Are you installing a home theater system in a small apartment - possibly sharing a place in your living room, bedroom, study, etc.?

Or... Will you be making use of a bigger, dedicated room specifically designed for your home theater entertainment? 

In this first part in this series of articles on home theater design, we look at the issues of available space and budget. 

Try to put aside space and budget considerations, and you may risk purchasing a system that is too big for your room, or even, end out of budget and an incomplete home theater installation. 

As we will soon see in this article, available space and available budget are two key issues in any home theater installation project, as these will determine both your design approach and the required level of investment.

A Primary Consideration: Available Space

The first key consideration one has to put into the home theater design equation is available space. Eventually, it is space that will determine whether you can opt for a dedicated room for your home theater, or whether you will opt for a shared space in the living room, bedroom, or that empty space under the stairs.

The Dedicated Home Theater Room:

Having a dedicated room when installing a home theater will allow you to set-up your system components, speakers, seating, lighting, etc., for optimum system performance.

It will also give you total freedom on the most appropriate home theater decor to adopt - like the use of movie posters and related memorabilia to decorate the walls of your room, thus achieving the best movie theater ambience for a most immersing cinematic experience.

Under such an environment, you can seriously consider a video projector and projection screen set-up, full size front speakers, dedicated home theater seats and dimmable lighting, etc. What may appear out of place in a shared environment such as in a living room, may be turned into key features in a dedicated room.

Installing a Home Theater in a Shared Environment:

While a dedicated home theater room can turn out to be the ultimate in any home theater design - yet this is not a pre-requisite for an enjoyable home theater experience. 

If space is a major issue, you can still come up with a functional home theater in a shared environment such as your living room, study, or even the bedroom. Always take care to adopt the respective design principles as further discussed in the rest of this series of home theater design articles. 

It all requires careful planning when installing a home theater - in particular due to possible room limitations, but still there exist various options that come to your rescue:

A low-key approach: One may adopt a low-key non-intrusive design with your system components being hidden in built-in cabinets. 

When it comes to built-in cabinets and other home theater furniture, please ensure that these are designed to:

• Take the full load of your equipment - home theater system components can be extremely heavy.

• Allow for adequate air circulation within the units to avoid any over-heating. Overheating may not only result in some annoying temporarily system shutdown, it will surely lead to latency defects and pre-mature system failure. If there is the need, install a small cooling fan (similar to those used in PCs), within the built-in units to help improve ventilation.

A high-impact design: The other extreme when installing a home theater in a shared room is to adopt a high impact design concept, thus turning your system into a key feature in your overall living room, bedroom, study, etc. 

Installing a home theater - Budget Considerations

Directly coupled with the issue of available space when installing a home theater, is the available budget.

Home theater systems are expensive and therefore budget is a major consideration that will dictate your level of investment.  Your overall investment may vary from just two, possible three thousand dollars, up to several tens of thousands of dollars.

It is important that you search around, check prices and see what fits in your budget prior to finalizing your home theater design plans.

If you are installing a home theater over different 'phases' because of budgetary constraints, ensure that your present decisions when selecting your equipment will not limit your future additions or upgrades. 

In other words, take a holistic approach. Plan your purchases with a view of what you aim to do in the future; your present purchases should ideally be complemented by your future ones rather than rendered obsolete.

Match your system components careful - easily achieved when purchasing the various home theater components together. Yet, if you are planning to purchase some of your components separately at a later date, then the whole issue may get somewhat trickier. 

As a minimum, your HT budget should cover a good universal DVD player that supports high definition audio sound, a surround sound audio amplifier/receiver and matching speakers. These should ideally be purchased together to ensure that the various home theater sound components provide a perfect match.

And... You cannot have a home theater without a big screen! Include at least a 37" wide screen TV. A smaller size TV screen simply would not do the job for an effective home theater experience. Keep in mind however that the TV screen size should be chosen such as to match your room size, and consequently the available viewing distance. More on the issue of screen size and viewing distance can be found in our TV Viewing Distance Guide.

Do not forget to budget for a suitable projector screen if you will be making use of a video projector as a big screen TV solution for your home theater. Similarly, budget also for good quality audio/video cabling. Both issues are often overlooked by many, yet the use of an appropriate projector screen and good quality cables can contribute to a substantial expense when installing a home theater.

Another greatly overlooked aspect in any home theater design is equipment power protection. May be seen by many as unnecessary expense when installing a home theater - yet surely worth every dollar; after all, you would have invested 1000's of dollars in your home theater equipment. Surely worth considering. More on this can be found under the Home Theater Power Protection section of the site.

The shopping list does not stop here! You may also want to think about home theater decor, appropriate home theater seats, room lighting, etc.  Possibly, you would also like to consider installing a few Bass Shakers or Buttkickers for a more immersing experience. These topics are all covered in detail in this series of Home Theater Design guides.

The list can be as long as you would like it to be! After all, you will be spending long hours watching your favorite DVDs; a comfortable and pleasing environment is thus essential for an enjoyable home theater experience.

A Final Remark

If you are planning to move on with the idea of installing a home theater, we suggest that you take a look at the rest in this series of home theater design guides appearing on our web site. These cover various aspects of home theater design, ranging from acoustics and room lighting, to home theater decor, seating, optimum TV viewing distance, etc. For a complete list of home theater design articles appearing on our site, please click here.

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