Coming Soon - The Jane

The theater itself will be a combination of two rooms to the right of the lobby if you are looking at the picture labeled lobby1. Combined they are roughly 13x22 feet.


We will try and accommodate the following in this theater.


1: Two rows of seating, 3 front and 4 in the rear on a riser. The front will be recliners, and the rear will be actual theater seats picked up on the net. "One slight problem with the riser may be ceiling height, from one end of the room it is 7ft and the other is roughly 9, you can see this in picture HTR1".


2: There are two windows in the room, they will be surrounded by 2x's and a fabric covered door on hinges will cover them to block out the light, they will go from floor to ceiling and will be disguised as colums. You can see one of the windows in picture DAR4 below the xi1 projector.


3: Color of the room will be a dark blue, with dark colored carpet, lighting will consist of wall sconces, 3 on each side, and black track lights at the front and back of the room.


4: If the space allows, there will be a small stage up front, with velvet curtains on a motorized opener. Colloms of course on each side of the stage to hide the front speakers. See DAR5


5: Equipment will consist of a ceiling hung Marquee 8500 projector, with an xi1 light cannon for games and as a spare if the main projector needs servicing. A Yamaha receiver will drive the speakers "don't know what brand yet"


My big concern is the ceiling, I am not so much worried about the accoustics as I am about the eye being drawn to the slant of the ceiling, hopefully the dark paint will lend to this being less noticeable.


I will be starting demolition on the 15th of January and will chronicle this from start to finish for those of you interested.


Now I am looking for comments. I will be posting a floor-plan in a few weeks.


Room large enough?

Can I cram it all in here?


Your help is greatly appreciated

Here are some pics of the equipment rack, this is in a closet at the rear of what will be the home theater room.


The equipment that is in there now serves the rest of the whole home audio video needs.


There is a Denon amp on the top that feeds sound into the existing living room where we have a 56' Mitsubishi Big Screen.


There are two DirecTivo's underneath that, these serve the living room and the bedrooms, you can switch between either Tivo, one is mine and one is the wifes for recording and archiving shows that we enjoy. I am a Star Trek, Stargate, and Battlestar fan, she likes old movies and TV shows.


In addition to that, we have a fairly new "5 months old" 300 disc Sony DVD changer filled with around 240 dvd's. "The Wife has purchased all of these!" so movies on demand are not a problem.


Again, your thoughts on this design plan are encouraged, any input is appreciated. I have seen a lot of you out there with similar spaces and would like your input. Things to avoid etc, how your rooms look and sound.

Update: 2-28-06


Most of the demolition is now done, I thought I would post some more pictures to show the progress and give everyone a better idea of the size of the room.


Here are a few.


The first picture shows the new entry door to the theater.


The seond picture is a view down the room to the screen wall.


The final picture shows viewing from the screen wall to the other end of the room. The doorway to the right is the equipment room, and the door to the left is the bathroom, with pocket door framing installed.


Sheetrock goes in next weekend, I will post more pics then.

Swithey, thanks for the positive comments. Here are some answers.


I have a Marquee 8500 PJ in great shape to mount, but the wife has talked me out of it, even though the picture quality is much better than that of a light cannon. We want it simple to setup and maintain, and modifications to the ceiling to accommodate this beast are not in the budget. I plan to use the X1 for games and such and purchase a new Infocus projector that will do 720p.


The screen will be a 16x9 about 100 inches diagonal, I am keeping an eye on a couple of other threads before determining which home made screen to build.


Two rows of seats, the back row on an 8inch riser, these will be theater seats, possibly 4 of them. The front row will be true home theater seats, just haven't decided which ones yet.


No floorplan, sorry, just kind of winging it as I go. I have done some things in Punch Home Design, but nothing I would post here yet.


Lighting is the problem I am having now, I wanted to do cans but it would require way too many modifications to my existing ceiling, this is something I am not willing to do at this point. We have decided to go with wall sconces for lighting, on the sides and the rear.


For the stage I will use a single black track with small black spots, the ceiling will have the popcorn removed and will be painted either a black or other dark color.


Rope lighting will be under a lip on the front stage and the rear riser so people can see where they are walking, I am also considering installing the small vent lights along each side of the room for when the movie is playing.


I could use some help and advise on covering these windows, we have two options, blackout shades, or build some sort of faux column to cover the windows with a matching column on the other side of the room for balance, but these windows are 29" wide, and I don't know how this would look. The wife will not allow the windows to be covered permanantly so any help here would be appreciated.


The sheet rocker will be here this weekend to bid the job, now that the initial framing is completed. We got our dumpster so this weekend we get rid of the debris, old carpet and all the junk in the yard and the shed, it will be a busy weekend.


Please advise on these windows! I could use the help

Quote:
Sorry for the delay getting back with you.


Glad you to hear you have a plan. Sounds like it will be nice HT


On the windows, in my original design, I was planning to keep them and cover them up just for movie viewing. Since my walls would be covered with fabric panels anyway, I figured I would build something made out of the same material and put it in the window area during the movie only. You could attach it with velcro or magnets. You get what you want and the wife is happy too.


You also need to consider where the windows are anyway as they might be 1st reflection points in your room -- so putting something over the window that has absorbtion may be a MUST.

Well I have since won the windows battle, we have agreed to cover them.


I am in the process now of wiring up the two rooms in prep for the sheetrock this weekend.


I have decided after much research to go with the Insteon products for light control, the GE is simply out of my price range for what it does.


I have one problem now I have to overcome, when we installed the new patio door in the lobby the header had to be replaced leaving no room for running the romex to the other side of the wall for a sconce. Now I have to find a way to run this cable so I can have a pair of sconces flanking this door rather than only one


Oh well, win some loose some

jrfuda - Thanks for the info, of course I read it after I ordered a few minutes ago from smarthome, but no crime there, prices are pretty good as well.


I am actually of exit #601 on I10, we are probably about 15 minutes from one another! I am right ouside of Marion TX


I will have to look up some of your previous posts and see what equipment you have and see if I can find any pictures of your setup.


Swithey - That damn sconce is not going to lick me! I am call my buddy the electrical guy in on this one. I was thinking about going over the top of the door and hiding it behind the crown moulding. You know, pop a small hole at the top of each side of the sheetrock, secure the romex to the back of the crown with straps and some metal to protect the wire, and then another hole it the other side and down the inside of the wall. Is it legal? I will soon find out. The other option is some metal conduit behind the crown.


I appreciate your responses, keep them coming, and as I have questions I will post them here, you folks are great.


Now back to my reading of the other threads

avfreak, I need to get around to posting som equipment pics. I'm a military man and move every 2-3 years, so I can't set down very firm roots and have to compromise a bit on my setup, however, I think it's pretty good given it's not a dedicated room.


This diagram will give you a good idea of my setup, though. I've gotten rid of the Zwave stuff and replaced my 522 and 322 Dish receivers with a single Dish VIP-622 HD DVR since I made this diagram, so it needs some updating, however it gives you a good idea of my automation-focused setup. My sound a pciture's pretty good too!

http://fudaserve.net/linkedimages/wh...videoandir.jpg


I have my Dish VIP-622 for HD and SD satellite and off air broadcasts. And I watch movies from a combination of an old Panasonic single disc DVD changer, a HTPC (which is also my automation server), and a Sony CX-777ES 400-disc changer controllerd via RS232 by DVDLobby and a touchscreen PC.


I can defineately give you some pointers for automating your setup!


Good luck, and keep us posted!

Update March 27th 2006


Been really busy as of late.


Got most of the construction debris in the dumpster, the yard is clean and now we are rocking and floating. Well actually the guy I hired is!


The stage is built as well.


Check my link below for new photos.


P.S How do I imbed an image into the body of the message?


Thanks

Quote:
Just put


Here is an example.. but remove the "*"


[IMG*] http://www.myurl.com/mypic.jpg[/IMG* ]

Swithey to the rescue!


Thanks again man.


Anyone care to give me ideas on mounting the Marquee 8500 on my slanted ceiling.


I have a few of my own but would appreciate any ideas!


Thanks