How To Select Home Theater Lighting

by Augie Bettencourt

Selecting home theater lighting is one of the most crucial elements to consider in building a home theater system and is also one of the most over-looked. The lighting used in the room has an incredible effect on the movie viewing experience. It can make the difference between a pleasurable experience or a mediocre one.  The drama can shift from movie to movie, but the most dramatic moment in any movie, has nothing to do with flying limbs or even hungry, lawyer-munching dinosaurs. The most intense moment happens when the lights go down, before the movie even starts. 

Think about your own experiences at the movies. There's the buildup of anticipation for the event that is about to begin, and then, finally, the lights dim. You settle into your seat, ready to be transported to another time or place, perhaps to another world. That's the power of a lighting control system in a home theater. It can add that suspense to even a small, family room surround-sound system.  You can set the amount of light in the room to your liking for watching movies, sports, concerts or Sponge Bob Square Pants. When you need to take a break, answer the door or grab a snack from another room, the right lighting can guide you safely to the exit. You can have task lighting that stays on over a pool table, for example, while the viewing area of your home theater/rec room is dimmed. And when the movie is over, all the lights can come on again gradually.

You can have preset lighting "scenes" that might dim the lights fully for movie viewing, keep them raised for that Friday night poker game, set them halfway for Monday Night Football, or even activate the strobe lights and disco ball for party mode. Virtually anything is possible.  Lighting control systems can be easily operated through wall-mounted touchpads about the size of a light switch and containing a few buttons or by remote control devices programmed by you or a professional electronics contractor. The lights can even be tied into other housewide home control systems and activated through a touch-panel or touch-screen.

Home Theater Lighting

Lighting can set the mood, change the feel, or create an ambience in any room. Controlling the lighting in your home theater makes the difference between just watching a movie and experiencing a story. After all, your home theater is not just another room in your home, it’s a haven. Before you choose your lighting design, there are several things to consider. The first and foremost is the intended use of the room. A home theater designed primarily for watching movies should be lit differently than one intended for watching football games. The lighting design of your home theater can create depth, shape, and elegance. When combined with dimming controls, it can effect how you live within a space and bring out the true beauty of your home theater. In order to do this, you should first decide what it is you wish to light. Next, you should select the appropriate lighting fixtures.

In deciding what to light, several options are available to you. In your home theater, you may wish to emphasize architectural focal points. Lighting above cabinets or accenting shelves can give your home theater a feeling of elegance. Also, you may wish to light task-specific spaces.  Another lighting option is to light objects of interest. Accenting a vase of flowers, a painting or movie poster on a wall, can add character to your room.

Types of Home Theater Lighting and Fixtures

While home theater track lighting offers the versatility and compatibility to fit into almost any situation, wall-wash lighting and accent lighting are easy ways to shape the personality of a room. Still, a wide range of wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted fixtures is available. If your home theater is to be designed and decorated with a theme in mind, the lighting should enhance and play into that theme.

Home theater rope lighting is one of the most versatile types of accent lighting available. It is easy to install, cost effective and can be used almost anywhere.  Rope lighting can be used to highlight a step, around a seating riser, in a channel around the screen, under the stairs and even in the candy counter.

Home theater fiber optic lighting can create a dazzling star field effects in ceilings with luminous optical fibers.  Fiber optic lighting has carved a unique niche for itself in the commercial and home theater lighting market.  Emitting points are small and very bright, and many points of light can be created by using one lamp to illuminate a common bundle, fiber optics is the de facto choice of lighting designers to simulate a night sky.  The effect can be found in hotels, night clubs, theatres and restaurants, limousines and vans, and more recently, high end home entertainment theaters.

Home theater wall sconces can be quite functional by providing some or all of the general lighting in a space. At other times the light provided by a wall sconce or a series of wall sconces can help one safely negotiate a dark home theater. Wall sconces can also offer marvelous opportunities to be creative and make an aesthetic statement. In fact, certain wall sconces might be works of art in themselves.  As an example, Lightspann Illumination Design, Inc. www.lightspann.com, based in Oakland, California make some of the most beautiful sconces and light fixtures I've seen. Lightspann has mastered the art of glass blowing, fusing, painting and metal-smithing and offer gorgeous, unique lighting alternatives that add wonderful touches to any home theater. Lightspann will even fully customize a light according to a client's needs, based on special sizing, lamping, and installation requirements.  

Home theater recessed lighting is unlike most fixtures that are decorative elements themselves, because recessed lighting blends into a home theater.  Use at least two fixtures and space them so that the light from one works with the light from the other. Recessed lighting may also be used to supplement decorative fixtures that don't cast much light.

Home Theater Lighting Control Systems

An effective, low cost choice for lighting control is the Lutron Spacer.  The Lutron Spacer lighting system is a simple solution for creating and recalling lighting scenes at the touch of a button.  Complete with remote control (like you need another!), the Lutron Spacer System with infrared and smart dimmer technology gives you fingertip control of the lighting in any room. It lets you create and recall lighting scenes as easily as setting and recalling those favorite stations on your car radio and it uses standard wiring that can be easily retrofitted to replace standard light switches or dimmers.  The Lutron Spacer can be purchased for about $65 at www.amazon.com and is an extremely simple, low cost solution for remote control lighting and dimming.  I consider the Lutron Spacer a bargain and was so impressed with it, that I purchased one for my own reference theater.

For a robust light system, many X10 based lighting systems can be purchased.  X10 is the dominant protocol for controlling (turning on and off and dimming) electrical devices, such as lights and appliances, through your home's electrical lines. X10 is now an open standard. All standards-compatible products display an X10-compatible logo on their packaging or on the product itself. When you see this logo, you know that the product works with other X10 products regardless of the manufacturer.  There are a couple of form factors for X10, the two most applicable to home theaters being wall outlet modules and dimmer switches. X10 modules are devices that receive and translate X10 signals to turn on and off individual lights, appliances, or other electrical devices. An X10 wall module is a small, box-shaped device that's no bigger than the AC plug-in transformers that power many home appliances, such as telephones and answering machines.  To work in a home, X10 doesn't require specific network architecture other than your existing electrical system. X10 sends its control signals from the controller over your power lines to every outlet in the house. The controller can have remote control or PC interfaces. Figure 1 shows a limited X10 network.  Lutron and other manufacturers like Crestron, AMX and Elan all make quality X10-based lighting control systems that are worth investigating for elaborate lighting control.

Finishing the Job

Home theater lighting can easily be tailored in order to take the work out of finding the perfect setting for each light in the room every time you want to watch a movie. A central lighting control allows you to change the intensity of the all lights in a room from a single location. Some of the more sophisticated learning remote controls can actually activate your favorite lighting conditions with the push of a button. 

Lighting is vital to the effectiveness of your home theater system. After being introduced to the possibilities that proper home theater lighting and control provides, it will be hard for you to ignore it any longer. You've taken the time, effort, and expense of creating a home theater system for a reason. Finish the job with proper lighting and create a truly enjoyable viewing experience.

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