A HOME CINEMA SEATING HAT-TRICK

A good home cinema is determined by the presence of three key elements: performance comfort and design, says Rik Hellemans, Director at seating specialist, CINEAK.

As a designer and manufacturer of high-end home theatre seating, we come into play on all three aspects, and we prefer to be involved in the early stages of the theatre room design process for several reasons. One of them is that builders and architects often don’t consider the importance of sufficient platform/riser depth and height when drawing or building the room.

The platform height (and depth) is important, as this height hugely impacts the sightlines, as it’s key that front rows don’t obstruct the view of spectators seated in the row(s) behind them. Another parameter to determine platform depth is the space required to accommodate motorised reclining theatre seats or sofas, which we are specialised in.

We also like to be involved in the process prior to the electrician starting to wire the room, as motorisation demands power outlets, and we can advise on the outlet locations to neatly hide wiring etc.

Once the clients have determined which of our seating models – or combination of seating models – they prefer, our engineering team starts drafting seating layouts. Planning these seating layouts requires some knowledge about the purpose and usage of the theatre. Is the main purpose family oriented? Will the home theatre be used in a professional or workrelated capacity? Is it the goal to maximise the seating capacity, or does the owner want to create wide seating surfaces with – for instance – tables in between? Do we need a Captain’s seat in each row? When it comes to the sound performance, what distance should we keep in between the back row and the speakers embedded in the back wall? These are just some of the things to be considered, but the answers to a long list of such questions enables our engineers to draft one or multiple seating layouts which best suits the desires of the enduser. Basically, to reiterate, there is no such thing as the ideal seating configuration. The ideal seating configuration is dictated by the needs of the homeowner.

To accommodate these ‘ideal’ seating configurations for every room, modularity of the seating elements is mandatory. For CINEAK, it is important to offer several seating widths and armrest widths, as well as chaise options (even motorised), corner pieces, etc. for each seating model in our catalogue, so we can tackle even the most challenging room situations and still create a comfortable highly performing seating environment. Even when our ‘standard’ modules can’t provide dimensional or design requirements, we have the ability to custombuild each module to get the desired result.

This brings us to design. We started the company to put a halt to poorly and bulky theatre seating flooding and even dominating the home theatre market. Our design team has always been on top of style changes or trends circulating in the design community and translating these into the design of our own motorised theatre furniture.

Over the past (almost) two decades, this approach has resulted in a portfolio of timeless, sleekly designed furniture for a market where – back in the days – functionality was the only consideration. Throughout the years, the marked evolved and besides functionality – finally – comfort, performance, and design came into play. We think we may say that CINEAK has been and still is a driving force in this ongoing evolution.

When it comes to current trends in theatre seating, it’s accurate to say that sofa style seating – motorised in our case – has now really established a strong position in the home theatre market, and it’s there to stay. Where we used to see seating layouts exclusively comprised of the ‘old-school’ high-back theatre seating, we now see a movement toward lounge-style theatres. Our designers often call it ‘theatres that don’t look and feel like an actual theatre, but still perform like one’. What’s very popular as well is a combination of both: a combination of rows of ‘family/lounge’-style seating and the ‘old-school’ high back seating. Again, it all boils down to what was previously mentioned: what will the space be used for, and who will be using it.

Talking about trends - clients demand choices and options. Over the course of many years, our design team has curated a wide section of high quality and durable fabrics and leathers. Although this is very important to most clients, we have seen an increasing demand in COL/COM, where the client’s designer provides her or his own upholstery to be used on our seating.

The last element to bring up are the actual options and accessories. It is common sense that a theatre calls for the well-known cup holders, but we have also noted that - definitely during the pandemic – people started to use their home theatre differently. To some it even became a quiet workplace where they would retreat to with their laptop to peacefully work from home. This brings along new needs such as larger (removable) tables to accommodate the laptop, and of course additional built-in charging options for computer, tablet, and phone.