Boral CinemaZone™ Fact Sheet

Design
Windows An emergency light is a sensible inclusion and may help to
Like doorways, windows can be a significant source of sound overcome a Building Surveyor’s objections if it is proposed
leakage. For maximum isolation, windows should either be to remove or build over a window.
removed or built over internally - leaving the house facade
Acoustic sealants
unaffected. If natural lighting is required then consider fitting
a secondary 10mm glazed window to the internal wall. Thick All gaps and floor, wall, ceiling, door, window, vent and
wool curtains are good for acoustic absorption but not for service junctions should be sealed with an acoustic filler such
TM

preventing sound transmission. as FireSound .

Ventilation Sound absorptive panels

Air movement in a CinemaZoneTM room is almost reduced to nil Sound absorptive panels are made from high quality acoustic
because of the acoustic sealing that makes a room virtually absorption materials that improve the listening experience
airtight. Some form of mechanical ventilation will be required when selectively positioned around the home cinema. They
to improve airflow. are typically manufactured from compressed fibreglass or
foam and can be covered in a wide variety of fabrics, colours
Boral recommends fitting a CinemaZoneTM room with at least and textures. Refer to TecASSIST for retail outlets or
one fan-assisted inlet vent and one exhaust vent. The inlet vent construction details.
should draw air from an adjoining habitable room or from the
outside. It should not draw air from a kitchen, bathroom, Floor coverings
toilet or laundry or from a room that CinemaZoneTM air is being
Thick wool carpet over felt underlay is considerably more
exhausted into.
effective at absorbing sound than thin or synthetic carpets.
The exhaust ventilation duct, similar to the inlet duct Polished timber floors and tiles don’t perform nearly as well,
illustrated in the ‘Construction Fact Sheet’ (fan optional), as they are highly reflective, increase reverberation and
may also be fitted to the ceiling. have a detrimental affect on sound quality.
Boral suggests home cinemas achieve at least six air changes
per hour, however, this will depend on the volume of the The vision
room and the number of people intended to use it. Home cinemas can include conventional television or
Larger installations may require the advice of an powerful projection systems. In both cases, it is important
air-conditioning professional. to utilize darker colours such as matt black to obtain the
maximum visual contrast and avoid screen reflection.
Lighting It is often necessary to black out windows, particularly if the
Light fittings need to be carefully considered as any lining cinema is to be used during the day, and consideration should
penetration will seriously compromise sound isolation. be given to the location and direction of ambient lighting.
Recessed downlights should be avoided due to acoustic
leakage. Track mounted light fittings fitted to the surface
are an effective alternative.
Boral CinemaZone™ Fact Sheet
Design
Recommended room proportions
Height(m) Width(m) Depth(m)

Option 1 ratio 1.00 1.14 1.39

Option 2 ratio 1.00 1.28 1.54
Option 3 ratio 1.00 1.60 2.33
As an example, if your ceiling height is 2.7m, using the ‘Option 1’ ratio above,
the width of the room should be 3.1m (1.14 x 2.7m) and the depth should be
3.8m (1.39 x 2.7m).
From Sepmeyer L.W. Computed frequency and angular distribution of the normal modes of vibration in
rectangular room, Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, Volume 37, Number 3 (March 1965) Pages 413-423
and extracted from Widescreen Review June/July 1994 pg 65.

NoiseStop BoardTM and DuctBoardTM are trademarks of Amatek Ltd trading as Insulation Solutions.
CinemaZoneTM, SoundStopTM and CinemaSpanTM are trademarks of Boral Plasterboard.
FireSoundTM is a trademark of HB Fuller.

TM
For more information on CinemaZone or to request the other free fact sheets in this series,
call Boral Plasterboard TecASSIST on 1800 811 222 for a fax or email copy or visit the website:
www.boral.com.au/cinemazone
Performance Construct
Sound advice New, extension or conversion
• How Boral CinemaZone™ works - how to build a Boral CinemaZone™ System
• Sound and Noise levels • Walls • Ceiling
* Who it affects • Floors • Doors
* How to control it • Windows • Lighting
• The ‘Sweet Spot’ • Ventilation
Boral CinemaZone™ Fact Sheet
Design
The home cinema experience • Sound Reverberation
Sound reverberation in a room is also an important factor
Ask yourself… and this can be controlled by applying an acoustic
• Do I live in a quiet neighbourhood? absorber to approximately 30% of the wall surface area.
• Do I live in a noisy neighbourhood? • Sound Leakage
• Do I have quiet zones in my house? All door, window, vent and service openings need to be
• Do I use my sound system late at night? sealed to minimise sound leakage.
• Do I like it loud?
• Do I live in a high rainfall area? Control your Reverberation
• Do I have to comply with local noise restrictions? If your intended CinemaZoneTM room:
If you can answer Y E S to any of the above then you need has an exposed timber floor
TM •
Boral CinemaZone . • has large window areas
• does not have wool curtains
Successful Design • does not have heavy cloth-covered sound absorbent furniture
While home cinema can be enjoyed in the family lounge room, then you need to consider ways of minimising potentially
for many people a purpose-designed space will be desired. excessive reverberation.
Successful home cinema design is not a matter of chance but Reverberation refers to the persistence of sound in a room after
instead relies upon scientific data for choosing the correct the source of sound has stopped. This persistence is a result of
room proportions and acoustic treatment. In order to achieve repeated reflections of sound waves that behave like an echo.
the high level of acoustic performance needed for your new Long reverberation times produce fuzzy, unclear sounds while
home cinema, the following areas need to be addressed: short reverberation times result in dead, flat sounds.
• Room Proportions The ideal reverberation time of 0.3 to 0.4 seconds for a home
Most rooms are often too small to provide smooth sound,
cinema can be achieved by using sound absorption panels
particularly at low frequencies. A room greater than 50m3
(living rooms typically range from 0.5 -1 second). Some
volume is recommended to ensure the best reproduction of
experimentation with panel placement will be required and the
bass frequencies. Ideally, the width-to-length and
width-to-height room ratios should also be considered. final positioning will depend on the speaker and seating locations.
The choice of room size has been simplified thanks to the Experience has shown that seating is best situated at a
research of L.W. Sepmeyer who established a direct distance of about 3 or 4 times the screen height, away from
relationship between the room proportions and acoustic the screen.
performance. His recommendations (published in the
Journal of the Acoustic Society of America) are included
at the end of this publication.
• Sound Isolation
CinemaZoneTM wall and ceiling systems are required to
prevent sound transmission out of and into a home
cinema room. CinemaZoneTM ceiling systems also minimise
the noise created in the room by heavy rain on the roof.
Boral CinemaZone™ Fact Sheet
Design
Council requirements CinemaZone™ External Walls
The home cinema is still classified as a habitable room and
subject to the usual building regulations, however, due to its Boral 13mm
SoundStopTM
special design requirements, consideration should be given to
the following:

Control
BattsTM
• an exemption from natural lighting may be obtained if it
can be demonstrated that the room will only be used as a
home cinema

50mm
• mechanically assisted ventilation will be required in what is

Noise
wall frame
essentially an airtight room

External
• the minimum ceiling height of 2400mm may be able to be
reduced in certain circumstances
• exit lighting with battery backup is an important safety
feature, especially if there’s no natural lighting 144mm
Brick veneer wall in a new or existing building
• a smoke alarm
• the noise impact objectives of the ‘ResCode Standard B24’
aim to contain noise that may affect other dwellings in
multi-unit developments.
100mm Noise
Control BattsTM
Boral Plasterboard recommends contacting a building surveyor
regarding regulations and possible concessions before
Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

starting construction. Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

Weatherboard

Floors
It is anticipated that most home cinemas will be constructed at
wall frame

ground-floor level. Houses built on a ground slab have a distinct

External

advantage as the combination of concrete and earth is a good

sound insulator. Houses built with a timber floor require
additional treatment to prevent a condition known as flanking,
where sound travels down through the floor, under a wall and 202mm
up into an adjacent room. Timber clad external wall in a new or existing building

Timber and upper-floor home cinema installations should be referred

to the Boral Plasterboard TecASSIST help line on 1800 811 222.
Boral CinemaZone™ Fact Sheet
Design
CinemaZone™ Internal Walls Noise

Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

Control
CinemaZoneTM internal walls can be built in both single or BattsTM
double stud configurations with your choice largely dependent
on the available space and construction preferences.

Resilient mounted
furring channel

Noise 247mm
Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

Control
BattsTM Double stud wall in a new building

Noise

Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

Existing plasterboard Control
BattsTM

Nominal 196mm

Single stud wall in a new building

Boral 13mm
SoundStopTM 131mm

Resilient mounted
furring channel Double stud wall in an existing building
Noise
Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

Control
Existing plasterboard

FireLightTM
BattsTM
Standard Boral plasterboard

Boral 13mm SoundStopTM

Control
BattsTM
50mm
Noise

Boral 13mm
SoundStopTM 80mm
block wall

Single stud wall in an existing building

116mm

Internal masonry wall using Boral

TM
FireLight bricks in a new or existing building*

*N.B. WA customers should contact Midland Brick for the appropriate product

from their ‘Special Performance’ brick range.

Boral CinemaZone™ Fact Sheet
Design
CinemaZone™ Ceilings BHP 120 Topspan 0.9mm BMT
The structural capacity of an existing ceiling needs to be Maximum span (mm) of CinemaSpanTM
Max height of roof space joist when spaced at
evaluated before specifying a home cinema installation. above CinemaZoneTMceiling
Conventional timber pitched roof/ceilings will generally 450mm centres 600mm centres
be capable of carrying an additional ceiling load. However, Less than 1.2m 4210 4070
many truss roofs have been designed close to their load-
bearing capacity and may need a separate ceiling support Greater than 1.2m 3620 3540
system such as the CinemaSpanTM ceiling system. TM
CinemaSpan is the subject of a patent application and should not be used with
TM
other than Boral Plasterboard products without the express written permission of
Boral Plasterboard.
TM
100mm Noise Control BattsTM The CinemaSpan ceiling system utilizes BHP 120 Topspan
TM
0.9mm BMT sections. CinemaSpan joists are to be fixed on
to top plates within 50mm of a wall stud or an appropriately
sized lintel.
TM
Existing roof structure
For CinemaZone installations intended to be positioned
below another floor, additional information is available from
Boral 13mm SoundStopTM. TecASSIST on 1800 811 222.

Resiliently mounted furring channel Doors

Resilient mounted ceiling A door left untreated can seriously compromise the acoustic
isolation of a home cinema space.
This can be avoided by:
• forming a sound lock between the cinema room and
Roof Truss

Roof Truss

the rest of the house.

100mm Noise Control BattsTM
• fitting the cinema with 40mm solid core doors.
• fitting cinema doors with acoustic seals such as
CinemaSpanTM
10mm Raven RP94Si to the top and sides and Raven RP8 to
Min
ceiling system the bottom.
Min
20mm A sound lock can be created by fitting a door to both sides of a
door jamb. The void formed between the door faces and door
Boral 13mm SoundStopTM.
stops becomes the soundlock. If this method is adopted, the
CinemaSpanTM ceiling system door jamb will need to be split through the middle of the door
stops and a 15mm gap formed. This gap, after filling with an
acoustic sealant, will prevent sound being transmitted through
the frame.