Home cinema seating layout & design

The Seating design has to be the starting point for the Technical Design. If a Home Cinema design begins anywhere other than the seating design, it is being done wrong.

The Seating design not only determines how many people can enjoy the room, but also the complete experience they will enjoy. 

A cosy family room, may need a totally different seating plan to a room designed for watching sports with friends.

We ensure we understand exactly who is going to use the room, how many people and what they will be watching. 

A cosy family room, may need a totally different seating plan to a room designed for watching sports with friends.

How does the Seating layout effect Video Design?

The correct screen size is determined by the viewing angle from the seating positions. In a large public cinema, we know some clients like to sit near the front, others near the back. If the room will have a single row of seats, then the screen size can be selected to suit your personal preference with ease.

We can show you a number of different screen sizes to see if you like a screen a little larger than most, or a little smaller, this is all personal choice to make sure you feel comfortable.

When there are multiple rows of seating, we would often design the screen size so that the middle row has the screen size that you find most comfortable, this can become a juggling act to make sure that the screen isn’t uncomfortable when in the front or underwhelming from the back. 

Using industry standards we can guide this decision to make sure all of your guests have the same amazing experience.  For example, we would usually aim to have no guests closer then a 62 degree viewing angle or further than a 35degree angle, with the sweet spot around 48-52 degrees. 

If the layout will place your guests outside of this range, we can look at alternative layout options to seat the same number of people but with everybody getting the best possible experience.

How does the Seating layout effect Audio Design?

The way sound interacts with the walls in a room contribute to the quality of the audio. Thankfully, these room interactions are easily predictable, in rectangular rooms.

We know there are are certain areas of the room where sound quality is likely to be reduced. With this in mind, we aim to avoid any seat being placed on a line either 1/3rd or 2/3rd of the depth or width of the room, where bass will not usually sound its best. 

When the room is large enough, we also aim to place all seating at least 1m from any wall or any speaker. This is especially important with speakers on the rear wall, which we often recommend removing if seating must be placed close to the rear wall.

The seating design will also determine the distance from each speaker to the listening position. This is important because we require 4 times as much output from the speakers every time the distance doubles. This means screen speakers suitable for seats 3m away would be totally unsuitable if the seats were 6m away, which is why it is impossible to choose speakers or amplifiers before the seating design is confirmed.

Here is a small selection of the home cinema seat designs that we supply…

Home Cinema Video Design >>>

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