Should I paint the media room all black?




jbgp1200


I have a dedicated media room with no windows in my home. We are just beginning the design phase of putting this project together and we are considering painting the walls and ceiling all black and using colored acoustic panels and pictures to add some color to the room. My question is, is this a good idea, should I go all black or should I just do the screen wall and ceiling black and leave the side and back walls a lighter color? How would you paint the room?
This is sort of what we had in mind http://www.4seating.com/images/theater_render_13.jpg



Answer
For critical or specialty viewing environments, including home theaters, there are several similarities between the applied acoustical and visual design principles. Considering the extreme cases for each of the two major design characteristics any occupant of a room that behaved as a Black Body Radiator would find it nearly as unpleasant and objectionable as a room that behaved as an anechoic chamber. Complete and thorough absorption of light or sound is undesirable within almost any home theater environment.

For simple, yet effective wall treatment I recommend using 25-32 oz (per linear yard) flame retardant (FR) treated cotton velour drapes with no less than 50% fullness. As an inexpensive alternative to velour you have the choice of using FR treated, 100% cotton, Super Commando Cloth drapery. Should you choose to use drapery it should cover the entire back wall, from the ceiling to the floor, and should be hung from a heavy duty ceiling mounted track. A concomitant benefit to using such a design is that could double as acoustical room treatment, although it may prove to be too acoustically absorptive, in which case you could try a lighter fabric or multiple layers of lighter fabrics combined with a FR treated Duvetyn (aka, Duvetyne) backing. If you so desire you could also incorporate a solid side valance or a wall-pocket to hide the drapes when open. Using drapery would provide you the option of dynamically altering the room from a more aesthetically pleasing environment to a more 'critical' viewing environment as needed.

As far as room surfaces, (whether you choose to use drapes or not,) I recommend painting the walls and ceiling with a special light-diffusing paint. These specialized paints and coatings generally contain barium sulfate, magnesium oxide, and occasionally aluminum oxide, each of which are responsible for a coatingâs highly beneficial "Lambertian," i.e. spectrally diffuse reflection, properties.

WITHIN THE FIELD OF VIEW it is also very important that the room surfaces, in addition to being spectrally diffuse, must also be spectrally neutral. The most common approach is to use a combination light-diffusing and absorbing, matte gray paint with a range between Munsell N4 and N8 (from darker to lighter - N4 has L*a*b* values of 40, 0, 0 and N8 has L*a*b* values of 80, 0, 0; Note: some prefer to use Kodak 18% gray as a neutral gray reference rather than the Munsell renotation.) Based on empirical testing matte black surfaces for the "surround" of a display or screen were not optimal (not to mention the aesthetic disadvantages) for a critical or ideal viewing environment.

Again, within in the field of view, another beneficial design attribute can be achieved by creating a quasi-random pattern composed of differing shades of neutral gray such as arranging small spectrally diffuse (acoustical) tiles or panels painted in various shades of matte gray; and here is where black would not pose much of a problem if used in moderation. The remaining room surfaces should be painted with a durable matte paint in your choice of Munsell "nearly-neutral" pastel colors (but only for surfaces out of the rear-most viewer's field of view.)

A viewer's chromatic adaptation and ability to discriminate colors is controlled more by the ambient viewing environment than by the color of the display; ideally the chromaticities of both the environment and the display should strongly correlate to CIE Illuminant D65. This necessitates that much attention be given to the proper color of the viewing environment, especially within the viewer's field of view, as well as the illumination used therein.

All illumination within the viewing environment should be indirect and diffuse to minimize glare and should have a correlated color temperature (CCT) specification of 6500 K, which correlates approximately to Illuminant D65. It is also very important that such illumination should also have a specified color rendering index (CRI) of 92 or greater.

The only illumination within the field of view must be placed behind the coincident plane of the display or screen. The maximum level for this background illumination should be no more than 10% of the peak white level of the display or screen and not less than 5%; many refer to this type of lighting as "bias lighting." A dimmable lighting system will likely be required to achieve the optimum illumination level.

One final note: the optimal placement for a display in a well designed viewing environment requires that the display be positioned 1.5-to-2 picture heights (and sometimes as much as 2.5 picture heights,) from the back wall or surface. The reason for this is to help reduce eye fatigue. The only object that should be in focus in the field of view when viewing a movie is the display or screen. If or when eye fatigue begins to set in a viewer can relax his or her vision by re-focusing on the surface behind the display; this is where a pattern will have its greatest effect.

I hope that some of this information proves helpful in your project.
 

 

What is something unusual about Richard Wagner the composer?




Chai





Answer
He was a tyrannical autocrat within his own social circles. He had many friends and followers to his home, in a salon format 'discussing' art and other ideas. If any of these guests - or friends, disagreed with what the composer said and held to be true, those who disagreed were blackballed and never invited back. "Friends" were dismissed for the same reason of simply disagreeing with him about some subject or another, and would never be spoken to again.

He was an extreme anti-Semite (not uncommon at the time throughout the western world) who, when conducting a piece by Mendelssohn, made a public point to wear gloves so his hands would not touch the score of a Jewish composer. (imho, pretty nasty.)

Ludwig II, the very eccentric crown prince of Bavaria, was enamored of and obsessed with Wagner's music, arranging private performances of Wagner in Ludwig's excessive and bizarre castle home of Neuschwanstein.
http://www.jasonglisson.com/sites/default/files/images/neuschwanstein.jpg
Wagner allowed Ludwig's obsession, and Ludwig's odd sort of 'crush,' to continue, and the composer capitulated -- because he gained from it financially -- some would say his principles were lowered strictly for personal gain, again, not an uncommon compromise made by many an artist... whether pandering to a patron or a committee which awards grants.

He designed and had built the festspielhaus in Bayreuth (funding from Ludwig II?), with a hard wood paneled interior and hard wooden seats, with an orchestra pit 'hidden' under the stage which is completely out of the audiences sight-lines, all specifically for a desired acoustic and theatrical effect.
~ the orchestra pit is under the stage.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6C3VnZJMiOOSnh2mjDnJQTiggzJb8PR4I1OKylM1_LtuOCLwwv38ATEBxbFnQWBas_cPIH1TNsgRLgF2vYkF5ig-yDzc5CHljFUPeWONoJi6MOIHzVP_sPECy_0G_P7jWToIEiKUEDkg_/s1600/Bayreuth+03.jpg
It too, was part of his intention for the audience to see only the stage and the singers. (he would have loved the movies as a medium, I think!) The theatre was built solely for the production of his operas. To date, it is still in the total control of his heirs, and the only music ever performed there is that of Richard Wagner.

Did I mention he was -- famously -- an egomaniac?


Best regards.




Powered by Yahoo! Answers

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar