I've been reading the forums here for sometime, but i've never posted. so let me start with a little back story. my parents are building a new home its a production home www.highlandhomes.com and they opted for the "media room option" something which surprised me a little...anyways they told me that this room is mine to set up as i please, and gave me a budget of approximately $10k (i do have a little flexibility with the budget but don't want to go overboard). Now i would love to do a lot of the work myself...but I am a medical student about to start residency so i have very little time available. So I came here to come up with different options that I can work with. the builder works with a company called Sound Perfection inc http://www.soundperfectioninc.com for all of their in home audio/video/network wiring. I've looked around here but haven't found any references to them or anyone that has used them. either way at least for the building and basic wiring these are the guys I have to work with. once the house is complete i can either continue to work with them or move on to install the equipment myself/hire someone else to do it. as far as time line goes the foundation will be poured in approximately 3 weeks from there the house is slated to be complete somewhere at the end of april/ early may.

i've set up a meeting with someone from sound perfection at the end of february (so around the time they lay down the foundation of the house. this is the only time i'll be in town before the drywall is put up so its my only chance to figure out the wiring and wall treatments. so i've come here for advice on what i should be asking. here are the room specs that i've been able to obtain:
1. dimensions are 11'X16' with a tray ceiling (i think i'm using the term correctly) which i believe is 10' at the highest point here is a link to a virtual tour of the www.vrguild.net/c/stnd.pl?U=0703281821246624 model home (click enlarge view for a better look)
2. i've already requested the door to be a single door rather then the double doors in the picture.
3. the sales lady i spoke to said that the engineering of the room is complete so i would not be able to add a riser at this point (i'm going to speak to the actual construction manager of the home soon to see if this is correct)

i already own a speaker system (NHT T5s, 1xM5, 4xL5s) and was thinking of putting in a 92" screen (havent decided on the projector yet but as of now the Epson 1080 UB pro is looking really nice but i want to see some properly set up projectors in the real world before i decide)

here is a preliminary layout (http://www.pbase.com/jalepeno/image/92677556) i was working on....the squares on the grid are 1'X1' http://www.pbase.com/jalepeno/image/92677556

i havent decided on what type of seating but after seeing the Grindhouse theater on here i think i can get away with berkline seating and not totally make the room clausterphobic, but i would appreciate any thoughts on improving the layout of the room

oh and as far as equipment rack goes...originally i wanted the 2 rows of seating to be centered and the equipment rack to go in the back right corner of the room...but i think if the back row is centered it would make the left side of the room very tight...so for now i was thinking maybe putting the equipment in the front of the room below the screen

no thoughts? maybe i'm just not asking the right questions? any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

...anyways they told me that this room is mine to set up as i please, and gave me a budget of approximately $10k

Now i would love to do a lot of the work myself...but I am a medical student about to start residency so i have very little time available.

Just get the room wired, for speakers and projector. Skip the riser, sound treatments, soundproofing and other extras. You will probably only use the room a handful of times before you move out to your own place. Make it easy for them to convert it to space they will use.

Frankly it sounds to me like they are trying to make it difficult for you to cut the cord and fly away on your own.

actually i do see them using the room pretty regularly...and i would really like to see it done right from the beginning...i've helped too many people with their mediaroom/HT or even just regular A/V equipment only to see them royally screw it up just to save a little money (one of my uncles built a 2 million dollar house and wanted to allocate $5k for the whole house electronics...) so i just really want to make this a nice HT for my parents, myself and everyone else that comes over (we have a HUGE family...76 first cousins...........)

WOW, with that size of a family maybe you should be thinking about long term family use and how to fit as many people as possible in the theater. I can see this as a big draw for any family get together. Even if it becomes a place to stick the kids where they will be out of the way. You should make plans for this room to be indestructible. In wall speakers, projector as high as possible and a locked cabinet for the equipment.

You might want to consider getting refurbished theater seats. They run about 20-22 inches wide and you could do two rows of 5. Then put double padding under the carpet in the front of the room so that kids and camp out there. Have a stack of pillows or floor seats for adult overflow seating.

You should definitely get a 1080P projector so that the front overflow won't suffer as much from the screen door effect.


Here is a 20 inch wide chair. Leave 8 inches on the right and have a 24 inch walkway on the left. These are $189 each but there are others cheaper.

http://seatsandchairs.com/images/large/BlackMarqueeCI_lg.jpg

Here is one idea for the front overflow at $16. (Target)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410qqwc3pGL._SS260_.jpg

I suggest you do the basics and try to construct the space so as to keep other sounds out and to keep the good sounds in.... Double drywall and GG.... you're room is getting a little narrow if you try to do anything else like staggered studs, but you could if you want.

I suggest a row of recliners for the front row (Berklines 088's are narrow and would fit nicely). Do all your wall treatment at the end and just hang your acoustic panels on the wall that way the space could be easily converted later.

Maybe even just put a little riser under the 2nd row... a riser just big enough to hold the couch that way it would be easy to remove down the road if you wanted to change the room.

Best of luck.

Just another thing to worry about.

HVAC. From reports here a lot of bonus rooms/ media rooms are not provided enough cooling. If you have 6-10 adults, a projector and the other equipment. That room is going to get very warm in a Texas summer.

You really need to insist that your builder addresses this issue. Simply adding a vent or two like the other rooms on that floor will not be sufficient.

hey guys thanks for the replies. as far as seating goes i'm kind of leaning toward the berkline 088 (my parents dont like "theater seats", but i will definetly as the builder about the HVAC. what do people generally do in regards to the HVAC? i'm not sure what kind of system the house has, but would a zoned A/C system do the job?

I am not a HVAC expert by any means so I will leave that to the other guys on here. My suggestion though is to have them put in a wide single door (34", 36" if possible). You would be surprised how wide some of the theater chairs can be.

I'd also ask the builder if they can put in some conduit (1.5 - 2" wide) from where the AV cabinet would be to the likely projector spot. Shouldn't be to expensive. If it's cheap enough I would also run some smaller conduit out to where the speakers are going to be. Sooner or later they will want to upgrade the cables/speaker wire and conduit will make it a breeze to do so.

Good luck in Residency. It's a fun and aggravating time all wrapped into one :D.

but i will definitely as the builder about the HVAC. what do people generally do in regards to the HVAC? i'm not sure what kind of system the house has, but would a zoned A/C system do the job?

The basic problem is when the room is full of people and with the equipment running that the cooling load will far exceed the demand in the rest of the house. If you can get the theater on a separate zone with adequate supplies and returns (the return is important if the door will be closed!!) you shouldn't have a problem.

Other issues are the noise of the system and how the vents are routed which can cause some sound proofing issues.

I seem to be the one bringing up all the negative issues that should be addressed, but I'm just trying to let you know about issues that might spoil your final product.

Next issue:

You haven't talked at all about the need for soundproofing the space but from your comments it sounds like your parents will be in the theater when it is in use not trying to sleep while you watch an action drama.

Given that this is a standard production house. They will likely use standard construction methods for this room. You need to be aware that in all probability this means that you will be able to hear the theater in operation, particularly the sub woofers, in other parts of the house.

There are strategies for dealing with this but I suspect it is beyond the scope of this project. And NO, having the builder put insulation in the walls will not solve the problem. It will help with certain frequencies but not the lower ones.