Mark's From the Ground up Cinema Build - Page 11

Very well stated. I like the way you think!!!



Ben, today is the day we assemble the screen. I am really excited. I am really impressed with the packaging and instructions from SMX. It is a first class setup and they have put a lot of time into the entire product from build to shipping!!

I recieved the screen on Wednesday and unfortunately I could not put the screen together until Friday. I was really excited to get this baby in the room and to finally see my picture on something else other than a painted wall and cheap vinyl screen. I really thought I was not going to be happy with the screen until we put the frame together. WOW was I surprised. We had to take a photo to mark the occasion. That's the wife, our nieces daughter Kelsey, and me. I am 6' 5" if you get the picture (no pun intended). I will get a picture of the room in a little bit. You can also see in the background some cast ironwork which was installed in the media cabinet.




We really worked hard on the sound in this room and to date Mike Chafee probably has 5 hours invested. At the end of the day he asked me to re-install the Lexicon MC-8B in the rack for the audio processor. We worked real hard with the Yamaha RX-A3010 and quite honestly could not get it sounding the way he wanted. It has a lot of flexibility and settings but when it shut down when the system was cranked up we put it aside. The lexicon does not have any video switching so I am using the Yamaha piece to handle the video. Nice video switchers and pretty expensive so it is not a total waste. I am thinking maybe moving an Anthem processor in the rack but right now we are working with what we have.

The sound is unbelieveable. Yes without much accoustic management it is like sitting front row at a concert with sound quality. We had 150 people here at our home Saturday night for my birthday party and we had a chance to do a lot of demos of the room.

thanks Andy, I am waiting for more of your renderings. Results were out of my control because I really did not have a plan We are happy though with the room.

Busted, you know for once I undersized something instead of exaggerating. You are a pretty sharp guy with your math. The screen frame is 134.5 inches wide and 84 inches tall Thank you for the clarification on the size of the screen.


P.S. The ceiling heigth is 12 feet on the lower level.

Ok my AVS friends, here are the first unprofessional photos taken of my nearly finished theater. I have a photographer coming out next week to take pictures of the house I have promised to post. I have this Nikon D60 and I got out my tri-pod and set the camera to a night setting with no flash. I have been meaning to take a class on how to use this camera but I just havn't had time. I use it more like a point and shoot camera than learning how to properly operate it.

My cabinet guy tells me it looks unfinished because the main speakers are exposed. I know it is not the traditional hide the mains behind the screen but as I have talked earlier I did not have the forethought to do this. Quite honestly they (to me) look good because I like to see big speakers. They do make covers that snap on the front but I have not looked into that yet. Willing to listen to opinions on this if you think they should be covered.

Way back in my thread I had a picture of these 1940's or 50's balustrade's. They are cast iron and weigh a ton. They came out of some very old railing. We were going to use them in the house for the railing on the second floor but decided against it. I got this idea we could use them in the media cabinet to give it that old look. I am a little bit of an eclectic decorator (definition of putting crap together that doesnt match) so it sounded like a good idea. The black cabinet has the gold brush strokes in it so we though we would try a predominatly gold look on the balustrades. I sand blasted and then had them black powercoated and then had the faux dude come back and put the brush on them. I am pretty happy. The sub is in the middle cabinet and I am working on some blue led lights to give it a little bit of a glow for effect. Not necessarily during a movie but just as an effect.

Let me know what you think. I got to where I am at by listening to opinions and I have gotten quite a few good leads on this forum. I would not be where I am without some of the advice from members.

Yes it is the building and creativity that really makes it worthwhile. In my last home I redid my theater room 3 times in 12 years! As much thought as goes into all of our theaters we always have things we would like to change.

Thanks so much. While watching a movie the metal grates disappear in the dark but with the lights on as they are in this picture they really add some nice looking architecture. With the all black cabinet there is really not much to detract as I guess this is what we strive for. I did use a wide angle lens for this and shot the picture only a few feet behind the first row of seats. The viewing distance from the first row is a little shy of 11 feet. I certainly would not want to be any closer. This is one of those details I would probably have tweaked a little. I did plan on a bar height counter top with bar stools behind the 2nd row of seats which had me moving the riser forward. These theater seats really stretch out so a little bit more space and then there is the open rack in the back of the room. Heck, I really have room for a 3rd row of seats but I don't see the expense for the few times I might show a movie with a larger number of people.

thanks Jason, appreciate your opinion and it does have some valid points. I did break some rules in my HT as there are conflicting issues going on here. I am not done with the room.....just relieved I can enjoy movies in a room with a screen, carpet, and chairs.

Thank you so much. I have been out of touch here for a few weeks. I had been working non stop on the theater room to get it ready for my party on the 21st of January. We had a car show up in Indiana last weekend so after I cleaned up for the party I spent about 80 hours on the hotrod getting it ready for the show. Obsession seems to be the best way I can accomplish projects.

I have done two previous theater rooms..........neither one on the scale of my current theater but I pretty much started just like you. I tore down first and then figured it out later. I will be working on removable covers for the speakers as it will give me two looks.

Ben, thanks for giving me a little push. I am back obsessing on the house again. I have been holding some pictures of the outside of the house until I had all of the inside pictures done. It will be another week until I get them so I thought I would share a couple pictures of the outside. I hope this does not offend any of the guys who just want to see audio stuff. I know I like to see pictures of other peoples stuff just in case I can steal a good idea or two

This picture is my favorite outdoor picture. It is 2:35 to 1 because the photograper stitched two photos together. He had pictures of the house and then of the garage but I wanted to see both together. We have 4 acre's where my brother, mom, and I have homes............a family compound so to speak. There is a 8' tall concrete wall around our property so it gives that feeling.
I do want to note that the garage was designed FIRST and then the architecture of the house was taken from the garage. My real dream was to build a castle looking house but the construction would be been astronomical so I settled for an "Old World" look. I did want to have towers like a castle so they became square instead of round. Square looked better and also easier to build, decorate, ect. The tower in the garage was originally designed to go to a second floor apartment but we decided to keep the apartment on the first floor. The tower is 10 x 10 and became the bedroom. The ceiling in there is 22 feet tall so it was a pretty cool place to sleep. My wife and I lived in the garage for almost 2 years. The first year while building my mom's place and the second year to build the home you see pictured. What a blessing it was to live right next door to my old build. We more or less designed both structures. Yes, we did have two architects to put our ideas on paper. Florida has very stringent building codes. Altough I am not a licensed contractor I acted as the general contractor...............all of the subs were top notch so they pretty much bailed me out in terms of knowing exactly what to do.




Big grand Oak trees make the setting



As you can see some of these photo's have been enhanced. This is the back of the home. We built about 200 feet of 6 foot tall retaining wall between the pond, house, and garage.

Dale, thank you so much. We still have a lot of detail work to do but that is the fun of it. I am a project guy and it gives me something to do I very much enjoy.

A friend of mine brought his camera over and we are getting some good results. Well, actually he is getting some good results. This photo was taken 5 different times with different exposures then he put them together. I have more to come. Shot this picture with the drapes open and this demonstrates why I wanted a window in the media room. Our pond is just outside and the lighted fountain at night is beautiful to look at.