This is a cut and paste from another post here on the site that I wrote:
Here is my dissertation.
I started this quest about 2 years ago. We were building a new house and got an unfinished basement so I could design and build the dedicated HT myself. I started by subscribing to a bunch of magazines and cruising through old issues I already had. Frankly most were not helpful, maybe once every six months they would have an article about home theater that was NOT product related. These typically dealt with lighting or acoustic treatments, or maybe once and a blue moon something about actual construction. One magazine that was very helpful was Home Theater Builder magazine. I ordered all the back issues and got a 2 year subscription. The magazine is struggling and I believe has gone quarterly, but I would still order the back issues. just google them. I then found this amazing sight called Audioholics The people here have been great in answering questions and providing advice. Another great resource is this thread over at
HomeTheaterForums
I would read this thread front to back. It helped to prevent a LOT of problems. Basically the thread is a series of responses of things people wish they had done or things they are glad they did do. It raised a lot of things I never would of thought of, but of course would have realized later. Lastly I copied and modified a spreadsheet I found at sound and vision.
The attached sheet is used to develop the dimensions of the theater and seating distances. Manually enter information in the blue cells, all other cells are automatic calculations. Each blue cell has a comment telling you what to enter and what it will effect.
The first sheet "Room Dimensions" is split in two. The top (above the black line) are the quick and dirty calculations. The bottom (below the black line) are the ideal dimensions. There are no cut and dry answers - it will take some playing with numbers to get it all correct (or as close as possible). You may need to go back and change some numbers afterwards as well (for example screen size).
The second sheet allows you to fine tune your dimensions from the first sheet. Use the first sheet values as your initial values here. Keep playing with them until you get the best numbers you can. These calculations are sensitive enough that an inch or two can make a huge difference.
I can't stress enough the importance of good room design and dimensions. It will prevent an enormous amount of potential problems. Failure to properly design a room will result in very poor sound, requiring lots of effort (and cash) to rectify. Room acoustics are the name of the game.
After I did all my research and drew my schematics for the room I hired a HT designer and installer for a couple of hours ($75 an hour) to come the house and have me walk through everything I had. This was mostly just a sanity check to make sure I wasn't missing something drastic.
Home Theater Builder Magazine - I would order all the back issues (I did) and get a subscription. They may soon be going under, but the content of their magazine is second to none. This is the only magazine that actually focuses on planning, designing, and building home theaters. All the others talk about product reviews. I have/had subscriptions to Home Theater Magazine (my #2 magazine), Sound and Vision, Ultimate A/V, Electronic House, and a couple of others that I can't remember.
I did all the electrical work for my home theater. Here is what I did just for my HT. I have 2" conduit running to all the 7 speaker locations. I also have an insane amount of low-watt wiring terminating in my component closet. Here is the breakdown
- 4 coax in from the main structured wiring panel
- 4 Cat 5e in from the main structured wiring panel
- 4 coax out to potential sub locations (L/R main, right wall 1/3 way back, left wall 2/3 way back)
- 2 coax out to the front screen wall
- 2 Cat 5e out to the front screen wall
- 2 4-conductor shielded 22ga wire out to front screen wall for IR and other future control needs (drop down screen??)
- 2 coax out to front of second row riser
- 2 cat 5e out to front of second row riser
- 2 4-conductor shielded 22ga wire to front of second row riser
- 2 4-conductor shielded 22ga wire to main light switch box
The coax can be used for sub, cable, or sat systems. Cat5e is for networking or control needs. The 22ga shielded is strickly for control needs.
Also don't forget to run some wires to a potential front projector location (electrical and video).
When we had the house built we had structured wiring put in every room (but no audio). Every room has a 4 jack plate with 2 RG6 F-connectors and 2 Cat5e jacks. The office actually has 2 of these. I also got the living room pre-wired for a 5.1 in-ceiling to set up as a second system for casual viewing in the future. Just some ideas of what I have done.
Good luck and keep asking questions.
