Setting Up Your Home Theater
So is your home theater going to be used as a rumpus or family room as well or just as a designated home theater? This is important in deciding how you will set up the room. For example floor ceiling carpet us not very practical in a family room!
Your theater needs to be located on the ground floor of your home if possible. Bass from the subwoofers will resonate downwards. If your home theatre is located on an upper level, the noise will penetrate to the lower floors and you'll probably annoy your neighbors as well.
Lighting is a very critical factor. The home theater room must be as dark as possible to get the most out of your potentially expensive television and projector. However, a totally dark room will cause eyestrain and fatigue. The ideal solution for this is to install a dimmer switch that will allow the light to be lowered to optimum viewing level. Another thing to be careful of, lighting should be positioned so it does not interfere with either the screen or the viewers.
Don't clutter the room too much with excess furniture as this will affect audio quality. Furniture acts as a buffer for sound. If the room is being used for more than one purpose make sure you adopt a minimalist approach with furniture. Your home theatre should really be located away from the sounds from the street to reduce interference from traffic noise and of course street lights. It should also be away from bedrooms to make sure sleeping family members can, in fact, sleep!
Even though it is not a good idea to have many hard shiny surfaces around as this reflects sound, you can reduce acoustic reflection by dampening the room with carpet, thick curtains and acoustic paneling. However it is not necessary to completely dampen the room. A little reflective brightness will bring life to your sound system, particularly when listening to music.
If you are using the room for more than the home theatre purpose but you still want to use a projector and a screen you might want to consider a roof-mounted projector and an automatically retractable screen. This will prevent your expensive equipment from cluttering the room when your home theatre is not in use.
