Home Theater Lighting Best Practices
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
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Let’s start with task lighting. You may ask, what in the world do you need task lighting in a home theater for, isn’t a movie theater dark? That’s true but not when you have to clean it or if you are doing other things in the room. In our experience, the best type of fixture for theater task lighting is usually a recessed ceiling can. Most brands of recessed cans have a dark trim ring that will be perfect for the dark ceiling in your home theater. For the most light when cleaning, a typical theater will need 3 to 4 rows of cans, with the cans spaced about 3-4 feet apart. If recessed cans are the only form of lighting you plan for your theater due to budget constraints, we highly recommend you put your recessed cans on at least 2 different circuits so you can dim or turn off the front ones so they don’t spill too much light on the screen while the back ones provide more light.
Let’s move on to safety lighting. If your home theater has risers, it is very important to make sure the steps are visible to protect you or your guests from stumbling in the dark. There are many decorative types of step lights available on the market. We highly recommend you choose a type that casts an indirect light. Most people will choose to leave their step lights turned on at a dim level during the movie. You would not want to have any kind of light that shines directly on the screen. Our Audio Advice team has come behind some theater installations where a bright step light was positioned on the vertical riser, shining right at the screen which you really want to avoid. If you can, position the step lights off to the side and make sure they have louvers or some sort of element to direct the light source downward.
Creative accent lighting can take a mundane looking room and give it a look that draws oohs and ahhs. We have a phrase at Audio Advice that will help you out when planning your accent lighting: “Go for the Glow”. Indirect accent lighting will give your theater that cool look and keep any of it from shining directly on your screen. One thing I should point out here is that you should definitely plan to put all of your lights on dimmers--ideally controlled from a remote control. No matter how well you plan, I assure you that you will want to play with different levels of dimming for watching a movie vs a superbowl party. This of course means you need to make sure your lighting is dimmable.
Many theaters utilize sconces as well. These can be placed on your wall or columns. It’s best to have sconces that shine up or up and down without any outward glow. In other words, you should not be able to see the light bulbs. There are some very cool looking decorative sconces that use candelabra type lamps that are completely visible but most of the time these are too distracting for theaters. Indirect column lights can also be a very cool lighting feature. They require some planning but imagine a column that has a soft glow coming from both of its vertical sides. This kind of accent can even run up a side wall, across the ceiling, and down the other side. The new types of LED strip lights have made it possible to do all kinds of neat things with indirect lighting. The easiest way to do this is to have a column that is spaced off the wall and install strip lights on the backside a couple of inches in from the edge. Cove lights are another great way to add some wow to your home theater. Cove lighting can be done with either rope lighting or LED strips and is a great way to give your ceiling a soft glow. Cove lights are also one of the most effective ways to add some light into a room when you do not want it fully dark without having any light spill onto the screen.
At 3 am, I'm happy I've seen this so I know how to light my house in 10 years from now
My theater is a multi-purpose room, not dedicated for movies, but I have still benefited from being able to control the lighting as you've talked about. Turn the theater on, and the lights dim from their usual brightness, start the movie, they go out completely, hit pause for snack break, they come up just enough to see to move about, and so forth. Excellent video, with great ideas!
such an impressive home theater room. Audio Advice, you inspire me!!
This was a great video! And gosh, you guys do some stellar work.
Did I miss when you talked about kelvin color of the bulbs? Is there a better color bulb that won’t affect the picture? 2400, 2700, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000? I’m mostly wondering about for my sconce lights that I’ll have on low while the movie is playing.
If they are on low it is not super critical, the big key is making sure no lights shine on your screen. Thanks for watching
Hi! What remotes do you guys recommend for syncing the lights when the movie is paused?
We normally use Control 4 remotes to accomplish integration like that. Thanks for watching.
Hello. I am glad I stumbled across your videos. I am putting up my home theater together and my questions are in the line of speakers(sound)/Screen and Accoustistics. My room(Basement) hometheater is 44ft by 11ft.
Sound:
1) I have already Bass module 700 and smart soundbar 900 with Dolby Atmos. Can I use this for the home theater room?
2) What speakers do you advice on getting that gives same effect of sound or better? Bose quality sound.
3) In all this do I still need the receiver?
Screen
1) Are white screens better han the grey ones? Since I am planning to buy the Epson Home Cinema 5050 UB 4K PRO-UHD Projector,2600 lumens.
Accoustistics
1) Where can I get Accoustistics panels and which ones are best out there?
Really good questions! Contact our team of experts at audioadvice.com and they can help you with these!
What size cans do you recommend? in my prior theater, I had 4" Recessed light kits.. They don't seem to be relevant any longer and I can't find them. I really don't want 6" can lighting.. so would love your thoughts. Thanks
Reach out to our team of experts at audioadvice.com and they can help you decide which is best for you!
What's the recommended height for the sconce lighting with 9' ceilings?
Great question, its fairly dependent on the shape of the fixture, but around 60" to the main lit area works well, thanks for watching
What’s the size of the three home theatres at your showroom?
They all have 10' ceilings and are roughly 13 by 18, 14.5 by 18 and 17 by 26 Please bear in mind these were laid out in 1997 to more fit the conditions of the building and the overall design of the space the architect was trying to achieve at that time. Thanks for watching
what system is running the movie browser in your vid? is that Apple TV?
thanks!!
Kaleidescape- thanks for watching
Would it be possible to integrate motion sensors?
Great question, you could and we integrate them often with lighting control in other rooms, but not in a theater room. Thanks for watching
what sized canned lights are most common in a dedicated ht room?
We think the smaller 4” cans look more up to date but we see 3,4,5, and 6. If you are doing a darker ceiling paint which we suggest be sure and get black trims for them. Thanks for watching
Hello, i would like to know how much task lightning, lights would i need for a 16m2 room. Im planning 4 on front, 4 on back and 3 on the left and right side. How strong should they be? 6w, 15w, more? Less? I wont like them too bright too much. Thank you for reply!
Im thinking also about cove lights a saw on your video. What do you recommend me? I will also have led strip in front and back, witch will glow up.
@@bernardjausovec5132 you should use multiple dimmers and divide them up into at least 2 zones or more. If you do the cove, that should be one too. Most people go higher with a dimmer so they see to clean the room. The big deal is making sure you can turn off the lights near the front of the room so you do not wash out your screen for those instances you might want some light in your room
Hi
Hi friend! Thanks for watching.
i think no need that many cabinets in theater room specially if you have good subwoofer
Thanks for sharing!