Home Theater -Back to Front... (1 Viewer)

[Megan121!]

Hello everyone!!

I have recently moved into a house and due to the way the room is built the only way to fit a home theatre system with a projector is with the screen in front and the audio set up behind. The room has the following dimensions and is set up so:

Aprox 80sqm high ceilings.

Screen aprox 4m Diagonal is 4ms away from the seating

Audio / old surround sound is 3ms behind the seating area.

I do not have any in wall wiring so I would like to know what my options are. I know that I will not be able to get a perfect sound solution with this set up so of course I am willing to make compromises. I would be grateful if anyone had any suggestions.

Please feel free to ask me any questions.



Best regards Marcus

 

[JohnRice]

Are you asking if there is any way to make it work with the screen on the opposite side of the room from the front speakers?

That would be “No”.

 

[kalm_traveler]

Are you asking if there is any way to make it work with the screen on the opposite side of the room from the front speakers?

That would be “No”.

I think he's asking if he can have the electronics in the rear, rather than how most of us do it with the AVR, blu ray player etc in front where the screen/tv is.

If that's the case, I would say he should be just fine. Since he's going to use a projector, the only wiring he'd need to run up front are speaker wires I think?

 

[Megan121!]

I think he's asking if he can have the electronics in the rear, rather than how most of us do it with the AVR, blu ray player etc in front where the screen/tv is.

If that's the case, I would say he should be just fine. Since he's going to use a projector, the only wiring he'd need to run up front are speaker wires I think?

Hallo John,
sorry If I didnt explain myself properly, yes Ideed I have the AVR / projector etc in the rear and run two front left/right speakers and/ or a middle speaker to the front/Screen. This looks a mess...
My question is would there be an alternative to doing this ie wireless speakers or wireless surround system?

 

[JohnRice]

Hallo John,
sorry If I didnt explain myself properly, yes Ideed I have the AVR / projector etc in the rear and run two front left/right speakers and/ or a middle speaker to the front/Screen. This looks a mess...
My question is would there be an alternative to doing this ie wireless speakers or wireless surround system?

There really isn't. Wireless audio doesn't work that way, though failed attempts have been made. You'll need to continue with how you're doing it, or some variation of it.

 

[John Dirk]

You could look into this but it might get awfully expensive if you're interested in anything beyond 2.1.

Prime Wireless SoundBase

Bring high-resolution wireless audio streaming, advanced connectivity and smart control to existing speakers or use the line level output to create a wireless music zone with your AV receiver or two-channel stereo system.

www.svsound.com

 

[Bobofbone]

Running wires can be done in a number of ways. It depends on how your walls are made, and possibly what is above and/or below. I've done things in several houses a number of ways.

1. The simple way is to run the wires on the floor, and either place them on the sides or put something over them. One set up I used required the use of my wife's plastic plant collection. I didn't think they looked very good anyway, and having them obscure wires in the dark was an improvement. I got the stink eye when I borrowed her van to pick up the speakers (she thought it was a joke, because she told me she liked those little Bose speakers-but I brought home a 5.1 set of Polk speakers with a floor standing left and right-they also required bigger and more wires). I might suggest if you take this route, don't tell your significant other what you think of her plastic plants. And, if she thinks little cube speakers can move air like something larger, surprise her. It gives both of you a memory.

It's possible that wires under a carpet could get frayed or worn from repeated traffic over them. I've done this in more than one apartment and not had a problem, but it could happen.

2. Get out your drill and go to work on the floor. It's your house, so you can make holes where you want. If the area under your theater is open, you can run the wires under the floor. I did this once with a crawl space under a ranch house. It helps to do the drilling from the theater space, and stick something down through the floor that you can see in the dark with your flashlight, while you crawl around entertaining the local wildlife. If the floor in your theater is carpeted, make sure you don't wind up portions of carpet with your drill. It ruins the esthetics of your work, at least to the more critical eye of your significant other.

3. There are devices you can use to cover cables. Look around for them under the name of raceways, cable raceways or cable concealers. I just got a small box of them from Amazon a couple weeks ago to cover a short run of cables from a cabinet I'm building on the wall to a TV mount next to my pool table. Most of them can be painted to match or contrast with the wall. They come in various sizes, depending on how many cables you're covering. You can also run wires behind molding. I did a variation of that, using crown molding with a .5 inch gap from the ceiling. I put rope lighting in, and connected it with a Lutron unit along with a remote, to vary the lighting in the theater. You could run wires vertically in the wall and out to some crown molding for the horizontal run, and then down through the wall if there was a problem with stud placement behind dry wall. You might have to use a larger size crown molding, but if done well, it can really enhance the looks of the room.

4. You, or someone who knows how, can fish cables through and around walls. Electricians do it all the time. A couple years ago, I had some track lights mounted in a room we wanted more lights in. The guy who did it ran power from the junction box, put in a switch on the wall and mounted the lights, all without wiring hanging out of the ceiling or wall with the finished product. You may or may not care to try it yourself, but it can be done. A trip through the aisle of your local Home Depot or Lowes could probably turn up most of what you may need to do it yourself. I'm not inclined to try it myself with stuff coming out of my 15-20 amp lines in the junction box, but I can get creative with speaker wire.

I might also note that there are different grades of wire, and some types can propagate the spread of a fire behind walls if there's a fire nearby. CL2 grade wiring isn't supposed to do that. Blue Jeans Cable had a good description, when I looked some time ago, about wire grades to use behind walls.

Concerning placement of equipment at the back of the room, a couple things might be considered. If your remotes use a radio signal, it won't matter if they are not directly in the line of sight. If they use infra red, it might not matter one way or another. My equipment is to the left side and behind the seating in my theater space. When I first set things up, I did things the lazy way. I aimed the projector control over my head behind me, and the other remotes towards the left side. It didn't always work, and I got tired of doing that. I'd also placed wiring in the front for two photocells. I ran infra red repeaters from both, one for the projector and the other with flashers to my amp and blue ray players. My system entails more wiring (I'd planned for it) but it works fine. I obtained it from Crutchfield, as I recall.

I hope this is helpful. Post pictures of your finished theater !