Building a Home Theater from Scratch

Interior, Construction

February 18, 2022

Home theater is a room that provides a viewing experience like in a cinema. Nowadays, home theater is often used for e-sports. Therefore, this room is starting to attract many people, especially during the pandemic.

In building a home theater, there are several factors that must be considered, especially for those of you who are planning to start from scratch. This factor can be a reference for creating your dream home theater.

ROOM DIMENSIONS

Room dimensions are very important in order to create a maximum sound and visual experience. If you plan to make a home theater room from scratch, you must know about the golden ratio commonly used by experts, which is 1: 1.6/1.7 : 2.3/2.4.

For example, if you have a room with a height of 2 meters, it is recommended that your room is 3.2 or 3.4 meters wide and 4.6 or 4.8 meters long. That way, your room can provide good, consistent bass.

If you can't achieve this golden ratio, it is recommended to avoid ratios of sizes that are close to the numbers, such as 2: 2: 2 in the height, width and length of the room.

ROOM ACOUSTIC

There are 3 basic factors that affect room acoustics, namely the shape of the room, its size, and the material used in the room. For a standard home theater, if the golden ratio has been met, then the room has met the expected acoustic standards.

The room materials that need to be considered, such as ceilings, walls, floors, doors, speakers, screens, and even chairs. It is recommended that you cover your ceilings, walls, doors and floors with sound-absorbing panels so as to reduce loud noises. Likewise with the speakers and screen that will be used in your home theater, choose one that has been recommended in terms of acoustics and quality, in order to create a maximum viewing experience.

Home theater chairs are also highly recommended to use chairs that use acoustic materials, so that their sound absorption has been tested. In addition, a good home theater chair is a chair that meets ergonomic and fire-resistant design standards, so it can be used safely and comfortably. Datara can help you choose the right seat for the Home Theater you are building.

ROOM AMBIENCE

Creating the atmosphere of the room will of course be related to the color of the walls and also the lights that will be used.

Choose dark colors with a matte or flat finish on your walls so they don't reflect light off the screen. Also, make sure you eliminate inner windows in your home theater design. If it is already there, use blackout curtains to avoid the entry of light from outside.

In a home theater, you will need task lighting that is focused on a specific area you want, accent lighting to give an artistic and dramatic feel to the room, and safety lighting to help direct you to exits or items that could be accidentally hit.

SIGHT LINES: SEAT POSITION, PROJECTOR AND SCREEN

Sight lines are imaginary lines between the audience and the things/objects being watched. In home theater, the notion of sight lines is a comfortable viewing position for the audience towards the screen. Sight lines will take effect if your home theater has more than 1 line.

Sight lines in a home theater are regulated by the position of the projector, screen and chair, so that the audience does not have to look up or look down while watching. First, it is recommended that you choose a screen size with a 16:9 ratio with a view angle of 30 to 36 degrees. The bigger the screen, the better, but it must be adjusted to the size of the room, so that it is not too big for the audience in the front row. The placement of the screen is also recommended 75-90 cm from the floor, or equal to eye level when watching.

Another effective way of setting sight lines is to make a 15-20 cm high platform in the second row, and apply multiples to the next row. However, it is recommended to have a maximum of 3 lines for viewing comfort. In addition, choose a chair with an adjustable backrest angle (recliner), which can be selected either manually or motorized.

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