Home Theatre Lighting

[RobS]

Any lighting experts out there. How 'bout a good book recommendation on lighting? I'm close to wrapping up the framing in our basement rec room. The chunk I'm working on now will eventually house a TV and such (not really home theatre, but close enough for us). I made a huge mistake in our old house by not putting enough lighting in the basement so I want to do this one right.

The room is essentially a rectangle. I'm thinking a can light in each corner for background/TV watching light on one switch. A second switch will control four to eight cans in the center part of the room for general lighting when the kids are playing down there etc. There is a large egress window for natural light during the day.

Am I on the right track? Neither of us care for flourescents and the ceiling will be drywall. Naturally, all this is much easier to do before the drywall goes up [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Ranchman]

RobS -

A couple of things to think about for your pseudo-theater lighting.

Cans in each corner will work OK, but you should probably wire them in pairs - e.g. the "front" pair near the TV and the "rear" pair (furthest away.)

I won't bore you with a lot of details about how your eyes/pupils work, other than to say that you will run into increased glare and your eyes will become more fatigued with lights on behind the viewer. (You will also loose quite a bit of detail with lighting behind the viewer - e.g. you'll miss out! [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] )

Ideally, if extra light is needed (e.g. you want a light on in addition to the TV, the best place would be indirect lighting from a point behind where the TV is situated. (Not easy to do and probably not practical in your situation.) The next best thing would be to have the lights as close to "even" with the TV without going in front of it. The can lighting will help with the indirect aspect along with allowing you to put the lighting pretty close to even with the TV.

Something else (toy) to consider is in addition to having the lights on a dimmer circuit, you can have a remote to raise/lower the lights. They're easy to install (Lutron is one brand that offers this.)

Hope this helps.! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[RobS]

That does help and you've hit on precisely some of my concerns. I have some X-10 in the house now and will probably use it in this room for lighting control. I guess my issue right now is how many seperate light switches do I need. As cheap as wire and switches are, I suppose I should overkill it (other than the rolling eyes looks I'll get from my wife) Thanks [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Ranchman]

No prob! Glad I hit on some of the issues you were thinking about. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[MossRoad]

Rob,
Have you looked at the more expensive(read nicer with more features) X10 controls from Leviton? The "scene" lighting capabilites are nice and they are supposed to have a 'real' feel to the switches, as opposed to the inexpensive X10 brand switches.

[MossRoad]

This is probably a no brainer, but if you decide to build in your TV or entertainment center, try to leave an access for the wiring behind all the stuff. A rear door to an entertainment section is very handy, if possible. If not, a rack mounted system on roll out hardware is the next best thing.

[RobS]

The TV and such will back up to the utility room wall so if I ever need I can access the back with only one layer of drywall.

Do the Leviton products work the same as X-10? Are they compatible or is it a different control scheme? Please tell me more [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Ranchman]

RobS-

<font color="blue">The TV and such will back up to the utility room wall so if I ever need I can access the back with only one layer of drywall. </font color>

If you know where things are going to be situated, if you could frame a "passthrough" located directly behind the TV/Stereo equipment and put a small door in the utility room (kindof like you see on a bathroom medicine cabinet), you'll be a MUCH happier man when you go to install stuff/swap it out. (Plus all your friends will think you were really clever when you show them your finished work! [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] )

This is basically the same type thing Mossroad was talking about. Believe me when I say I will **never** build another house that doesn't have this type of feature.

[RobS]

I definitely like the idea of an access panel for the TV etc. Wish I had that on our main center but it's on an outside wall. The basement one will be a breeze to add later as the wall will be unfinished on the back side and is wide open for access. Thanks for the suggestions [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[wingnut]

I sure wish I had easy access to our electronics! We have a 62" enclosed by a modular unit that contains the home theatre sound, vcr's, dvds, BUD satellite receiver, CD jukebox ... and everytime I want to change anything out ... I have to dismantle half the doggone wall. Unfortunately, the master bath is on the other side of the wall ... otherwise I would surely have an access panel!
I have a floor lamp on a dimmer switch behind us so that the lights do not distract from the movie.