Hi HT gurus,
I need help. I have a lot of questions. I have hired a contractor to finish my basement. He is starting next week. I have a small room dedicated for the Home Theater. The unfinished Room is going to 16" L x 12 W x 8'H. When finished, roughly say, I will have 15.5" L x 11.5 W. I want to install a 1080p projector. The basement guy will finish the walls and basic recessed lighting. but I will have to do any specific home theater stuff. All the equipment purchases will be decided and bought later after the basement is finished. Here are my questions


What size fixed screen to get?
Should I build a stage and the procenium? I am limited by length of the room and so I am not sure
I have duct work at the rear end of the room which takes up about 15 inches from the ceiling and so, either the projector needs to come all the way down or can I place the projector on the rear wall instead of the ceiling.
What is linacoustic and where can i buy it? How much will it cost?
I want to hide my speakers within panels. Can you point me to any link on where i should place my speakers in the HT
What other types of sound insulation should i get and where should I install it?
I bought R30 insulation for the ceiling. Should I also put R30 on the walls that abut other rooms?


I am sure you have heard all the questions. I have gone through some of the construction threads but would like your advice on my specific environment.
Thanks a bunch, folks.

www.dolby.com for speaker placement.

Stage and proscenium are personal choice.

My local lumber yard can order Lincoustic. They carry JM products, but Lincoustic was special order.

You projector will really dictate where it goes. Check various models you are interested in. Optoma has a good calculator on their site, even if you arent looking at one of their projectors, it will give you an idea of how things work. You put in the screen size, and projector model, and it will tell you the proper mounting distance, optimum seating distance and offset (difference between projector height and top of screen).

You need to figure out seating from screen distance, and where your front speakers will be to start to determine size. By this, I mean if the speakers will be on the sides, behind a false wall, or even behind a transparent screen. You also have to determine what screen ratio you prefer. Once you start making some of these decisions, people with much more knowledge than myself will start chiming in on more specific questions.

Insulate the walls.

You should also figure out where your equipment is going to live, and run conduit and your wiring before the installer closes up the walls. Running an extra empty conduit from your equipment area could help you out in the future.

Good luck.