Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Seating

This is topic Seating in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Armand Daiguillon (Member # 10334) on 06-04-2019, 10:02 PM:

Hi all,

If all goes well, I will soon be taking over an older theater and doing some renovations to make it more current. I have a few questions for you super wise people out there.

1. Is there a "proper" way to dispose of over 1000 old style early 90's type theater seats ? Or do these just go in the regular dumpster ?

2. My intent was to have risers built to create a better site line on the existing sloped floors (several rows of 6' each risers) but i'm seeing the seating companies are advertising recliners that "work on existing sloped floors' - I have never seen a theater with new recliner type seating on the old sloped type floor - I've only seen installed on risers. Does anybody have experience with putting recliners on old style sloped floors ? Does simply adding extra space between rows (maybe 5 feet) create enough "slope" to have a decent site line ? Or is this just foolishness ?

Thanks !!!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-04-2019, 10:47 PM:

Really the only way to answer the second question is with a sightline study. If you buy your seats from a dealer they will do that for you. You'll need to get an accurate measurement of what your slope is.

As for the disposal - you might find someone wanting to recycle those seats. We donated our old ones a few years ago to a non-profit arthouse in another city. They came and loaded 'em up, we didn't have to do anything.

Failing that, it is probably dumpster-time.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-07-2019, 02:23 AM:

Also keep in mind that if you convert your room from a sloped floor layout to a more stadium seating-style layout, this will affect the acoustics of the room too.

In many cases, you need to adjust your speakers too, especially surround speakers, but also stuff like the horns on the stage speakers should probably be re-aligned.

In any case, your room will need a re-calibration.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 06-07-2019, 04:07 PM:

You need to see if you have side sectional drawings of the seating areas of your slope(s) including breaks and reverse incline in some slopes and possible radius in seating layout.You will have better site lines with risers allowing an average of 9 to 12 inch of elevation per row versus a 3 to 4 inch per row max with slope.
New chairs tend to have higher backs that you have to consider in your site line calculations. Seat foot wedges are options but they can be pain.....

Posted by James Wyrembelski (Member # 9037) on 06-07-2019, 08:23 PM:

The only place I know of that has recliners on a sloped floor is the Elkader Cinema in Iowa. They recently put in all new reclining seats and I believe they have a sloped floor. How much of a slope it is, I have no idea.

When we needed to remove old seats during the renovations, we simply gave them away. One facebook post offering free seats and all 302 of them were gone in 2 days!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-07-2019, 11:40 PM:

I had a guy come in and ask me for four of our old seats for his "TV room." (These were standard-issue Seating Concepts seats from the late '80s.) I said, why would you want to use theater chairs instead of comfy cushy recliners? After thinking it over he went with the recliners.

Posted by Armand Daiguillon (Member # 10334) on 06-08-2019, 05:04 AM:

FYI I found a picture from a theater in Oklahoma that uses recliners on slope, I was unable to attach the pic, but you can see it if you google "apex cinema muskogee"
I think it looks pretty good.
I spoke to one of the managers and she said that the customers are very happy with it - they have 6 sloped theaters and 4 standard stadium theaters (the 4 were built later) and they said customers have never shown a preference except for seniors...who hate the "true stadium" seating.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 06-08-2019, 07:55 AM:

I had a client put a couple of sloping rooms in his multiplex projects for "older clients" playing mostly art fare.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-08-2019, 07:47 PM:

I suppose the reason seniors might not like stadium seating has less to do with nostalgia, sight-lines or any of that kind of thing ... it probably has more to do with the stairs.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-09-2019, 05:57 AM:

Everybody has their own preferences, it's impossible to do it right for everybody.

Me, I like old-style theaters with sloped floors and a balcony with "stadium seating".

I also like to sit on the balcony, especially if they're not only in the back but are extended to quite a bit to the front. I like to sit in front then, because you're right in the middle of the frame then, both vertically and horizontally...

Another reason to like sloped floor rooms is because the acoustic in them is often better than in stadium seated rooms.

I know that those recliners are all the rage now, but personally, I've never seen the necessity for recliners. Give me a comfortable seat with sufficient legroom and armrests that are sufficiently wide, so you can share them with your neighbor and I'm totally happy. I already consider this overly comfortable... Getting my feet up is making me lazy and watching a movie requires some attention, especially if it's a good one. [Wink]

Posted by Jarod Reddig (Member # 6363) on 06-10-2019, 11:51 PM:

I can't even get anyone to take away a free couch!