Finally back at it... few questions.

[Ortheum]

I got back to working on my theater again yesterday after a 3 months hiatus.
The problem with taking all these breaks and about to hit the 3rd year of the build is I forget a lot of my ideas or plans along the way.

I'm about to wire up my IR repeater. I was going to mount the "eye" in the soffit above the screen wall, but I was wondering if the projector shinning on it will cause any interference. What has everyone else done?

Does green glue cause any significant space between the drywall? I've been planning on the drywall being 1 1/4" thick (2 x 5/8"). Will the GG add much of a space between the sheets.

I just ran a lot of Cat 6 wiring just for future use, where do you terminate them? Do you just leave it in the wall and cut in later if you have to? Do you put them in a low voltage box?

I have a 6 zone Grafik Eye QS. I have 5 zones accounted for...stage, front sides, back sides, sconces, and rope light around the ceiling. The 6th was to be used with step lights for my riser, but the riser was removed from my plan...for now. It may be added someday. The 2 ideas I had were some rope lights or something on the stairs or some "step" lights in the wall across from where the riser would be in the future, if I were to build it. I'm looking for any other suggestions.

[Chris D]

Hope this helps.

I got back to working on my theater again yesterday after a 3 months hiatus.
The problem with taking all these breaks and about to hit the 3rd year of the build is I forget a lot of my ideas or plans along the way.

I hear ya. It took me more than 2 years to build my last theater, and I did the same thing. That's part of why I recommend people photograph the walls and such, IN DETAIL, before drywalling. On the other hand, I also learned some along the way as I did my last project, and I think the final result was better than if I had just done it right away straight through.

I'm about to wire up my IR repeater. I was going to mount the "eye" in the soffit above the screen wall, but I was wondering if the projector shinning on it will cause any interference. What has everyone else done?

Unless you put the eye DIRECTLY into the PJ light, (i.e. behind the middle of an acoustically perforated screen) it should't be a problem. Even if you did, it should be a huge deal. My previous theater had it mounted and hidden into the screen frame, just below the visible screen portion. My current theater has visible speakers, so the eye is mounted behind the speaker cloth in one of the speakers.

Does green glue cause any significant space between the drywall? I've been planning on the drywall being 1 1/4" thick (2 x 5/8"). Will the GG add much of a space between the sheets.

While I haven't measured, I would imagine the difference is NOT going to be huge, maybe 1/8"??? Unless you have some need for the tolerance of your wall position to be HIGHLY precise, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

I just ran a lot of Cat 6 wiring just for future use, where do you terminate them? Do you just leave it in the wall and cut in later if you have to? Do you put them in a low voltage box?

Great, good for you. That's smart and something I definitely recommend people do. If the Cat 6 isn't being used, I wouldn't even bother terminating it (you might not use a standard plug, depending on what you use it for) I would just leave the bare ends, with plenty of extra cable, (you did leave lots of extra length, right?) coiled up in a low voltage single or double-gang box, covered with a black wallplate for now.

I have a 6 zone Grafik Eye QS. I have 5 zones accounted for...stage, front sides, back sides, sconces, and rope light around the ceiling. The 6th was to be used with step lights for my riser, but the riser was removed from my plan...for now. It may be added someday. The 2 ideas I had were some rope lights or something on the stairs or some "step" lights in the wall across from where the riser would be in the future, if I were to build it. I'm looking for any other suggestions.

Great. Not bad to have extra zone capacity with a GE. I do like having step lighting on seating risers or steps, which is very handy for people walking in the theater during a dark movie. I used rope lighting on my last riser, which also made for nice mood lighting. Other options are a starfield ceiling, a theater exit sign (I put one above my theater entrance--NICE effect) a fan, (not recommended unless you're very careful about placement to not interfere with acoustics) or some sort of effect light, like a colored light or black light. While I've never actually done it, I've highly considered adding a single black light in the rear of my theater. To start a movie show, you would dim the lights to black, them turn on the black light to illuminate invisible patterns or something, then bring up the projector as the curtains open. Could be cool.

[JeremyG]

I just ran a lot of Cat 6 wiring just for future use, where do you terminate them? Do you just leave it in the wall and cut in later if you have to? Do you put them in a low voltage box?

As Chris said coiling up in a LV box is fine, just make sure none of the conductors are shorted, and connected to something at the other end. I had a Cat 5e problem back in the 90's due to a cable being unterminated at one end, and in a punch down block at the other shorting a whole line in a 25,000 sq ft house. Tracking that down took a while. Also, at my work we deal with thousands of ethernet cables, and any of the unused ends are terminated and capped and stowed-extra long-just in case. Modular connectors are real cheap anyway.

Just being extremely overly anal.

Jeremy

[Chris D]

Huh... never heard of that, Jeremy. Good stuff. :T

[JeremyG]

Well, Chris, I've only ran into problems with shorted ends twice. One was someone using dull cutters that crimped/smashed the conductors before cutting. It only takes a second to check when you pull it through a box. Like I said, overly anal.

Jeremy

[cbark]

Do not hook any wires up that have not been terminated on the other end. Easiest fix. As you add wires, terminate and verify your signals at the time of termination, hence easy to verify and trace down if issues occur. :W

[Ortheum]

Almost a full year, 84 sheets of drywall, 3 cases of Green Glue, 5 cases of silicone....I finally finished laying the drywall and cleaned up everything. I had a guy come yesterday to start mudding. He got all of the seams taped. Even though he didn't get much done, it is already making a huge difference.

Stairs coming down into the kid's room/lobby.


Kid's room/lobby and door into the laundry/utility room.


Soon to be door leading into the theater.


Doorway from the theater.


Looking at the back of the theater.


Closer shot of the back. Closet on the left, rack on top, fridge area below, and cubby for desk on the right.


Back from the other corner.


Front


Front from other corner.

[M.Roberts8]

Ortheum,
Looks good so far :T. Just curious what are the dimensions of your HT room? Are you going front projection?

[madmac]

Such a little stereo for such a big room!!! Hehehehe!!!