Black & Gold Theatre Build

I am finally starting the build of my theater. After all the changes you guys helped me make on the initial floorplan, here is the one I am using:



I purchased green glue, whisper clips, acoustic sealant, putty pads, and the IB3 wall to ceiling connectors from www.soundproofingcompany.com. Great people to work with. You should visit their site to learn, then call them and send them a floor plan...preferably a clean one without all the extras such as lighting, wiring, etc. Just something to look at to get the gist of what you are saying. The stuff is not cheap, but some things should have good money spent on them, and sound control is one of those things.

The room is 21' x 12' (at the widest, 8' at the thinnest) by 7.9'.

First, here is what I currently have:



The Paradigm Millenium 20 Trio is actually my front center, left, and right. The two Paradigm 200 floor standers are my front wides.

Here is my contruction so far. I live in a townhome and the basement is cinderblock between the homes. For those who do not know, cinderblock is akin to a fluffy blanket in its ability to stop sound. I put up some poly for the walls first, as a vapor barrier andd for some slight sound proofing, they guy in the pictures is my friend Chris. He works industrial contruction. He has all the most sweet tools AND he knows what he is doing. I take care of his PCs and electronics - we have a great barter system going on:



He melted the tape into the extruded poly to ensure it had a great seal. I am amazed at just how much warmer the wall is already!





Then the beginning of wall contruction:

Notice how out of plum my original wall is, it touches the wall by the floor:



Here I am, holding up the wall. I am good at holding up walls.



More to come next week...we can only work on weekens.

My first two questions:

1. How high off the floor should the bottom of the screen be? Any recommendations? I am leaning towards either 18" or 24". Using the Riser Heigh Calculator with my distances, it appears each additional 6" to the top of the bottom of the screen redues 2 inches from height to the riser. Bascially 13" for 18" to floor and 11" for 24" to floor.

2. What screen ratio is recommended, 2.4 or 1.78? The room will be for both TV and Movie watching. I am leaning towards 1.78.

OK...I have been doing some reading over at projectorcentral.com. Here is a snippet from an article they did on this very subject:


http://www.projectorcentral.com/buil...ct_ratio_3.htm

I will be watching far more HD TV than movies, so I am going with the 16:9 ratio.

EDIT: This gives me a 93" (7.75 ') x 52" (4.3') screen, with a 107" (8.9') diagonal size.

OK...basic wall and ceiling color questions. The theme of this theater is the Pittsburgh Steelers. My wife loves them, and making her happy allows for the easy funding of the theater room. And who does not want a great space to watch football in, right?

So...I have to start thinking about colors. Is going black on the walls a bad choice? The room is small...will this make it appear even smaller? Should I go with a light colored wall instead? Will that reflect the projector's light?

Ugh...so many things to think about!

I have read through much of this section...but there is SOOO much here! That is not a bad thing, though.

Thanks for the links, I will look them over.

The gear is going inside the center of the stage. I am going to steal one of the stage ideas I saw here. The rounded front will be black tinted glass with upward lifting hinges. The gear will be behind that. I have a HTPC with an IR receiver and it will work wonderfully right there. It also allows for easy access to the physical BR drive for ripping my BRs. I store them all on a server for easy access.

I am going to try doing the painted screen like they talk about at Projector Central. I will put my speakers on the front of the stage and to the sides of the stage (front wides). If I do not like it, an easy fix is to build a false wall out a foot and put the speakers behind it and use a cloth screen.

After reading about putting masking tape on the wall to pre-stage a screen, and then put a chair where you will sit, I have changed my mind about the screen format.

I am going to go 2.40 ratio instead of 1.78. We will eventually put up a curtain which we will pull over the side bars to hide most of them, and open the curtain fully for movies.

The new screen size is 115" x 48" = 124' diag. This makes the 1.78 screen size 85" x 48" = 98". It does not really get much smaller, mostly because I have more width than height (which I also just read about).

I mocked up the drywall location, then made sure I have room for my front wide speakers, plus a little bit. If I end up having to shrink the screen an inch or two width wise, no big deal as the height will not change that much due to the ratio. I am doing all my planning based on the future purchase of the Epson 8350.

Those links, provided above, are a GREAT resource!

This then begs the question...how do I make the Epson display in 2.40 format, with the black bars on the side for 1.78? It appears I will have to zoom in and out, which means the Epson is out, since it is a manual zoom. Am I correct? Does this mean I need to get the 8700 UB and an anamorphic lense, or even a projector with a motorized zoom?

EDIT EDIT: I am trying to find a projector with both motorized zoom AND a memory for it...sigh...

Thanks! www.projectorcentral.com shows the PT-AE4000U not having a power zoom...so it does not appear in the list when filtered. Their review says it has it, though.

EDIT: When I mount a projector for CIH, do I mount it at the 1.78 distance (12' 9") and zoom in to make the 2.40 fill the screen, or do I mount it at the 2.40 distance (17' 3") and zoom out to make the 1.78 fit onto the screen?

EDIT EDIT: For others who may have the same question, you mount the projector, calibrate it, etc., for the 1.78 size. Then you setup the zoom, etc., for the 2.40 size.

Lights have been purchased and are on their way. Home Depot will let you use their In Store Only Moving coupon at the online store if you call them to place an order. Just say it is a 10% moving coupon and you cannot get it to work in the checkout window. They are happy to help.


http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25ec...kuId=202573203

I am putting in four of them, they will provide plenty of light. I am also going to do rope lighting for the steps...maybe more places for accents, but that will wait for later. I am going to put Steelers logo stickers on the lights, to help with the theme of the room.

EDIT: After my commercial construction friend looked over the new design and physically layed it out on the floor, he called it a no go. He said moving the step, per Tedd's suggestion several posts below, would make the new step too small and too much of a trip/slip hazard. He said raising the doorway and keeping the floor the same height (raised 6 inches) would cause a trip hazard leaving the room.

I am sticking with the door on the side wall, per the original post.

My question then becomes how to do the door? How large of a step outside the door do I need? I was thinking an inch or two...not enough to use but enough that you know you need to step down.

We would use the newly created space for a popcorn machine and a mini-fridge.


Also, here are more build pictures:

My friend Tim came over to help me out today. Since it was a nice day out, my friend Chris needed to work on his truck.


This is a tape mock up of the screen size.

The idiots who designed the house decided that a toilet would look just spiffy about 6 feet from the wall, in the center of the width of that area. It is going to be cut down and sealed at floor level, as well as the toilet rough in close to it.

Is swinging the door outward better than inward? I modeled it off the front door to my house...which swings inward and has an immediate step downward (of about 8 inches). I have never tripped out my front door due to the drop immediately after it.

Slow and steady...and if the rain ever actually stops for a few days I can get more supplies.

Definately. I called and worked closely with a guy (sorry, forget his name) from http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/. They are great to work with.

I am doing double drywall with greenglue between them. Due to cost limitations, I am only using 1 tube per sheet instead of the recommended 2 tubes. I am using whisper clips and hat channel for the ceiling. The walls are using the IB3 clips to isolate them from the ceiling. I have acoustic caulking to fill in the joints.

I am also using extruded poly on the concrete walls prior to building the wood walls, which will not be touching the concrete walls (room within a room). The extruded poly is more for insulation and vapor control than it is for sound isolution...but every little bit can help.

I have puddy pads for the outlets and will be doing an insulated ducting for the returns and supplies.

I will be carpeting the room as well and adding bass traps in the corners and first reflection absorbtion later on.

More work was done:

We removed the wall and put in some extruded poly...MUCH warmer.


Room is starting to look like a room.


My outer wall is so out of plum that I have to put in blocks to make a connection! The bottom of the wall is just an itty bitty amount away from the wall...



Moving onward!

I cannot...if I do then I MUST install a sprinker system throughout my house, due to the 2009 IECC/IRC being adopted in my state. STUPID STUPID STUPID addition. How many home owners will properly care for a sprinker system? Then, think about the leaks which will develop. Just stupid...and VERY expensive.