The Grove Theater and Basement Build - Page 31

Should be an interesting Super Bowl to watch. Just glad that the Pats will be sitting at home watching just like me.

I have some attic work in my future this week so I may bite the bullet while I'm up there and run the needed cables down to the basement. Then a call to the flippn' cable company...

My screen is 130" wide (viewable) 2.35:1 (141.3" diagonal). My first row is approx. 11' from the screen. I really enjoy the immersive feel.

Once I cover it with a little black electrical tape I think the controller and wires will pretty much disappear. That is once I actually get the real furniture in there which I have no idea when that will be. I agree that hiding it in this location is pretty tough when you need access to it and to have it ventilated.

Thanks for the compliment. I can't take credit for the nosing idea though because I "borrowed" it from the Cinemar build.

Did a little work on the columns on Saturday. Four of the six now have a top and bottom. Only two more to go. I need to take a few more pictures this evening and should have them posted tomorrow morning.

Good question. I ran short on my jumper wire so I need to pick up some more. Not sure if I can find the same stuff that I have been using at one of the home improvement stores. It is 4 conductor 18GA wire in a gray sheathing. If not, I will have to order some which means I probably won't have it until next week. I'm pulling the screen back down tonight because I have some additional wiring and treatments that need to happen back there. The controllers and power supplies for the column lights will be installed behind the front soffit so this will allow me to get in there and install these as well. Any thoughts on having the IR receiver for the LED controller behind the screen vs. up in the soffit tray with the can lights? I was thinking I could shoot right through the screen to the controller if the IR receiver was just hanging down behind the screen. One thing that worries me about that is the IR receiver is somewhat shiny so will it reflect behind the screen during a movie? That would be bad news because I will have 5 IR receivers back there potentially.

Just ordered another 50 ft of wire from the same source as all my other LED wire. This way it is all the same type and I don't have to worry about sourcing it elsewhere. In the past it has arrived pretty quickly so let's hope this time is no different.

Central Indiana. Exceptionally cold today (7 degrees F on my drive in this morning) but normally it's in the 20's, 30's. I would much rather go up there now than when it gets warmer. Sweating and insulation do not go well together. Spray foam would be nice but much harder to do retro work like I have to (I would think anyway). I have about a foot of blown in insulation to fumble through.

I don't really have a favorite in the game either. I could be happy with either team winning. If the Colts aren't playing I am pretty much a neutral party. The only things I root against besides whomever is playing the Colts are New England, Jay Cutler, and Philip Rivers.

Now for the picture update of the work I did on Saturday.

We started by wrapping a few more column pieces. As they were completed we installed them. Here is what went in to installing the upper column section.

Behind the top column section is a junction where the power for the LED light strips down each side of the column is distributed. Each strip gets a home run back to this box which is effectively a home run back to the controller/power supply.



These pictures are of one of the rear columns. It only has five wires in the box vs. six wires in the middle and front sets of columns. Just as a reminder for those following along, I have two power supplies and two controllers for the LEDs on the columns. Each side of the room is on a separate line so each controller/power supply sees the LED load for three columns.











Once the wires were all nice and neat is was on with the column section.



Here is a shot of the wires for the LEDs and the 12GA wire for the outlet leaving the lower column section and heading up to the upper column section. I will be adding wire clips to secure everything to the wall but at the time of this picture I hadn't found mine yet.





And the final (well almost) rear column.



The carpet guys also stopped by to correct the carpet on the step that was going the wrong direction.



And here are some current room shots. Four of the six columns have their top and bottom sections in.













Not sure if I will get to work on the theater this weekend or not. I have some other honey-do projects that are quickly being moved to the top of the list. If I do get down there it will be to try and finish more columns or finish some wiring behind the screen.

Thanks Spaceman. Would be nice if it was progressing a little faster but at least at this pace it doesn't feel like work.

If I can get my other projects squared away with the wife I will try and get some lights on the columns I have done. I'm really curious to see how they will look.

Thanks HSINGH. The treatments are 2" acoustic cotton on the side walls. Full height from the front wall to the first row. After the first row it goes up to 5' only. No diffusers or anything.

I'm happy with the way the riser turned out. Works well for my smaller room. Will do on the pictures.

It may be similar to the touch but it's properties are different. The cotton is pretty much only used for controlling acoustics in a room. I'm sure it has some thermal capabilities to it but it would be so cost prohibitive that it doesn't make sense. The jean material is an eco-friendly, person friendly insulation that you can use as an alternative to the fluffy pink/yellow stuff. Sorry, I don't have a cost for the cotton as my purchase was with a bunch of other items and I only got a lump sum and not individual prices. sitee is a site that I found on the web that might give you a little insight and pricing on the cotton.

Luckily it isn't going to hang around for long. I think we are supposed to be back up into the 20's and 30's starting today. Not sure how people deal with that kind of weather all winter.

I appreciate the compliment. Slow and steady at this point now that it is useable. Good luck with your build and make sure to post lots of pics. Everyone loves pics.

Thanks aaustin! I may get a chance this weekend to throw up a few lights on one to see how it looks. I won't make any promises though because I have lot's of commitments outside the house this weekend.

Will do RT. My free time this weekend is being drastically cut but I hope to find time to at least get one hooked up and tested. Will definitely post pics if it happens.

Well, as I suspected, my free time to work on the theater this past weekend was non-existent. I do have some available time this evening though and plan to get some LEDs up and running, WITH PICS!

After viewing a few films in the room, albeit uncompleted room, I have started giving real thought to revising my IB line array and trying to reduce the vibration to the upper levels of the house. I'm sure that over half of the vibration that is being transmitted up into the floor of the level above the theater is because the subs are directly connected to the walls and the IB-3 clips cannot dissipate that kind of energy. I sat down last night and was trying to find a way that I could put the drivers in a baffle that I could sit in the current chamber and not attach to any walls. It would exit through the current wall array in new cutouts (I would install two new layers of MDF with the new cutouts needed which would seal up the old holes). The issue I run into is the overall width of a baffle box would be about 19" to be able to fit between the current studs (subs firing up and down). I really don't want to tear out the current framing. Also, if I turn the subs on their sides then I have one firing right into the wall which I'm guessing would be very bad. So here is my idea that I came up with last night.



It wouldn't be the easiest box build in the world but I think I could do it. Does anyone see any drawbacks here? There would be two sets of boxes, one stacked on top of the other with a space in between them. The whole stack would be setting on a sand filled box to get it up to a height needed to clear the front stage.

Just trying to brainstorm ideas at this point. I am just worried that in it's current configuration that I will never get to fully utilize the capabilities of the FI's. Let me know what you guy's think.

Hey cuzed! Thanks! I will be happy once the columns are finally all wrapped and I can start putting in some of the panels on the walls. It's really going to start changing then.

Yes, unfortunately turning up the bass rattles windows, dishes, and the floor in our living room/kitchen which is above the theater/IB chamber. I don't have another sub in the house that can compare output wise but I almost bet that if I had a typical sub that sat inside the room and wasn't connnected to the walls that my soundproofing would work a lot better than it currently does with bass. I know that I will not be able to eliminate all bass leaving the room but I do think that I can eliminate some of the vibration transferring through the floor by removing the connection of the subs with the theater wall. I know my first pic didn't have a lot of detail as it was a brainstorm sketch but here is another sketch showing the transformation of the array wall as it sits today to what it would look like with the new baffles.



Basically I would cut out a large opening that would allow me access for getting the new baffles into the room. Then I would close up the larger opening by adding (2) pieces of 3/4" MDF (or a layer of 3/4" OSB w/ 5/8" layer of drywall and GG between, whichever would be best) to the existing array wall (making it 5 layers thick ) with cutouts (oversized by a 1/4" all around to allow me to caulk the gap, keeping the subs isolated from the old array wall) for the new baffle boxes.

This would definitely be an undertaking but I think it would allow me to get more out of the IB than I can currently (well, with the WAF anyway ). For those with IB experience, is there a difference in performance between a line array and a baffle array? Any change in the sound, volumn, thump to the chest, or ability to pressurize the room?

I finally found some time to mess around with the LEDs on the columns last night. Lot of trial and error but I ended the night with one column 90% complete. I have not fastened anything permanently yet because I wanted to see the effect of the final product.

Started off the night wiring in the Insteon In-Linc inline switch to control the outlet that these LEDs will be plugged into. The In-Linc and outlet are located behind the front soffit. I also located the power supply and LED controller behind the front soffit. Right now the IR receiver just hangs down below the soffit but I will have to find a permanent location for it later.

The LED wiring started with connecting my 18GA wire jumper to the controller. I cut the end of the LED strip off and got it ready to attach to the jumper wire.



Spliced it to the jumper wire which is also located behind the front soffit. Now it's ready to hook to the controller and feed power to the three columns on the left side of the room. All strips are efffectively home runned back to this main jumper wire that runs between columns. Figured this would help with potential voltage drop rather than daisy chaining everything together.



Now that I have power it was time to wire up my four extension wires on the column. Here is one sticking out the top right section of the column.



To connect the LED strips to my extension wires I used these splice pieces, cut them in half, and used one half for each side of the column section.



Spliced to the extension wire.



Cleaned up and ready to be pushed back into the column.



Do that three mores times and the column was ready for some LEDs and lots of pics!













And now in the dark!















So a couple of observations. The lights highlight the need for me to clean/touchup the sides of the column. The lights are bright enough that, once all columns are done, I could probably light the room with just them and see just fine to move around/find remotes (maybe not with them on red though). The lights actually fit in a small gap on each side of the column, the same gap that I used to bring the extension wires through.. I did not intend to install them like this (had planned to use the adhesive back to stick them to the black sides) but they seem to still give off good light and are not visible from the sides. I still need to work on the connectors at the top of each run but I think I have found my install location. Also, I need to make sure that they aren't covered by fabric at any point. Looking at the pics it appears that the left side has been covered slightly which interferes with the nice consistent light output that I am getting on the right side of the column.

Well, let me know what you guys think. Not sure when I will get the other two on the left side done but when I do I will try and get a full room view showing them.

Thanks TMcG! It is a lot of wiring but when I got them all working I forgot about the effort to get there and just sat back and enjoyed the glow. Those connectors look like they would make my connections easier. The only thing I have to worry about is I need a fairly thin bundle so that I can push the excess wire back into the column through a 1/8"-3/16" gap in the side. If I were to use those splices I might have to stagger my connections so that the connectors didn't line up. Next time I am at the store I will check them out though. By the way, a pack of $100 for $8 is a great return on investment!

I don't plan to put any in the middle section. It is going to be a simple rectangular section that will not have any overhang to hide lights behind.

Thanks snickers! I think the blue is going to be my default color. Having the ability to change the color anytime is great though. I can't wait to see the panels with the lights too. The panels next to the columns will be the first ones I do once I get to that stage. Should be interesting.

Thanks aaustin! By the time I get all the columns done and lights in the soffit, along with the riser step that is already done, you will need sunglasses to enter. They do add a wow factor and the fact that you can change the color anytime really trumps a standard rope light. I'm really looking forward to getting the soffit lights in. May have to put that on the schedule for this weekend.