Delaware home theater retailer opens first Utah franchise

Enterprise, The, Oct 8, 2007 by Taylor, Debbi

A Delaware-based home theater retailer has entered the Utah market with a new showroom and design center in Draper that offers home theater systems and full room build-outs at an affordable price.

Theater Xtreme Entertainment Group Inc. has opened its first Utah Theater Xtreme store at 241 E. 12300 S. under the franchise ownership of Tyler Compton, who has a similar store in Boise. The 4,200 square foot showroom features more than five rooms of home theaters, set up to show consumers what options are open to them when designing a home theater experience and what it would look like.

"No one is doing what we're doing exactly - to be able to offer affordable home cinema to consumers and have a nice design center where they can come and experience what they're going to get in their home; to visually see it, smell it, taste it, hear it, feel it, the whole nine yards," Compton said. "What we do is we design, sell and install affordable home cinema. But we also do other things that include home automation, whole-house audio, lighting control, shade control and structured wiring. We also offer full, one-stop shopping for either someone building a new home or for new home builders."

Prior to opening the store, Compton conducted a market and demographic research study that indicated the Utah market was largely untouched by anyone selling complete home theater systems.

"We did a lot of demographic research, buying trends and growth, and thought that we would be able to fill a void in the market," Compton said. "We chose Utah because of the growth in the market down here. With a lot of building going on and a lot of people moving here, growth here is pretty sustainable. We chose Draper because it's right off the freeway, just around the corner from Utah County and because IKEA was only a mile away."

The company offers an array of projection, plasma and LCD televisions ranging in screen size from 80 inches up to 123 inches. It also offers theater seating in 11 styles and a wide variety of colors and fabrics.

"Our showrooms show people what they can do in their home if they don't have a dedicated theater," Compton said. "Not everyone has a room for it, or wants to have a dedicated theater, but they want the opportunity to have a 92- to 123-inch screen in a livingroom setting or an area they have for multi-purpose."

Compton said the home theater buyer is typically a homeowner who has been in his or her home one to two years and is ready to make a first set of upgrades.

According to Scott Oglum, chief executive officer of Theater Xtreme, the company also doesn't rely on the up and down trends of new home construction because the company does not cater to the new home construction market as much as it appeals to those who have been in their homes for a while, having gained some equity and being ready to invest in upgrades. Additionally, because of the current slowdown in the home-buying market, homeowners are deciding to stay in and improve their existing residences.

"Those people already have equity in their house and they're not going to move. But they want to upgrade their house with home automation, or a movie theater or home audio," Compton said. "In Utah most people have the biggest size rooms to deal with. A lot of people have basements and bigger homes and when they built their homes in the beginning the basements aren't finished."

Theater Xtreme can design a home theater for any size room, with prices that are more affordable than most people realize. On average, homeowners can have a home theater for about $7,000, Compton said. However that price can go as high as $25,000 and as low as $5,000, depending on the system, size of screen and other amenities added to the home theater package. The company can provide acoustic wall panels and lighting sconces to make a home theater room look like a commercial movie theater.

"We do all the design work ourselves," Compton said. "We do free in-home design consultations where our designer will come to your home, measure it all out and then give several design options and customize it to their needs."

The company also does the complete installation, which typically takes two to three days to complete.

The Draper location will be the company's base of operations. Compton is planning to add smaller, 2,500 square foot satellite showrooms in the Davis/Weber county area and in the St. George area.