The Timelapse Theatre - Planning n' Build Log

Oh, hi there!  This theatre is just about "finished" as of 11/2012 but the project is very much an ongoing thing.  It's my hobby.  Since I wrote this first post I've morphed the design and overall concept quite a bit.  The video archive and Table of Contents in the next post down does a pretty good job of showing you my progress.  All of my videos are produced in timelapse which, as you'll see has also progressed in quality since my first attempt.

 

Thanks for dropping by!

 

Here are photos as the project stands in January 2013.  Note: these photos show XBMC using the Metropolis skin.  I normally use the Quartz skin for its understated elegance but it's not nearly as showy as Metropolis!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Room: 24'-4" x 16'-8" with 8'-1" ceilings.  Single 5/8" drywall direct to stud (standard) w/ R30 in walls and ceiling.  Soffits are drywall over wood w/ IC 4" cans and R30.

• Screen: Seymour Center Stage XD acoustically transparent.  139" diagnonal viewed from ~ 12 feet
• Projector: JVC RS45
• Speakers: Meridian DSP 5000 24/96 (L,C,R), Meridian DSP 5000 16/44 (SL,SR,RL,RR), Two LFE Lil' Mike Cinema F20 (15" horn-loaded subwoofers)
• Electronics: Behringer DSP1000 (subwoofers), Meridan 568.2mm Surround Processor, Meridian 562v.2
• Sources: Mac Mini running XBMC Eden, Samsung Blu-ray, Apple TV 3rd Generation, Logitech Squeezebox
• Infrastructure: Synology DS1812+ NAS hosting ~6TB of (LEGAL) media, DLink and Apple Gigabit switches
• Rack: Middle Atlantic
• Power Management: Too many power strips.  Soon to be ETA sequencer or similar.
• Power Draw: ~950w in use, ~300w in standby (unacceptable!)
• Lighting: 8 overhead LED 6" fixtures, 21 perimeter 4" fixtures w/ 40w incandescents.  Lutron Diva LED Dimmers.
• Control: Crestron QM-RMC, Crestron Mobile Pro G App for iPad, Custom software, XBMC-Commander app, Apple Remote app, iPeng app (for Squeezebox)
• Seating: Palliser sectional.  Seats 5 for a movie but 4 is more comfortable.

• Acoustic Treatments: 2" Linacoustic RC ductliner on screen wall, bass traps coming soon
• Paint: Restoration Hardware 'Charcoal' (soffits, rear wall, closet door, trim), Restoration Hardware 'Shore' (walls), Behr 'Mouse Ears' (ceiling, rack corner, exterior door)
• Decoration:  Custom-designed CNC carving on two sheets of MDF 3/4" (rear wall).  Finished in clear satin finish.
• Future: Bass trapping (right of stage behind panel), reflection absorption (2" Linacoustic behind custom-printed 19th century map of London)

Edited by jdanforth - 4/28/13 at 7:24pm

If you are just joining us then I'll save you some hassle, run-on sentences and give you the Reader's Digest Condensed version. The videos are available in HD if you're so inclined to click through to Youtube.
 

 

And Finally... A Tour of the Finished Theatre

 

A few people have asked about my process for making the timelapse videos. It's pretty involved but I outlined it in this post.

Edited by jdanforth - 4/28/13 at 7:44pm

I thought that I'd add a little more information. This room is "finished" in our new house and is down in the basement. Well, it *is* the basement, really.

Sound Proofing
Before I decided whether or not I need to apply double drywall, green glue, etc. I am going to hook up the speakers and pump up the jams. If I can perform this experiment while my wife and son are asleep then I will have my answer!

Equipment Choices
All I own at this stage are one pair of the Meridians. I'm open to suggestions for projector, anamorphic lens, scaler/video processor, screen material, etc.

Appearance/Design
The rendering of the waffle-wall is STRICTLY for reference. The actual piece of art from Dharmesh will be quite different from what you see up there. The basic idea is to build a solid false wall, paint it black (or, if money allows, add an absorption layer and black GOM or something), and apply the dark-gray interlocking pieces onto it.

That's a good question. I had originally planned for the false wall so that I could use an AT screen but then somebody talked me out of it based on audio quality, moire problems, and cost.

Since there's a door on that wall (with a window in it no less) I knew I could center the screen on the false wall and make the window in the door an un-problem. Does that make any sense? haha!

I don't know now. I'm doubting my layout every time I think I've decided on something. I guess that's part of the process?

Now I'm thinking about rotating the entire thing 90 degrees and putting the screen on the long wall opposite the door in the alcove (the entrance door). I think I might scrap have to go back to the drawing board altogether.

Thanks for the tip on seating. I was struggling to figure out how to make the wide dimension work. Also your build is great. I love the B&Ws! I sold them for years and loved having my own. Special thanks for the great detailed photos of your masking solution on your DIY screen.

I was planning to go curved but I see you have flat. Any reason you did that other than, I assume, it was an easier build? What is the width?


Really? I don't understand. I suppose woven would be better than microperf and neither would be better than no barrier but I'm just going on my gut instinct. Color me curious!


Yeah, I think that will be best.


As a photographer (specializing in a weird, out-dated method) I am well aware of cash-flow black holes! I did put two center channels in there but I never considered the consequences. I only put it in there because I knew that I'd have to buy another pair and that the unused one would get lonely. It would make a rad iPod dock though! hahaaha!

Thanks for the tip!


SAGE advice! I'll consider the dishwasher in the kitchen above, AC, etc. now in the design.

Thank you all for your responses. This is quite a learning experience for me.

I've placed revised drawings in the first post based on the excellent feedback I've heard from you all so far.

I decided that the false wall was unnecessary because I'm not planning AT anymore and I decided that I wanted to leave the exterior door accessible for emergencies and for easy hot-tub access. :-) I saw BIGmouthinDC's post about the linacoustic and fabric in this post and I think that's a great idea.

I'll need to re-carpet the whole room anyway so that linoleum won't be a problem.

Moving the wall back gives me four more feet to play with so I'm liking the idea of integrating a riser now. I lowered the screen to 24" off the ground, put the first row at about 10'-10" from the 130" wide 2.35:1 curved screen (too close, maybe?) and the second row at about 16'-6" from the screen on top of a 10" high riser.

I can't imagine where I'll come up with Berkline money but the riser dimensions will help in picking out seats!

I also switched to the idea of using a standard center channel speaker instead of a pair of towers. This is good because I can lower the screen and nip a potential sound problem in the bud early.

Another addition is a soffit but I'm not sure if it will be necessary.

Wow, thanks for the insight, Dennis. Out of curiosity, you're not talking about the epically-weird Meridian 518 DSP, are you? But you're right, I don't own it.

I'm going to rethink the AT screen idea based on your feedback. I think I have to see one in action to see if the moire annoys me or not. Who knows, I might not be able to see it at all. I certainly like the idea of a stealthy installation.

I've been busy since my last post thinking deeply about the room and designing a new wall/ceiling treatment in 3D CAD. My working inspiration is this restaurant designed by Office dA in Boston:



More images here: http://www.yatzer.com/BANQ-restaurant-by-Office-dA

At this point I'm thinking about building something very similar but lining the space between the ribs with an absorptive foam and using a darker veneer (walnut, wenge, tiger-stripe bamboo, something like that). Before I decide how much and where to put the foam, though, I'll put an RTA in the room for proper measurements.

I'm a little concerned that the wall/ceiling treatment will render the room a little claustrophobic but that can be tweaked. As long as I don't extend the ribs more than a few inches off the wall/ceiling I think it should be fine.

HAHA, thanks. I'm trying very hard not to screw it up! It's hard putting a design like that into the scale of my room. I'm mocking it up in Rhino with Dharmesh's help.

I'll laser cut a scale model of the space a couple times to hash out the design, of course, but the acoustics will be tricky. Thus the RTA...

I now agree that an AT screen is most compatible with my vision. I'll work on a larger floor plan and post it. I'm starting to have some questions about HVAC planning, softly design, etc. I'm sure that will come in handy.

The riser is tricky. The entrance to the room might present a challenge. When I get the floor plan up I'll need some advice on riser design.

Thanks for the offer of a visit! Your build is beautiful and I'd love the opportunity to see the fine detail in person. I've been disappointed that there isn't more local interest in the Raleigh-Durham area. Upstate SC is pretty close, though!

I had a nice conference with my friend Dharmesh about the design and he gave me some really great pointers. My plan now is to lay out the entire room (speaker locations, screen, seating, HVAC returns, light fixtures, rack, etc. and only then begin to design the sliced wall/ceiling feature. I have to do it this way so that the feature can wind around all of those fixed things.

I've been thinking very hard about that. The structure will diffuse really well but I don't know how I can model it before building it. My hope is that the ribs will diffuse, the lining between them (OC703 or whatever) will absorb, and I'll be OK.

Hello again, everyone! I haven't forgotten about this project... life has been getting in the way!

I have been doing a lot of thinking about this theatre design over the past few months and I'm starting to have serious doubts about the acoustic properties of the installation. I had been working on the idea that the piece would serve as a combination diffuser/absorber where the walls would basically be lined with OC703 and then the MDF construction would go down on top. I'm not sure how this will work acoustically and I can't afford to do too much in the way of testing.

So I'm starting to ease off on the idea because I don't want it to sound horrifying. Here is a floorplan view that shows the naked room. I'd like your input on what I should do in here!



The main entrance is down those stairs and around the corner into the room. If you turn left at the bottom of the stairs there is a door out to the garage. There is a door at the top left of the floorplan that goes outside to the deck and hot tub so I'd like to keep that to make the room more useful as a hangout and not just a theatre space. I can't figure out how to integrate the screen on that wall while keeping the door though.

There are nine can lights in the popcorn drywall ceiling and about a hundred zillion power outlets along every wall. I would rather not remove the drywall and start from bare studs.

Go!

Thanks very much for your input, jcthornton and Tedd! I've been evolving this room a bit in my mind and talking it over with my wife. I showed her the floorplans that you mocked up, Tedd, while we were down in the room.

I started taping off distances and layouts and we both were thinking that the room felt like it should be less of an endpoint room (meaning a theatre with a hiddenish door to the hot tub) and more of a destination relaxation space with easier access to the hot tub door. If that makes sense!

Anyhoo, here are a few images to prove that I've been working and a revised floorplan idea! Haha!

Screen Wall:


Screen wall With approximate taping of 122x54 viewable dalite cinema contour:


Latest Iso showing stage, & screen wall.


I have not given up on the idea of the waffling but my current plan is to put the design on the ceiling. Using this approach I'm planning to do the more typical fabric-covered walls with absorption going up about 36" off the floor.

Something like this


or this


I'm also considering putting columns up to house the rear and side channels since that seems cleaner than putting them in the walls. Three of the walls are exterior so I'm reluctant to cut them and risk screwing up the vapor barrier (again). Any tips on columns?

I have some questions about the stage plan. It seems to me that the stage should be decoupled from the walls to reduce vibration throughout the house. When I build the stage, fill it with sand, and then build the screen wall on top of that I'll have to attach the screen wall to the stage and to the room walls/ceiling. Wouldn't that make a "short circuit"? How tall should I make this thing? I was planning on 6 inches.

Finally, here's a quick and dirty virtual tour that I threw together. Pardon the mess; we just moved in!



Thanks!

Thank you. It's still hard to believe that it's mine! My last house was 1049 square feet. This one is 2700! I literally found a closet a couple weeks ago that I had forgotten about.


That's a good point. Now that I think about it I think that I'll replace that door with something that's more befitting the room and move the window door to the top of the stairs. The top of the stairs has an interior door on it now that leads to the kitchen. That door is a sieve for sound... It wouldn't be hard to acid-etch or sandblast that glass with a cool pattern either.


So I'll frame out the front AT wall and then affix it to the building structure with either RISC clips or a layer of some dense rubber? I built a sandwich of three different VEP sheets when the washer and dryer were installed. That stuff really keeps down the vibration. Would you use RISC clips instead of rubber if you had to do it again?


Yes, the room is a walk-out basement.


Thanks! That may just be the most fun part of this project...