Okay...You Twisted My Arm...I'm building A Theater :0)

I've been following these threads pretty closely lately, and although I have a 120" screen in my Greatroom and a 133" in my bedroom, I've decided to finish the basement and put in a dedicated theater...I am not quite sure what it will look like when finished... I am going to muddle my way through all by myself. I have decided to save money and do the framing and sheetrock myself...(as well as everything else)...So it will be slow going and alot of trial and error. suggestions are welcome. I think I want to go Black and Royal blue...But have not decided where or what shape the columns will be...I also have not picked out any wall sonces yet. I have a tricky situation with the bathroom being in the way of the rear seating area, so I'm grinding my brain on that right now. I will probably be going 4 seats in the back row and 3 in the front (due to lack of walk around area. Here is the beginning... Oh, I almost forgot...The room is 14 X 26

I decided to show a picture of the current progress of the theater...







Here is an update to the current progress of my theater

I'm starting at the back and working foward...You can see my dilemma with the bathroom door on the left...I decided to angle off the corner of the seating riser so you don't walk into it when leaving the bathroom...Had to angle off the other corner to the entrance as well....Now I'm trying to think of a step down to do...Something that will look half way decent without obstructing the path too much...Damn...It's almost imposible!...

Here is a shot looking out from the bathroom...and I have started on the screen stage as well.

My inspiration was this computer mock up I saw in another thread...I think I am going to do a mini version of this...Since he didn't do this design. I really like the way the Royal Blue looks with Black.

I have made a little more progress today... Decided to do a curved valance above the screen, just like the curve of the stage...I think it will give it a cool modern "cinematic" look... also started on the low voltage step lights on the seating riser. Oh... I also put in 8 can lights.

I need some opinions...Who thinks the curved valance in the picture above should be wider?...In other words, should I place another 1X8 cedar board below the existing one?...

Yes, I got you, but from a cosmetic viewpoint, do you think the curved valance would look better wider?...Thanx That valance is so strong right now I can do pull ups on it....;0) As far as the ceiling supports, each one has additional short support boards holding them to the 2X12;s that hold up the house.

Yeah....Hmmmm, maybe just add a 1X4 and make it 12" total ... Thanx...

Yeah, no permit or inspection...(Maybe in about 30 years ;0) My neighbor did have his inspected, and they nailed the sheet rock right to the 2X12's that hold up the house...I don't see the difference...Actually mine would be stronger, because I have the 2X4's as well as the supports attached to the 2X12's...Maybe here in Georgia, thay give more slack?...

No...it is not showing finished in those pictures. I did better than that...I put 3 supports on each cross beam and then connected each cross beam to boot! You can actually do chin ups on any area of the theater cealing supports without the supports budging. (I weigh 200LBs)

I have to wait on my decision to widen the valance, because now Im thinking of going 150" 16:9 ratio instead of 235:1. This decision is based on wanting the biggest possible screen for both ratios in my given application. A 150" will completely fill that entire opening with only a couple inches to spare in any direction...But this way I'm also getting the widest 235:1 screen when it is masked off. I have been going back and forth for weeks, but decided watching Coraline the movie (16:9) and Directv sports that I don't want to give up that height

Yeah...I decided not to go for the sound proofing. I am only going to hang 1 layer of sheet rock (although I plan to load it up there with insulation)... The same with the wall next to the gym...I may even add a second wall on that side to enclose my speaker cabinets for the side surrounds

I have a crazy question...Has anyone ever put their back speaker surrounds (7.2 configuration) On the floor pointing upward behind the rear seats and then calibrating to compensate for there location?...I have done this in my bedroom where I had no choice. the rears are on the ground raised up a bit behind the headboard and once calibrated I can hear the sound perfectly coming through my pillow area... (I'm sick I know) and the sides are on the end tables on each side of the bed, so they are at a little above ear level pointing at our ears as they should be and we hear the rears great...Anyway, since my back row of seating in the theater will unfortunately be very close to the back wall, I was wondering...

Okay, some updates!...I went ahead and added the 4" to the upper valance and I was able to get my 12 volt wiring done in the riser, as well as finish the building of the stage and get all the speaker runs done.... I came up with a good idea for the fabric panels using 2x2's. I will be able to wrap and staple the fabric to the 2x2 frames and then just plug them in. Next I will be building out the columns...I can't make them any deeper than 6 inches or so otherwise they will block the veiwing area from the rear seating. I have decided to pull out the Atlantic Technology speakers in favor of seven Yamaha 777's (two of which I had to cut in half longways to fit inside the walls for side surrounds) This is for the front row seating...(don't worry I added the space back to the wall cavity and brought back the cubic inches of speaker space needed to bring back the bass... Took 3 days!)...I was able to tune them gradually until they sounded very close to the original uncut speaker. The tweeters and mid-range are incapsulated so they sound exactly the same as before. (as side surrounds I was able to get the exact bass I wanted). The system sounds incredible already and there isn't any acoustic treatments yet!...I'm really pleased with the way it's sounding. I also decided to use another Yamaha 777 for the center channel verses the Axiom VP 150...The 777 kicks the 150's ass. The sub is an Atlantic Technology 642eSB 12" sealed...I'm going to buy another one for the rear of the room. Damn...I'm tired!...









This is the closest GOM I've been able to find in Royal Blue....AVS blue... Actually it is called, "Electric Blue #R O5"... I'm going to go with this on the walls with black columns. The blue fabric was purchased here... http://www.gretchken.com/acoustic_fabrics.htm

I've posted here (for anyone interested) a cheap and fast way to do the fabric frames and make it to where you can remove them easily. You can see where I pulled out the frame and it leaves the acoustic wrap attached to the wall. You simply staple the acoustic wrap (yellow) to the wall with the frames in place, and then when you pop out the frame, it leaves the acoustic on the wall in perfect pattern. Make sure you put alot of staples right next to each other so that when you plug the frame back in (with the GOM fabric attached), the yellow wrap won't get in the way. The top section you just staple the batting in the exact same way... This is really going to speed up the progress on my theater... These fabric frames fit so tight that I won't need to use anything to affix them to the wall...If you wanted to, I guess you could use velcro or some other easy method...I am purposely making them fit tight.

My latest update!...My screen came today!!!!!! 150 inches of beauty!!!... It's an Elite AcousticPro. Glad I went 16:9 after all. I'm going to make a plug- in mask for the bottom for watching 235:1 flicks...Starting to get pumped!..
Just barely squeezed the frame in there....

Another update!... My theater seats came today!...Yahoo!!! I ordered them from theaterseat They're beautiful....I love them. They have great prices and they shipped quick. (I dealt with a sweetie pie named Patti in sales). They are called "Oracle" by SeatCraft, they are all power and I couldn't beat their price anywhere.... I decided to go 4 in the back row with (love seats) in the middle, and 3 in the front...(for asle clearence) This was the good news...The bad news is I had to rip out my curved valance and raise the screen 13 inches!...(alot of work)....I mis-calculated the clearance for the front row Had to also rip out my step up to the riser so the front row could be moved back some...At any rate, I got er done today and this is what it looks like now...Oh yeah, almost forgot, I built a home for my projector today also...I built a soffet which will house my projector and 2 rear surround speakers...

Thanks...(and congrats on your build as well)...I'm gonna use a Panny PT-AE3000U...Will be plenty bright in a dedicated environment....I usually replace my bulbs at around 1000 hrs. or less. The Panny will work great with this setup cause of the frame memory...I can switch it for 235:1 ratio cinemascope flicks and just plug in a bottom masked panel... I'm not ready to lose the height and size of 16:9 yet, and this way I get the biggest of both worlds...

Can you just buy one here in the US and have someone ship it to you? Let me know... Heck, I would do it for you.

Great choice...I was seriously considering the RS20, and if it had frame interpolation (120 HZ) and frame memory, I would have pulled the trigger, but for that price, I couldn't justify the purchase...I know it's a great projector, I just felt if I'm gonna blow that much on a projector, I'll wait for their next model (which hopefully will have the features I want). I went ahead and splurged a little on the surround sound receiver instead...

Yes...I built new backs for the backs and then drilled 3 1/2 inch holes (8 total) in the sides flowing into the wall space next to it. I had to play music and sound tracks while drilling one at a time until the sound (bass) sounded like the original uncut speaker then added cabinet deadener in different locations within the wall until I was happy with the final sound...(took three days)...Alot of work... As far as "how" did I do it, I just used my skill saw and carefully cut it all the way around...Came out pretty clean...:0) Also there was quite a bit of work preparing the wall cavities

Will do...Look for a PM. I sent you a link...The seats are called "oracle". You need to tell her if you want power. They make their own seats, and they can add power for a low cost. I will PM you the cost. Make sure you mention that you are an AVS member