Abstract:
Cinema seating arrangement is conventionally designed by calculating the relation of distance of audience to cinema screen. There are various guidelines and standards. The mathematical formulas consist of many variables. Designers or architects have to manually calculate seating arrangement to suit both architectural and cinema viewing criteria. These calculations are too troublesome and complicated for designers and architects. The research is to develop a software program in assisting designers or architects to design theatre space or seatings. All variables, criteria, and standard, which involve in seating arrangement for appropriate viewing, are researched to develop theoretical and conceptual framework for the program. Those frameworks are Vertical sight, Horizontal Sight, Image Distortion and SMPTE/THX standards. The program was developed in both 2-D and 3-D. The usages are threefolds. Firstly, it can be used by an architect who is designing a building, such as shopping mall, to prepare appropriate floor space for future cinema theatre accommodation. Secondly, it can be used for an evaluation of a seating design whether all the seat arrangements have good screen viewing. Thirdly, it can be used to arrange seatings in an assigned space. Outputs, seating positions, are illustrated in colors for each seat's ranking of viewing according to the criteria.