bbri14

Small "auditorium" theater system planning

I am looking for help to figure out a theatre system and speakers to purchase for a room in our office building. Here is what needs to be taken into consideration.

We have a small room that we call an auditorium at work. It is 18' by 40' with 10' ceilings so not all that big. In back, there are two open archways, and then the room extends by another 15 feet. The front of the room has an unused fireplace. The walls are made of concrete brick behind the fireplace, on the right side of the room, and partially up the left wall. Windows complete the rest of the left wall and the back (extended) side. These windows look outside. The brick wall on the right also has a big arch "doorway" but no door where everyone enters and leaves. The ceiling is made of tiles. The floor is tiled.

This room is used for all presentations for the company. We have a pull-down projector screen in front of the fireplace. We currently use a laptop and mobile projector for our presentations, but we are going to purchase an Epson PowerLite 822p ceiling mounted projector. Since we are getting the projector and have extra money left over in our budget for this project, we decided to get a home theater system so our kids (this is at a disciplinary school) can watch movies.

So we're not looking to spend too much on all this - maybe $500 for the home theater system and speakers. My main concern is getting something that will project the sound all the way to the back, but we because most of these kids are here for disciplinary reasons, we don't want speakers that are attached to the wall where a kid can cause damage. The home theater system is actually going to be locked up in a cabinet so the kids can't get to it.

I felt that getting a 2.1 channel surround sound would do the trick, but didn't know if this would work well for a 40 to 50 foot long room. At the same time, if I got a 5.1 or 7.1 channel system, some users might end up sitting behind the back speakers and I'm not sure how well that would work for surround sound purposes. On top of that, if we did get speakers for the back, they will most likely be put into the ceiling facing downward to keep from getting hit by balls and toys used by the kids.

Hopefully that all makes sense.

If anyone has any ideas, both in design or in specific pieces of equipment, I would very much appreciate it. I don't know too much about these systems so any thoughts will be helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Brian

chuckg

Re: Small "auditorium" theater system planning

$500 is a pretty tight budget for sound of any sort in a room that large. The best you could do, I think, would be to go with a fairly powerful stereo up front, possibly with a subwoofer. don't expect thunderous bass in there, though.

You may need to go with "pro" equipment and what is called a "70-volt system" and put several speakers in the ceiling tiles. this stuff isn't real high audio quality, but will at least get sound dispersed through the room.

With a long skinny room, you can't really expect surround sound.

--ignore the man behind the curtain

bbri14

Re: Small "auditorium" theater system planning

Thanks for your input chuckg. I know many of the basic home theater systems at Best Buy or Circuit City are only a few hundred dollars. We're not looking for anything all that great. Just good enough to get the job done and allow people to watch and listen to movies. The sound system is where I'm unsure about. I don't think I need anything all that complicated, but I don't know exactly what to look for. Or to stay away from.
Thanks.
Brian