby’s intimate ‘All Around You…you…you…’ whisper.
If all you’ve got are the 4 empty corners of your HDB flat and a dusty drywall, we’ll let you in on a secret way to overhaul your room into a bona fide cinema.
Goodbye smol phones & laptop screens, for the LUMOS Auro Projector will bring new meaning to staring blankly at your room’s walls on weekends.
Here’s how to secure one just in time for date night with bae or a Halloween movie screening session with the mahjong clique.
Only some snacks & drinks are allowed in proper cinemas. But if you prefer snacking on truffle chips & upsized brown sugar BBT with your shoes off & your legs up — setting up a home theatre may grant you that freedom.
All you need is an empty wall, drawn curtains & a comfy mattress laid out on your living room floor. The next step is to place the projector from 1.5-3 metres from your wall of choice — a space-efficient way to ensure that the picture & sound quality are still on point.
Then kick back and enjoy your Ah Boys to Men trilogy marathon with your ORD mates in 1080p resolution — aka Blu-Ray standard of visuals.
When night falls, you may spot your mum squinting in the darkness to scrutinise the cute crinkles on her K-drama oppa’s eye smiles onscreen.
That’s because some screens or projections may appear grainy or washed out, if lighting isn’t optimum.
A hack to buying the right projector for your home is to ask for the ‘lumens’ stat. In LUMOS’ case, their Auro Projector packs a hefty 6,000 lumens. This helps vivid colours stand out even in low-light settings.
If ah ma & ah gong are crashing movie night, it’s best to turn up the volume, so everyone can enjoy the film without having to squint at subtitles.
Thanks to technology, however, you can expect cinematic surround sound via inbuilt Dolby Audio that’s powerful by itself without the need for additional speakers.
Football nights with the bros, regardless of whatever jersey colour you bleed, will also never be the same on a glorious 100-inch display.
You’ll also have your pick of reality shows & sitcoms with inbuilt Netflix & YouTube apps via an Android OS — so you can select your show & load it directly via your home’s WiFi.
You may be worried about the set-up & maintenance before your kakis arrive, but there’ll be no need for messy HDMI cables plugged into external devices — the LUMOS Auro Projector doesn’t need to be connected to anything besides the power socket.
Avid gamers will be pleased to note that you can wirelessly mirror your phone’s screen on the ceiling.
You can still cast a rectangular screen even if it’s placed by your bedside or sideways, up to a 50° angle.
That means being able to nua in bed and stare at the ceiling while playing MOBA with your friends in FHD resolution.
Zoom calling your significant other on drizzly sleep-in mornings may become a bit of a chore after your honeymoon period is long past.
Typically, you’d have to set up your laptop or webcam & ensure lighting is sufficient. With the phone cast function, you can spring a punctual check-in with bae and his doggo, while staying cocooned in your sheets.
Shelling out more than $10/movie to recline in front of a massive cinema screen isn’t the most affordable habit.
But attempting to replicate the entire cinematic experience can be an even taller order. At $299 for its flagship model, LUMOS Auro Projector is pretty competitively priced.
That’s considering you’ll get a gaming screen, Dolby surround sound system, a 100-inch screen in FHD resolution, and a Netflix & YouTube app-enabled device all-in-one.
Surviving Covid-19 is no walk in the park. But we learnt from the ‘Circuit Breaker’ that our homes can contain everything we need for our new normal.
The rise of DIY home theatres in our HDB flats also coincided with cinema closures, as families rushed to zhng their living rooms to recreate the experience.
In that sense, one of our greatest takeaways from 2020 is that it’s always worthwhile to invest in ways to spend more quality time with our loved ones.
After all, a house is not a home without the fam. May this mark the start of better days & movie nights to come.
This post is brought to you in collaboration with LUMOS Projectors.
Featured image courtesy of MS News. Photography by Clement Sim.
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