Working on my thoughts and ideas for the theater to discuss with Dennis to incorporate into the HT room. Fixed I'd post this to see if anyone else had anything I missed.
1. I would like to stay in a budget of about 20-25K all in at all possible. All of the labor will be done by me, except for maybe the HVAC portion. The ceiling is a truss system.
2. I plan on tearing out all the existing carpeting, trim, electrical and drywall, starting at the studs, although I believe the ceiling is insulated, but can do whatever is required. HVAC is already in the room (two supplies, no return). I don't know how much air is being pushed through it.
3.The room is situated under the foyer and formal dining room, both with hardwood floors and area rugs.
4. The basement is completely finished, except for the workshop and storage/mechanical area. To describe the perimeter areas the HT room would touch: Outside of the current room entrance is a larger open basement room. Across from the theater doors is a bedroom (not used) and the entrance wall is shared with a bathroom wall. The right side of the theater is the stairs to the basement. The left side wall of the room is a panic room with a door to it in the rear corner by the entrance. This room exists under the front porch and runs the length of the theater room. It is all concrete. The ceiling is insulated, I expect under the insulation you'll find steel/metal where concrete is poured over it for the porch. There is no HVAC in this room, only one electrical outlet/switch combo at the moment. I thought that this may be a good location for equipment if I can run electric and HVAC in there. Opposite the entrance wall (right corner) shares the wall with the workshop. I'm currently finishing out that space, but have left corner alone in case equipment needs to go there, under the stairs, etc. I'll be easily able to have the HVAC run through this area and circuits for the room.
5. There are four of us – two adults, two children (son 13, daughter 11). 80% of the time, the room will be used by me (for me its movies (70%), HDTV (25%) – Comcast at the moment, gaming (5%)). 10% of the time is me and one/both kids watching a movie or TV. The last 10% it'll be my son gaming. Xbox 360, Wii (not much use) and a future PS3.
6. I would like to have home theater leather recliner seating for at least four. I was thinking about giving up the second row and platform for a counter with stools. One reason for this would be because of the placement of the panic room door and it's impact on a platform. Not against a second row, but may not work out.
7. The theme/design of the basement – it's pretty plain now, but my intent is to transform the space into a loft, warehouse or industrial sort of feel. I'm planning on doing a few walls in brick veneer, would like to install some faux wood timber beams with black iron bracing, do some old wood or tongue and grove on the ceiling, old style fixtures – with the old school clear crazy filament exposed bulbs (
http://public.fotki.com/bketterl/chi...rod691169.html), old looking wide wood flooring. I have a lot of old movie posters, a 1950s pay phone, a 1940s barber chair, old sports memorabilia, tins signs, etc. I'd like to continue some of that theme into the theater room. I'd like the room to have wood accents – in fact, I would like to see something like this:
http://public.fotki.com/bketterl/chi...mg-0804-1.html including the coffered ceiling (maybe not the dental molding) and fiber optic ceiling panels incorporated. I don't like the carpet and I would probably not use that red, but not opposed to a red.
8. Technology wise. I do not have any equipment at this time. I'd like to go 2.35:1 AT screen, maybe with a masking system (manual or remote), I'd like to integrate the lighting into scenes on the remote and use an iPad as a remote. I don't have other equipment picked out, but previously used a Panny AE400 before with a Yamaha receiver (RXV2700) and Ascend Acoustic 340SEs for the front channels. I did the side and rears with Sonance TR220s in ceiling (in the soffit due to constraints) and had an Hsu sub. Not the top of the line, but It sounded good to me. I'm open to suggestions on the speakers especially (within a budget) and have not kept up with the projector technology since the last build. I was fine with the Panny and could do something similar. I'm sure what your thoughts are on this project versus something that would require a anamorphic lens. I like the MA racks, would like to have enough room for the kids gaming consoles and room for expansion, maybe a HTPC.
Did I miss anything?
Bud
