Aaron's Baltimore basement theater

Hey all,

I've been perusing the forum for a while now, and I just moved into a house which can accommodate a decent theater. The basement is mostly unfinished, with 7' 6" ceilings; I know, lower than I'd like.

Anyway, here is a picture of the current layout. The room in the top left is the only finished room.




Edit: Newest plan:




It's also narrower than I'd like, but I'm not moving the cement block wall. The good news is that most of the walls of the proposed theater are cement block. The "H"s represent support beams, next to which there is a lot of ductwork, so that's why I'm not planning the theater on the right hand side of the basement.

I plan on a 9'-wide screen, probably 2.35:1, and two rows of theater recliners, seating 5. Also, I plan on having bar seating in the back, and an AT screen. I feel I have the length for it, even if the width is limited.

A few questions:

How do you propose I orient the room? I've been assuming that I'd have the screen on the wall to the left, but I prefer to walk in at the front of the theater than the rear. Also, where do you recommend I put the door?

I'm sure I'll have a ton more questions as we progress, and I've set myself a deadline of Superbowl 2013 , so if I start falling behind I'll probably give BigmouthinDC a call.

Thanks for any input!

Aaron
Edited by AaronN - 1/23/13 at 4:57pm

This is what I'm thinking.



Any thoughts, concerns, recommendations, changes, etc?

Btw, those are bar stools, not toilets. There will be a bar in front of them.

That's a good point. I hadn't thought about it except that I decided I want to do 7.1 or 7.2. I have to figure out where I'm going to put the sides. I may just focus on the front row and let the back two rows suffice with what will amount to 5.1 if the "bump-in" blocks the sound from the side speaker.

Unfortunately it is load-bearing. We were going to move it anyway but my engineer told me not to as we're getting ready to add another story to the house, and want to leave the existing load-bearing walls where they are.


I voted for the room at the bottom of the stairs as well, but the wife vetoed it. Also, that room is already finished and has a bulkhead and I prefer to start with unfinished space.


I really like that. And as I mentioned, I prefer to walk in at the front. Thanks! That also makes speaker placement easier.

I'm getting ready to frame the rest of the basement, but I had a few questions first.

1. How much length do I really need to fit two rows of theater recliners, one row of bar seating, and an AT screen (8.5' or 9' wide, 2.35:1)?
2. Is a double wall that much better that a staggered stud wall?
3. For the walls of the home theater, do I secure the baseplates to the floor? Or does that mess with the decoupling somehow?

Thanks!

Bump. I can really use some help here, especially regarding question 1.

Thanks so much, Aaustin!

So this may no longer be the appropriate sub-forum for my build as it's no longer a designated room. The wife used her veto power. I thought I'd post an update anyway.

The new plans:



It's slightly off, but gives a general idea.

Demolition of the pesky wal. Looking towards the screen walll:






Framed. Looking towards the screen wall:





Small equipment closet on the right.




I just placed a large monoprice order for all my low-voltage stuff, and plan on wiring power and low-voltage within the next week or two. Then it's insulation, drywall, screen wall, riser, etc.

Any suggestions are more than welcome!

I just finished the wiring for the first five speakers, but I am a little stumped on where to place the rears. I am trying to avoid in-ceilings and floorstanding rears. I guess that pretty much leaves me with ceiling mounted bookshelves. The questions is, where should I place them. The sides will be above ear level next to the front row. Should the rears just focus on the front row? Or should they be behind the rear bar?

Any input is really helpful.

Thank you for the concern. All bottom plates that abut exterior walls are treated. The only wall that is completely untreated in the right wall along the theater. It was an oversight and will be corrected before drywall goes up. Thanks again!

Small update. Low voltage is wired. Started on the electrical.

Found a great deal on Berkline recliners on Craigslist, but not sure of the model. Does anyone know? I think I narrowed it down to the Bijou 45099 or the Astoria 45013.



Also, what wiring should I do to future proof? I current only have:

HDMI from equipment closet to projector.
Speaker wire to all 7 locations, and 3/4" Carlon conduit along side it.
2 RCA cables to the front, plus an extra coax.

I see a lot of people using cat 5 or cat 6; should I wire some, and why?

Thanks!

Thanks so much, Neurorad! That's exactly what I'm looking for. What diameter conduit is recommended to the projector location? Also, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to cat cables; do I want cat5, cat5e, cat6, or something else. I'm getting ready to place another Monoprice order.

Ordered it this morning. Thanks again!

Trying to figure out screen size:



This is 105" long, which is 114" diagonal in 2.35:1 cinemascope. It felt too small, escpecially since I'm leaning towards a constant image height screen which would make 16:9 viewing quite small on a 92" diagonal screen.

So I'll probably go up to 120" or 125" wide, or I'll switch to constant image width, which would make 16:9 viewing HUGE, or I'll do some combination thereof.

^^^ Yeah, that's the plan.

Anyway, picked up a set of 5 Klipsch speakers locally: 2 older KG 4.5 towers (10" driver and 1" tweeter), and some newer Klipsch Synergy surrounds and center. I'll pick up some Klipsch in-walls for the side-surrounds.

They should hold me over till I go all out.










Now I have to decide on a receiver...

Scratch that, the eBay seller just sent me an email reneging on the sale stating that they meant to set a reserve.

Yes, the speaker seller. They were pretty local (about 45 min. away) and it was a no-reserve auction that I won at $141. It's just not worth the headache to pursue.