How low can the step up be

[jgraceoma]

Basically building a home theater room that will have two rows of theater seats. The room has eight foot ceilings. Behind my second row of seats will be a pool table followed by a bar. So the step up will not only be for the seats, but for the seats and everything behind it.

How low can I go with the step up so that I can see the screen over the first rows heads, and also give pool players, etc., enough room not to feel like they are going to bump their head on the ceiling.

[Sonnie]

Moved to Design and Construction.

Welcome to the Shack!

This might somewhat depend on the height of your screen. My screen is about 3' from the floor and my riser is 12" high. I would not want it any lower for back row viewing. That only leaves you roughly 7', which is no doubt low. You might could test it at 6" and see if you'll see the screen okay. Obviously the lower the screen, the higher the riser will need to be.

[John Simpson]

Yep, Sonnie's right -- testing is the best way to go before you commit.

It will also depend on the angle you recline your chairs, and your preferred "head tilt". I was in one of those fancy cinemas recently with the reclining chairs and found that having the back recline was more effort on my neck than not.

[salvasol]

jgraceoma wrote:

Basically building a home theater room that will have two rows of theater seats. The room has eight foot ceilings. Behind my second row of seats will be a pool table followed by a bar. So the step up will not only be for the seats, but for the seats and everything behind it.
How low can I go with the step up so that I can see the screen over the first rows heads, and also give pool players, etc., enough room not to feel like they are going to bump their head on the ceiling.

Are you building a room from the ground up or just converting a room into a HT??? ... if is the first, after reading your post it seems that you already poured the concrete on the floor, Right??? .... if you haven't, it will be a good idea to lower the front instead of building a riser ...

If you already have the floor ... do what the others says: test, test, test ... I think it doesn't matter how long the riser is ... but remember you will need something strong that can hold some weight

[John Simpson]

One thing the just occurred to me about your step: in Australia we have building guidelines that stipulate the rise of a step (outside that and you're breaching the rules). Do you have something similar in the US?

[salvasol]

John Simpson wrote:

One thing the just occurred to me about your step: in Australia we have building guidelines that stipulate the rise of a step (outside that and you're breaching the rules). Do you have something similar in the US?

Yes, there is rules to build steps, but those applies to stairways, driveways, etc. I don't think there is rules to build a step on a home theater riser

Most cities have different rules for building and safety ...

[owlfan12000]

Here is a link to a calculator I found in a thread on another forum. http://www.cinegi.com/cgi-bin/riser.cgi

When using this tool make sure you realize that the front row height is to the top of the head and the back row height is to eye level. Assuming the seats are the same size the back row measurements should be about 5" shorter that the front.

Some other comments from that same thread -
A good rule of thumb is that you eyeballs should be a 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the screen. This is just a guide based on a comfortable angle to view a movie. Some people may like the screen a little higher and lean their seat back, but most people don't want the movie fully reclined.

Some ways to improve Line Of Sight (LOS) in low ceiling applications:
1) Choose taller seats in the rear row(s)
Continental is one company that makes a "tall" chair to match a popular model that is like 5-6" higher than the matching regular height model that we would use in the front. This way the seated height is higher, but the riser height and standing headroom are still acceptable.

2) Make the front row the "money" seats, and choose non-reclining chairs for the riser that can be placed closer to the front row.
Irwin and a few others make nice non-recline chairs that are exact replicas of commercial theater chairs in the industrial upholstery or finer finishes. If you match the upholstery these chairs do not look out of place, and kids love them.

3) Raise the height of the screen a few more inches
If the rear row are your money seats, you will want to LOS to be as close to perfect as possible. You don't want the front rows to be craning their necks up either, nobody wants a stiff neck after a movie. Be careful how much you modify this dimension.

Depending on ceiling height, basement theaters will get usually get a 5-8" step up riser or a 10-15" two step riser, and even with the creative planning for the seating and screen height, the LOS is sometimes slightly compromised.