My "Out of Africa" theater is "FINISHED" - Page 4

Thanx RT. It sounds very loud but I hope it will quiet down when everything is covered in fabric and accustic panels is in place. Anyway it'll only work once at the beginning of the movie so it won't be too bad I think

The panels is only controlled with the remote for now. I'll put on the microswitches when the panels is covered with velvet.

I'm glad you like it RT!

Thank you calimark.

I'll post more details as we go along.

Thank you stockmonkey, much appreciated.

Here's a couple of pics to show how i've screwed a piece of wood to the back of the frame where the screen material will be stapled to.




Now that the masking system is working and all the big construction work is about finished for now, it feels like I'm going into a state of not knowing what to do next. Kind of an anti-climax perhaps.

I see there's something done that I have'nt posted the pics of yet. Here is the front left and right columns in place. You'll note that they are basically the same shape as the rest of the columns, but only a bit narrower as to not overpower the stage and screenwall. Also their grilles will be on a 45 deg angle angled towards the screen - something like this [/ \\] to "pull" the eyes toward the screen.




And here's a shot of the whole screenwall as it looks with columns.

Hi Stockmonkey, the pics have caught up a long time ago with the build! I had to do some other stuff this past few days, but have done a few things since then in the HT - will post pics soon!

RT, it's weird but yes, I sometimes just sit in the HT on the riser and watch the masking opening and closing (just to make sure it still works! )

I got a nice surprize this morning when I arrived at work this morning. My LED downlights have arrived. There's 15 of them - 3w 220v dimmable 3 led. The sales lady said they were equivelent to 40W halogen lights in brightness. I opt for the warm white ones since I don't like the white light that LEDS usually cast. I'll check them out tonight as soon as I get home.

I've installed the step-lights on the steps. They are also LEDs. I devised a plan to easily retrieve the wires after the carpet is laid over the holes. I took a piece of black hard plastic pipe and screwed 2 deck screws next to each other at the one end and into the step. (The pics will explain better) The wire goes in between the 2 screws and the connector block prevents it from pulling back into the step. After the carpet is laid I'll just cut a hole into it and find the wires in the pipe





Here's one of the light connected to the wires with the connector block.


And finally installed, albeit temporarily till the carpet comes ONE DAY.



And it's WORKING!!



And with lights off:

Oh yesssss, and another thing, while we're on the subject of me doing NOTHING and being idle and work catching up to pics and .............

Just to proof you wrong, ..................some more pics!!

Here I put up the styrofoam ceiling panels to cover the ugly nutec ceiling between the soffit and where the star ceiling will go, and also, you've guessed it ....... styrofoam cornice. Yes you've read correctly STYROFOAM. It seems here in SA we don't care much about safety and combustable building materials. If there were a fire, God forbid, the ceiling will be gone in a FLASH but luckily my brick walls will still stand





And a close-up of the tiles and pattern on it.


I'm not sure if I should paint the woodgrain pattern or leave it as is. I think there must be a light colour for the strip lights to reflect of, not so? What do you guys think? I'm thinking of leaving it as is and keep the side of the soffit white as well. I don't think there will be much reflecting from the screen since it wil be in an "alcove".

BiG, what colour do you think will work good enough to show off the colours of the strip light but also look nice with my black and red theme?

The soffits is painted with wood primer and the screenwall with black paint.



Another thing done is the fixing of MDF strips to the walls to secure the columns to once they're covered with fabric. I just stuck them down with with liquid nails and drilled holes for anchor plugs, but the liquid nails is SO STRONG that I doubt that I'll use the anchor screws.



It is NOT nice to haul every column out of the room by oneself
I took them all to the garage to remove about 2cm from the top of each column to make it easier to put in place once the fabric in pulled over. I also used a sander to smooth over all the rough edges in prep for the "fabrication".

Here's one of all the MDF strips stuck to the walls. Sorry for out of focus pic.



Here's the fresh air inlet in the back corner ontop of the riser - there's another one in the opposite corner.


Finally, all columns back in their spaces and the room cleaned out. From now on all cutting, sanding and dirty jobs will be done in the garage and not in the room any more. Fabric and dust don't go well together (hope I can keep the place clean)





PS. I Love This Hobby

Oh no , all that white paint is just an undercoat/woodprimer. The area under soffit above screen will be very truly BLACK as can be, as well as all the other undersides of the soffits.

To quote myself:

I'm not sure if I should paint the woodgrain pattern or leave it as is. I think there must be a light colour for the strip lights to reflect of, not so? What do you guys think? I'm thinking of leaving it as is and keep the side of the soffit white as well. I don't think there will be much reflecting from the screen since it wil be in an "alcove".

I was just thinking of the side of the soffit and the section of styrofoam tiles above it, to be white/lighter to reflect the light form the strip light in the crownmoulding that will be put around the perimmiter of the soffit. I don't really want it to be white but don't know what other colour wil show off the different colours of the strip light

Sorry if it caused any confusion

Thank you very much guys. This thread kinda works like a weight-watchers or weight-less program in the sense that it keeps me working 'cause there's folks checking up on my progress

Thanks Big, I'll see if I can find something simmilar in SA.

Some progess.

I've been busy with the downlights and their panels. Here's some pics of the downlights all wired up and ready for the panels.




And here they are working.


This is the downlight holders that I got. The 8 under the soffits is square and satin chrome, while the 4 under the proscenium is round and gun metal colour.





The pieces of the frames is cut form MDF and ready for assembly. There is 6 long ones and 2 smaller ones.



Here's the first two being clamped:


And here's the two mini-me's in a thight situation!


After whatching glue dry for a while, eventually all frames are ready for the next step.


All the frames will be covered with black velvet at a later time. For now I put the holders and the lights in - I'm very happy with the results



I've angled the lights towards to wall so that they'll light up the wall panels later.


And a closeup in the dark.


The lights illuminate the room quite nicely now, but I think it will look much darker when about everthing in the room is black and the only other colour will be the red panels. I hope it's not too dark. The reflection of the light from the proscenium downlights on the screen will also light up the place better I think.

Thanx Greg,

Yep Bobbejaan = Baboon

That's me.

Do you know Afrikaans or Afrikaans people. MANY (more than 1 million) Afrikaans speaking white people has left the country in the last decade or two since the new government came to power. Most of those folks went to Aus or New Zealand so it's possible that you may know someone from here.