Saga of the "Old Vic" - Page 6

Ah... I'll wire those on the wall surface. It will be covered with something like OC703 and GOM so they won't be seen. I guess I could have run them through the IB chamber but everything else about the design is being built "inside the shell" so these speaker connections can be routed the same way. The room has exactly four holes - the door, the HVAC, line voltage in, low voltage/speakers.

It's nylon tape used to strap HVAC ductwork. I also used 2" tin circles used for roofing as washers -- worked great at holding up the insulation. I didn't bother lining the ceiling or short walls. Do you think that matters?



LOL. Yeah I've been there myself for quite some time. I think it is a fear of making a mistake and having to backtrack.. I've been playing with the sketch up models and the "old vic" look is beginning to come together. The problem is that I'll probably have to change its name since it will be a fairly contemporary design. The first step is the star ceiling and soffits.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with since our builds seem to be on very similar timelines and scale (don't cheat on me and hire out the work, ok!!)

Looking forward to it. Does it include excessive use of that cool flat LED strip light you found?

Hi Teecue,

It's a spreadsheet I put together as a way to capture all the various "rules of thumb" to help me plan my layout -- speaker angles, viewing distance, screen size, etc, etc. They are from various places like THX, Dolby, SMPTE, 20th Century fox and of course this forum! I can send it to you if you think it will help although I didn't put much work into making it generic, just PM me your email.

Cheers.

My IB sub is finished. Yeah! I also primed the drywall. That wasn't really necessary since I'll be covering all surfaces but at least it locks in the dust and gives the room that complete look.

Some pics...

After reading some of the concern about drilling mounting holes so close to the routed edge I decided to make some mounting clips. I'm pleased with the way they turned out and it makes installing the driver very easy because the clips can be rotated out of the way and then rotated back into place.



The clips were made from a strip of 1/4" aluminum which was drilled then chopped up on my chop saw. Then in a moment of excessive compulsive(ness) I popped them in my sandblasting cabinet so they match the forged crates.

However, the truth is that I did made a little miscalculation with my manifolds and wasn't sure that I'd left enough room between the driver bump plates for proper cooling so tried two alternative mounting strategies.

1. mount drivers back to back as originally intended. The problem is that the bump plates end up 7/8" apart. Is that enough room for proper cooling?
2. mount one of the driver pairs facing forward and or course reversing its polarity. The only minor annoying thing is that I will have to wire prior to mounting.



For now I decided on the original back to back approach -- its easy to change later.

I've been busy on more than the IB sub and since I've had a little free time lately have been making some good progress. Last week I pulled the trigger on ordering all the parts for a star ceiling. I decided to go with the more traditional light box from Cyr at Fosi. Since I wanted an accurate star field I ordered their full size template which has all the star locations plotted on craft paper. I'll have approximately 570 Milky Way Stars and 261 twinkling constellation starts, two shooting stars and a comet. I ordered 5000 meters of fiber which I expect will keep me busy when it arrives! The total size of the star field will be 10'x20' with a 2' "beam" crossing above the bar so that I can mount some additional lights and hang the projector. I'll document the build process as I go but I special ordered five 4'x10' ultralight MDF panels from my local lumbar yard which will be used to hang the ceiling.

Anyway back to real progress... while waiting for the star ceiling supplies I couldn't decided on what to do next .. stage, riser, soffits, stage, riser soffits, stage... it took me a whole hour to decided on the riser

The riser is decoupled from the theater walls and so I was able to build it a little way from the back wall and then slide into place. Whilst framing I wanted to keep the possibility of using the riser as a base trap open and so framed so I had two large joist bays at the sides and poked a few vent holes into other bays. I realize there is no calculation here but I thought these couple extra steps might keep my option open. It certainly can't hurt.



Once complete I slide it into place and used some 3/8" foam to ensure separation from the walls.



Since my riser is only 6" high (there is an additional 6" step in the concrete floor) and my lumbar was pretty green I didn't want to run the risk of having it warp whilst drying so I anchored the four corners to the concrete.



Then the fill. The 12" platform at the rear is designed as a rear sub stand and thus it and the surrounding area is filled with sand whilst the rest of the riser get the pink fluffy treatment.



All the line voltage runs are in, but I haven't decided on exactly what hook ups I want at the bar or exactly where to place them. Besides I don't have all my wires ordered yet. Therefore I'm taking a retrofit approach... I coiled up some romex in the general area I want outlets and ran 2" tubing for other hook ups in the neighboring joist bay. I photographed a tape measure so I accurately documented the location prior installing the 3/4" CDX T&G plywood.



Done. When almost... I haven't finished the front of the riser which will have a curved profile because I need to precisely work out the seating positions. Therefore I've only installed a single deck layer. I will add another with GG separation later.

Literally as I was screwing down the last sheet my special order ultralight MDF arrived. Here it is, 10' long and still lighter than a regular 4x8 sheet. I really wanted to get hold of some 5x10 sheets (which I know exist) but could not find anyone locally who would/could order them.

Well that brings me almost up to date. This afternoon I got to start on the next on the next section ... soffit, stage, soffit, stage, soffit. You see the pattern here? With only a couple of hours of labor left in me and the inability to decide, I started both



I did get the wife to help snap a few guide lines on the ceiling -- there are some things you just can't do on your own.

A final parting shot showing the current state of the theater. It's the first time since I started digging a hole under the house that I've been able to visualize how the room is going to end up. I'm really stoked now I've been able to make some progress that doesn't involve drywall dust.



Tomorrow .. do I want to work up a ladder or on my knees? Time for a beer now and I'll see what I feel like in the morning

Thanks for the encouragement Tom. I'm looking forward to your next update now that you've solved the dead vent with typically overkill


Me too! It's still too early to be sure but I'm not longer able to hear my daughter stomping around upstairs and can barely hear the beat of my wife's loud exercise music so I think it is going to work out. I've still to build the outer communicating door, seal the inner one and isolate more of the HVAC system in the soffit so it should get quite a bit better yet. Fingers crossed.

Sounds like you are having fun with your new Panny.

Yeah I'm wondering what pulling over 3 miles of fiber is going to feel like It might be a tad too much but I'm sure I can return any excess and once I get started on this I want to get it done without interruptions. It will definitely help wiring the panels vertically before hanging.

And I was hoping I was over half way .. but you are probably right . Things are going faster now that, for a while, I can work days and not just weekends/nights on the theater. I'm currently fitting the soffits and preparing for the star ceiling and I can tell you the layer of OSB makes life SO much easier by being able to attach "off joist" on occasion. If it wasn't for you I may not have completely covered the room with an OSB layer. Doing so was the best decision so far.

As you know the IB drivers are certainly heavy but it wasn't that difficult to mount them inside the manifold. The clips I made can be fitted first and then turned into place. It only takes two of them to hold the driver in place whilst I tighten the others. The real motivation for this was laziness to avoid having to build an access door and plug to the IB chamber. That said I don't really want to take them out again!

Since we are at very similar points in out builds I was hoping I could guilt you into an update. You know the guys at the the "cult" (of the infinitely baffled) as waiting for you to post your results ;-)

Well I made some good progress this week although it is never as fast as I want. I did manage to get a bunch of little things ordered including fabric and vaneer samples. Boy it feels good to be thinking about details like that.

I also had another conversation with bpape so he can move forward on the acoustic treatment plan.

Anyway, I just about finished the stage. No prize for originality here, this is now a familiar design to avid AVS'ers. Buy hey, I don't think I could improve on it so I just copied it.



I'm going to pick up some sand tomorrow so I can fill it and close it up. Anyone want to guess how many bags I'll need? I have quite a pile of bags already -- the past few trips to HD I've bee bringing home 6 bags at a time. I figured that
everyone complains about the day they spent lugging sand bags so I thought I'd spread it out a little

I also got most of the outline framing up on the ceiling and finalized the soffit design. The soffit is built inside the drywall shell and will carry the HVAC, wiring and act as a bass trap. I'm going to try a two tier design of hardwood and fabric with two layers of tray lighting. The idea is to create the glow of a setting sun around the star ceiling so I'm thinking of using different colors. I need to experiment, but perhaps orange in the lower and blue in the upper? Has anybody tried something similar?



Here is the ladder framing attached to the ceiling.

Front:


Rear:


Here the upper tray perimeter has been installed and the two areas where the star ceiling will be fitted can be seen. I designed the tray as a plug so it can be uncrewed and lowered. I figured it would be easier to work on the hardwood trim at ground level but now its up and I've read of others successfully applying laminate in position I might just leave it in place.



I'm racing to get this phase wrapped up because my fiber optic star ceiling toys will be arriving on Monday. Cool!

I'm glad to be of some use. I know my soffit is more complicated than it need be but I wanted to make a feature of the ceiling and add some depth.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how your space turns out -- I love your design premise!

Audixium, you need to spend more time meditating... it will help you think more clearly

When I found this forum I had an "aha" moment too when I realized I only needed one HT design bookmark in my browser. It has helped me tremendously.

Speaking of meditation I found the slashing of bags of sand and watching them empty into my stage strangely relaxing. I did managed to meet my objective of closing up the stage today. As always, some pics: