Room Set Up Continued...

As previously stated, mentally setting up the configuration of your theater room can be changed until wires are run.  After the wires are run, it will be painstakingly difficult to re-route the wires without starting from scratch and re-running new wires. I will be using my personal experience as an example for purposes of keeping things simple and not constantly going off on a tangent about different sized rooms. Others have thought my theater room was impossible to build correctly and said my room was too small to do what I wanted, but that was an incorrect observation. 

Think Realistically

To combat the problem of space, I had to change my way of thinking. I had to ask questions to figure out what I really needed as opposed to wanted.

·      How many people will use your theater on a regular basis?

·      Will you be using the theater for movies, television, video games, or all three?

·      Do you prefer to watch movies or television when you entertain guests? 

These are the questions you need to think about.  The Super Bowl only comes once a year. Do you really need seating for 6-10 people? Entertaining my friends is what I love to do, but a decision had to be made about the set-up of my room.  I had the option of putting the seating area up against the windows in my room and give myself the space needed for seating of four. My wife asked me the dreaded question, “How often is everyone going to want to come over and sit in the theater?” The answer was not what I wanted to admit. Most of the time, it was going to be just my wife and I using the theater. That just gave me my answer of how to configure my room. I only needed seating for two, so I did not have to sit with my back against the windows.

Mentally Construct the Room

Before we dive into details, I wanted to clarify the front and back of the room.  However your room is going to be set up, when the front of the room is discussed, it pertains the area in front of the seating. The back of the room will be the area behind the seating. Obviously, the screen will go on the wall in the front of the seating. (I will discuss more about screen placement/size in a later post.)

Now that I know which wall the screen will be on and where the seats will be, I need to figure out where to put the equipment. I had the option of putting the equipment in an equipment tower, building shelves on the wall, or housing them in an entertainment hutch.  The choice is really up to the individual’s taste. I like looking down at the cable box to see what channel I’m on or what time it is.  You might prefer to put your equipment behind the seating area and out of view.  (Placing equipment in the back of the room is great, but make sure that viewers can’t hear the cooling fans of the equipment blowing!)

For my purpose, I have too small of a space to place the equipment behind my seating and not be able to hear the cooling fans spinning.  So, my equipment will be placed in the front of the room.