Home cinema designed to CEDIA recommended practice
Home Cinema Design (HCD) is a cloud-based design tool that lets AV professionals and film enthusiasts lay out any dedicated cinema or multi-purpose media room in minutes
Design cinema and media rooms of real calibre, with equipment from the world’s leading manufacturers
How it works
A six-step route to a professional home cinema design
Every complex calculation simplified. A precise cinema room design finished in minutes
Step 1
Describe the space
Enter the real dimensions of your future cinema. Then reshape and adjust the room freely, in a few steps
Step 2
Video system
Screen and brightness calibrated to THX/SMPTE: screen size worked out automatically for the room and its seating, giving the ideal viewing angle and the brightness that HDR scenes need to come alive
Step 3
Seating layout and sightlines, optimised
However high-end the equipment, one badly placed seat still spoils the experience and wastes the budget. The tool plans seating distances and heights precisely, so every viewer gets the full picture and sound the system is capable of
Step 4
Immersive sound, laid out precisely
Design technically accurate immersive audio systems of up to 32 channels with confidence. HCD is the most visual way for AV professionals to create high spatial resolution home cinemas, precisely, in minutes
Step 5
Room acoustics, optimised
Room acoustics decide most of what you hear, more than the speaker specs do. The tool works out exactly how much absorption and diffusion the room needs, avoiding the dead-room effect of over-treatment and keeping the sound natural and alive
Step 6
Budget and technical documentation
A complete document set: the equipment list and standardised specifications. It bridges the client and the installer, so quoting and choosing a service package happen quickly and accurately
Figures you can check
Every figure is worked out by a precise algorithm
“Why does the riser have to be 30 cm?” “Why not use a bigger screen?” Instead of answering by feel, the tool shows the answer on screen with transparent technical data the client can check for themselves. That is the difference between a presentation render and a design document that can win the project
- Viewing angledegrees
Viewing angle optimised for every row, following THX and SMPTE guidance
- BrightnessfL
The brightness needed to show SDR and HDR content properly at the right screen size
- Sound pressuredB
A key figure for the system’s dynamic range, and for how even the sound is across every row
- Reverb timeseconds
Complex acoustic figures turned into clear charts, so you can see the improvement for yourself
- Room modesHz
Place the seats clear of acoustic dead spots, less boom, and bass that comes back deep, clean and round
Reference documents
Every number in the tool traces back to a page in a document
These are all the sources the calculations run on: the document, the exact clause inside it, and which number comes from where. Where the documents are silent, so is the tool.
Speaker layout and performance parameters
CEDIA/CTA-RP22 v1.2 (9/2023)
Immersive Audio Design. Four Performance Levels and 21 scored parameters: the zone for each speaker (§5.5-5.8), SPL capability at the reference seat (§6.1.4), early reflections relative to the direct sound (§9.2.2), seat-to-wall distance (§4.1.4), background noise on the NCB scale (§10.2), and speaker setback behind an acoustically transparent screen (§9.4.2).
Dolby Atmos Home Entertainment
Azimuth limits for the side and back surround speakers.
Auro-3D
Height speaker elevation: 25-40°, 30° optimal. RP22 §5.2.2 quotes it, and the tool scores against that quoted figure.
DTS:X
Height speaker azimuth: from 20° when mounted high on the wall out to 45° when flush in the ceiling (quoted in RP22 §5.2.3).
RP22 §11
Response variation from one seat to another. This is the objective function of the automatic aim-and-height optimizer: the tool scores by the WORST seat in the group, not the average, because a good row does not make up for one ruined seat.
CLF — Common Loudspeaker Format (.CF2)
Anechoic measured response: sensitivity and off-axis attenuation for EVERY 1/3-octave band, over the full sphere around the cabinet. It replaces the cone model built from two coverage-angle numbers — and it is what makes the SPL map and the predicted per-seat response real. The CLF Group publishes the data model but not the byte layout, so the tool’s reader checks its own decode against the two −6 dB beamwidth arrays the manufacturer stores inside each file.
Screen, viewing angle and brightness
SMPTE ST 196
Peak white of 16 fL for an SDR screening room, with 12-22 fL accepted.
DCI · SMPTE ST 431-1
Digital cinema: 48 cd/m² = 14 fL.
Dolby Cinema
The reference point for projected HDR: peak white ≈ 108 cd/m² ≈ 31 fL. This is reference practice rather than a standard — projected HDR has no ratified luminance standard.
THX · SMPTE
Horizontal viewing angle: 30° minimum (SMPTE) and 36° (THX), 45° reference, 62° the widest recommended. At most 15° looking up to the centre of the screen.
ISO 21118
Projector light output in the catalogue is the published figure, measured in the brightest mode. The tool applies a real-world efficiency factor (65% by default) before converting to fL.
Room acoustics: reverberation and standing waves
RP22 Appendix D, §D.1
Sabine — RT60 = 0.161·V / A, across the six octave bands 125–4000 Hz. The appendix carries a worked example with answers, and the tool’s acoustics engine is checked back against that exact example.
Eyring
RT60 = 0.161·V / (−S·ln(1 − ᾱ)). Calculated alongside Sabine to show the spread between the methods: the more absorption a room has, the further the two numbers drift apart.
RP22 §D.1.1
The absorption coefficient table, credited in the document to RPG Europe and Artnovion. This is the source for the Artnovion Lugano W/D entry in the panel catalogue.
ISO 17497-1
The scattering coefficient s of a diffuser — a different quantity entirely from the absorption coefficient α, which is why the tool takes it off the early reflection level rather than out of RT60.
The Rayleigh equation
Room mode frequencies on all three axes: f = c/2 · √((nx/W)² + (ny/H)² + (nz/L)²), with c = 343 m/s at 20 °C.
RP22 §7.3.1
The two recommended room ratio bands, copied straight from the document.
RP22 §9.3.3
Side-wall treatment has to cover the reflection zone at seated ear height. An RT60 table never catches this failure — reverberation is fine yet the room still flutters — so the check on panel height and position runs separately.
Low frequencies and subwoofer placement
RP22 §7.1
The document’s own definition of low-frequency optimization: reducing the response variation BETWEEN SEATS across 20–80 Hz. Not more bass — and the tool scores against that narrow definition.
RP22 §7.3.2.1, figure 7-2
Seven subwoofer layouts, keeping the document’s own a→g ranking. Together with the condition in §7.3.2.3: all seven only work when every subwoofer receives the same signal.
Trinnov — Guidelines for Subwoofers Layouts & Optimal WaveForming performance
Maximum spacing between adjacent subwoofers, and the position formulas for a WaveForming layout.
What you export
DXF R12 (AC1009) — Autodesk Drawing Interchange
The 3D drawing is written as R12, the OLDEST revision that is still enough — which is exactly why it was chosen: it is the common denominator that AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhino, Revit, BricsCAD and FreeCAD all read, with no converter in between. Room, seats, screen, speaker boxes and projector come out as 3DFACE surfaces on separate layers, in centimetre coordinates.
And the places the tool leaves blank
The rule across the whole project: a number that carries a document’s name has to be copyable from that document. The items below are not, so the tool leaves them blank rather than rebuilding them from memory.
CEDIA/CTA-RP23 (Immersive Video Design)
The video counterpart to RP22, but only Level 1 is finished and the per-Level luminance table has not been published. The tool builds no RP23 table at all; the brightness targets come from the public standards listed above, and the interface shows the source next to each number.
The low-frequency target curve
RP22 §7.5 never prints a curve, it only says “predetermined target curve” — the target is the calibrator’s choice. So it can only be scored during on-site calibration, never on a drawing.
The Bolt area (1946)
The best known thing anyone cites about room ratios, but it was published as an area drawn on a graph, not as an inequality. Re-digitising that outline by eye means inventing a set of numbers and putting Bolt’s name on them, so the tool leaves it out.
The Bonello criterion (JAES 1981)
Not in RP22. Putting it next to two ratio bands copied straight from §7.3.1 mixes two frames of reference, and the reader loses the ability to trace any number back to anything.
Absorption figures for panels with no datasheet
Apart from the Artnovion Lugano row taken from RP22 §D.1.1, the other panels carry real product names but typical figures for their class. The interface marks those clearly; with a datasheet in hand, enter the real figures.
Predicted response at the seat — DIRECT field only
The curve built from CLF data carries no reflections, no room modes and no room gain, so do not read it as equal to an on-site measurement — a real measurement always rises at the bottom end because of the room. What it answers correctly is the part the cabinet and its aim create, which is exactly the part that moving or turning a speaker can change.
How far the CLF data reaches
Ten Danley models in the catalogue ship with the manufacturer’s own CF2 files. Every other model still runs the cone approximation built from two coverage-angle numbers, and the interface marks clearly which speakers use measured data and which use the approximation.
Speaker dispersion angles
Some manufacturers describe dispersion qualitatively rather than publishing measured figures, so the dispersion angles for those entries are estimates. Check them against the manufacturer’s technical documentation before using them on a real job.
What the tool produces is reference data worked out from the documents above; it does not replace measurement and sign-off on site. Read the terms of use
Testimonials
Expert reviews
A few of the many positive reviews we have had from people who have used HCD
Company
Space for a real quote, one specific thing the tool helped with, not general praise.
Company
Space for a real quote. Two or three lines is fine, as long as it tells a real situation, a time a number on the screen got them out of a corner with a client, for instance.
Company
Space for a real quote, short is fine, as long as it is specific.
Company
Space for a real quote, one specific thing the tool helped with, not general praise.
Company
Space for a real quote. Two or three lines is fine, as long as it tells a real situation, a time a number on the screen got them out of a corner with a client, for instance.
Company
Space for a real quote, short is fine, as long as it is specific.
Company
Space for a real quote, one specific thing the tool helped with, not general praise.
Company
Space for a real quote. Two or three lines is fine, as long as it tells a real situation, a time a number on the screen got them out of a corner with a client, for instance.
Company
Space for a real quote, short is fine, as long as it is specific.
Company
Space for a real quote. One about quoting, or about working with installers, balances out the ones about the maths.
Company
Space for a real quote, better still from someone who has used it across a few seasons of projects.
Company
Space for a real quote. Anyone who was sceptical at first and came round, theirs is worth the most.
Company
Space for a real quote. One about quoting, or about working with installers, balances out the ones about the maths.
Company
Space for a real quote, better still from someone who has used it across a few seasons of projects.
Company
Space for a real quote. Anyone who was sceptical at first and came round, theirs is worth the most.
Company
Space for a real quote. One about quoting, or about working with installers, balances out the ones about the maths.
Company
Space for a real quote, better still from someone who has used it across a few seasons of projects.
Company
Space for a real quote. Anyone who was sceptical at first and came round, theirs is worth the most.
Pricing
Pick the right solution for what you need
We do not just hand you a design tool, we cut your delivery time and make the most of every business opportunity
Enthusiast
Free
For people building a cinema for themselves
1 project · 1 export a month
Start free- All six design steps
- 3D design interface
- Unlimited version history
- Exports carry the Home Cinema Design logo
Professional
Most popular990,000₫/month
For design and consulting firms, single user
30 projects a month · 30 exports a month
Choose this plan- Project status and tags to filter by
- Share projects, invite viewers free of charge
- Bill of materials and quotes, no watermark
- Client records
- The full equipment catalogue
Studio
790,000₫/user/month
For teams sharing projects and one client library
30 projects a month · 30 exports a month · per user
Choose this plan- Everything in Professional
- Several accounts under one organisation
- One shared allowance for the whole team
- A shared client library
- Priority technical support
Customization
Let’s talk
Built around your workflow and wired into the systems you already run
Unlimited projects · Unlimited exports
Talk to us- Everything in Studio
- Wired into what you already run: CRM, inventory, quoting software
- Extra modules built around your workflow
- Your branding on the interface and the exports
- Hosted on your own servers if you need that
- Support under an agreed SLA
Prices include VAT · Need it on your own server, or a workflow built for you? Contact
FAQ
Everything you need to know before signing up
Which standards does the tool calculate to?
The software follows the latest international recommended practices from CEDIA: CEDIA RP22 (audio): speaker positions and azimuth angles, sound pressure level (SPL) and reverb time (RT60). CEDIA RP23 (video): screen size, viewing angle, brightness and sightlines over the heads in front.
Can the software export AutoCAD (DWG/DXF) or SketchUp files?
DWG and DXF export are on our development roadmap. In the current version you can export the bill of materials (BOM) and a detailed quote straight away. The software also has plan and section views, so you can capture high-quality images from the interface to attach to your proposal.
Can I add my own equipment to the catalogue?
To keep every calculation and simulation exact, the whole equipment database is standardised and maintained by us, from the manufacturers’ official datasheets. For manufacturers and distributors: if you would like your products in the tool, get in touch and send us the technical datasheet, our team will verify it and add it to the shared library.
Will the software run on a modest or office computer?
It will. The software runs straight in the browser on WebGL, so most ordinary office machines handle it well. One tip: if the frame rate drops, switch off the glass refraction effect, the most hardware-hungry task. Everything smooths out immediately and the 3D model keeps all of its detail.
Where are my data and my designs stored?
Everything is stored securely in the system’s cloud database, tied to your account. Automatic version history: every edit is recorded, so you can compare or restore an older design whenever you need to. On-premise deployment: for businesses with particular security requirements, or who want to run on their own internal server, get in touch and we will work out how to integrate it.
For manufacturers
List your products in the catalogue
At every step of building a cinema room (choosing speakers, projector, screen, amplifier, acoustic panels), engineers and architects pick their equipment directly in the software. Listing your products in the catalogue puts your brand in front of them at the moment that counts: when the investment decision is made and the equipment is specified.
Send us a datasheet- You provideA datasheet with the manufacturer’s measured figures (sensitivity, frequency response, coverage angle, lumens or absorption coefficients per band, depending on the product type).
- We doVerify the data, standardise the model and add it to the system library. Transparency throughout: figures taken from the manufacturer are marked separately from values we derive.
- You get backYour product listed officially in the software, with your brand name and a direct link back to your own product page, in front of AV professionals and architects.
Build the cinema room you want, in ten minutes
No payment, no complicated install. Just open a browser, enter three room dimensions (length × width × height), and watch the system analyse your cinema room straight away.