New House: Media Room Conversion to Dedicated (Small) Theater

EDIT: purchased the AVS "Pro Theater Layout"

Equipment (updated, currently planned):
Room: 14' x 14.5', located on the second floor; floor and all walls insulated using cellulose sprayed insulation; riser is 5'6" deep and 10" high.
Speakers: Triad InWall Silver LCR; InWall Bronze/4 Surround; downgraded to Bronze Surround per Shawn's recommendation.
Sub: Triad CinemaPlus Silver (front) + InWall Bronze/6 DSP (first right column)
Screen: 2.39:1 100" wide (Enlightor 4K AT screen)
Projector: JVC 55U recommended by Shawn from the Erskine Group.
Receiver: Denon AVR-4311CI
Amp: The LCRs will be powered by an Emotiva XPA-3 while the surrounds will be left to the receiver (optional).
Rack: Middle Atlantic AXS-20 32U
Power: (1) 15A dedicated circuit for rack + (1) 15A circuit for the rest of the outlets.
Lighting: Lutron Grafik Eye QS 3-zone for wall sconces, cans and rope light.
Control: GLOBAL CACHE GC-100-18R, iRule app
Seating: (2) rows of (3) chairs, Fortress Californian
Acoustic Treatments: Quest panels as specified by AVS "Pro Theater Layout"

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Hello,

We are building a new house that comes with a Media Room. We are planning to convert this into a dedicated (small) theater. The room is 14' x 14.5' with sloped ceiling to 9'. I am attaching a drawing and looking forward to your critique.

The first seating row will be at approximately 8' viewing distance and the second row will be against the back wall. Due to the small room and seating arrangement I believe we need to go with dipole speakers for side and rear surrounds. Currently looking at Triad Silver LCR and surrounds. For subwoofer I am planning a 500W A5-350 Elemental Design that already own.

Given the short viewing distance for the front row I decided against an AT screen thus having to place the center speaker horizontally below the screen.

The raiser is 10" tall and 5.5' deep, a compromise again due to the small room dimensions.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.


--Sebis

Thank you for your feedback and suggestions, all great advice.


I did in the model home, I am attaching a picture. Their screen was smaller but it was 16:9 and I am planning for 2.39:1 with mainly Blu-ray playback.


Unfortunately the builder wanted twice as much to make the riser above 10" in height. Indeed, I am planning for non-recliners on the second row, making the riser shorter is not an option, again due to builder issues. If this was a custom home or Build on Your Lot I would have made the room at least 3 feet longer.


The plan is to build the screen after I get the projector and test it in the room, I may make it smaller.


Thanks again, this was my original plan but now I am thinking that an AT screen will look bad from 8' viewing distance. I checked on Seymour AV website and they are not recommending an AT screen at this distance: http://www.seymourav.com/screens.asp. I will certainly take my time with this build, however, I have to meet with the builder in few days and need to decide on the exact location for speaker drops, sconces and outlets. Otherwise they will charge us $500 to change our mind on anything

Thanks Jeff, I plan to be-friend the project manager , I already invited him to our cabin.

Regarding the speakers, I decided to go with an AT screen, spoke with Seymour and their 4K screens are no problem at 8'.

I may need to go smaller than 100" wide but since my screen will be 2.39:1 thus I can sit closer than on a 16:9 screen. THX guidelines recommend 2.4 x IH, for a 100"x42" screen this translates into 100", little more than 8'. To quote Gary Lightfoot on this forum:


Am I reading this wrong?

--Sebis

Thanks Jeff, I may take you up on your offer, I live in the same town small world.

I decided to go with the AVS Pro Theater Layout at this point, I decided that I know enough about this process to realize that I need professional help

Sebis

The house construction is on the way :
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

I had my first call with Shawn from the Erskine Group and he made few recommendations that will most likely impact the equipment I initially selected, especially the projector. The recommendation is to downgrade to Triad Bronze for surrounds and put the savings towards a better projector like Runco LS-HB. This projector is more than twice as much as the Epson I was considering and the difference in cost for the speakers will not cover it. However, I started reading on the projectors and I am now inclined into spending more on the projector, maybe I can find a demo model with low hours.

Ryland is our builder, the floor plan is Rhapsody.

Re your speaker location, in ceiling is not ideal, did they leave enough slack to get them lower? You should look at the Triad InWall speakers, I think they are perfect for small rooms where there are space constrains. If you have to keep them in ceiling your best bet are the InCeiling Bronze/8 LCR for fronts and InCeiling Bronze/8 Satellite for surrounds, again not ideal. Unless your drops are on a ceiling slope, in that case I am not sure anymore. You should hang around on Triad owners thread, lots of great info there. Good luck with your plans!

Question: what type of wire they used for your subwoofer drop?

--Sebis

Some progress



Stairs to the media room and my better half that is making this possible:

Here is what paying the professionals gets you:

BEFORE...




...and AFTER :



Looking forward to getting this project started. I do need ideas for placing the two wall sconces and two can lights we already provisioned with the builder, where should they go?

Thank you Jeff, great advice as always . I may add two more cans over the front row as well. I am also planning to run rope-lights in the soffit and maybe 3 low voltage lights right in front of the screen underside of soffit.

I am a little torn with the sconces location, the specs for the acoustic panels placement takes the top to 5'6", this leaves only 1'6" to the soffit. The light will certainly fit but I am not sure if I will be satisfied with the results.

I am attaching the right elevation for reference.



I want to give my thanks to the Erskine Group in general and Shawn in particular along with AVS for making the "Pro Theater Layout" possible. This is the best $600 I spent on this new house (along with a custom window change with Ryland in the family room ). I highly recommended it to others, I learned a lot during this process and Shawn was very understanding, patient and accommodating. He even redid the plans to allow for pushing the screen further back and recommended a better subwoofer for my situation.

Thanks, there will be two subs: the main sub a Triad CinemaPlus Silver on the front wall behind the screen wall supplemented by a Triad Slim Sub/4 in the first right column as depicted in the right elevation above.

http://www.triadspeakers.com/cinemaplus.html

http://www.triadspeakers.com/products/iwss4.html

Media room is taking shape, they already build the raiser:



Game room next door, the closet on the left will house the rack:

Slight change in plans, Paul Scarpelli (Triad Dude) suggested to go with InWall Bronze/6 DSP Sub (much more potent than the Slim Sub/4 for only $100 and extra 2 inches in depth).

View to the back with riser, the holes in the riser are for filling it up with spray insulation:


Entrance to the room:


Front wall:


Right wall:


This is the custom window, $750 upgrade:

Before ... (in the model home):


...and after :

The electrical and low voltage wiring is completed, they did get some things wrong, hope to get them fixed before drywall.

Home run for wires and conduit, I am going to ask to spread it a bit vertically, seems too cramped.


Another view of the closet in the adjacent Game room.


Back wall with conduit for projector HDMI.


Conduit run in the future sofit, I asked for extra outlets in sofit, the two on the right are switched going to a 3 gang box for future Grafik Eye.


They got the location of the sconces wrong along with many other things, like installing surveillance camera drops within reach and completely ignoring my written instructions in some cases. So far a mixed bag, I hope for better results once I meet again with the superintendent ...

The front row will be at about 2.5 the screen height, entirely within THX specs, the back row is for guests