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I as was mulling around the lobby of the theatre the other night I heard two individuals talking about Stadium Seating. Now I know from studying Ancient History that sound travels well in a Stadium setting. But what would the other benifits be? Might you have to make major changes to your theatre to do this. Is it worth all that?

Stadium seating is to provide uninterupted sightlines to the screen. When done well, it is very nice. When done poorly, I usually wish for a flat floor.

Senoirs hate stadium seating. Kids love it. It is 50% more expensive to build with stadium seating.

One theatre in the county did it very well. There is plenty of room between rows and the seatbacks are high. One theatre in the county did it very poorly. I feel as though I am going to kick the guys head in front of me when I cross my legs.

I favor a hybrid approach. A gental slope in the front. A little stadium in the rear and lots of handicapt seating in the middle. There were any theatres built like this in the '30s.

A "stadium" auditorium can be a real challenge for good sound. Proper positioning and "aiming" of the speakers is critical.

The high front wall in most stadium designs also encourages the bad practice of a "wall-to-wall" image, projecting both 1.85:1 "flat" and 2.39:1 "scope" with the same image width, in effect, "letterboxing" the scope image. IMHO, picture released in scope should always be shown wider than 1.85:1 flat pictures, with the same image height on the screen.

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John P. Pytlak
Senior Technical Specialist
EI Worldwide Technical Services
Research Labs, Building 69
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Telephone: 716-477-5325
Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Stadium seating is neat , but is it worth the hassle. If you have over 299 seats you have to have an elevator to the top. The company I was with when they built a 24 screen most screens were 299 and below so they could escape this problem only 6 were 300 and up and those huge screens were very hard to light the screen even with a 7k Xenon. The throw+ lense ate all the light. I am contimplating building a 6 screen along with my current venture and will use normal slope floor in my auditoriums.

IMHO, the attraction of stadium seating designs are the good sightlines and the legroom. People do like to have an unobstructed view of the screen, stretch out, and not have someone moving through the row fall in their lap. But many do not like climbing stairs (especially in the dark), and the ADA handicapped access requirements are much more expensive to meet.

AFAIC, a well-designed standard slope theatre can also provide great sightlines, and avoids the problems of keystone distortion, non-uniform screen luminance, and poor sound coverage found in many stadium designs. But be generous in your row spacing to give plenty of legroom. And put the money you save on construction into providing the BEST you can buy in the quality of the seats, projection, and sound. Promote it as "Stadium seating without the stairs".

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John P. Pytlak
Senior Technical Specialist
EI Worldwide Technical Services
Research Labs, Building 69
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Telephone: 716-477-5325
Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

I Plan to offer the best of everything with in my budget you cannot beat film done right.
As one of my former bosses said "they are not here for the popcorn"