Here's my very first attempt at building a hush box for my Sony VPL-VW695ES projector. It's more of a hush apartment or hush house, but it gets the job done. Also, I have to say, I'm not a handyman by any stretch and this is only my 2nd overall project that I've done (besides my boss mini risers) so it was extremely daunting. The main issue I have is that I want to run my Sony 4k projector on high lamp mode when watching HDR movies, but the fan noise is just too much for me to take. Also, my Sony has both intake and exhaust in the front, so I needed to figure out a way to block all the noise from the front of the projector without restricting proper air flow. So, I sketched up a crazy plan and went to work on it. Also, I wanted to keep costs down, so I just used leftover plywood I had from building my boss mini risers to build the box, used the last of the black paint I had laying around from painting the HT black, and used some leftover styrofoam insulation I had from a project I did for creating panels to block the black bars on my 16x9 screen when watching 2.39:1 aspect ratio films. So, here's a bunch of pics of everything. I tried to list all of the items I purchased but again if I had stuff leftover from other projects that were used, I didn't list them (like screws, paint, rope, etc. I first tried to just put the hush box up on the existing mount I had for the projector, but it was too big and would hang over a few inches, so I bought some hooks and chains and mounted to the ceiling, and that straightened everything right up. As for cooling, the exhaust fans from the projector route air through the duct to the rear (I tilt the duct up at the end of the run) and then the exhaust fans kick it out of the box quite well. All three fans are connected together and run off the single usb connector on the projector.



Links:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-F...-100033952-_-N
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lambro-4-in...e-Duct/3172543
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...6520/203958747
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ceiling-D...1-pk/121026809
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...2634/205887675

https://www.edmundoptics.com/p/2032-...y-window/5443/

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Whoa, you gave your projector exhaust pipes, A Very cool and inginuitive design.

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Yeah, it looks like a turbo charger or something!

You might want the lens tunnel all black, or light absorbing. You may be giving up some contrast ratio.

Maybe you are a handyman, just one without a need to build or engineer something in the past?

Thanks for the tip Tedd. I can definitely add in some black velvet to the top and bottom.

Awesome- I have been scouring for ideas for my Epson 5050, Also with front intake and exhaust. Thank you for posting!

Nice job!

I can't tell from the photos, but where does the exhaust air vent to? Is the back of the hush box sealed? If so, where do you obtain fresh air from for the intake air?


I have a very noisy projector (JVC RS4500) and really need a hush box but am concerned about not having the correct amount of air flow into and out of the box.

The back of the hush box is sealed in that it sits flush against the back wall. The top of the hush box has two holes toward the back with two exhaust fans, and the exhaust pipes deliver the hot exhaust directly to those fans above to be removed from the hush box. As for intake, there is a hole in the top of the hush box all the way front and center where there is a fan that delivers air from the room directly above the intake fan of the projector. I have the exhaust and intake far enough apart that it seems to work pretty well. I had considered making the exhaust fan come up from below to further separate the hot air and cool air, but ruled it out because I wanted to reduce the noise as much as possible and having a case fan pointing straight at me would probably not have been a good way to reduce the noise, so I went with the intake on top as well.

Thanks so much for your response. Some more questions:

Where does it exhaust to? The space above the room? How did you determine the size/speed/air flow of the exhaust fan you chose?

If the top of the box is against the ceiling, I'm not sure I understand the room air is pulled into the box. But same question as above: How did you determine he size/speed/air flow of the intake fan you chose? Also, I don't see that you have any temperature sensors in the box to determine if the projector is overheating. The inside of the box overheating is one of the things I worry about. Frying my projector due to some intake or exhaust fan failure is not something I want to think about.

My situation is a bit different in that the projector takes in air from the rear but exhausts from the front. My plan is to build a "front/back separator" in the box to keep the the exhaust air and intake air as separate as possible

I have tall ceilings so the top of the box is actually a good 4 or 5 feet below the ceiling. As for the exhaust fans, I used the AC Infinity 120mm fans that do about 52cfm each at 19db, so for exhaust that gives me 104cfm (could be more if I used the wall outlet but I used the usb connection from the projector), and 52cfm for intake. I run them on the highest setting since they run so quiet. Based on previous experience with building PC's, I felt very confident that these could handle air flow for the hush box so didn't really try to get down to exact measurements. I don't have any temp sensors but that could be a good option for version 2 when I get around to it. For testing, I did run it for a few hours then get up on a ladder and take the top off to see if it was hot inside the box. I didn't notice any problems and also checked to make sure there was no hot air leaking from the connections around the front, and all good as far as I could tell.Hot air was coming out of the exhaust pipes where I wanted it and the exhaust fans were sucking that hot air out of the box and into the room.

Got it. So you pull air in from your room and exhaust the hot air back into the room as well. My plan was to pull the incoming air from my equipment room behind the screen wall (which is cooled by a dedicated mini-Split system) and put the exhaust air into the space above the theater.


Your response has been very helpful. Thanks again.

Yeah, I figured if the projector was intaking and exhausting from the same room and all in the same area (up front) prior to adding the hush box to the mix, this setup would be an improvement to some extent. I didn't want to get crazy with it but surely it would be better to intake from another room and exhaust to another room/area if that is an option for you.

Ok, I completed version 2 of the hush box. I took down the original mounting stands I had in place because it was a bit rickity and I wanted something more even/stable. Also, I originally built the hush box a few inches longer to accommodate the old stands, so I was able to shorten the box about 2-3 inches after switching over to the different stands. And because I was able to get the stands even and stable, I took down the metal chains I was using to provide support to the front of the box from the ceiling. However, the big improvement in version 2.0 is that I cut holes in the wall and placed the exhaust fans on the holes to suck hot air coming from the heat pipes and direct/exhaust that hot air into the next room (which is a guest bathroom). This has made a huge improvement in the comfort level in the room, as it could get quite warm after a few hours of movie watching before with the lamp running on high mode. I also made a port cover on the left side to cover up the whole I had cut for access to ports. I can swivel the cover as I used only one screw on one end if I need to gain access. It looks a little dorky but it gives a good seal and the hush box is actually quite a bit quieter now with that change, as well as a better alignment to rear wall after cutting the box down a few inches along the back side, which further helps to reduce the noise from the projector.


Links:
https://www.kitchensource.com/suppor...=HA-287.55.364


https://www.northlineexpress.com/4-d...BoCXeAQAvD_BwE


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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M0j0, thanks so much for the build thread. What a fantastic resource. Hoping you can answer a couple of questions for me.

First, did you ever try mounting your hush box/projector higher? Trying to keep my wife happy, and for aesthetic reasons she’d prefer that the box I’m planning be flush with the ceiling and back wall, so it’s basically just a bump out from both. I need to recess the lens both to muffle sound and allow for cooling, and I’m not sure if that’s going to prove problematic with the lens shift angle that’s required.

Did you settle on that height through trial and error, or was that just where you wanted it?

Also, did you need to do anything special to keep the IR signals working for the remote? Is there a repeater in there somewhere that I missed, or does the signal manage to make it’s way in through the lens opening?

Sorry for the late reply, I am just now seeing your message.


Answer to question 1: Yes, I did try mounting it a bit higher, probably about 6 inches or so, and it worked pretty well as the higher it is the less sound you can hear, and my projector has the capability to do vertical lens shift up 40% and down 40%. However, when I switched out my 16x9 screen for a 2.35:1 screen, I found that I couldn't quite get a 16x9 image on the new screen properly, so had to lower the box back down about 3 inches and then it was just right.


Answer to question 2: I bought an Edmund Optics anti reflective window to go in the front of the hush box, and with that, I have no problems bouncing a signal off of my screen to control my projector, so no repeaters needed. I made sure to cut the square port opening wide enough to allow for this during the planning steps.

Two questions: (1) Did you buy the glass directly from them and, more importantly, (2) did you tilt it one way or another and if so,,how did you determine how much to tilt it?

Thanks. One of the (several) reasons I have not started this project has been trying to figure out a way to build an opening around my Panamorph Lens and get it cut precisely. Using glass AND making it large enough to allow use of the remote solve that issue.

I did buy directly from Edmund Optics and no, I did not tilt it, since it's anti reflective and only reflects a very small amount of light (something like less than .5%).


This is from their product description: "Anti-Reflection (AR) Coated High Efficiency Windows are coated on both sides with a Broadband coating, reducing reflectance to ≤0.5%. Back reflections are virtually eliminated by the coating,"

Excellent. Good to know. Thanks.

I also went Edmund Optics, hot-glued it with no tilt, and am quite happy so far, though I am still dialing things in.