Basement home theater planning help

kevin347

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Hello,

I am currently working on designing my basement and thinking to put a home theater/projector in it. I am putting a sample floor plan of how i am thinking about my theater setup. I am extremely new with dolby atmos or any theater set up so looking for some guidance on how to do this. The use is going to be mostly for kids usage/weekend movies for us. Of course working with limited budget so want to stay in balance between budget vs performance. I am thinking to do Dolby atmos 5.1.2 set up. I want to use all ceiling/wall speakers except the subwoofer if it's possible as i have full control of how i can setup and run wiring. I am attaching the floor plan here. The ceiling height is 9 feet. I just want to make sure that what i have makes sense and I am not just throwing money away in setting this up. All my AV receiver and speaker wires are going to be run back to a closet which is under the stairs.

My questions are

1) Does this plan makes sense as far as the screen and projector screen's location? The reason i kept it this way was to get the most open floor plan i can get with young kids who has chance to get more open area. My sitting is on 11 feet wall and project is on the 15 feet wall. I have small window openings behind the projector screen but i was thinking to use blackout curtains for those if needed.
2) Since my sitting position is very close to my rear speakers does it make sense to put them on that back wall or should it be rather on the ceiling?
3) Is the distance between sitting and 120 inch project screen optimal distance? or am i too close?
4) Does my 2 ceiling speakers (found blue dots) look like at correct setup? or should i move it to the middle of the room or have 2 more in the middle?
5) What kind of wirings will i have to run for my AVR room? HDMI, Ethernet, power cables?

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  • There are several projector distance to screen calculators online, Projectorcentral.com is a good one. Projection Calculator Pro - Projector to Screen Distance Black out curtains are a good idea.
  • Put your surrounds on the back wall or on stands not the ceiling. Moving the sofa a little further forward would also be a good idea if possible.
  • Sitting 12 feet from a 16x9 screen would give you a viewing angle of 40 degrees, which is recommended by THX.
  • I would always say if you can do 4 ceiling speakers that is the best option for panning sound overhead. If you go for 2 then, slightly in front of the sitting position is desired. See the Dolby guidelines on speaker placement.
  • All 3. If you need an HDMI run more than say 10 - 15 feet, go with fibre optic cable.
 
  • There are several projector distance to screen calculators online, Projectorcentral.com is a good one. Projection Calculator Pro - Projector to Screen Distance Black out curtains are a good idea.
  • Put your surrounds on the back wall or on stands not the ceiling. Moving the sofa a little further forward would also be a good idea if possible.
  • Sitting 12 feet from a 16x9 screen would give you a viewing angle of 40 degrees, which is recommended by THX.
  • I would always say if you can do 4 ceiling speakers that is the best option for panning sound overhead. If you go for 2 then, slightly in front of the sitting position is desired. See the Dolby guidelines on speaker placement.
  • All 3. If you need an HDMI run more than say 10 - 15 feet, go with fibre optic cable.
Thanks.
I could put them on the back wall. how high should they be from sitting position? And if i move my sofa little bit further away from wall. how far should it be? My only concern was it might be too loud if I m not too far away?
So, if i am not doing the ceiling speaker as my back speakers, can I use the same in wall speakers i am going to use as my L and R ? I was thinking about some Polk ones.
If I do 4 ceiling speakers, that would be 5-1-4? and would kind of AVR would i need in that case? And in 4 ceiling speakers 2 of them go in the middle of the room? I was thinking to have provision of the wires in the center and then add it later when needed.
 
They should be at or just above the seated ear height. If your sofa is on the wall then your head will be too close to the surround speakers and you may be able to localise the sound, so getting a little more distance will improve the surround effect.

You would be better using dedicated ceiling speakers, that have woofers and tweeters that can be aimed at the listening position.

A 9 channel receiver is needed, there are many to choose from depending on your budget. Pre wiring for a future upgrade is a good idea, if you decide to go for 4 in ceiling speakers.
 

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