I have my screen and projector in place and thought I had my seating narrowed down until I got caught up on riser height. Here is my problem:


My room is about 27 feet long by 11 feet wide- so lengthwise I am good, but the width is a challenge
My ceiling is only 7' tall - so I obviously am concerned about riser height

I am looking at a row of three Berkline 13175 chairs - this will give me 30" on one side and 9" on the other - not ideal sound-wise but you take what you can get.

My question is the riser height - I think I am going to have to go with a 12" riser to combat my 31" screen height. I really didn't want people to have to duck to use the second row of seating - and don't want to have any one over 5'10 to bump their heads if they forget to duck.

Any thoughts how I can help get around this?

Do you have a drawing? I imagine if you have 84" of height - the riser, I think you should be able to get around 8" of riser height at that distance from the screen = 76" in the back row. What the screen size? Is it 16x9 or 2.35:1?

Also try this calculator...

http://www.theater-calc.com/

Welcome to the madness paday2,

I have much shorter length than you but close to the same width. My ceiling is about 7'5" and I am not certain if your plans are to put your riser all the way back. Even so you can do a version of what I came up with which was to add a mini riser to the seating by itself.

I have soffits with rope lighting and my regular riser height is about 10.5" the mini riser adds another 4". The added height to the seat is perfectly natural and I haven't had issues with shorter or taller folks. In fact I had a meet at my place and 1 fellow who was about 6'3-4" was cautious but managed to safely get in and out of the back row.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14760947&postcount=150

Here's my room diagram.

What I am thinking is I can make the 32" space between the two rows 8" - and rather than a 4" mini riser I would just have the section of the riser with the theater seating 12". That minimizes the chance of head thumping for anyone under 6'4" and still gets my 12" for clearance....?????

You can get by with less than a 30 inch walk way unless you need wheel chair access. You can actually do 22 and leave 16 on the far side.

Use a booster riser just under the theater seats as mentioned by Oman. If you are using Berkline recliners be sure the total riser depth is at least 6'5"

OK 2 questions:

Of the 6'5" depth - how much of that should be on the 'booster riser' section, and how much on the lower section?

My riser height needs to be 12". My first instinct is an 8" riser with 4" booster giving me 6'4" clearance...but every inch counts....would 7" riser with 5" booster work? I don't want my guestes to have to turn around and jump backwards into their seats!!! :)

Of the 6'5" depth - how much of that should be on the 'booster riser' section, and how much on the lower section?


I would make the booster at least one inch deeper than the actual base of the chair. I think that is going to be about 38 inches but you should verify with your chair vendor. You have plenty of room so you might want to put a back lip on the riser so that chairs can't slip off the back. Looking at your layout, I would do a half height wall instead with a drink edge on the top for your standing room only crowd during the big game. It will also give a more finished look to the space when you come down the stairs.

oman321 - I like your riser! Do you have blueprints?