Do not underestimate the importance of comfortable home theater chairs and a good seating layout in your home theater design. 

Keep in mind that a home theater is the place where you sit to relax and enjoy watching movies. If the seating isn't right, it would be difficult - if not impossible - to get immersed into a great home theater experience.

Movie theater seating - basic layout design principles

As already detailed elsewhere in one of our home theater design guides, a primary consideration - especially when it comes to the dedicated home theater room - should be to determine the room space requirements. 

It is the number of seats you will want to put together, in conjunction with the size of your big screen tv, that will eventually determine the space required to house your home theater room setup.

The size of your big screen display will determine the viewing distance required between your big screen wall as well as the optimum viewing range, while the number of seats you plan to put in will determine the viewing area requirements.

The approach here should be to design the seating layout such as to comply with the recommendations as expressed in our TV viewing distance guide. 

While it is not the scope of this article to go into the details already discussed in our Tv viewing guide, yet it worth highlighting the salient points that will impact on a proper home theater seating design. 

Subtended Viewing Angles and Seating Distance:

The issue here is that there is an optimum viewing distance within which the viewer will get better immersed into the movie action itself.  A sort of a de-facto standard are the recommendations by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers  (SMPTE) - which if translated in practical terms, would yield the twice-the-screen-width (or 2D where D is the screen width), as the optimum screen to seating position distance. 

Basically, this 2 D viewing distance corresponds to a 30 degrees horizontal angle of view and 15 degrees vertical angle of vision.

The only minor reservation is that this optimum viewing distance is most suited to a HDTV signal.  The closer you get to the screen, the more likely you will be able to see the 'image build up structure' - scanning lines or image pixels. 

This means that in the case of a standard definition video signal,  unless you employ line doublers and depixelization filters (in case of LCD and DLP projectors), you will be better off sitting at three times the screen width even though this corresponds to a smaller angle of view.

Screen Visibility and HT Risers:

Another consideration when planning your home theater seating should be to ensure that all parts of the screen are easily visible by all viewers.  

In a home theater installation with a single row of seats, it should not be difficult to ensure that all viewers have an unobstructed view of the whole projection screen area.

If your seating consists of multiple rows of seats, the situation may be somewhat different; the use of risers or 'platforms' of a suitable height may be essential for better viewing.

The height for the risers should be such as to allow for a totally clear view of the screen; the optimum height should be approximately 12 inches per row. This correspond to a stadium type seating and would normally require a two 6-inch steps between adjacent rows. 

In case of room height restrictions, it may be possible to reduce the height of the risers to between 6 to 8 inches. In this case, you will have to set the layout of your seats between adjacent rows such that people can see between the seats in front of them. 

When constructing risers, ensure that they will be able to take the full load of seats (and persons) you plan to have. In particular, ensure that the top of the risers is of sufficient thickness to guarantee the proper anchoring of your home theater seats. Normally, 1½" thick planks or two sheets of ¾" plywood would be required for the top to get the required thickness for this purpose. 

More Comfortable Viewing - Head twisting and tilt

A further improvement in your home theater seating  would be to install the rows along a radius of an arc whose center coincides with the center of the screen width. This would give a more natural line of sight to the viewers sitting at extreme ends of a row, since it reduces excessive twisting of the head to see the screen.

Directly associated with your viewing comfort is the head tilt. Though the head can easily tilt to +/- 30 degrees off the vertical, and though a person's normal vision system supports an optimum viewing cone of 30 degrees around the normal line of sight, yet there are some differences between standing and seated which if taken into account, will surely improve on your viewing comfort - and therefore on your home theater movie experience.

When a person is seated, the normal line of sight is some 12^o to 15^o below the horizontal. Thus, if the seat backs are tilted back by the same amount to bring the seated line of sight in line with the horizontal, would result in more comfortable home theater seating. The use of properly designed home theater seats or recliners is therefore an essential requirement in a dedicated home theater room installation. 

Home theater Seating:  Seating area - floor space requirements

As already expressed earlier on in our discussion, the floor space requirement for your home theater seating depends on the number of  seats you plan to put in. The actual requirement will depend on the model and size of your selected seat or chair. 

The rule of thumb is that if you will be making use of home theater chairs designed to be mounted in a row, you should allow for a minimum of 24 inches per seat (plus the extra requirement for each row to include the arm rest for the end seat).

Should you decide to make use of conventional household seating such as sofas and overstuffed chairs, it is best to allow for at least 3 feet by 3 feet per chair.

As to the spacing between rows, allow for approximately 20 inches clearance between chairs. Expressed differently, if you are making use of a home theater chair whose overall dept is 28 inches, than the spacing between adjacent rows  measured from identical points on the rows should be 48 inches (28" + 20" clearance between rows). If you are pressed for space, the clearance between rows may be reduced slightly but the minimum for comfortable access is no less than 14 inches.

Another requirement you have to factor in when planning the layout of your home theater seating is the placement of your home theater seats relative to the surrounding walls.

Allow for at least 30-inches aisle space on either side of your home theater seating to access each row of seats. An aisle behind your back row is not necessary.  The tricky issue is the placement of your back row of home theater seats relative to the rear wall. This is especially important with recliners; check out your home theater seats dimensions/specifications to determine the proper minimum distance to allow for the full reclining motion. 

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Seating Solutions

Will you be making use of conventional household sofas or overstuffed  living room chairs to serve as home theater seats when viewing a movie, or you will make use of use of specifically designed home theater seating?

Conventional household seating is probably the cheapest and most obvious choice if your home theater room is also serving as the family living room. Conventional sofas and chairs may not necessary represent an optimum seating solution for home theater use, but in such circumstances, the use of dedicated home theater seating would simply be inappropriate. 

Authentic home theater seating is specifically designed to render your home theater experience as enjoyable and relaxing as possible. Whether it takes the form of commercial-style theater seats as used in public movie theaters, or the more comfortable over-stuffed type of home theater chairs, this type of seating - though more expensive - offers the best solution for comfortable home theater viewing. 

Various home theater seat design solutions are surely available from a number of manufacturers in different seat widths/sizes and dozens of leather and fabric choices. Possible options on the higher end home theater seats would normally include recliner and incliner mechanisms, beverage holders, and foot-rests. Some manufacturers even allow for customer customization to enable their seats to be installed along a pre-designed seating radius for more comfortable viewing.

Concluding remarks:

Whatever seating solution you will adopt for your home theater seats, it is important to keep in mind the layout design principles discussed above. Do not miss out on this or you will be missing a lot; after all, proper seating can turn an average home theater experience into a great one.