Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: calculating seating height...

This is topic calculating seating height... in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Catalin Balaceanu (Member # 3712) on 11-08-2008, 02:41 PM:

Hi everybody. I've been looking all over the website for this, but I couldn't find a complete answer to this matter:
OK, so I wanna change the seats in my auditorium. The old ones are from the 60's. So, it's about time.
In the research process, I found out that the new seats, nowadays, are 10 - 20cm higher then the ones I have right now. Which make me fear that, once I install the new seats, they will mess up the visibility to the screen.
Is there a formula that would help me calculate the height of each seats row, according to the parameters of my auditorium?
Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

Catalin

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 11-08-2008, 05:22 PM:

Shouldn't matter unless you have mostly children. You "sit" well above the backs if you are an adult.

No way to know without the floor slopes and screen heights mapped on a cross sectional blueprint. Louis

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-08-2008, 07:10 PM:

draw it out on paper or in cad and trace the sightlines

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 11-08-2008, 09:14 PM:

This is a case where CAD really is best. You can draw lines from every row. Adjust the height of the screen until everyone can at least see above everyone else's head. With CAD, you just grab the one point (At the bottom of the screen) and it will move all of the lines.

Steve

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-08-2008, 11:19 PM:

If you buy seats from a dealer, they will calculate that for you. You will need the dimensions of your auditorium; the angle of the floor (you can just give them the amount of drop from the back to the front); and the distance from the floor to the bottom of the screen.

NOTE: It might not hurt to get a second opinion on this. We had a reputable seating company do a sightline test for us in 2002, and wound up having to replace the seats in 2004 because they were WAY off in their calculations (among other things I won't get into).