Room Lighting For Home Theaters - Control And Ambiance

Room lighting control is an important feature for home theaters -- particularly if you have a front-projector and screen set-up. Video projectors regularly demand a controlled lighting condition due to the lower light output of their displays. Room ambiance is one more important function of lighting during a viewing as you most probable not want your guests to sit in darkness (unless it is a really creepy horror flick). Reflected room lighting is a thought as well as you do not want a glare on the screen -- whether it be ambient light from a window or merely reflections of a lamp within your room. Ambient window lighting is major when deciding your living room arrangement or designing a dedicated viewing room. A dedicated room would certainly be best without windows altogether -- if you have the luxuriousness of designing a room from scratch.

Glare Control and Picture Enhancement

Room lighting control is comparatively easy with a little planning. If you want to incorporate your home theater within your living or family room you will want to position your video display so that any close light upon the screen is diminished or eliminated altogether. Each time we have moved to a new home one of my first considerations (much to the chagrin of my wife) is where we will place the TV in our living room. Since video is my profession I arrangement our living room layout around the TV and entertainment center (again to the chagrin of my wife). The TV is always placed at an angle away from the main window in the room in order to get rid of window reflections on the screen. Our living room lamps have shades that direct lighting downward and are not very transparent in order to minimize their reflections. Since I have a front projector and screen display in the living room -- as well to the 32" Mitsubishi we use for normal viewing -- we have vertical blinds which do a nice job of darkening the room. We also have velour long curtains which can pull to either side of the screen and do a great job of presenting a controlled lighting atmosphere for our projector. You'll want to do much the same -- have your video display directed away from any windows and use blinds with curtains to control daytime lighting from windows.

Setting the Mood

Wall sconce lamps placed along the walls for environment during viewing in a dedicated room is a fine touch and lends to the theater-esque ambiance. Depending upon the overall decoration and theme of your dedicated room sconces can be either plain or elaborately gaudy much similar to the movie houses of past times. Basic sconces can be found at a local Home Depot or lighting store. More elaborate theater-looking sconces are obtainable at stores. A dedicated room will help from remote controlled lighting - or at least it will add a "touch of quality" to your theater. There are lots of varieties of remote controlled lighting which can be controlled either by their standard controller or be included within a macro-programmed command on one of the several all-in-one kind macro-remote controls such as the Harmony H659 which I am fairly satisfied to own.

Regardless of whether you are integrating a system into your living room or arrangement a dedicated room, the values of home theater room lighting are the similar -- no glare or reflection on your video display and adequate ambient room lighting for your guests in the period of viewing