Home Theater Lighting

Lighting is an important consideration in home theater design.  A room with properly planned lighting will give your room a warm inviting feel.  Lighting should be flexible and functional such as the ambient lighting which provides general light throughout the room or exit lighting to ensure safety to and from the theater.  Task lighting provides lighting for specific tasks such as reading.  Accent lighting is another type of lighting designed to highlight artwork, memorobilia or specific structural details.  

When designing your home theater it is important to start by planning what all activities will take place in your room.  Involve your whole family.  Will your wife want to read while you are watching the latest action movie? Will you play games around a table as a family?  Where will everyone be seated?  Once you have all these things planned you can more effectively design your lighting so that it is flexible and functional for whatever activity you have planned for your home theater room. 

Keep in mind that one of the biggest distractions to a movie is glares on the screen.  In order to minimize reflections and glaring your ceiling should be a darker color, preferably black.  It is best not to put lights right near the screen unless you keep them on a seperate zone where you can control them independently from the rest.  There are many different lighting trim options and bulb options to make sure light can be properly controlled so it does not cause a glare on the screen.

What types of lights to use?  Generally it is recommended to have a mix of lighting options such as:

• Recessed lighting or can lights - These lights are very common and used for ambient lighting throughout the theater, but depending on trim size and location recessed lighting can also provide task and accent lighting as well.  If lights will be in contact with insulation, you will need to buy IC rated lights.
• Sconce lighting - many people also place sconce lights along the side of their theater to provide a decorative touch and to create a mood.
• Accent lighting such as track lighting is also popular.
• Rope lighting in the soffits, on the stairs, along walkways or around the stage can also provide a dramatic effect.

The "wow" factor

In addition to just functional purposes, lighting can provide a "wow" factor to your theater as well.  Rope lighting around the stage or placed in the soffits give a professional, movie theater like feel to your theater.   Another popular lighting feature is lighting automation.  If you are really looking for something unique that kids as well as adults love is a star ceiling where tiny fiberoptic lights are placed in a black ceiling to replicate a clear, star filled night sky.  Automation can provide a dramatic impact to the start of your movie by incorporating your lights in with the rest of your system so that when you push play to start a movie the lights gently dim down to the ideal lighting conditions.  It is very important for lights to be on dimmers so that you can control them.   

Some of the more popular lighting systems are designed by Lutron.  The Lutron Graphic Eye System and the Lutron Spacer System allow you to set up your lights on different zones and then control these zones to replicate whatever mood you are intending to create.

Let's go through an example.  In your theater you may have several zones set up:

• Zone 1 - a set of 6" recessed lights in the middle of your room designed for general lighting  
• Zone 2 - smaller 4" recessed lights around the outside of the room 
• Zone 3 - several accent lights on your movie memorobilia that is hanging on the wall
• Zone 4 - sconce lights
• Zone 5 - rope lighting along the seating areas and soffits
• Zone 6 - You have your sky ceiling lights  

Each of these zones can then be set at a predetermined level to a specific scene.  So as your guests come down to the theater all the main lights are on so that everyone can safely find their seats. 

As you hit play on your remote the system automatically adjusts to the next scene by gently bringing down the house lights, dimming the smalled 4" lights, dimming the sconce lights until they are just barely lit, the rope lighting around the seating area turn on and to top it all off the stars in the ceiling gradually illuminate.  Imagine the response of your unsuspecting guests.  

Another scene can be set to slightly illuminate some of the lights during intermission or for a bathroom break.  Then at the conclusion of the movie another scene can gradually turn the lights back on.  As you can see, automation can add a dramatic impact to your home theater.

If you are thinking that this is all wishful thinking, you may want to reconsider because lighting systems such as this are more affordable then you may think.  Lutron even makes a dimmer, the Lutron Maestro IR that is an inexpensive dimmer with one programmed scene that can be controlled by a remote or the codes can be programmed into your existing remote.    

Don't underestimate the impact of a well designed home theater lighting plan as lights can provide that special touch to impact the mood of your family and guests.