Cinema Room Layout

bauderline

Folks,

I have a room in the basement of my new house which is 3.7m by 9.6m long which I intend to turn into a cinema room. In its a part of the basement with no windows so its an ideal use for the space.

My plans are to place a 110" Carada at one end of the room and ceiling mount a project at the far end of the room and have speakers sockets prewired to allow easy and mess free sound system installation.

First fix is coming up shortly and I need to get a couple of things straight....

1. How far away down the room from the screen should I place the connections on the ceiling for the projector (power and trunk for hdmi cable.)

2. How many speaker connections should I put in for a good surround sound setup and where should I place these, how many at front of room, how many at middle of room and how many at back of room. Should the speakers be mounted high up or low down ?

I have no great knowledge of Home Entertainment gear but I would like to build a decent cinema and would like to take the opportunity to pre-wire properly whilst I have the chance !

Any and all suggestions very welcome !

Best regards, Baud.

ZENER

bauderline wrote: »

Folks,

I have a room in the basement of my new house which is 3.7m by 9.6m long which I intend to turn into a cinema room. In its a part of the basement with no windows so its an ideal use for the space.

Lucky you !!

My plans are to place a 110" Carada at one end of the room and ceiling mount a project at the far end of the room and have speakers sockets prewired to allow easy and mess free sound system installation.

First thing first, get a decent quality speaker cable. I'm not gone on high price cables and OFCC etc. but I would recommend a large CSA (cross sectional area) of at least 2.5mm per core to minimise volt drops and other effects of thin cheap cables.

First fix is coming up shortly and I need to get a couple of things straight....

1. How far away down the room from the screen should I place the connections on the ceiling for the projector (power and trunk for hdmi cable.)

Depends entirely on the projector/screen combination. This site will help you calculate within a few inches. After that most projectors have a zoom of some kind to take up any slack you encounter.

2. How many speaker connections should I put in for a good surround sound setup and where should I place these, how many at front of room, how many at middle of room and how many at back of room. Should the speakers be mounted high up or low down ?

With advances in technology day by day I'd say wire for at least 7.1. That is Center: Left/Right front: Left/Right surround: Left/Right rear and a Subwoofer. Mind what sub you buy, some are powered - have their own amplifier built in - and require mains supply and an audio line level feed (as opposed to a speaker level). Also a center rear point might be advantageous.

I have no great knowledge of Home Entertainment gear but I would like to build a decent cinema and would like to take the opportunity to pre-wire properly whilst I have the chance !

Any and all suggestions very welcome !

Best regards, Baud.

There are others here with vast knowledge in this field and I'm sure they'll help out. Look out for a bald guy spitting fire about how bad oxygen is . . .

ZEN

Slaphead07

ZENER wrote: »

Look out for a bald guy spitting fire about how bad oxygen is . . .

ZEN

Oi! My interconnects don't even have metal anymore! Carbon is the new thing now you know.;) (no seriously)

Did you get sorted that time btw?

bauderline

Zener,

Thanks for your response ! Its very helpful, a couple of quick questions come out of it though.

1. I guess its better to keep your projector closer to the screen rather than farther away so as to keep the image as bright as possible ?

2. Where is the best place to put the sub, rear centre or front centre.

B.

Slaphead07

bauderline wrote: »

1. I guess its better to keep your projector closer to the screen rather than farther away so as to keep the image as bright as possible ?

2. Where is the best place to put the sub, rear centre or front centre.

1. Depends on the projector - you have a long room there so consider mounting it about 14 feet back from the screen.

2. In theory a sub can go anywhere but in reality it's best in front, off-centre and pointing towards a rear corner. By aiming the sub at an angle you'll break up the low frequency waves. In a more conventional room a sub pointing straight will have the waves bouncing right back and cancelling the signal - basically you'll lose bass.

The Ritz

Hi,


The distance between the projector and the screen is a function of the throw-distance of the projector, it's zoom capability and the size of screen you want.

You should decide which projector you want in the first place - choice depends on your budget and whether you want a 720p projector or a full HD projector. You have a full blackout room, so light drop-off because of where you locate the projector should really be a non-issue.

Some projectors (mainly LCD models) have added flexibility by having "lens shift" - i.e the ability to project a correctly oriented image while the projector is positioned off-center in relation to the screen, either verticaly or horizontally, or both. In a situation such as your own, where you have a dedicated room, I would not consider this to be any advantage - you're free to set this thing up properly from the get go.

As for screen size, as a general rule of thumb the seating distance should be 1.5 times the screen width - ie sit 12 feet away from an 8ft wide screen, but this is not "written in stone" - it's a matter of what you're most comfortable with.

Projectorreviews.com will give you a fairly good idea of the cross-section of projectors out there, you can always ask here for opinions, quite a few of us run projectors.

You have a very long room to play with (about 29ft ?) - you could consider partitioning one end of the room - say allowing 4 ft for an equipment room - amplifier, sources (dvd bluray, whatever) and storage for dvds etc. and install an all black screenwall about 1.5 ft from the other end which would house your front speakers and sub. You'd still have a 24ft room, plenty from 2 rows of seating, no equipment to distract you, Heaven !!

You'd still have to have your projector ceiling mounted in the room, a projector with a 24+ft throw distance isn't commercially available for a normal screen size.

Good luck with the project.

Ritz.

bauderline

Ritz,

Some interesting ideas there, I had thought about put shelving at the rear of the room for a media library, but I like the thoughts of bringing the front wall forward and recessing some of the equipment / speakers.....

Speaking of mounting the speakers should they be on the floor, halfway up the wall or near the top of the wall ?

I guess they would be better higher up, but I suppose it depends on a number of factors...

Floor plans of basement are here ....

http://bp1.blogger.com/_hJRmbkMCvqc/RzOkSTcTQqI/AAAAAAAAAB0/P4qNMW25HUY/s1600-h/floor+plans.jpg

The cinema room is labelled "GYM ROOM" on the plans... cough ... cough ...

I was thinking about Panasonic PT-AE2000 with a Carada 110" as I have seen good reports on both on here and other furums...

Thanks for all your help folks !

B.

ZENER

Put those details into the link I gave you above and it will tell you how far back the projector should be. The distance really isn't the issue it's how much the light output will be spread across a given size screen. you can bring the projector further back and then make the picture fit the screen with the zoom. The lumens/m2 will be the same afaik.

So for a PAE2000 (excellent unit for home cinema by the way, I have a PAE 500HD and love it.) and a 110" diagonal screen the distance from lens to screen is about 14.5ft the zoom and other functions of the projector will help fill the screen fully.

In my setup the center speaker is under the screen which makes it about 3.5ft of the floor. If you have a lot of seats it may be better to put it higher so the seats in front don't mask the sound from those further back. the center is the anchor for the whole system and it's important everyone can hear it and that it's of good quality. The sub can pretty much go anywhere in the room as true bass is non directional. That said some cheaper DVD/home cinema/speaker systems (like this for example) rely on the "sub" to do most of the work and are generally not suitable for your project as it would disappoint you.

A good quality Center speaker will make everything stick together. The front left/right should also be powerful and good quality as they may also double up as the left/right for a music system. I'm using a set of AE floor standers for my front (thanks slaphead07 ) and an AE center and a pair of Warfdale Diamonds for reara. My viewing room is 13" x 12'6" with a 96" screen and Denon 5.1 AV amplifier. Source is a Yamaha DVD player and a Sony PS3.

Edit: Looking at your plans I'd say the study room is better suited. The gym room in my opinion is too narrow but that's just me !

ZEN

Slaphead07

bauderline wrote: »

Speaking of mounting the speakers should they be on the floor, halfway up the wall or near the top of the wall ?

Depends on the speakers! For fronts I'd always suggest floor standers as they have that extra depth you need when watching movies. They don't have to be huge, System Audio floor standers are only as a wide as a CD and go plenty loud (Cloney Audio have some second hand at the moment) and you could use the bookshelf models (or floor standers again) for rears/side speakers.

If you are going for bookshelf speakers then mount (wall or stand) them so that the tweeters are close to ear level. The centre should be mounted directly underneath the screen.

The Ritz

For fronts I'd always suggest floor standers as they have that extra depth you need when watching movies.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with Slaphead on this issue - if you're running a true 5.1 system, the sub will be doing the sub-80hz work so the bass capability of your speakers is less critical, although issues of personal preference as to choice of speakers, tonality etc. is a different thing.There's any variety of 5.1 speaker setups out there, all down to your budget and personal taste. Try to choose a setup where you can buy an additional pair of rear speakers to match for 7.1.

If you can you should choose front left, right and centre speakers fom the same manufacturer - it isn't the end of the world but it helps get an even tonality across your front sound stage.

When you're working on your design give some thought to screen placement - I'm most comfortable with the screen located so that seated head height is at the lower third of the screen - with the lens shift capability of the Panasonic you should be able to achieve this easily. Agree with Slaphead about placement of front speakers, with the center speaker is located beneath the screen, angle it up slightly so it's pointing towards head level in your main seatig position.

Ritz.

Slaphead07

The Ritz wrote: »

I wouldn't necessarily agree with Slaphead on this issue - if you're running a true 5.1 system, the sub will be doing the sub-80hz work

I'm not talking about bass here, I used the word "depth" to refer to soundstage or imagery (maybe I should have been clearer).... personally I believe sound can create a picture too and improved speakers gives an improved image. Floor standers have more depth in the sense that they give a better 3D image of the soundstage... you get a sense of how big a room (in the movie) is or the reverb of a hall/cave/warehouse. Bookshelf speakers struggle to deliver this often overlooked aspect of sound reproduction.

The Ritz

Slaphead,

(maybe I should have been clearer)

Yip, I didn't realise you were referring to that...........:)

personally I believe sound can create a picture too and improved speakers gives an improved image.

I agree that sound is an integral part of creating a home cinema system and decent speakers are part of the overall package..................

Floor standers have more depth in the sense that they give a better 3D image of the soundstage

I think you'd agree that the soundstage is derived from a range of factors, source, amplification, the speaker setup, incuding the sub(s) and in particular the acoustic treatment of the room. If someone has a personal preference for floorstanding speakers then that's fine, but I wouldn't prescribe them automatically, the outcome really depends on the overall mix of factors.



Ritz.

Slaphead07

The Ritz wrote: »

I think you'd agree that the soundstage is derived from a range of factors, source, amplification, the speaker setup, incuding the sub(s) and in particular the acoustic treatment of the room. If someone has a personal preference for floorstanding speakers then that's fine, but I wouldn't prescribe them automatically, the outcome really depends on the overall mix of factors.

all true but.... if the speakers can't deliver "the goods" then the rest won't matter. Some bigger bookshelf speakers can deliver on soundstage but you're talking a few grand for a pair... smaller speakers usually can't produce the big image to go with a big BIG screen. They're fine for a 42" TV or whatever but a bigger picture deserves a bigger soundstage.