I'm in the process of finishing my basement and have a 14' x 22' room to use as my dedicated home theater room, with the 22' wall being front stage. The room is well suited for a 7.1 arrangement with one exception. There are two windows behind the seating area that prevent me from placing my back surrounds in an optimal position per Dolby or Lofft's 7.1 guide. Further complicating this is that the windows are not evenly spaced along the wall, as demonstrated in the image below. I intend to use in-walls as aesthetics are a big part of the room and the compromise is acceptable in that regard. The seating will be about 3' out from the wall.
As I see it, there's 4 options:
1. Place BL and BR speakers between the windows, 2' above ear level. Separation between BL/BR would be about 70 inches, while FL/FR would be at about 110" separation. Not ideal in terms of placement of the sofa.
2. Place BL and BR speakers on rear wall outside of both windows. Doesn't seem ideal, as this puts them about 12" in from the corner, and within a few feet of the SL/SR speakers.
3. Install in-ceiling BL/BR speakers. Tweeters could be aimed to reflect off the back wall, and speakers could be spaced more appropriately aligned to front channels.
4. Eliminate rear channels and stick with 5.1. (I'd probably still place the speakers, but zone them separately so they're available for all-channel surround when listening to music.
Another option could be to re-orient the room, with the front stage being one of the 14' walls. What's nice about the current intended orientation is that the TV/front channels sits on a wall that is backed by an understair storage closet, meaning easy access to wiring, and a location to set an in-wall AV cabinet. This space also has a dedicated 20-amp circuit which could be nice to support all of the AV equipment.
Thoughts, recommendations?