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"Reel Time" Build Log-14' Scope, 9.7 17,000W Transducer Audio, Dedicated Stadium Room

57K views 367 replies 60 participants last post by  cowger 
#1 ·
Well, after viewing one build log after another here on AVS and dreaming of my own dedicated theater, I finally decided to pull the trigger earlier this year when we decided to go into a major house remodel. With the support of everything else we wanted to do with the home, I had enough justification to include a dedicated HT room off of the first level.


First off, if you've seen the name "Reel Time" in another thread ( http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1251515 ), you're correct. That's the thread that started with the project in March of this year (2010). I realized two things: 1) I didn't use a very good title as most folks have missed the build altogether and 2) I had too much in there about the entire remodel project (basement, new garage, second story of the new addition, family room remodel, etc.).


So, now nine months later, I've decided to stop posting in the old thread in start this one dedicated to items about the HT itself. There will be some info and pics about the addition build. But, only as it applies to the HT. I've got a lot to pass along, and I'll do that over the next couple of days.


Okay, so onto the HT build. I hope you enjoy and learn as I have by others' examples here on AVS. Please feel free to chime in with anything, good or bad. It's all okay as long as it's constructive!
 
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#52 ·
All good, but slooooow. Traveling for business of late and active with kids with lacrosse. At least basketball is finished.


I will need to get some pics up at least. Soffit structure and recessed lighting around 90% completed now.Framing for rear columns done but still need to finish the plenum for the HVAC that's within them.


I had to pause the project for the wife's project of remodeling the living and dining rooms. So that will tie me up for another month or so.
 
#53 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTopDown /forum/post/20194327


All good, but slooooow. Traveling for business of late and active with kids with lacrosse. At least basketball is finished.


I will need to get some pics up at least. Soffit structure and recessed lighting around 90% completed now.Framing for rear columns done but still need to finish the plenum for the HVAC that's within them.


I had to pause the project for the wife's project of remodeling the living and dining rooms. So that will tie me up for another month or so.

3 additional months and counting.


Where's a "logan" when ya need one?
 
#55 ·
Well, I guess the first thing I'll have to say is that this post is waaaaayyyyyy overdue. Looking back over the thread, I can't believe how long it's been. In November, 2010 (yes last year!) I broke my foot working in the HT and that put a halt on things quickly for a few months.




When the foot finally got healed enough, I then went off and made the wife happy by fully remodeling the living room and dining room. Next I gutted my son's bathroom and redid it, before doing a bunch of other projects necessary on our house of 15 years.


So, just about a month ago I got to the point where I could start back on the HT. I'll try to bring everyone up to speed on what's happened. Things are moving very quickly!
 
#56 ·
Okay, first I have to take you back a year ago to the day before I broke my foot. Looking back at the thread, I see that I stopped posting right after the drywall.


Working with Ted at The Soundproofing Company, I purchased and received my Green Glue GG, Clips, and a few other items. The whole room is double 5/8" drywall with GG between. So my time spent the few weeks before the fateful day was putting up all the clips and channel. Here are some final shots before the drywallers came. You'll note the two large stacks of drywall. I somehow lost my balance on the one on the right and jumped down, unfortunately landing my right foot on my framing air nailer. That did the trick on my foot.


AV Closet in the back




Ride Side Wall w/ wiring up




Deadly Stacks of Drywall & Room




Back Wall (has a layer of OSB over channel for supporting cabinets)




Left Wall




Ceiling

 
#57 ·
Shots of room after the drywallers left. Pretty much everything is DD/GG. Didn't do the front wall yet, which will be single 1/2" drywall to handle sound transmission from the transducers when they create the center channel.







 
#58 ·
Some shots of the transducers for the hidden audio system that MississippiMan will be installing in an 11.4 channel setup.



 
#59 ·
NOW BACK IN OCTOBER 2011


Okay, so I posted some renderings a long time ago and spoke about the 11.4 setup and the "bumps" that I would be creating to support the various channels along the wall. I've gone back and forth and every way possible in the design. After a lot of discussion with MississippiMan and working with the layout, I designed the bumps and created the stud structures.


Below are shots of the work of these structures so I could get ready for the drywallers to come back in to hang the rest of their material.'

Left Wall


There are two bumps on each wall (left & right) and then the corner wall in the front to support the L/R channel, and height/width. Here you can see the stud structure created for each. I mounted a piece of OSB on the corner unit just so I could get a better representation of what it would look like with drywall over it.



Bump Close-Ups


The bump is a center section roughly 7" deep by 22" wide. Each side then angles from a 2" offset back to a 1" edge from the wall.





Front Corner Walls


Shot showing the two corner walls. I like how it focuses the attention towards the screen. You can see the blue tape marking off a 12' wide 16:9 screen. The inside horizontal lines (taping falling down) shows a scope screen.



Rear Wall


This will be a bar area with cabinets. There are two structures on either side that will serve for the rear channels. Two Outlaw Audio compact subs go at the bottom of these structures. They also serve as the HVAC returns for the rooms. It's a separate zoned HVAC system.



AV Closet


Just the current state of the closet with some of the wiring shown.

 
#60 ·
Well, I can't figure out a way to change my thread title, so I'll just have to let everyone reading (if there are any) that my screen is now going to be 12' wide. After getting everything to a point where I could finally tape off the size, anything bigger just was going to be too big I think.


After taping off the screen for 16:9 and scope and seeing what that would look like, I think I'm leaning towards NOT doing CIH. I think I'm going to work towards shooting 16:9 and then some form a masking system. I just didn't like the size of the 16:9 screen in a CIH setup. I still have the option to do CIH. We see how things go.
 
#61 ·
With drywallers coming Fri, 10/21, I had to get the room all ready and make sure I had everything before they covered it all up! Since MississippiMan still needs to come and install all the transducers, they are only cutting the drywall pieces and temporarily mounting them wherever the transducers are going. That way the transducers can be installed and we can mount the boards up for testing.

Entry Foyer


I lined all the of the little entry foyer coming into the HT with OSB and sealed all the gaps. I will get GG and a layer of 5/8" on top from the drywallers.



Rear Channels


Electric all in and conduit running with wiring for subs and channels. Lutron GE remote outlet next to entrance of HT.



Bump Electric


Ran electric and box at top of each bump that will be hidden by crown and provide juice for rope lighting. In the second shot you can see the box for the step lighting. Since the two bumps on each side straddle the step, I added an outlet at the base of each for a small downlight when it gets dark.





Projector/Hush Box Fan


Installed a Panny inline 150CFM fan to draw the hot air produced from the projector out of the soffit and send it outside.

 
#62 ·
Now we're cooking. With that last post I hit my 3rd page!! Now if I only had views!


Well, the guys came back on Friday (10/21) and hung the last of the drywall. Finisher came at the end and began his work. The main step to complete is getting the front wall perfectly finished to accept the painted screen from MississippiMan when he comes up the first part of November. The finisher will do what he can to maximize his time, but we can't finish everything until the audio is all set.


Getting the final dry wall up over all of those studs really changed the whole look and feel of the room. You really start to get a sense of what it's going to look like. It's amazing how a 20'x30' room and start to look small too!


View from the Family Room looking in




Down the left wall




Rear wall




Right wall




Front wall and the room




Looking to the front from back wall showing the projector hush box coming down from the soffit. Tried to play with the angles a bit to match the wall bumps.




Looking up at the ceiling from the front of the room. A 10'x15' fiber optic star ceiling will go in there from FOSI. It's due in a few weeks.




Just a different shot of the rear. Lights on side of projector box will have eyeballs to drop the light down over the counter bar row.

 
#63 ·
Based on all the great feedback and references seen here on AVS, I contacted Roman at rtheaters.com and discussed seating. After a lot of helpful information I decided to bite the bullet and go with his new line of chairs - the Fusion Collection. I chose the higher Escape line in brown leather. I went with a curved row of four individuals chairs for the front row and a curved row a love seat and two chairs on each side for the second row.


I should have them here in November.

 
#64 ·
Limited on space and with a lot of equipment to house for the HT itself and centralizing all the house equipment, I went with the Middle Atlantic Slim-5 37U racks. I can put two of these side by side and hold everything with some future expansion space.


I'm going to build a custom rollout for them from the AV closet and have a door in front of them matching the entry door on the other side of the room. I went ahead and purchased the custom panels for equipment that wasn't rack mounted. I don't want to see the equipment from the room all the time, but when I open the door I want it to look very neat and professional. I'll trim all around it so it looks like it's built in.


I ordered all the MA rack and options with Chris' help at customavrack.com.
 
#66 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by MississippiMan /forum/post/0


I just know that multi piece Screen wall is gonna be perfectly flat....right?



I don't think I've ever seen it done quite like that before, when the object is to have as few joints to deal with as possible.

Don't worry MM. The boards are 12' wide with two of them. We could not get 16' wide boards with only an order of 2. Not much commercial construction going on so they aren't laying around.


I've told them it has to be perfectly smooth and flat. He said he is going to finish the whole board and that would be the best.
 
#67 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTopDown /forum/post/21117672


Don't worry MM. The boards are 12' wide with two of them. We could not get 16' wide boards with only an order of 2. Not much commercial construction going on so they aren't laying around.


I've told them it has to be perfectly smooth and flat. He said he is going to finish the whole board and that would be the best.

Well OK then....


I want it to be a perfect Screen for you, so since I'm not doing the Drywall finishing, I must look to the level of what is "perfect" as is adjudged by someone else. Always makes me nervous because I can't remember a single time when someone else left me a wall to work with that upon inspection I didn't have to fix a few places.


But......If he does intend to skim coat the entire wall, that can bode well for the end result. That's what we did for calbear's 16' x 9' er
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post16751239


Of course that wall was built from scratch by me and a very helpful and adept Costa Rican...skim coated with an almost liquified Drywall compound, and "Mouse Sanded" to a almost glass smooth finish

If both before and after Priming the Finisher inspects the surface while it is flooded with angled light coming first from one side then another, any potentially visible defects should become very easily ascertained and corrected. Hopefully that will happen before priming because it becomes more difficult to repair such things after a sealing primer coat is applied.


It's an exciting time a'commin' fer shur! Not far off either.


BTW...now I can see why you told me you have plenty of room for the PJ and the Star Field Illuminator.



But where is the "Screen facing hole"?
 
#68 ·
Thanks MM. I will keep a very close eye on the finishing of the screen wall. Yes, a complete skim coat.


The photos make the projector box look bigger than it is. That being said, it has plenty of room for the pj and illuminator.


I haven't put the front hole in yet as I will wait for the exact pj placement. Then do a nice trim around it.
 
#69 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTopDown /forum/post/0


Based on all the great feedback and references seen here on AVS, I contacted Roman at rtheaters.com and discussed seating. After a lot of helpful information I decided to bite the bullet and go with his new line of chairs - the Fusion Collection. I chose the higher Escape line in brown leather. I went with a curved row of four individuals chairs for the front row and a curved row a love seat and two chairs on each side for the second row.


I should have them here in November.

We have from roman the curved berk's with middle loveseat in 1st row, and dual loveseats in 2nd row. Loveseats are overlooked to often in family home theatre IMO.

Mostly just our family, we always use 1st row. 2nd row only used the occasional friends gathering, or if kids fighting and need separation, I'm sure that only happens to my family...


Enjoy the ht journey.
 
#70 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mtbdudex /forum/post/21119193


We have from roman the curved berk's with middle loveseat in 1st row, and dual loveseats in 2nd row. Loveseats are overlooked to often in family home theatre IMO.

Mostly just our family, we always use 1st row. 2nd row only used the occasional friends gathering, or if kids fighting and need separation, I'm sure that only happens to my family...


Enjoy the ht journey.

Obviously since we ordered one row with a loveseat, we like the idea also. I'm always curious why we don't see more of them in HTs. I guess some don't want to sit right next to their spouse! With two teenage boys, we always have to keep them separated.


Our sweet spot will be the second row, so the love set unit goes there. We'll have the individual row of four and the back bar row for when we have guests over.


It's been a long, but fun and eventful. Glad to start seeing it come towards and end. Really looking forward to waking up on a Saturday and not working in there!
 
#71 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTopDown /forum/post/21120257


It's been a long, but fun and eventful. Glad to start seeing it come towards and end. Really looking forward to waking up on a Saturday and not working in there!

Shoot. You'll be waking up "IN" the Home Theater if your any normal HT enthusiast.



Friday Night Movie watchin' being what it is.......
 
#72 ·
That would certainly be a welcomed change too!
 
#73 ·
Received my Middle Atlantic shipment, with two Slim-5 37U racks. I had to purchase the casters elsewhere as I needed them to be fixed and all MA sells is swivel. So I had to do some precise drilling.


Plan is to have them on a custom base (yet to be built) allowing them to roll out of the closet so I can access the backs and the closet itself. I'll have to make two pieces that I can remove and store that provides about 4' worth of travel.


I built out one of the racks completely. The other I'll just keep the base for now so I can test the "roll" of the structure I need to build.




Some custom faceplates and shelves for the non-eared components. It will be somewhat of a shame to have it all behind closed doors. But I don't want the sound or the lights. Still will look good (I hope) when the doors open up!




All the wires are pulled and ready to go. Sure does look like a mess in there. I need to clean them all up too since there's lots of green glue residue over them. Man that stuff is tacky.

 
#74 ·
Just discovered your thread. Very nice, love the stealthy entrance concept and execution. Enjoyable read so far.



Good luck
 
#75 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by FOH /forum/post/21157337


Just discovered your thread. Very nice, love the stealthy entrance concept and execution. Enjoyable read so far.



Good luck

Thank you. We've told many visitors that we have a HT room somewhere and to go find it. Most don't. The real trick will be how well the soundproofing does to keep the sound as hidden as possible too!
 
#76 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by RedTopDown /forum/post/21116612


Now we're cooking. With that last post I hit my 3rd page!! Now if I only had views!


Well, the guys came back on Friday (10/21) and hung the last of the drywall. Finisher came at the end and began his work. The main step to complete is getting the front wall perfectly finished to accept the painted screen from MississippiMan when he comes up the first part of November. The finisher will do what he can to maximize his time, but we can't finish everything until the audio is all set.


Getting the final dry wall up over all of those studs really changed the whole look and feel of the room. You really start to get a sense of what it's going to look like. It's amazing how a 20'x30' room and start to look small too!

Build looks awesome. I have a question though: With a build of this magnitude, why go with a painted screen? Wouldn't a AT screen be better or even a non AT screen.

No offense to MississipiMan, I don't mean to step on your toes, I am just asking.
 
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