Home Theater Design 101
For the real media buff, here's the guide to designing a space for the ultimate A/V experience
To build a home theater, it takes a team of professionals. But you still must convey to them exactly what you want and expect from your entertainment space. To do this, you need to learn the essential elements for creating a great home theater from designing and planning to buying and installing. To help you, we interviewed the following home theater experts: Interior Designer Charles Pavarini III, Lighting Designer Lana Lenar, and Audiovisual Specialist Barry Reiner . Here's what they had to say about:
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A home theater space should be similar to that of a movie theater: an enclosed, rectangular room. Shape influences how sound bounces around the room so a perfectly square room or a room that's twice as long as it's wide can produce "muddy" sound patterns. The perfect room? About one-and-a half times as long as it is wide. And it should be enclosed for the best sound quality since wide-open rooms don't have ideal acoustics.
SURFACES
If you are building a top-of-the-line theater, you'll probably want curtained or upholstered walls and a carpeted floor. The soft surface diminishes disruptive echoes.
SEATING DISTANCE
Locate seating so the screen-to-eye distance is about two to three times the screen size (screen size is typically measured on the diagonal). An onscreen image appears sharpest when viewed straight on.
LIGHTING
With a front-projection system, the lighting set up should be just shy of total darkness. There should be just enough light so the display doesn’t strain your eyes, but not enough to cause a glare on the screen. The system alone will likely provide adequate lighting so people can move safely around, but to be safe you may want to consider installing task lighting along the floor. Beyond performance, lighting is a key element in home theater design. The room should be an inviting, comfortable space with a lighting system that sets the right mood for entertainment and relaxation.
