[rsmclay]

I was wondering if you guys might be able to help me. I am helping my cousin finish his basement right now, and this got me thinking about my basement. The area where I would like to put my theater is about 15ft wide by 17 feet deep by about 7.5 feet tall.


The problem, as I see it, is the main house HVAC ductwork that goes along one side, 17ft side, completely. Now I was going to make a soffit out of this, but the soffit looks like it will stick out into the room almost three feet, and I was going to build another one on the other side to try to keep it looking symmetrical, but my question is: Will the two soffits, which will equal 6 of the 15 feet, cause any problems will trying to project an image onto a screen? I have spent all day today searching the forum, using different terms, and going through multiple soffit threads, but couldn't find anything describing what I feel might be a possible problem. I guess I am concerned that the bottom of the soffit might interfere with the top corners of the screen.


Also, what is the recommended height for the screen to be from the floor?


Thanks in advance, you guys are always very helpful on this forum.


Rob

 

[MrSquid]

Depends on how large of a screen you're planning on going with. I've got 24" soffits on each side of my 15' wide room. The front corners are curved, and my soffits end right where those curves end.


I've ordered a 110" screen, which should nestle nicely between the soffits with a fair amount of space on each side where it won't seem crowded. The ceiling, sides and bottom of the soffits will all be painted flat black - I think I should be OK in the end. But before I built the soffits, I had to know what size screen I could go with in that space.

 

[chs4]

Rob,


I see no reason that won't work for you, provided you can live with a roughly 8' wide screen.


I did a quick mock-up of your room:

http://www.c5design.com/ht_files/rsmclay-layout.gif


As for screen distance from the floor, that is going to depend on the type of seating, number of rows and whether you will have a riser or not. As a general rule you want "prime" seating eyes to fall about a third of the way up the screen.

 

[Jellyman]

I have almost identical dimensions with identical soffits. One 3' covering hvac and support beam and a dummy soffit to even the room out. I am using a 98" diagonal 16x9 screen and it fits fine. I could probably go with a bigger screen but I wanted to have a little room on each side of the screen for curtains.

 

[CptnRandy]

Or you could do what I did - reroute the duct work. The cost was a wash for the reduced materials and construction for the sofits and gave me a better result. Check out my construction pictures for details.


Good luck!


Randy

 

[rsmclay]

Great ideas guys. And CptnRandy, what a nice theater and what a job you did to move the ductwork. Unfortunately, I cannot do that because I have cement walls, with mother earth on the other side of that, running down the side walls. I was hoping for a 110"-120" diag screen, but looks like no.


At least I know it can be done. Maybe I will have to look to other parts of the basement, I just chose that area because it was a nice little rectangular outcropping from the rest of the basement, that could be walled off and made into a theater.


If there is anything else you guys can think of I would love to hear it.


Thanks,


Rob

 

[CptnRandy]

Don't give up on that space, Rob - it has a lot of potential. More research here will yield plenty of options.


Randy

 

[MrSquid]

Rob -


Take a look at my gallery and see how my soffits are. I've got a 15' wide room and will be able to fit a 110" screen in that spot between the soffits.


Since Stewart custom builds every screen they sell, I'd suggest measuring up the exact space you've got, and ordering the biggest screen you feel comfortable putting in that spot (or go DIY to whatever size works) - but I would be really hesitant to say that you're SOL on that space.