"Reel Time" Build Log-14' Scope, 9.7 17,000W Transducer Audio, Dedicated Stadium Room - Page 5

No doubt I'm not using all of the pixels in the panel of the scope projector since I'm doing zoom. It's a compromise in the end. I've read the threads were folks go back and forth and sacrifice their children in the name of A-lens vs. Zoom. I'm not really siding with one or the other. I had the A-lens, and just switched the setup to try to find the best compromise all around. I can still go with an A-lens later if I wanted, but I wouldn't need the lift of the one I have that I will be selling.

I'm also compromising on the contrast of a JVC to the 6010, but that's a cost decision vs what I get from the 6010. I was trying overall to minimize the costs all around, knowing that newer PJ's are on the horizon and I can switch if I want to both or just one.

Outside of the Panny, the only other PJs that have lens memory are the new EPSON 61000 (yet to be released) at $6K MSRP, and the new mid-level JVC and Sony, both at around $7K MSRP. I really didn't want to go with the Panny, and the JVC and Sony had two primary issues: 1) they are around $7K each and 2) they are rated for 1800 lumens max. Between those two I would lean towards the JVC, but it's still an unknown on the lamp life and the 3D has a good bit of crosstalk. So at that price point, I just didn't want to bite. The main draw for me to the JVC would be the contrast and the 4K-lite which would benefit me for for the scope. But in the end I looked at it and the 6010 is 2,400 lumens and I can have two of them for the price of the JVC. While I'm sure there are benefits outweighing the 6010 in the JVC, I just couldn't look past the fact I could have two PJ's for the price of one. Especially given the brighter lumens, very good darks, good 3D, glasses included (4 when you buy two PJs), and the possibility of running a dual gun 3D setup in the future.


I was talking about a 14' wide constant height image (CIH) when using the A-lens. A 14' wide 2.35:1 scope screen is 71" high. Keeping the height at 71" equates to a 10'-6" wide, 145" diag 16:9 screen. The two PJ's are just letting me do what the lens memory would have on a single (i.e. going back and forth between the two maximum screen sizes for each format). I'll be going for something between a 14'-15' wide 2.35:1 on the one projector, and a 12' wide, 81" high, 165" diag 16:9.


Thanks Carlos! It certainly has been a journey. I'm looking forward to the end of it, or at least the first Phase!

Well, I got up at 6:30 this morning to get'a work'n! Lots of drywall dust to get rid of before I get going again. MMan won't be happy if I don't get the room clean again!

Then it's off to trim and doors. I'm sure the wife and kids won't mind their Christmas gifts not being wrapped this year!

Spent the whole morning on Saturday vacuuming the ceiling, walls, and floor with a tiny four-inch brush off of my shop vac. Had to work on a bunch of other to do items around the house in preparation for a party that night. So I didn't get any further on the HT that day.

Woke up on Sunday and changed plans a bit. I went ahead and primed the entire theater since all my trim is preprimed as well. Figured that would save some cut-in work. Now I have one big white room!

The trim is going to take some time with all those wall bumps! A friend in construction came over Saturday night and said he feels sorry for my trim guy! Then I told him it was me!

The base will be one thing, but the crown will be some nasty angles. Oh well.

I had about 15-20 people crowd in at our Christmas party Saturday night for a demo. Threw in some opening chapters of Terminator Salvation and I think they were blown away. They couldn't believe the sound was coming out of the drywall like that.

On another note, for that demo I hooked up on of my new 6010s. Didn't even go though any calibration and the image out of it was fantastic. Great color, blacks, and pop. Big step up from the temporary 9100 I had before.

Me too!

Well MMan (as I expected) beat me to the punch on getting some info up on the thread concerning our work this week. He's already showing some of the shots he took in the thread he posted above. I'm going to try and take some tripod shots with my Canon DSLR this week for more detail.

The focus of MMan's visit this week was to get the screen wall smoothed out to perfection and then paint again. In the end we decided to utilize a 16' long 100" tall piece of polycarbonate that was just a hair under 3/16" thick. When I picked it up near Trenton (!) on Wednesday, the ticket had it weighing in at 130 lbs! Here is it sticking out the back of my truck, ready for the 2.5 hr ride home.



And here it is standing in the HT



Together, MMan and I troweled on about 4 gallons of a Liquid Nails plastic sheet adhesive in about 30 minutes since our working time was 45. Using my two boys, the four of us then hoisted it up and sat it on a 2x4 board we had a attached to the wall previously. After an initial misfire, we adjusted the position and pressed it up to the wall and started screwing in the truss head screws to hold it up there. I then rolled it all out with a floor laminate roller a few times to get a good set. Here it is afterwards all nice and shiny.





While the sheet was white, it still was somewhat translucent. So MMan started with a base of Glidden white gripper primer, say 3-4 sprays.



We tried out an initial mix of MMan's special paint that had a lot of silver in it. See his post and thread above. All those coats went up on Thursday and on Friday, we threw some images at it before we proceeded any further. While I liked the depth and contrast that mix of paint provided, I just couldn't get past the visibility of the screen in bright scenes. So I traded off and had him brew up a concoction that was far more white. Again see the thread linked above, but MMan added some pearl base and some leftover silver mix from the first go in Sherwin Williams Pro Classic Interior Enamel (Extra White - Satin).

After four coats were applied, we called it a day and cleaned up before testing it all out. Here are a couple shots after we were done.





That night we watched LOTR ROTK to test it out. I was extremely pleased with the result. I couldn't notice the screen at all and the images were fantastic. Now I could see a slight difference in the contract and depth, but not enough to want the other paint back. The prior version with all the visible screen I just couldn't take.

I threw in Dark Knight, Terminator Salvation, and Planet Earth the next morning before I took MMan to the airport for his flight home. Again, I was very happy with the resulting image on an absolutely flat, smooth wall.

BTW - The image we were throwing for all but Planet Earth (16:9) was a 15' wide scope from about 21'. The Epson 6010 was in Cinema mode with the lamp at ECO.

It was some long days, but it was well worth it. MMan delivered again, and did I mention he was coming down with a cold to boot!?! What a trooper. Thank MMan!

I'll get some shots up soon. Next steps are to paint around where the star field will go and start cutting and nailing up the trim. Oh, that's going to take some time with all those angles!

Well, with the screen all done, it was time to get started on the trim. To help protect the screen, I picked up a 16'x12' heavy duty tarp and attached it to the wall.



I still need to be careful swinging those 16' boards around!

I got the two doors up first. The door I needed for the AV closet would have been a custom size, so I just ended up going with a double-20" door. I had to mount it on the outside however. That allows the doors to swing open and for the rack to JUST make it past the doors. The one door actually blocks me from getting behind the rack and into the closet, so I have to either: 1) take the right side door off of it's hinges or 2) mount a 1/2" board across the two doors essentially joining them together into a single door - I would then cut the hinges on the one side and let the door swing as one unit. I haven't decided yet. Pros and cons both ways. I won't get back there very often, so I might just leave it as two doubles. We'll see.





Entrance door is a solid core 3-0 1-3/4" door with self-closing hinges. I'm probably just going to have a push/pull setup without a door knob. Yet to be determined. It's certainly one heavy door. Solid cores are heavy, and can't believe what another 3/8" thickness adds.





Now to get some seals from Ted!

The doors went up Friday night, and I spent most of Saturday and Sunday installing the baseboard. Oh so many miter cuts! Looks good finished though, at least IMHO.





I went with 7-1/4" tall baseboard, which meant I had to cut it flat on the saw. Not ideal, but no other alternative really without ripping and I wasn't going to do that. New saw with dual-bevel, slide, and laser really helped a lot.

I'm just going to use the same baseboard kind of like a casing at the front. This should frame out the screen well and I'll attach my cloth-covered fabric panels from there to the screen wall. I added a plinth block at the base and might do some kind of a corbel at the top. I'll need something that the crown can butt up to there also.



At the back of the room, I went ahead and created the baseboard to go around the plenums that flank the bar area and have the rear subs enclosed. I made them up as one piece, gluing and pin nailing them together. I will mount after I tile so I don't need to use a quarter round. I left a long notch in the middle to hold a fabric covered panel that will slide in and cover the opening. BTW - The opening is not centered, but after the panel goes up it will look that way.







Well, that's where I am for now. Lots more trim to come. I also need to build out the four steps (two on each side) and then finish off the baseboard around them.

Let me know what you think!

Question - What's the best thing to fill in the gaps around the door rough-in and the door jamb that's the best for soundproofing? I know I just can't cover up with the casing and leave it hollow. I'll ask Ted as well when I order the seals.

Making some decisions on color schemes and such. All opinions welcome. We moved on the carpet already and ordered it, so hopefully the majority agree with our call. I still welcome any thoughts.

Carpet

Was leaning one way and then switched. We've always thought we'd go the red-route and we did. We were going with a black/brown background carpet from Stanton, but changed to and ordered the following carpet from Kane. Very much the same construction and make-up as the Stanton. This is the French Scroll style and I really like the color name... Sultan's Palace! Maybe I'll rename my HT to that!

Here in black from manu's site:



Color swatch from manu's site:



Actual sample although iPhone LED flash made it look brighter red than it is.

Wallpaper

We are looking to wallpaper the center sections of the four "bumps", two on each side and the front angled walls on each side of the screen. The center sections of the "bumps" are 22" wide with 2" returns, so this should give it a bit of a column look. The angled front walls are about 34" wide after taking into consideration the large molding I plan to run up the edge.

I'm concerned about the wallpaper at all on the bumps, but the paper at the front will be in the "viewing cone" if you will. That being said, the wall itself sits back about 2 feet from the screen and there will be black velvet panels between the wall edge and the screen. Then there's the 7-1/4" molding before the wall paper would start and only be about 34" wide. I think I'm okay since the walls angle away (see prior photos) from the screen on anything reflecting back. There will be some, but I don't think it will be much.

But I'm open to any and all thoughts. Main reason being the wallpaper has a subtle gold metalic in it. So here's a pic of it below.

We are thinking of going with a darker, goldy brown for the paint on the rest of the walls. Not sure of trim color yet.

Wife's hand helps give you the scale of it, which I believe fits well with the 9'-11' ceilings.

Thanks! If I had to cope, I would have absolutely no trim! This took long enough.

Carpentry

We signed off on some designs for the back wall bar and the sit-down bar/third row. Planning this in a slightly distressed finish mahogany like the family room wall. Made a few modifications from this design in an effort to make it look more like a single hutch unit than just kitchen cabinets.

Countertop will be the same for the wall bar and the third row. Depth of the third row "box" will be ~20"

Made as much headway as I can on cleaning and setting up the AV Rack and Closet. I have to leave a few spaces out on the left side in order to reach in and turn on my lights. I haven't done the electrical finishing work including hooking up the two Grafik Eye units that are located in the closet. I just reach in and turn on a couple of standard switches.



I created a single articulating support to carry all of the lines from the closet to the rack. Just made it out of 1/2 EMT conduit and strapped lines to it. Added hinges on each end and split it in the middle. I mounted the same 1/2" EMT conduit to the walls to help tidy things up



Pretty pleased with the neatness of the cabling. I have a few to tie down here and there, but for the most part it's done.

Thank you both! I knew it was a lot of work to tie down everything do neat, didn't expect all those hours and hours. At least it doesn't look like a rat's nest!

Paint!

Finally getting around to putting up some color and these white walls. Painted black (Mouse Ears) all around the enclosed area of the soffit for the star field. Felt like I was painting death.

With a lowered crown going all the way around below the soffit on the side walls by only a couple of inches, I went ahead and painted the soffit and the area behind the crown. This will be a lot easier than trying to paint after the crown is up. I'll be installing rope lighting behind this crown.

The soffit color is a deep blacky-blue (Behr Starless Night UL230-1), although the one photo with the flash on makes it look far more blue that it really is.

Some images...

More Trim

Picked up another load of trim last night (20 16' pieces) which should do it. All total I'll have about 40 16' pieces of trim in the room before it's all said and done.

Just finished putting up one side wall worth of the inverted base which the crown will be mounted onto. All those nasty angles again. The "bumps" look really neat and different, but man are they time-consuming and a pain.