Home Theater Design 101

After that Godfather marathon or binge-watching your favorite show on Netflix, you might feel fatigue, have a crick in your neck, or even a headache. If so, you might be the victim of bad home theater design! A few simple adjustments and you’ll be on the road to a more comfortable and enjoyable experience.

Get the Best Seats in the House

The right seating is one of the most important considerations for any home theater design. That’s because it’s largely to credit for your comfort. For one, if you have more than one row of seating you need to make sure that you have the proper viewing angles and unobstructed sight lines to the screen.

This might mean installing a riser or two so that those from the second row back don’t have to strain to see the screen. A good electronic systems contractor will make sure that the risers plus seating combine to give proper viewing clearance for the back rows, and that the back row has adequate headroom. Trying to force as many seats as possible only leads to making the room feel cramped and claustrophobic.
 

It’s All About the Materials

That shade of Eggshell White really pops, but did you know it can take away to the image on the screen? Bright wall colors tend to reflect light back onto the screen, washing out the picture. Dark or neutral shades minimize light reflection and screen coloration. Also consider sound when selecting your surface materials. Hardwood floors or concrete will reflect sound, making the room sound like a basketball court. Temper them with plush, luxurious seating, pillows, drapes, or opt for carpet—all of which absorb sound. For more on material, read our blog about selecting seating materials, here.
 

Just Say No to Wire

Whether you have a dedicated home theater or a casual media room, one of the biggest no-nos is exposed wiring. They’re not only an eyesore, but can be a safety hazard when running across floors or jumbled in a ball behind a media console. For best results, wires should be hidden inside walls, which most likely means snaking cable from your display and speakers to your components.
 

Call an Electronics Contractor at Blueprint Phase

Rarely, the call to the electronic systems contractor is the first one a homeowner makes when he or she is embarking on a new home or remodel. More often than not, that honor is bestowed upon the builder or architect. We recommend talking to an electronic systems contractor early in the design process so that you can make sure your home theater is installed without a hitch. These professionals will be up on the latest designs, technologies, and building trends and guide you through the process.

Make sure to address seating early in the conversation with your systems contractor, as well. That’s because the size of the screen and type of projector could be affected by the number of seats you want in your theater. Why? Theater seating requires a certain amount of floor space to provide for proper sight lines and comfort. Knowing the seating layout and how much room it will require assists you in determining the right projector and screen size. Knowing what seating you want early will allow you to plan the room better, which will allow you to avoid last minute sacrifices due to space problems.

These are just a few of our tips for making your home theater better. We hope you are inspired to make the most of your environment. If you’d like to learn more, give us a call or come in! We’re excited to share our passion with you.

Made in the USA!

Did you know that FORTRESS Seating is all hand-made in the US at our factory in La Verne, California? At FORTRESS, we take great pride in being able to build a chair from concept to shipping, right here in the United States, and with the finest quality and craftsmanship.  Come with us on this behind-the-scenes photo tour of what happens in our La Verne factory, from structure to stuffing to stitching to shipping! 

The FORTRESS Seating Factory in La Verne, California, is where the magic happens. From concept to shipping, every seat is created right here in the US. 

The view of the wood shop from above. This is where all the internal structures of FORTRESS Seating are designed.  In the case of unusual requests or extremely custom configurations, designs like the semicircular arrangement shown here are built to fit a template based on the customers’ specifications and are often tested in plywood before the final wood structure is created. 

Shown here is the structure of a chaise lounge in the process of being built. Fortress builds all products to ANSI BIFMA standards. The frame is constructed with Alder hardwood and Birch plywood. Next stop, upholstery! 

For extended viewing in a theater or media room environment, comfort is key, but so is support. FORTRESS doesn’t skimp on the foam in its seating.  They carefully combine different foams to create a soft, but supportive cushion on the seat as well as the back.  FORTRESS uses a high-density foam along with a memory gel foam which allows the cushion to return to its original shape after having been sat in.  You can also specify how firm or how soft you want the seat and back for long-lasting comfort.

 Additionally, FORTRESS strives to find green alternatives to the components that make up our chairs. The foam we use is manufactured—emission-free—with plant-based renewable resources and contains organic, halogen-free fire retardants. All chairs use flex webbing, no springs here! 

In the cutting department each piece of fabric or leather is carefully inspected for imperfections. Precise attention to pattern matching and the elimination of leather blemishes is accomplished by our skilled cutters. Imperfections are flagged, and those pieces are recycled so nothing is wasted.  

Fortress upholsterers take great pride in their work and it shows. Seams are straight and the attention to all the details is evident. Reinforced stitching extends the life of FORTRESS seats, making them more durable. Double stitching to upholstery tape eliminates the problem of seam-splitting. 

These plush, velvet custom backs and arms are awaiting their seats, then will be assembled, tested, and shipped. 

The West End is a modern design that can be specified with loungers. This custom configuration was designed for a cinema inside a hotel, and is nearly ready for shipping.

Every chair is completely assembled and tested at the factory before it is shipped. These fully assembled El Dorado's have gone through a thorough quality control and are ready for shipping.

Every company needs a familiar furry face. Ours is Cisco. Here he awaits a treat from the fridge on the second floor. 

Theater Seats from FORTRESS Go Beyond Customization

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‘Customization’ is a term that’s loosely thrown around when it comes to home design. Many companies offer one style of sofa in several different fabrics and sizes and call it a day. Fortress Seating, however, takes the term “customization” very seriously.

Made to Order

For one, FORTRESS doesn’t begin making any seating until an order is placed. The company’s warehouse is not full of standardized chairs waiting to be shipped. And while it may take a little longer to get your seating, clients can get everything from popular models and sizes in popular fabrics and finishes, to anything they can dream up.

For example, one interior designer client came in with an image from a fashion design magazine. It was a picture of a stylish sitting room highlighting a set of ornately patterned, Victorian-style, tasseled chairs. The customer wanted theater chairs that would mimic this style, but look like a couch from behind and theater chairs from the front. Armed with only this magazine photo, FORTRESS went to work.

The team made sketches, pulled samples, and built a prototype to show the customer for approval. The client loved them! This completely custom set of theater seats now sits in the client’s home theater, featuring, plush velvet, golden tassles, and exactly the look the client wanted: Pocket Arms, Fortress Seating’s most popular accessory divide the couch into individual seats, accomplishing the look of theater seats from the front, sofa from the back.

Made to Fit

Another great example of FORTRESS’ dedication to customization is a theater with a curved back wall that could not be altered. Armed with CAD drawings from the installer, FORTRESS went to work to create theater seats that would work within the room’s odd dimensions. Using plywood, FORTRESS went above and beyond, building a template to scale to see how these seats might lay out.

“We like to see how it will all layout, exactly, before we build it,” says Gabi Wolper, vice president of Fortress Seating. “In this theater the installer wanted three seating areas, so we are experimenting with shapes, sizes, and accessories to see how it will all fit in the room.”

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Made to Last

Of course, all home theater seats that FORTRESS builds are inherently made to last. See our recent blog post, “Home Theater Seating: It’s What’s Inside That Counts,”  for details on Fortress Seating build quality to read all about what goes into building seating that lasts a lifetime.

So next time you hear a manufacturer’s ability to create “custom” solutions, really stop and consider what that means. If you’re building a media room or private cinema and need theater seats to match room dimensions, want custom finishes, fabrics, arrangements, and even ground-up design, FORTRESS does it all. Like Wolper says, “If the client can sketch it on a napkin, we can build it.”

Home Theater Seating: It’s What’s Inside That Counts

If you’ve ever purchased a sofa or chair either online or in a store, you know that quality can vary wildly. While that $700 sectional may have looked great and seemed like a good deal, when your elbow goes right through the arm rest and you have to go through the hassle of returning it (if you can), you start to wonder if it was such a great deal after all. Home theater seating is no different. Quality is not a given, even if you are paying big bucks.

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Fortress Seating prides itself on quality – not just on the outside, but the inside as well. Every chair, every arm rest, every chaise lounge is, at its core, made from real wood instead of cardboard or other flimsy materials like some furniture manufacturers use. Below you’ll see a Fortess Seating arm rest in the making, complete with cupholder and an opening for controls. The entire armrest is made of Birch ply and Alder hard wood. And we all know that a strong core makes for a structurally sound body.

Fortress Seating inserts metal t-nuts in all the wood, so the components can be bolted together, and everything is metal-to-metal connections. Below, a Fortress employee uses these metal fasteners to construct an armrest.

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While you might think that this extremely comfortable home theater seating is made mostly of foam, even the plush Fortress Seating chaise lounges are built using solid wood. Below, a FORTRESS employee puts the finishing touches on a chaise lounge frame.

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If you’re building a media room or private cinema, build quality in your home theater seating shouldn’t be something you compromise on. The last thing you want is to spend a hefty sum on your electronics, only to skimp on the seating and find it uncomfortable and falling apart in a few months. Carefully consider your options and ask questions. Build quality goes a long way toward ensuring that your investment will last a lifetime. With the right stuff inside, you can’t go wrong.

SMART CHAIR TECHNOLOGY

Introduced at CEDIA and representing a significant advancement in the seating category, the new Smart Chair Technology seamlessly interacts with home automation and control systems.  Featuring state-of-the-art human occupancy sensors, preset seating positions and numerous other options.  Not only can control systems be programmed to trigger automated responses based on human motion or movement taking place in the chair such as sitting or standing, the smart cair senses when an impingement occurs and will cease all motorized functions or movement.  Available in any model.

Fortress Seating® Named 2016 CE Pro Brand Leader for Third Year

Fortress Seating takes home top honors in the seating category from the industry’s top integrators

LA VERNE, CA (JUNE 15, 2016) Fortress Seating®—leader in home theater, media room, and contract seating—announced today that it has once again been named the CE Pro Brand Leader for Seating, part of the Home Enhancements category.

The award comes from the CE Pro Top 100 highest-revenue residential integration firms, who are surveyed each year to determine their preferred brands in the categories of audio, video, home automation, networking, lighting controls, and more. Each integration firm is given the opportunity to name the brands they supported the year prior. The winning brand is the one that is mentioned by most companies, therefore making it the product leading integration firms use most in that category. This is the third year in a row Fortress Seating has taken home this prestigious honor, a true testament to the brand’s offering.

“We put so much careful detail and attention into crafting every seat, it’s rewarding when the industry’s best-of-the-best integrators recognize our efforts,” says Gabi Wolper of Fortress Seating. “We are extremely honored and thank CE Pro and the CE Pro Top 100. Fortress is proud to be among such great company in terms of other manufacturers; not to mention installed in some of the finest home cinemas in the world, providing luxurious comfort, quality, and style.”

A design-oriented manufacturer with near-endless customization capabilities, Fortress has been providing home theater, lifestyle, and corporate seating since the late 1990s, stressing comfort, design, and quality. Sensing a void in the custom seating market, the company drew upon the experience it gained building commercial seating, giving customers the strongest theater and media room seating options available.

Throughout the month, CE Pro will present each of the categories in detail, including the top five brands and every brand mentioned in a given category.

Those interested in learning more about Fortress Seating are encouraged to view the www.fortresseating.com website, e-mail info@fortresseating.com, call (909) 593-8600, and follow @FortressSeating  on Twitter and "Like" Fortress on Facebook.  

About Fortress Seating
Founded in the 1930's, Fortress is a manufacturer of upholstered furniture.  In the late 1990's Fortress began building home theater seating and with over 8 decades of experience, Fortress rapidly became the ‘go to’ company when off-the-shelf seating was not the answer.  Fortress has been providing exceptional solutions to all seating challenges, addressing and solving the most demanding seating requirements.  Fortress sets the standard for innovative designs, full customization, and exceptional quality that is recognized globally.

Media Contact:
Katye (McGregor) Bennett; KMB Communications, Inc.
+1 (425) 328-8640
katye@kmbcomm.com
www.kmbcomm.com
@KMB_Comm