Architect window idea for home cinema dedicated room

jlms · 08-12-2006, 12:06 PM

Hi.

My wife and I are having a house designed from scratch and one of the requirements the architects know about is the need for a home cinema dedicated room in the basement (as well as a small room for home servers and the home cinema equipment next to it)

They have come up with a plan that places the home cinema room on a corner that receives sun light due to the fact that the basement has a small rectangular "patio" next to it (you will be able to walk down to it from the garden at ground level). This implies that one side of the room would have a window, their argument being that this would make the room all the better when natural light is OK (family photo slideshows, playstation sessions, etc...).

I am not all too sure about this. It would seem to me a blind against the window to black the room out is not the best element for acoustics... Maybe there are other drawbacks I am missing... or maybe they have come up with a fabulous idea!

Any comments or insight would be highly appreciated.

Regards from up to recently very sunny Spain (wind and rain has finally made it here in the last few days)

José
Barcelona.

PS Attached is the autocad plan for the basement. "Sala de proyeccion" is the home cinema room. "Servidores" is for equipment.

mrm3 · 08-12-2006, 1:39 PM

Hi welcome to the forums.

I cannot answer your question but for the record it is spelt 'architect'. If you get a mod to change the title you may get more people looking at your thread and more likely to get an answer. Otherwise your english is very good !

jlms · 08-12-2006, 4:29 PM

Thanks mrm3!

**Stuart Wright** · 08-12-2006, 7:52 PM

Click the link in my signature so see how we coped with a window.
Big black-out curtains do the trick.
Windows are nice if you can get some natural light in there since you will quite possibly want to use the room for other things.
If you have the opportunity, don't let the room have any opposing surfaces. I.e. Don't make it rectangular. Or square, of course.

jlms · 10-12-2006, 9:38 PM

Thank you Stuart. I have started checking out the links on your signature to find the information about the window.

Am I right thinking your suggestion about not having opposing walls is to for example have the walls off the side where the screen will be, at higher than 90 degrees?

Thank you again.

jl

Joe Fernand · 14-12-2006, 2:20 AM

Hello jlms

If your wanting to create a Cinema room its best to go for a dedicated room and forget about making it multi-purpose.

Having a window in the room is daft - for your Cinema viewing your going to spend lots of time and effort getting rid of the light it lets in, its going to add to the heat in the room, its going to potentially cause an imbalance in the sound in the room and potentially its going to compromise your options for positioning your loudspeakers and possibly even your screen.

If you go with a projector (which you ought to for a Cinema room) ask the architects to revisit the design and ensure they provide decent 'silent' air conditioning into the Cinema room.

Lots of good info for you and the Architects on the CEDIA web site - inc a decent book store - see http://www.cedia.net/ and http://www.cedia.net/resources/

Best regards

Joe

**Stuart Wright** · 14-12-2006, 9:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlms

Am I right thinking your suggestion about not having opposing walls is to for example have the walls off the side where the screen will be, at higher than 90 degrees?

Thank you again.

jl

If you have opposing surfaces (like the parallel walls or floor & ceiling), sound will bounce back and forth between them causing more audio problems.
Definitely get some advice and as Joe says, avoid a window if the room is to be dedicated.