By Rob Fanjoy
Whether your clients are looking for a small, intimate space to call a home theater or they're dreaming of an elaborate environment dedicated to an engrossing theater experience, you'd do well to consider calling in a media room or home theater designer.
"Like any other design professional, it's best to call them in early--during the drawing stages," says James Theobald, marketing director for Theo Kalomirakis Theaters in New York City. "You'll save your client money in the long run and ensure that they get the most from their A/V components."
Just as a landscape designer knows exactly how to specify and place vegetation that will thrive and complement the home, or a lighting designer can devise an entire lighting plan that provides illumination, saves energy and highlights architectural elements, a media room designer provides specific knowledge and expertise unique to today's intricate home theaters.
Their specialized knowledge covers lighting, acoustics, sightlines, audio/visual installation and other areas inherent to media room design. By calling them in early to work with all the other professionals involved in home design and construction (architects, lighting designers, HVAC installers and electricians), they can coordinate everything involved in a media room and get it right the first time.
Sound and Seats
First, a good designer will help specify the optimal room size for sound performance and seating comfort. A room that is too long or too narrow or with ceilings that are too high will throw off the acoustics, and even the most expensive high-end A/V equipment will never sound good. They can also specify built-in shelving that not only houses components but can act as a sound diffuser, or special panels covered in certain fabrics that can either diffuse, reflect or absorb sound, depending upon what function is necessary.
Media room and home theater designers not only enhance the sound within a room, they also isolate it from the rest of the house. They will often recommend insulating all the walls of the room, as well as the floor and ceiling. Resilient channels are usually specified to hang drywall to the ceiling, which decouples the ceiling from the floor joists and keeps noise from filtering into the room above.
Seating and traffic flow are important to a home theater's performance as well. James says there is an old Broadway rule of thumb that can apply to home theater design: Play to the center seat 10 rows back from the stage. This typically translates to roughly twice the diagonal dimension of a screen. So the best seat in a home theater with a 60-inch diagonal screen would be placed 10 feet away. And of course, people must be able to easily enter and exit the room without disturbing everyone else watching the screen.
Money Spent Is Money Saved
James says that the typical entry-level home theater--including design--often costs anywhere between $15,000 and $30,000. "Our design fees typically range from $50 to $80 per square foot, and construction costs usually stay in line with other room construction or remodels."
Where media room designers can save your clients money--and you some headaches--is with sourcing materials and reducing change orders. "We can often source materials at 'hidden discounts' through our preferred providers, and we help make sure the contractor doesn't have to redo something that didn't work the first time," says James. "A lot of the jobs we get are tear-outs and redos of an old home theater that the customer just wasn't happy with."
James says that there are home-theater designers such as his company, which specialize in high-end dedicated home theaters, and there are media-room designers and A/V design companies. Each has their own unique specialty, and it is important to retain the services of one that will suit your client's needs.
"Try to stay away from those companies that insist they can 'do it all,'" says James. "They often just dilute their own talents, and the customer ends up unsatisfied with the finished product."
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