BASICS FOR YOUR PERSONALIZED HOME THEATRE

Nothing feels better than a cup of coffee with your favourite group of people and your favourite movie. The best movie night one can ever enjoy in those lazy days when you lack motivation to dress up and struggle the traffic while driving to the movie theatre. But to be honest its good to be lazy sometimes. Home theatres are the key solution for those lost and lousy days where you can enjoy the personalized theatre experience with your own comfort. People of contemporary times are giving it a thumbs up to make this as a part of their luxury lifestyle.The concept of home theatre is something which requires prior planning and series of discussion. The key basics for home theatre design starts with the room size, a check on budget for your home theatre, then finalizing electronics and theme and many more. Let's have a clear first cut knowledge about home theatre.

STEP 1: KNOW YOUR ROOM DIMENSION

There is no specific room size for home theatre. Any room can be used for the purpose of home theatre. but we do follow "golden ratio" concept for a perfect room dimension of home theatre which revolves around the height of the room and goes : Length of the room=2.6 x Height; Width of the room=1.6 x Height.
Please note : it doesnt mean that a room not following golden ratio concept is not good enough for your home theatre.How room dimension affects the acoustic of the theatre room?The room dimension is always a matter of concern because it describes the acoustics of the room. It shows how much time sound will take to reflect back. A bigger room in length will result in echo formation because the sound will travel many times to get disappear. Though is such cases acoustic treatment is done to achieve the same.

STEP 2: FRAME YOUR BUDGET

Well, having budget in hand is a good start to proceed with the your home theatre because it gives the idea where all you want to spend. A budget can be split into two parts say interior and A/V system because some of us wants to spend it a bit more in interior and some of us wants to spend more in A/V systems depending upon the choices. Speaking of interior, we can spend in comfortable theatre chairs or recliners, our favourite themed walls and ceilings like those of starts and outer space, favourite character or sportsperson or a particular movie and so many. Spending more in A/V system means instead of putting those recliners and themed walls in spotlight we wanna drag our focus on those big screens and favourite speakers and woofers and control systems. This budget split-up clearly shows where we are ready to compromise though the compromise is negligible but still, you know what I mean.

Now people will think what if we don't have a great budget?

Of course you can have a great theatre with whatever you have by cutting down the cost in many ways like-

1) By having a room painted with dark colors(absorbs more light from the screen and maintains our focus towards the screen) which cut down the cost of interior elements yet provides a very classy and decent interior space.

2) You can go for normal chairs which you are comfortable in rather than recliners because trust me recliners do cost pretty good

3) DIY acoustic panels.

Talking about A/V system-

4) There are screens and speakers available in market with a good quality and support in lower price giving approximately the same affect and experience as the costlier ones do.

So, once you have a budget decided how to be split and spent, you are good to go then.

STEP 3: FINALIZE ELECTRONICS

Human brain wonders over when too many choices are there in front of us. Same happens in choosing electronics for the home theatres. Today in market thousand of varieties are available to choose from for your home theatre. Brands are in competition which leaves us to do a study before stepping our foot into the market to purchase. Whatever electronic items you are looking for like screens, speakers, projectors, amplifiers, controllers,extensions and all it's always recommended to have a specialist along with you. Because it's very important that whatever you buy fits well in your room size. Experience of a person speaks on your behalf in choosing electronics and to be honest it saves time too. They know what should be the speaker configuration based on your room size and volume.

Acoustic is very important in designing home theatre because it controls the audio bounce inside the room. The acoustics better planned results in better audio experience and to achieve that its necessary to treat the room. When it comes to walls we treat it by using ac0ustic panels which are available in varieties of colors and textures and materials. They not only provide panelling but also creates patterns and designs on the wall which fits the selected theme.

After buying comes the installation which has to be done by experts. They know where the speakers has to be placed to get the perfect audio experience because they know how the sound travels inside a room and the ratio of sound reflection and absobtion. And if you are looking forward to do it by yourself, have a great idea and knowledge before you step into this.

STEP 4: DIG INTO THEMES

Choosing a theme for your oveall home theatre requires a great patience. Theme is nothing but what you want to showcase to friends and family when they enter into it. It can be anything which you like the most. Say you like nature and you are a traveler then you will obviously go with the nature, more green and lushy and you can achieve it by having photos of mountains, rivers, greenland, forest, wildlife and open land. If you admire night sky and stars you will be sticking to constellations, moon, the milky way and the ceiling designed with sky full of stars. Likewise the theme is something you admire the most. It can be a famous personality, your favourite person,memory and anything and everything. So, think, decide, and design.

STEP 5: PLAN YOUR SEATING

Planning your seating is the key factor for your overall experience in the home theatre. Your seats should be planned in such a way where the reflection, absorption and diffusion of the sound is properly engineered and also how far it should be from the screen to have a clear stress-less view. The distance between the screen and the seating plays a very very important role for a perfect view. And there is one simple way calculating the minimum and the maximum distance between the screen and the seats. All you have to do is take the horizontal length of the screen and multiply it with 2 which will give you the minimum distance between your screen and the seats. For maximum distance you need to take the same horizontal length of the screen and multiply it with 5. This gives you an ideal distance range to plan your seating for a perfect view.

We have come across stepped seatings in theatres. obviously all of us have seen that and the purpose this arrangement serves is beacuse is the clear and obstacle less view to others sitting behind the previous row. This arrangement justifies the whole seating concept which in fact was defined by ancient Greek theatres. This same concept is followed inside the home theatre where steps are created using wood or metal and then covered with insulated carpets.

STEP 6: INTERIOR LIGHTING

Compared to all the other rooms in your homes lighting in home theatre goes dimmer. Dim lights focuses on the purpose for which the room has been designed and dedicated to. Ceiling lights and down lights are more than enought for lighting purpose because all we need the lights are for guiding us to the seats and leading our paths out. Maybe few more lights to highlight the concept or theme of the theatre will do justice to the room too. Interior lighting is completely theme orientated. Over all we can say having few lights on the floor also will do for the purpose of leading our footsteps and directions. Unless, its a media room where lighting is important as the media room serves more than just a theatre but gathering space, activity area and all. it serves as a multifunctional area and obviously we need more lights when we speak about activities but it's only in the case of media room. When we are discussing about home theatre it's always the best to use less lighting and dim lighting.

CONCLUSION

Lets divide the overall steps of home theatre in two parts after knowing the room size and the budget:

1. ELECTRONICS SETUP (step 3rd)

2. INTERIOR SETUP (step 4th, 5th, 6th)

ELECTRONICS SETUP

Both the interior design and electronic equipments goes hand in hand and both complements each other for thier importance. Moving towards home theatre equipments, one should have the knowledge about them. When we think about home theatre, our mind revolves around the idea "big screen" - the bigger the better. Yes, the bigger the better but in home theatre the screen size depends on the size of the room and the allocation of the seats for a perfect experience. Because bigger screens with less distance between the seats and the screen results in uncomfortable screen view with neck pain and eye strain. So when it comes to buying the equipments for your home theatre its always recommended to have the room planning and designing done at first and then moving for the electronics purchase. Home theatre equipments includes surround speakers system, audio control,projectors, screen and additional items if required. Because designing of the room can be done by DIYs ideas but its always recommended to have experts advice before going for the purchase.

INTERIOR SETUP

Interior design is the planning stage where we plan about acoustic treatment, lighting, stage(if required), seating, and theme.

When we walk inside the theatre we come to observe carpet on the stepped floor. The reason behind the use of carpet is to absorb the sound in the room. Treating the room also depends on the thickness of the acoustic material used.

Deciding the concept for the home theatre is one of the biggest task. we see lot of options across and and we think - "what if this goes well not that?" so take your time, meet with your designer, sit with them and ask for the3 D rendered photos to see how its gonna actually look like once implemented.

To achieve the perfection in implementation we require set of details in the form of schematic drawings, electrical drawings, joinery details, seating drawings with enough circulation space, construction details , floor plan ceiling plan and design elevation. Yeah, we know it takes time but that's what makes caterpillar a butterfly. You know the story obviously.

Priorities your steps to experience the leisure time with your friends and family. Got the time and group of favourites? - Watch your favourite movie or your favourite TV show on Netflix with some salted and caramelized popcorns, some drinks and enjoy the show.

"YOUR THEATRE? ITS ONLY FEW ROOMS AWAY "