Hi. I've started a complete reconstruction of a "soft loft" in Atlanta including a "dedicated" Home Theater plus rather extensive Home Automation. I had an old thread addressing this project (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=778155), but that was in the wrong forum. I'll try to keep this new thread up to date with progress.

Backgroud
We moved out of the Atlanta suburban sprawl to a Midtown loft in February. After much back-and-forth with city permits and various general contractors, we finally started the project in mid-August. The loft is one floor and approximately 2000 sqft. General layout is that the Home Theater and Master Bedroom will be separate rooms, while rest of the loft is open space. All floors are wood and ceilings are raw concrete at about 12' with suspended metal ducting for HVAC, metal conduit for electrical runs, etc. Needless to say, a lot of compromises in this project. Below is my current plan for Home Theater and Home Automation working with LiveWire Systems (LWS) in Atlanta.

HOME AUTOMATION & AUDIO DISTRIBUTION
SYSTEM CONTROL: Crestron CP2E, PAD-8A Pre-Amp, and CNPWS-75 Power Supply
LIGHTING/DRAPE/SHADE CONTROL: 3 Crestron iLUX (16 lighting zones)
CONTROL INTERFACES: 3 Crestron TPS-4L Keypads, 2 Crestron Cameo switches, and 1 Crestron TMPC-10
MOTORIZED SHADES: TBD
SPEAKERS: Living Room - Gallo Reference 3.1, Kitchen - Gallo A'Diva Ti and PSB Sub, Bedroom - Gallo A'Diva Ti, Bathroom - Speakercraft AIM7 DT 3
AMPLIFIERS: AudioControl Avalon and Gallo Sub Amp for Gallo Reference 3.1, and AudioControl Model 700 for Kitchen and Bedroom.
TVs: Kitchin - LCD TV, Bedroom - LCD TV
TV Distibution: Key Digital 4x2 Matrix Switcher sent over CAT5 using Audio Control BVD/R sets.

HOME THEATER
VIDEO: Infocus SP-777 (purchased used with 600h for $3500 in March)
SCREEN: SMX Grey 102"
MOTORIZED DRAPES: TBD (Makita?)
MOTORIZED SHADES: TBD
7.1 SPEAKERS: Front L/C/R - Speakcraft Tantra LCR6 behind the screen, Rear L/L/R/R - Gallo A'Dvia Ti, Sub - 2 Boston Acoustic VRiSub82
AV PROCESSOR: AudioControl M2e
AV AMP: AudioControl Savoy
EQUALIZER: AudioControl Diva
Rack STORAGE: Middle Atlantic ERK-4420
REMOTE: Crestron TPMC-4x
POWER: Furman Power Elite 15 DM i (components) and AC 215 (projector)
SPEAKER CABLE: AudioQuest Type 2


INPUT COMPONENTS
Toshiba HD-XA2, PS3, XBox 360, 2 Comcast HD boxes, Parasound AM/FM Tuner, Magnum Dynalabs antennea, and Slim Devices Transporter

Some schematics and a picture that were in the old thread.

Good luck with it, should be an interesting build!

Bud

I thought it might be useful for a short description of the Home Theater. The home theater is a dedicated room, but certain compromises had to be made to keep an open loft "feel" when the theater is not in use.

The home theater is the room with the angled wall. The screen will be 106" and hang on the angled wall. On either side of the angled screen wall will be stacked sliding doors (Raydoor SW3) that can be open or closed when the room is in use. In front of the doors will be motorized blackout drapes for light control and some level of sound treatmentl. A motorized blackout blind will cover the window for light control.

I recently met with Silent Gliss regarding the motorized blackout drapes and blinds because their US operations are near Atlanta. Their product is top notch, but beyond what I'm looking to pay. Next I'll look at Somfy because of easy Crestron integration or possibly Lutron QED. But I suspect that Lutron will be as expensive as Silent Gliss.

"Infocus SP-777 (purchased used with 600h for $3500 in March)"


Wow! What a find. That's an amazing projector for the price. I've been considering swapping my Pearl for the 777.

"Infocus SP-777 (purchased used with 600h for $3500 in March)"


Wow! What a find. That's an amazing projector for the price. I've been considering swapping my Pearl for the 777.

I've been VERY happy with the 777. I was enroute to purchase an RS-1 when a friend called me regarding his "liquidation" due to divorce. Bad for him, but good for me. I watched a few films on his 777 to get an idea of performance and walked out the door with it.

Cleaned up my screen box diagram a bit. Here's a similar, but updated version (to relative scale, etc).

Construction Update: Rough plumbing and hvac are done. Rough wire (electric, cat5, crestnet, and speakers) is going in this week. Hopefully drywall next week.

Component Updates:
1) I'm reconsidering my in-wall subwoofer choice. Current plan calls for a Boston Acoustics VRiSub82 sub, but am now considering a Velodyne SC-IW or Polk CSW155. Anyone have guidance on those choices? For the same price as (1) SC-IW or CSW155, I could do (2) VRiSub82. Objective is clear bass more than big and boomy since I live in a multi-unit building

2) Pretty much settled on the SMX Screen with a 102" viewable area. They now have grey available, which sealed the decision. I have quite a few football parties, etc with ambient light.

3) My contractor was talking with AMSource(?) at CEDIA about my motorized drapes and blinds. We're considering them now.

4) For my home theater rear speakers, instead of the Gallo Adiva Ti's I'm now looking at Speakercraft's new Time MINIs that would "drop" from the soffit. I probably only have room for the Mini 2, so I'm a bit concerned about their sound abilities.

Patrick,
Any pictures of the construction underway? We need that sort of stuff around here; it keeps us going:).

I'll get some hopefully later today after most electrical rough/pre-wire is done. Right now it looks a bomb went off!

Some Pics!

Getting closer! Framing and prewire are done, and drywall is up. Tile and custom cabinetry is going into the master bed/bath, kitchen, etc. In the theater, we're building a box to flush mount the 102" SMX screen in front of the Speakercraft Tantra's. Hoping to be complete by end-November!

Crap you have tall ceilings!!

Good luck with the final push.

Lookin' good man!

Looking forward to seeing the finished project, make sure you keep the pics coming.

Thanks! The ceilings are 12' tall and reflections are a b*tch with the concrete ceiling, wood floors, and odd angles. It's definitely all about compromise in a loft. The openings on either side of the screen frame will have sliding doors to close off the room plus full length heavy curtains. I'm also putting a lot of faith in the AudioControl Diva to help address some of the issues.

Tile and Paint are happening this week. The box to aperature mount the screen is drywalled and looks great. SMX Grey screen ordered this week from Mark at AVS. Hopefully audio rack, etc gets installed next week!

Paint and Tile Pics!

General area:

Master Bath Pics

home theater and screen box. screen box built in layers to aperature mount the screen about 5" in front of the in-wall speakers. The entire area behind the screen will be painted flat black, but isn't finished yet in the photo.

Very cool. I love the tile work.

Lots of progress this weekend and today! Painting and tile are done. Bathroom cabinet and countertop are installed. This is going to be a busy week:

Plumber comes tomorrow to install the shower, tub, sinks, and toilet.

Electrician works Tuesday and Wednesday on final install. We will have Tech Lighting T-tracks in all the common areas, cans in the soffits, and two pendants in the home theater. This will all be controlled as separate zones with the 3 iLux.

Home Theater guys worked on my rack today and plan install on Wednesday. Thursday will be speaker install in the home theater and install of the Crestron control devices.

SMX Grey Screen will be delivered tomorrow and likely installed on Thursday.

I finally did my projection calculators on where to mount the SP777 and ran into a rather big snag. My screen is 27" off the ground. Add the 3.5" frame and 50" height, for a total heigh of 80.5 to the top of screen material. With 136.5" ceilings, that worked out to be about a 50" mounting pole ... which was quickly vetoed by the wife. So I started researching projector lifts that could handle the SP777, and panic really set in when I saw the prices. We of course are already late and over budget, meaning parts of the distributed audio/video are being delayed awhile. On a whim, I called the guy who sold me the SP777 to check his mounting technique, and the stars aligned for me ... he has a Draper SL5 scissor lift sitting in storage that was purchased new 4 years ago and recently removed by his home theater company! Even better, he wants only $500 for it! I called Draper for the specs and it seems perfect. I'll be checking it out and hopefully picking it up tomorrow!

Lots of progress! Electrician is working on lighting this week and has agreed to mount my projector lift (Draper SL5). Home Theater guys mounted the rack today and will be working on home theater speakers tomorrow and Friday. Fun times!

Good progress today. Tile grout and sealing are done. Can lights are installed, along with half of the track lighting. In the home theater, the Tantra's were hung and a couple of the TPS-4L were installed. Lots to do tomorrow.

- Complete install of track lighting and any remaining cans
- Install pendants in home theater
- Install iLux's
- Install remaining TPS-4L and Cameo switches
- Mount remaining equipment in the rack and wire it up
- Install rear and side speakers (Adiva Ti's) and subwoofers for the home theater
- Install the Draper SL5 and mount the projector to it
- Install the SMX screen

Hopefully by end of the day, the lighting will be done and the home theater installed.

You are making some great progress. Looks awesome - like the master shower

Thanks. We are getting close, but unfortunately didn't finish everything on Friday.

Friday we mounted most of the rack electronics, hung the Draper SL5 and projector, cut holes for the side and rear speakers (Gallo A'diva Ti's), and mounted the SMX screen. This morning (Monday) we screen sanded and resealed the wood floors. Tuesday afternoon the electrician will hopefully finish plus our general contractor will complete general punch out on drywall, paint, etc. Wednesday we'll work on the home theater and our furniture gets delivered.

Very Nice project. I'm working on something similar here in Detroit. I'm currently finalizing my loft's layout. The interior build out should start at the end of January. We're currently waiting for the buildings infrastructure build out to complete.

The infrastructure build out was supposed to be done at this time last year. But has been extremely delayed due to permit/code issues, a painfully slow contractor and a few large hits by scrappers. The scrappers stole copper coil windings from three 1916 Vintage DC elevator motors. We took a nine month schedule hit dealing with the Insurance company and getting new motors engineered and installed.

I have been going back and forth between a sealed theater room and leaving it open to the public areas of the loft. I'll be curious to know how well the open theater is working for you. One Idea I had was a sliding wall that would seal tight when the theatre was in use. It would be similar to the huge fire doors seen in old industrial buildings.

Just a quick question about your shower. There don't seem to be any holes in the wall for the control valves and such. Am I just missing something?

All done, with only punch out remaining! I'll post some more pics later.

advertguy2 - There is a single hole towards the floor which mounts to an external shower column with thermostatic controls. It's from groher, pretty slick.

normdavies - i'm planning something similar. I'm planning on a 3 sliding door system on each side from Raydoor. These are each on their own track and will stack when open, or close off the room. I'll have curtains in front of the door to help with light control. sound dampening and reflections.

would love to see some final pics of your place. :)

Thanks for the reminder! I've been ensconsed in the loft enjoying the work done thus far ... and realzing how much more there is! Attached are the final Phase 1 pictures. Sorry I can't get a good picture of the audio rack due to it's location.

Remaining to do:

1) Home Theater curtains and blinds. Curtains are wired for power and cat5 for Crestron control

2) Home Theater sliding doors that stack when open.

3) Install distributed TVs and speakers. All wiring is done.

4) Decorate! Rugs, Art, etc...

5) Various cabinetry.

6) Track lights are installed with a few lights for functionality. Need to complete lighting design and install remaining lights.

Awesome looking space. Thanks for sharing.