Despite the Title of this Blog Post the idea of treating a home cinema room acoustically is not mostly about keeping noise from coming out (isolation).
Isolating a room so that sound doesn’t leak out is important for some people and in some situations, but many who have the luxury of a dedicated home theatre room or media room have it placed strategically so that noise doesn’t become a nuisance for the rest of the home.
Mostly when cinema designers talk about acoustics they are discussing the internal acoustics of the room, how the seat, furniture, speaker and acoustic treatment or decor influences the sound that initially eminates from the surround sound speakers and subwoofer and ends up as what you hear.
Systems & Home Cinema Designer Rob Hobbs with Quadratic Diffusors
That expensive sound system, high-end speakers and huge amp you’ve just put in - could sound like crap if the room hasn’t been taking into account for the design. It’s a complicated topic but room size, dimensions, seating and hard/soft furnishings all have an impact (positive or negative) on the sound.
Ideally the room will be a mix of hard and soft surfaces - I’ve seen many incorrectly designed rooms that are overly padded out so there are no hard surfaces at all, Not only does this have a negative effect on the perceptible sound quality but in many cases it will make spending time in the room uncomfortable, some people say they feel like they are suffocating or can’t breathe because of how dead the space sounds.
No, an ideal room has a mix of hard and soft surfaces (at the right places) is correctly sized and corners and reflection points will have a mixture of diffusion, absorption and refraction. Rarely can any of this be done with interior design solely and that is where acoustic treatments come in. Designed into the home cinema room correctly they allow sound to interact with the audience in a natural manner, it’s this feeling of actually being there, in the movie, immersed in all the sounds and breathtaking musical scores that makes great cinema so magical.
If you’d like to build a home theatre, media room or custom cinema then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, so we can help it sound AMAZING….