Im working on an editorial article on the “Future of Home Theatre”.  I know, it sounds like a big topic.  I’m trying to condense it to a reasonable “thesis” and I would appreciate your opinions and especially your experience.

I am not an expert in home theatre design, but teach a lot about the technology and design process of creating home theaters, I’ve been involved in the design/install of a few, and have had the opportunity to experience many more. 

My general impression:  It’s come a long way but we’re missing something.  It ain’t right yet.

Home theatre design seems to me to have reached a plateau.  In the past decade, the emphasis has been on getting the technology to a level of high quality reproduction.  While there is probably more room for improvement, i think we’ve reached the last 5%.  Displays/projectors are very good.  Sound systems (speakers, amps) are also very good (but generally poorly installed).  We’re still in a learning curve on the architectural, lighting, acoustics especially for small rooms. 

The current home theatre, assuming it is designed properly, seems (to me) to be limited in several ways.  The source material is way behind what the current home theatre is capable of recreating.  But I assume that will catch up with better quality HD material someday.  Sound reproduction is still totally unrealistic.  It emphasizes LOUD over quality, it’s spread all over the place while the picture is clearly not, and it sounds “flat”, unlike real life. 

So what is the home theatre of 2018 going to be like?  Where are we (the CE Pro, the studios, the manufacturers) going with this?  Is it just a future of getting the cost down for a wider audience? 
Appreciate your input.