Coming soon: The Chris D Home Theater, Name yet to be Announced

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  • Chris D
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Dec 2000
    • 16877

    Coming soon: The Chris D Home Theater, Name yet to be Announced

    I'll hold on to the name that I'm going to use for my theater until it's complete.

    I'm posting some pictures and info about my theater construction at the request of others here on the Guide. I thought someone might be interested to see this stuff. If you'd like to hear more, I'm showing step by step each item of construction I do in my recurring article series in Home Theater Builder Magazine. Feel free to pick up a copy to read more.


    I'll post more info and pictures periodically. I'm done with the actual room construction, having done double drywall, rubber and vinyl soundproof matting in the walls and floors, double staggered stud wall construction, etc. Almost all work done by myself.



    This is the front of the theater taken from an angle at the right rear theater entrance. The stage is carpeted in all black, with a curved radius lip. Rope light along the front edge, which I haven't tucked up underneath the step yet to hide the direct light.

    I've got my Klipsch speakers set up for now, so I can do testing and listen to stuff while doing work in there. They'll be hidden behind a false screen wall, including an acoustically perforated projection screen. (110" diagonal probably) Center channel will be raised to be in middle of screen.

    Wiring poking out of the wall tops to the left and right are for the front columns, if I decide to put lights in the top for effects. You can also see a part of my equipment alcove off to the side of the theater, which will be enclosed by walls and doors to make the theater wall flush and the room rectangular.

    The ceiling is painted a deep, deep blue flat paint that is almost black. With the lights off or dim, it looks black, which would be perfect for functional light absorption from the screen, but with light shining directly on it the blue is brought out to add color to the room. Starfield ceiling to be added later.

    Walls will be covered with colored fabric, not white. Other carpet is slate grey.

    Do you like my huge TV I've got in there temporarily for testing?



    This is my 3' by 8' equipment alcove off the side of my theater. (rest of room about 12' by 22') This is going to work out perfectly, I think. All equipment will go in here, below the window in a short and wide cabinet, probably in three stacks. The alcove will be enclosed with walls and doors, giving several benefits:

    1. Sound, heat, and light from equipment will not directly affect theater "patrons".
    2. Nice, clean look to theater. No equipment or speakers will be visible at all, just a classy looking room.
    3. I can open up the doors and window anytime, turning a sealed, light-controlled room into a bright, airy, and spacious room.

    You can obviously see many things sticking out of the bottom of the alcove walls for equipment connections. Left to right, they are:

    1. Normal duplex power outlet according to building code. (room spacing just happened to stick it there in the alcove side wall)
    2. Quad outlet on far left of back wall, on it's own dedicated 20 amp circuit for equipment.
    3. 6 coiled 12 gauge speaker wires for tactile transducer seating. (wall plate to be installed later)
    4. Speaker and coaxial cables for rear surround speakers (four) and provisions for extra audio/video/subwoofer connections in rear of room. Also coming through here is a video connection to the rest of the house for all-home video, coupled with the all-home audio. This way, anyone in the house can keep watching whatever movie's playing in the theater while they take a bathroom, baby, or snack break. Or, they can just put on their own movie, TV show, or music. Or, we can pipe our baby monitor audio and video to the main rooms in the house to keep and eye and ear on the new baby while we do other things.
    5. Installed wall plate with connection points for all-home audio speakers. (impedance matching so one amplifier can drive all five pairs of speakers throughout the house) This will be the zone output from the Parasound Halo controller
    6. phone jack
    7. Two coax ports, one wired to the TV antenna I stuck in my attic for OTA reception including HDTV, the other to my HD Satellite dish.
    8. Speaker wires and coaxial cables for front speakers and subwoofers
    9. A whole lot of Cat 5e wires going to various places in the room for IR distribution. There will be a mini IR receiver hidden on the front screen wall, so that all equipment can be controlled with the remotre normally, regardless of its location. (including behind the closed alcove walls)
    10. Another quad power outlet on its own 20 amp dedicated circuit for equipment.
    11. (not visible) another duplex outlet on the room's normal circuit on right wall of alcove



    The rear of the theater, taken from the stage. Items on the ceiling from left to right are a smoke detector wired into my monitored security system, rear overhead can light, and ceiling outlet for projector.

    You can clearly see holes in the wall for speaker and top lighting for each of four rear columns. Each rear column will hold a Klipsch surround dipole speaker, for a 7.1 setup. (actually 7.2, with two subwoofers, or 7.3 including the tactile transducer output. ) Other items are 4-gang box for lighting controller, power wiring over door for exit sign, extra wired spot in center rear of theater for effect lighting if desired, and various outlets.

    Coils of wire at front and rear of riser are for tactile transducers and other connections to the equipment area. You can also see a electrical outlet I wired into the face of the riser for game stations or whatever. Rope light around all edges.

    Entrance door is solid core wood, exterior grade, with rubber weatherstripping for soundproofing. Basically the same door as what I have going from my house to my garage, minus the springs to close it automatically.







    LOTS more info to pass on about the room. Right now, just don't have any time.




    CHRIS
    Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"
    CHRIS

    Well, we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley.
    - Pleasantville
  • Scarp
    Senior Member
    • Mar 2003
    • 632

    #2
    That looks very promising Chris.

    I do hope you wont put your speakers that far against the wall, since I seriously doubt that will sound good.

    If I where you (and had a seperate HT room), I would also research some acoustics things. Especially with walls you can do a lot to make them better acoustically. Things like tubetraps, difussers, etc. Just a bare concrete walls is terrible for acoustical room properties.

    Anyway, am curious about the end result. I definitly will keep this thread in my email reply list

    Comment

    • George Bellefontaine
      Moderator Emeritus
      • Jan 2001
      • 7637

      #3
      I've followed your articles in Home Theater Builder Mag, Chris, so I am really looking forward to the finished pics, especially after the screen and Pj are installed.




      My Homepage!
      My Homepage!

      Comment

      • Sonnie Parker
        • Jan 2002
        • 2858

        #4
        Lookin' good Chris! I like that massive TV you got yourself.


        I'm lookin' forward to seeing your finished product and how it all works for you.






        SONNIE

        Cedar Creek Cinema

        DVD Collection

        BFD Comprehensive Setup Guide

        Comment

        • Chris D
          Moderator Emeritus
          • Dec 2000
          • 16877

          #5
          Thanks, guys.

          Originally posted by Scarp
          I do hope you wont put your speakers that far against the wall, since I seriously doubt that will sound good.

          If I where you (and had a seperate HT room), I would also research some acoustics things. Especially with walls you can do a lot to make them better acoustically. Things like tubetraps, difussers, etc. Just a bare concrete walls is terrible for acoustical room properties.
          No problem, Rolf. The room is only half completed. I still have to finish the ceiling, hopefully with a starfield, build wall columns that will hold the speakers among other things, put in seats with tactile transducers, put fabric and batting on the walls, build doors on the equipment alcove, put in an equipment rack, put in new subwoofers, build a false screen wall that the front speakers will sit behind, and install the projector and screen. (whew!) Lots of work coming.

          So, in the meantime, I just have things set up temporarily. For sure, I won't be watching movies on that tiny TV! Most likely, the dual subwoofers will go in the corners of the stage, with the mains just inside that. I'll most definitely be moving and tweaking after that.




          CHRIS
          Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"
          CHRIS

          Well, we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley.
          - Pleasantville

          Comment

          • Andrew Pratt
            Moderator Emeritus
            • Aug 2000
            • 16507

            #6
            Thanks for shareing Chris:T




            Comment

            • Lex
              Moderator Emeritus
              • Apr 2001
              • 27461

              #7
              Looking great Chris. I still like the speakers out where they can breath though, front 3.

              Lex
              Doug
              "I'm out there Jerry, and I'm loving every minute of it!" - Kramer

              Comment

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