I’m not much of a football fan but I always enjoy Super Bowl Sunday because everything else is so easy:  the freeways aren’t crowded, the city streets empty.  It’s always a perfect day to enjoy your city.

Walking through my neighborhood at dusk on Super Bowl Sunday, yells and cheers brought my attention to a living room window.  And there they were!  A bunch of people gathered around one of those big screen TVs that everyone seems to have acquired over the past several years.

As I kept on walking, the scene kept repeating itself and my ergonomic curiosity was piqued.  Each time, the scene was the same:  people looking up, people looking to the side, or even worse — people looking up and to the side — their eyes on a flat screen TV often positioned above the fireplace, the position of choice for many, according to my Peeping Tom survey.   I can only surmise that a large number of football fans went to bed with a kink in their necks that night.  Think about the first few rows in a movie theater.  There’s a good reason why those seats are usually empty.

So where should you position that big screen TV to minimize neck strain? First, position the screen directly in front of your main seating area to limit neck rotation or body twisting while looking at the screen. Neck rotation to either side should not exceed 20° to 30°.

Then consider the screen height.  As a general rule, it is easier to look down than up.  Try looking at the ceiling while keeping your head level.  Now try doing the same but looking at the floor.  Much easier, right?  Our body is designed so that the head and neck automatically move upward to avoid strain of the eye muscles.   So to avoid strain in your neck you must keep that big screen TV low, but how low?

The exact position of your screen will depend on the height of your couch and viewers, the position of your viewers, the size of your screen and the distance from the viewing area. But here are some guidelines:

The preferred line of sight, which connects the eye to the visual target, varies with the object being viewed and its distance from you.  For example, when looking at something close up like a book, the best viewing angle is about 45° below the horizon.  When looking at something in the distance like a skyline, the preferred line of sight is nearly straight ahead and even as much as 5° above the horizon.  Hence the high screen in movie theaters.

Lateral View Visual Cone

Bird's Eye View Visual Cone

When looking at something at a moderate distance — approximately 30” to 15’ — such as your computer monitor or your big screen TV, your eye will rest about 15° below the horizon; that’s your normal resting line of sight.  When your head is still, your eyes can comfortably move up and down and side to side by 15° from the line of sight, forming a 30° visual field cone – this is where you can best see without moving your head or straining your eyes. Your screen should fit entirely within that visual field cone.
We know that ninety-five percent of the adult population is between 4’11” and 6’4”.  When sitting, the eye height varies between 25” and 36” above the sitting surface.  To account for a “slouch factor” when sitting on a couch, we reduce that height by 4”.

Thus, with a couch seat 16” high, the seated adult eye height varies from 37” to 48” off the ground.  As I discussed, it is easier to look down than up, so if you place the screen low enough for the shorter person to see it without moving their head and neck, it will automatically fit a taller person too.

For example, with a 46” big screen TV positioned 10 feet away from the seated area which is 16” high, the eye height of the shorter person is 37” off the ground.  The top of the screen should therefore be 37” off the ground and no higher than 47.5”  — or 5° above the horizon.

The bigger and farther the screen is, the higher it can be — but still not above the fireplace!  If you’d like to figure out exactly how high your big screen TV should be, you can use the following diagram and equation, or feel free to contact me.