The Blue Pill Theater - An Erskine Production - Page 3

New pictures uploaded ! Someone earlier pointed me to how to upload pictures directly instead of using a link to photobucket so I went back and uploaded pictures to make it easier to view. Enjoy !

Some lights installed in the ceiling beams.



Screen wall is up.



More to come this week....

Ouch, I just looked and saw that it has been over 3 weeks since the last post. That is a reminder of how painfully slow it has been. It reminds me of watching a home being built. It's exciting to see the framing go up and see it take shape and then it looks like nothing is being done when that's the time the electricians, plumbers, carpenters are doing their work. It is a little like that but honestly there have just been days where nothing happened since a carpenter had to leave because of an old injury and have a doctor's appt or a painter was available but because the carpenter wasn't finished on time, he had to go to another job.



This was an interesting problem. There are arches on the side walls and rear wall. But the framing was such that we couldn't quite get the door to fit exactly in the middle of the arch on the rear wall. I was thinking of getting an arch shaped door to fit exactly in the arch but we didn't like the look of that door from the outside. The fabric in the arch is also recessed compared with the plane of the column but the door doesn't have that deep a recess. The solution involved pushing the door back a several inches and framing a curved section above the door that sticks out a bit to still give it a recessed look.

You will see two holes in the upper part of the door in the middle. The door is a solid core acoustical door I purchased from Dennis. The delivery company called to confirm it's delivery to our house and said I had a 400 lb shipment. Wow !

His plan shows a sconce hanging on the door so the door I bought has a conduit pre-drilled to allow for electrical wiring to extend from the edge of the door to the center to light the sconce. After installing the door, we had to re-drill another hole so that the sconce would be in the center of the arch since the door was not hung in the center of the arch as we originally thought it would.



Just another shot of the rear wall showing the wood finishings in the arch, baseboard and columns. Next step is painting (red, black and gold theme), then final electrical/equipment installation then carpet and chair delivery. Hopefully all that will happen in the next 2 weeks.

This shot of the rear wall does show that the top of the column is covering the opening for rear surround speaker. It's being re-cut and moved so the HVAC grill and rear surround are not covered by the column.

I can finally see the end. The Delicious Red GOM will be placed in the arch and on the column this weekend. The carpet should go in Monday or so. Chairs were delivered today and the final equipment install should be next week too.

By the title of the thread and quote from the first post, The Matrix will be the first movie to usher in the new era ! My 8 year old daughter is already making plans for her friends and my 15 year old son just assumed that it will be his gaming center. The fight begins ! I'm looking forward to season premiers of shows like The Walking Dead and Dexter.

Any interesting ways you've seen people do invites ?

My how time flies by ! I wish I could say that I haven't posted because I got wrapped up in watching a lot of great HD movies. The initial equipment install was supposed to be a 2 day job. We are now at 3 weeks just to install the equipment ! It does involve the theater equipment, living room equipment, and connecting the whole house audio speakers. The install company is about 60 miles away so the installers (2 guys) would come at 11 am and leave at 3 pm Monday to Friday....most of the time. I complained to the owner who got upset with the installers, came over to supervise and cracked the whip to get things moving.

A few problems to resolve before HD Nirvana can rest in our home

PROJECTOR CABINET


The bottom side of the projector opening was torn off while we were trying to remove the projector to troubleshoot a cable problem. I never tried to remove it before until I helped them and I saw how difficult it was because the opening is extremely tight against the projector. We are in the process of enlarging that opening and lowering it a bit.

PROJECTOR SHUTS OFF
Initially the projector ran fine for a few hours and then shut off without warning while watching blu-ray. I turned it back on after a few hours and it only lasted 15 minutes before shutting off. It may have been due to the blu-ray HDMI communication. I returned the bluray for another one and shut off the HDMI controls from the bluray and so far no problem. The vent on the top surface of the projector was also pushed against the underside of a fabric covered soffit which may have caused it to shut off too. Still working on fixing the cabinet so that it can vent properly.

Still waiting on the programing for the control system.

It is done........

No more construction. No more contractors. No more invoices !!

Simply stunning. I have a photographer coming by next week to take some shots since I'm no good at anything beyond an iPhone snap shot. I promise to post them as soon as I get them !

I still need to calibrate the projector. I bought it from an AVS member with about 1500 hours on the bulb. I'll hold off all judgements on the picture quality after calibration. Monsters vs Aliens in 3D is incredible though ! Broadcast HD doesn't look as bright and punchy though especially compared with the 64" Plasma in the living room. So I'll revisit this after calibration next week.

I'd like to thank Dennis Erskine for his professional design and expert knowledge. My condolances again go to Dennis for his wonderful assistant Rose Anne who passed away abruptly. She was a pleasure to work with. This theater began as a dream back in 2002 when we bought our first house and I picked up a magazine that had pictures of a dedicated home theater. I thought it was just for millionaires but I saw an article about David Bott who built one and that is when I first thought "I can do this !"

I'd like to thank Stephen Hann from Hann Construction in Houston was the builder who took on this project and handled it like a pro. He handled our concerns and multiple questions/requests with great poise.

I'd like to thank my wife Jessica for her enduring patience and for her interior design expertise. She pretty much took over the color coordination, carpet selection, sconces, seat leather, etc. This was her first official project after completing interior design school and I must say she did a great job !

And without further ado....

Drum roll please...........

Sorry for the delay. I must have turned off my email notifications and I didn't see any of the comments until now.

The equipment is as follows:
1.JVC DILA X70RBU projector
2.Panamorph F480SYS fixed anamorphic lens
3.Denon 1912 AVR
4.Lumagen Radiance Mini Video Processor
5.Vutec 110" cinemascope screen - acoustically transparent
6.Jamo IW 626 3 way in-wall LCR speakers
7.Jamo IW 606 SUR 3 way surround speakers
8.Jamo IC 608 LCR 3 way in-ceiling speaker (in rear soffit)
9.Polk CSW 155 in-wall subwoofer passive 10" woofer
10.Velodyne SC 602D 400 x 2 subwoofer amplifier
11.Furman Elite 15 I 15 amp linear filtering AC Power conditioner
12.DirecTV HR 34 HD receiver
13.Apple TV
Edited by Bitten by HT - 11/2/12 at 1:19pm

That was an ordeal ! The way we all imagined it was that I would have a nice arched door that would fit nicely into the arch pattern. The way it worked out was that the door (no matter the shape) was off-center from the arch. Then there was the issue of getting the electrical wires to the sconce on the door. I ended up getting a custom acoustic door from Dennis that is solid core with a pre-drilled hole from the jamb/hinge side to the center of the door. The center of the door is where the sconce was supposed to fit but once the door was hung, we saw that the sconce had to be moved over. Fortunately Dennis does this all the time and was able to walk the contractor and electrician through this process of hanging a light on a swinging door. It came out really well.