The Stonewater Cinema Build Thread

As the sign says, welcome to the Stonewater Cinema. After almost two years of "Coming Soon - The Stonewater Cinema build thread" as an inactive link in my AVS Forum autosignature.....I am happy to make this link official and active!!!

Technically speaking, some of the actual construction has already begun but don't worry - I have barely finished framing the room and have plenty of pictures to share with everyone to catch up to its present status. Some decisions on design and equipment have already been made, but there is a lot yet to be decided so I sincerely look forward to feedback from everyone who reads (i.e. lurks) on this thread. Given the number of PMs and well-deserved public harassment I have received to get things going, my goal is to make your wait worthwhile.

Instead of launching into a huge introductory post, I thought I would keep things relatively simple and high-level here in this first post and let subsequent posts fill in the details with words and pictures. As a handy reference, I will be creating an index here in this first post so you can quickly jump to any stage of my construction build as things progress.

First, I'd like to give you a bit of background on the design theme for my theater. For some reason I have always seemed to gravitate to the Art Deco style found in the old cinema palaces of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. If you ever are in the San Francisco Bay area, there is one of the world's best examples of a classic Art Deco movie palace in Oakland, CA - The Paramount Theater. Yes, the style can be a bit over-the-top, but there are many classic Art Deco themes that started with this theater. Here are a few pictures:

The main entrance to the theater, "Always The Best Show In Town". Notice how my marquee above follows the original deco theme in this photo:


Main theater stage as seen from the balcony:


Main lobby showing a number of Art Deco design themes I will be translating to my theater: backlit glass with metalwork in front and tiered edge details:


Close-up of main lobby side wall. Again, backlit glass with decorative and sculptural metal in front:


It is my goal to create a classic Art Deco home theater but with an updated, yet elegant look that extracts some of the design themes I like. I ended up drawing a fairly detailed blueprint of the room, complete with ceiling, front, side and rear elevations - all of which I will share in an upcoming post. I decided to hire on Dennis Erskine and his talented team to translate my drawings into CAD and tweak where needed. I had been entertaining the thought of hiring Dennis for quite some time, primarily for the acoustic analysis of the room and to get the right acoustic environment for the room - which as we all know has great impact on the quality of the final product. I went into this process with a goal of getting the biggest "bang for my buck" with a high-value system, despite my tendencies (and I think a lot of Forum member's tendencies) to really go for a high-end system, which meant that hiring outside professional services was on my radar, but not a definite. That all changed and I ended up contracting with Dennis when I decided to pull the trigger on a very special purpose-built theater speaker system. More on that equipment choice to follow.....how's that for a teaser?

So after a slow start, my goal is to complete the theater over the coming six months or less. I already have a lot of decisions I would like to throw out there for consideration and discussion. I will be updating this thread frequently to catch everyone up to present status, including details of all the equipment I have purchased so far.


INDEX
Edited by TMcG - 11/29/12 at 6:32pm

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm really looking forward to this project as well. It seems I cannot get my blueprints / drawings translated into a format that Photobucket can understand, so I will have to leave that until tomorrow's posts. I will probably be making quite a few posts over the next several days, but here are a few to start.

Transporting the screen that I bought online and picked up at the local distribution hub to save $$:


Screen in 2.35:1 aspect ratio:


Screen in 1.78:1 aspect ratio with motorized masking system:


Pile 'o Procella Speakers:


Panamorph UH-480 anamorphic lens with ATH1 automatic sled:




Hopefully you will start to see a bit of the scale of this theater coming together. All the details on system design and the construction drawings will come tomorrow.

Well, I started out looking at a full Klipsch THX Ultra2 system and ended up buying a full stack of Procellas. I was looking at a Panasonic projector with lens memory and ended up getting an anamorphic lens with the fully automated transport, of course. And I was looking at going the DIY screen route for a 120" width CIH screen and I ended up with a 60" x 141" 2.35 Stewart Filmscreen Cine-V with motorized side masking panels. Not to mention hiring out the professional layout service.

So I have to say that I am heading down the road of my "bucks going BANG!" than "bang for my bucks"!!!

To be fair though, much of this was being at the right place at the right time, particularly with the deal I was able to get on the screen.

With our first baby due in late April, I can't afford any rest or stalling after drywall - I will push through to the end, guaranteed!

I agree. The 8K picture is incredibly lifelike....unfortunately the only source content I have shows images of construction supplies on an infinite loop!!

Glad to have you along for the ride. Your build is certainly one of my own personal inspiration builds, particularly with the quality of execution in every last detail. I'll be explaining my plan in subsequent posts, but it was your build and StockMonkey's build that really swayed me to take the plunge and build an IB subwoofer setup, so please don't hold back on the comments once you see the plan unfold!!

Hey, us West Carolinians don't normally fraternize with you East Carolinians!!! Which, by the way, we should change! If things go smoothly for this build, perhaps we can finally have one of our regional AVS meets we keep talking about here at the Stonewater Cinema. Sound good? As you can see in a few of the pictures above, like most AVS builds I am obligated to simultaneously finish the rest of the basement as well. I will have a 9' pool table, darts, a full bar with dual-tap kegerator and a couple of full-on extra comfortable kick-back spaces for hanging out so maybe we can put it on the calendar once things get a bit closer to done.

If you are willing to make the trip from that distance, you are more than welcome. We are a quick 15 minutes from Charlotte airport so it would be very easy to pick you up. Plus we have four (soon to be three) extra bedrooms as an alternative to a hotel if you would like.

My intent was to keep this thread focused on the theater, but I can certainly sprinkle in some pictures of the basement if everyone would like to see the concurrent progress...

Absolutely!! It's a Cadillac SRX, so all the guys at 84 Lumber always get a chuckle when I start loading up and hauling out the lumber because they are so use to seeing only pickups and normal flat bed trucks. But hey, to get to the finish line I have to watch every last penny to make the budget work so delivery charges are not my friend.

I probably should've taken a picture of it, but I have hauled every last drop of framing lumber in this thing - even the 12' long 2 x 12s. My first load of 2 x 4 x 105s was so big that my tailgate was completely horizontal and the vehicle definitely showed a bit of strain on the rear suspension. Thankfully I have a V8 engine and am past most of the heavy hauling stage.

I'll post some pics a bit later today, but another friend and forum member, ten8yp, helped me with two huge loads of sheet material and insulation for the theater...it's literally piled chest high in one stack and waist high in another. In fact you'll probably see him pop in from time-to-time to help out in the construction.

It is larger than I was originally looking for, but I couldn't pass up on the deal. It is a Stewart Filmscreen Cine-V which is a curved screen with motorized vertical side masking panels to mask the image down to 1.78:1 from 2.35:1. The screen frame has a 50' radius curve.

The viewable dimensions are: 60" x 141" (153" diagonal) in 2.35:1 mode and 60" x 107" (122" diagonal) in 1.78:1 mode. The frame adds another 15" in height and another 12" in overall width to these viewable dimensions.

Now for the screen material itself, it originally came with the Studiotek 130 G3 1.3 gain material without the acoustically transparent microperforations. I worked through a Stewart dealer and was able to see if the original screen could be "microperfed" after the fact. Sadly, this was not possible according to Stewart and my only option was to get a brand new Studiotek 130 G3 with the mircoperfs directly from the factory. The cost for the replacement screen . . . . $7,000!!!! To make matters worse, this did not include the grommeting or labor charges - plus they REQUIRED that the entire screen be freight shipped to California and then freight shipped to me. All totaled it would have been nearly $13,000 to have this screen frame retrofitted with an AT Studiotek 130 G3 with new AT side masking panels. So it was a no-brainer to look at other options. I looked at SMX, Seymour AV and several others, but I just couldn't think to go anywhere else but Seymour after the conversation I had with Chris. He was actually excited to tackle the project!!

So the original screen material is currently at Seymour AV so a perfect replacement can be made with their Center Stage XD screen material using a grommet-based tensioning system. I would have liked to go for the new Enlightor 4K material from Seymour, but the weave is much more delicate and cannot hold the grommets. It can only be tensioned with a splining system. Given the mechanical confines of the screen tensioning system in the frame, I did the best I could with my screen selection.

The trickier bit is that the non-acoustically transparent side masking panels that originally came with this screen frame must also be duplicated into their acoustically transparent counterparts. Fortunately, Seymour AV uses the exact same acoustically transparent fabric as Stewart, so it will be a perfect match from a visual perspective. I ended up uninstalling and sending the entire motor assembly with the masking system still attached so every detail in the replication would be dead-on. Chris Seymour is really going the extra mile and personally overseeing the duplication effort of both the screen and side masking panels, so I know I am in good hands and the result should be terrific.

Actually one other challenge is that the screen is so big and my ceiling height so limited that I will have to partially recess the top of the screen frame into my perimeter soffit....all but an inch or two from my calculations....to get proper sight lines for the second row of seating.

The screen is currently packed up for protection, but here are a few more pictures of the screen when I had it out, assembled and was testing the motors. You can more clearly see the curvature of the screen in these pictures.

50' Radius Curve:


Full screen width just over 13 feet:


Masking system in motion....
Left mask 1


Left mask 2


Left mask 3


Left mask 4


Left mask 5


Back side of original masking panel:



As for the projector, I am currently looking at the Epson 5020 or 6020 as one of the only (inexpensive) projectors bright enough to fill this screen with enough light while enabling enough throw distance to have the projector in the very back of the room. I would be open to Runco, Digital Projection, Wolf or any other professional flame thrower if one was available for a song. Fat chance of that happening, but I will be building my hush box large enough to fit a bigger projector if I ever find that deal or upgrade to a projector bigger than the Epson.

Actually, the extra space on either side of the screen is about 18", so I will have to build something. I haven't had the chance to convert all the blueprints and drawings yet to give everyone a proper view of the room, but in following the Art Deco style theme I plan to do a veneered plywood cascade of three "columns" that will curve down from the side walls down to the curved screen. I plan to build the entire screen wall curved as well so the look will be nice and smooth with the gentle 50' radius. I believe Sandman did that in his theater when he updated his room to one with a curved screen. I think it is a more tailored look than the sides of the screen suspended almost 5 inches off the wall.

Here is a picture of the main meeting room at a place called The Centre Ivanhoe in Queensland, Australia. It is another authentic Art Deco building known for its architectural and interior details. You see the cascade of lighted columns on either side of the stage...this is what I plan to reconstruct out of wood and use some RGB LED lights in little "slots" I will create between each of the column cascades. At least that's how it's going to work in my mind at this point.....

Here are the columns and front stage with the lights at a lower intensity


Same room with the lights at full brightness: