A carefully considered seating arrangement is a vital part of a well set-up home theatre. Not only will it affect your comfort, but it'll also affect how sound travels through the room.
There are two important aspects to home theatre seating that you need to take into account when designing your home theatre; first, how you arrange home theatre seats, and second, what sort of seats are appropriate.
How to arrange home theatre seating
The positioning and the distance from the screen are particularly important. Everyone must have a good view, and you should also consider the layout of the room and ensure that everyone has easy access and plenty of room. In theory, the 'ideal' distance from the screen to the chairs is roughly three times the screen's diagonal measurement. For example, if you’ve got an 80 inch (203.2 cm) screen, in theory you'd need to have your chairs at least 240 inches (609 cm) from the screen to get the best impact.
Of course practical considerations come into play after a certain size. While this formula works nicely for smaller screens, when you start talking about larger displays it becomes inherently impractical. In most cases, provided that it's not uncomfortable to do so, you should be able to sit a fair bit closer than this without any significant loss in your ability to enjoy your display.
Comfort and features
Getting the seating right is more than just having a place to sit though; it's also about comfort, style, ergonomics and, in some cases, cutting-edge technology. There's not much point in spending thousands of dollars on an amazing home theatre system if you can't enjoy it in comfort. Comfort is definitely crucial when it comes to your home theatre.
As a result, home theatre seating designers and manufacturers are introducing features that add greatly to the overall home theatre experience. These include things like footrests, extra cushioning and hidden tables. Some seats can also be customised to fit things like touch screens, cup holders, massagers, electronic recliner systems and storage space inside the chair's arms.
Ultimately, your choice of seat will also depend on your budget. You could easily spend anywhere from $500 per seat to $3000 dollars per seat or more if you chose to do so.
Seating and sound
Getting the positioning of the seating right not only gives viewers the best view, but will also ensure that the audio is working as it should. In an ideal setup, both the position and the selection of the seating should be taken into account as part of the acoustic design, well before any work starts on installation. For the best results, this should be done by an acoustic designer.
