I thought I would post my drawing of my proposed media room in my basement. Unfortunately I don't have any choice as to the rooms shape, but any help anyone can suggest in placement, and design would be greatly appreciated. I have 5 matching Polk Audio book shelf style speakers, they are 9" wide, 10" deep, and 20" tall, and would like them all to be as invisible as possible. I also have two matching 12" Polk Audio subwoofers that I would also like to make disappear.

The other feature in this room is that we will have a computer desk at the back of the room. Good and Bad, since I can tie it into the system at least, and not have to stretch cables for miles, or go wireless ( not a big believer in wireless yet )

The drawings you will see are from google sketchup, so I can easily modify and post new images on here.

Please let me know any design ideas that would help.

Thanks

Greg

[/IMG][IMG]

I am at the beginning stages of framing, and have lots of flexibilty in the interior of the room. It is about 12' wide at the screen, 16' wide after the door, from projector to the screen is 14'. The room to the side is a extra bedroom / guest room, and behind the screen will be the bathroom. This is in the basement of the house.

if anyone can help that would be great

Your graphics seem like the shape of your room will be intriguing. Have you figured out what you want in the triangle? You may find that when you crank it up, the sound bouncing off the back wall will sound strange.

I am at the beginning stages of framing, and have lots of flexibilty in the interior of the room

Do you the option of modifying that entrance? It would help to see an overall birds Eye floor plan of the various adjacent rooms. I understand the need to keep the triangle and but maybe the entrance end can be modified.

Have you thought about using the triangle as the end with the screen Put is part way into the point and locate the speakers behind a fabric wall. The was

I do not have a choice as to where the dorr is. I have another room adjacent, and the stairs are immediatly beside that room. Kind of a bad basement to have all of it in.

I have thought of having the screen in the triangle, however there are two problems.

1. There is a beam at the open end that cuts the height down by 18"
2. To appease my Wife I have to make this dual function as a computer desk.

I had thought of putting up a heavy curtain wall at the opening to avoid sound bouncing so much off the back walls, but I thought it may look odd.

How about posting a floor plan of what exists, and what is unfinished?

Any chance of combining the three functions of the two rooms? That alcove could hide a fold down bed if the space is a guest room. Combining the two rooms into one, would give you a bigger theater space. A combination function room would also let you get away with one door and eliminate the arckward entry that eats up space in both rooms.

Well I also agree that It would help if you posted a plan of how the room exist now. With the layout that you supplied the seating should go on the right wall. You will also may have to use a floating platform for your second row. I would consider some sort of drapery if possible to divide the office area from the theater.

I will post a raw image of what the basement is right now. Just some teleposts, concrete walls, and beams.

ok so here we go. I have posted a couple of sketchup images, as well as a rough drawing. The wooden structures running the width of the basement are the beams, and the black circles coming out of the floor are for the roughed in bathroom

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/KimMurton/?action=view&current=emptybasement4.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/KimMurton/?action=view&current=emptybasement3.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/KimMurton/?action=view&current=emptybasement2.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/KimMurton/?action=view&current=basementlayout.jpg http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/KimMurton/?action=view&current=emptybasement1.jpg

please ask if something is not clear.

Great space, and the furnance / hot water tank not centrally located! :)

I'd use the unfinished area for the spare bedroom, the yellow area for the computer desk and the green/grey rooms for the theater, with the entry area. That angled alcove could be used to house an equipment rack for the theater.

Do I read that yellow area as a rough in ball room? For little ones? That could be shifted into the unfinished area along with the bedroom., maybe open concept right beside the computer area. The bedroom could have a wall to wall closet to buffer the furnance room.

Unless you have future plans for the unfinished area, I'd suggest you avoid the temptation of breaking the basement up into small rooms. And have you given any thought to egress for that basement bedroom?

Unfortunately my hands are somewhat tied when it comes to where what goes.

My wife is an artist, and needs a larger area to do her painting, and drawing.

The roughed in area is actually a bathroom. It will have a 3 piece setup once completed. That is also partially why I have chosen the layout the way that I have.

here is an easier way to see the images from what I am thinking of. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Greg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/KimMurton/emptybasement4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/KimMurton/basementlayout.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/KimMurton/basementlayoutplan.jpg

I'd run your screen along the end wall where your water heater is. Come down the stairs, little hallway, left turn, utility room with furnace and hot water, straight ahead, theatre. Washroom beside stairs to the right. Behind theatre, share a room for computer/office and wife's office space. Even run a little wall up the middle making two rooms, one having the triangle area.

Just a thought. I am in the middle of framing up mine too. Stuck with certain aspects as furnace placement, window placement drain pipes and main water line. I will hopefully post pics.

Jordan

I'd run your screen along the end wall where your water heater is. Come down the stairs, little hallway, left turn, utility room with furnace and hot water, straight ahead, theatre. Washroom beside stairs to the right. Behind theatre, share a room for computer/office and wife's office space. Even run a little wall up the middle making two rooms, one having the triangle area.

Just a thought. I am in the middle of framing up mine too. Stuck with certain aspects as furnace placement, window placement drain pipes and main water line. I will hopefully post pics.

Jordan

I highly disagree! Remember that you need to be a certain distance from the screen. the rule of thumb is as follows;

For a 16x9 aspect ratio the first viewer must sit no closer than 1.5 times the screen WIDTH.

For a 2:35 aspect ratio its 2.5 times the HEIGHT of the screen.

it will be very difficult to get to rows amongst other reasons by moving the screen. So I would recommend leaving the screen where it is. The person in the bathroom might experience a little bass though!!! :D

My thoughts are that when I frame the room out I will being doing a staggered stud wall (2x6 baseplate, offset 2x4 studs) it will be insulated, duoble drywalled both sides, and green glue between the wallboard on the theatre side. I wasn't going to buy the green glue, but I have a good tax return coming this year, so it makes it affordable.

As for seating, I plan on only one row of 4 seats ( yet to be chosen )

I will have the distance for the 16x9 screen to be 106" diagonal no problem, should be approx. 12.5' from the screen.

Do you think that adding a curtain of heavy fabric along the beam at the back of the HT room would help sound? I guess I could try it without, and see how it sounds. I am only doing a 5.1 system for now, but will run wires through the walls into the triangle area for 7.1.

Yes!!! Fabric=sound absorption :p

Yes!!! Fabric=sound absorption
Well, not really. It's what's behind the fabric that counts. The fabric does little to nothing on its own.