If you were building a 7.1 set up from scratch, what components would you go with?

[Andrew Thomas]

The rooms are all 30' wide by 60' long.

I'm in the process of reopening our 4 screen that has been closed since March 2020, and doing some major renovations I've wanted to do since we first opened back in 2013 and had no money to do. One area that I've always felt we were lacking has been sound. I'm far less sound inclined than I am projection, so I'm at a bit of a loss where to begin with designing a system for our three smaller rooms which all have the same dimensions.

If you had your druthers, what would your set up be for a room with such dimensions?

Thanks in advance!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Need to know the size of the room and screen. Also where the seating area is in the room.

As far as equipment... QSC speakers, QSC or possibly Dolby amplifiers, if the rooms are big then Q-sys just might save wiring costs. And for sure the Trinnov processor. Its far and away the best one out there.

[Andrew Thomas]

Need to know the size of the room and screen. Also where the seating area is in the room.

As far as equipment... QSC speakers, QSC or possibly Dolby amplifiers, if the rooms are big then Q-sys just might save wiring costs. And for sure the Trinnov processor. Its far and away the best one out there.

Room: 30’x60’ WxD
Screen: 26’x13’
Seats: situated on risers that are each 1’ higher than the next, back row at 55’ from screen, then 50’, 45’, 40’, 35’, 30’, 25’

[Marco Giustini]

whatever you decided to do, my advice is: don't cheap out. Your sound system will last the life of the cinema and won't need to be swapped for software incompatibility or DCI requirements. If you ever moved to Atmos, a good stage setup will be perfectly fine with it.

If you save money on speakers you'll have mediocre sound from day one.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Besides the size of the rooms, it may be interesting to know if you want to use the rooms for other things than just showing movies from a proper DCI source. Are you going to screen content from alternative sources? Do you have a podium? Do you want to rent it out for stuff like live performances? You're opting for 7.1 now, any chance you want to upgrade to Atmos later?

[Andrew Thomas]

whatever you decided to do, my advice is: don't cheap out. Your sound system will last the life of the cinema and won't need to be swapped for software incompatibility or DCI requirements. If you ever moved to Atmos, a good stage setup will be perfectly fine with it.

If you save money on speakers you'll have mediocre sound from day one.

This is sort of the issue. When I got this location, I had no previous experience, so we just had Christie install the whole thing and I’ve never felt it was up to my own personal standards. I want to elevate this. Atmos is kind of the cutoff for me where the cost becomes a bit silly for our small town $5 a ticket cinema.

[Andrew Thomas]

Besides the size of the rooms, it may be interesting to know if you want to use the rooms for other things than just showing movies from a proper DCI source. Are you going to screen content from alternative sources? Do you have a podium? Do you want to rent it out for stuff like live performances? You're opting for 7.1 now, any chance you want to upgrade to Atmos later?

99.9% would be DCI stuff for this system. We actually have a stage and live sound equipment (mixing board and all) in our large auditorium. Atmos, at least given current costs, is not in the roadmap.

[Marco Giustini]

A good 7.1 system will sound very good.
don’t forget acoustic. It’s 50% of the final result if not more.

have your system spec’ed for running your movie at 7.0 without clipping - actually with 3dB headroom if possible (both speakers and amps). A good installer should be able to do the math for you.

go with good quality speakers, QSC, JBL are two good examples.

and find a good installer. A poorly tuned sound system is very common and makes the whole thing pointless. A proper sound tuning takes hours, not minutes.

a good sound system (and good acoustic) will
1. Sound awesome
2. Sound awesome at higher levels, triggering little complaints
3. will likely never break

[Steve Guttag]

Honestly Andrew, find someone/company that you trust and then work it out with them. Make sure you convey what you really want to be in the final outcome (both cost and quality). The absolute worst systems seem to be the ones designed "by committee" (aka "too many chefs"). It has been my findings that a collection of opinions do not, necessary, and often do not, converge at a good opinion.

[Andrew Thomas]

Honestly Andrew, find someone/company that you trust and then work it out with them. Make sure you convey what you really want to be in the final outcome (both cost and quality). The absolute worst systems seem to be the ones designed "by committee" (aka "too many chefs"). It has been my findings that a collection of opinions do not, necessary, and often do not, converge at a good opinion.

I’m mostly looking for a starting point for discussion with some potential suitors. I usually will spend a few weeks reading up on suggestions and getting more familiar with everything from there. I am a…trust, but verify type

[Marco Giustini]

"trust bit verity" sounds good. It makes sense to try to understand how things work before meeting an integrator - so you can catch their BS if they try to sell you substandard stuff.

[Jon Dent]

"trust bit verity" sounds good. It makes sense to try to understand how things work before meeting an integrator - so you can catch their BS if they try to sell you substandard stuff.

Or if they try to oversell you on crap you don't really need.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

This is sort of the issue. When I got this location, I had no previous experience, so we just had Christie install the whole thing and I’ve never felt it was up to my own personal standards. I want to elevate this. Atmos is kind of the cutoff for me where the cost becomes a bit silly for our small town $5 a ticket cinema.

Even though there is an excellent, properly installed Atmos system in Park City, Utah that I have heard... I still have yet to hear an Atmos mix that was worthy of the expense of installing the system. The customers that I serviced out west over the years pretty much felt the same way. They heard Atmos at various sites and were left unimpressed. They determined that people are way more interested in plush chairs or recliners. than sound So I have quit even paying attention to anything Atmos, except to avoid it at the Cinema. Plus in your size room, 7.1, plus a baffle wall would actually work and sound better and there are literally thousands of really great 7.1 mixes. .Also, depending on who you use for installation and equipment... keep in mind that QSC will actually properly design your system, or double check someone else's for you if you buy their speakers. A lot of sales people will claim they can do it just to get the sale. One person I'd highly recommend to make the job worry free, and is on this forum, is Steve Guttag at Cardinal. Sound.

[Stefan Scholz]

Zou can't just install hardware someone sells, and then hope to get the extra. A sound system involves a planning phase, and that is just more than just speakers, amps and controller equipment.
The planning stage involves more. Adjecant rooms without proper sound proofing, same roof and no sealed walls to roof, I have seen a lot of bad buildings, that counteract a good sound system. You can go immersive, Atmos, but for the human hearing, this is basicly front oriented with a 90 to 100 ° angle for sound location. Backwards and top is rather limited. You mainly hear a sound source, where you can see it. Sources from the rear or above normally make you move your head to see. One reason, why the speaker (on the wall) you can see is the location of the sound.

So someone (not a salesman), has to do a project. And keep in mind, most commercial sales "plannings" underrate woofers by 90%, main speakers by 50 to 70%, just to get the deal over the price.
Marco Guistini pointed out a 3 dB headroom as good idea. I'd say that's borderline, better is a 5 to 6 dB headroom, so there is a chance to do equalization, and still be within safe limits under any circumstances.
Just like in projection, get the next bigger model for long term stability and quality.
I've been doing a lot of sound systems on that basis, enough headroom, speaker placement as required by the sound field, and not by interior decorators specs. Full bass management for all channels, biamped bass effects with a lot of cabinets, separating kick from infra woof. And 3 way front as minimum, preferred 4 way fully active drive, no passive xovers.
At the end, I ended using digital mixer controllers, like Yamaha or QSys, for the need of channels, and preferably networked amps for ease of wiring. Most "cinema processors" do not offer enough flexibility.

As written before, the building itself is a major part. A bad structure will not enable you to install a true sound system, as leaking from one to another room is not acceptable.
Gert a good planning professional, yes they have to live on that, and these specialists are not for free. Make a plan, find a good and reputed installer. Then, the result will be great.

As I learnt from the studio sound department professionals in the early/ mid 1990s: 85% of the perceived effect in modern movies is sound! (The image is far behind, as hearing is the human's main sense.)

[Marco Giustini]

While I cannot disagree with Stefan, we also need to consider that not every room can be a post-production room with 6dB headroom on the sound system. But indeed that should be the benchmark. Then things gets scale down based on budget.

What is important to understand is that there is MATH (or Physics if you want) behind the selection of a sound system. Yes, "any" speakers would work but with quality/reliability problems, particularly long terms.

Also one word about playback level: if you are looking to play your movies at 4.0, then no need to allow for 3dB headroom as you are already playing -10dB below reference. But consider that a good room (both in term of equipment AND acoustic) will allow you to play at louder levels while keeping the sound comfortable. A badly designed/EQd room would sound bad to the point that loud sound would be considered as uncomfortable.

Kind of a catch-22 situation!

The real world is that almost none of the room around are properly designed or spec'd.