January 07th, 2020

So, how do you know what is right for your building and space? Typically, screen position is decided based on the aesthetics desired for the room. But sometimes the building is more complicated and needs a little more thought process than simply the desired look. This is where Lambda can help! We can take the measurements of a room and build an 3D design to show us exact sight lines. With this information we can determine the exact placement of screens for best viewing.

Without building a special 3D cad design, there are already some industry standards and rules to consider. Perhaps you even have a portable screen for one of your rooms, some of these rules could help you determine where to place your screen.

First you must consider the size of screen you need in your room. In a flat-floor venue, it is advisable to have the bottom viewable edge of your screen no less than 42” above the floor. A more preferable height is 48”. Another thing to consider is how close a podium can sit in front of the screen. For most stage areas, this isn’t a problem, but if you are in a classroom/conference room setting, you need to consider having a minimum of 60” between the screen and lectern. You also need to make sure the person who sits in the back of the room can still see. A general rule is to take the distance to the furthest person and divide it by 6; The height of your screen can be no smaller than the quotient. So, if you have a long room, but low ceiling height, you may need to consider putting a screen near the back of the room as well.

Last, you need to consider something called viewing angle. There are two different viewing angles. The first is from top to bottom. If you place your screen too high, people could be straining their necks to see, so a rule of thumb was created. With one’s eye’s straight forward, there should only be a 15 degree viewing angle to the middle of the screen. This will help you determine if your chairs are set up too close to your screen. The other viewing angle is from side to side. The rule here is based on 45 degree angles. From the middle of your screen you have a 45 degree angle for viewing to each side. This makes for 90 degrees of viewing from the middle of the screen diagonally outwards. You can safely assume another 45 degrees of viewing from the sides of the screen. This is known as ‘acceptable’ viewing range. Refer to the diagrams below for a better visual reference.

There are a lot of elements to consider when looking to add or upgrade a screen. You may hope you can get away with a smaller one to save money, but you may be running the risk of part of your audience not being able to see properly. Perhaps you need two or three screens to really cover all the angles. It can be a lot to consider. If you’re looking to upgrade your screens or maybe improve viewing for part of your audience, give us a call! We’d love to do a walk through with you and come up with a solution for your viewing problems. If your still unsure, you can read back on a project where we fixed just such a problem for a local business. It ended up being a simple cost-effective fix with incredible results!
If you found this article helpful, be sure to let us know! We also take suggestions for other articles you'd like to read. As always, if you have any questions about the right screen placement for your area, we'd be happy to talk to you!
Be sure to follow this link to Infocomm for diagrams and the standards we talked about in this article!