New Theater 120' x 60' !!! (1 Viewer)

[Gray]

I plan on building a good solid theater. I have never built more than a home theater before.To anwser your question yes, I will be aware of spending. I will be on some sort of a budget, I just don't know what that will be. To me this will be the worlds biggest Home theater . Meaning I am taking a home theater approach. There won't be racks of amps and tons of pre/pros and other unnecessary stuff.I am thinking of a loud 7.1 system with a quality picture and sound. That other of stuff is out of my realm.As far as favoritism and people neglecting the system, you are probably right. I however am a soldier with high values and morals.I will use what they allow me to and not a dime more.i will order the equipment needed and install and calibrate it myself. There is no contract or billing process. Just me and my imagination...

 

[Gray]

I plan on building a good solid theater. I have never built more than a home theater before.To anwser your question yes, I will be aware of spending. I will be on some sort of a budget, I just don't know what that will be. To me this will be the worlds biggest Home theater . Meaning I am taking a home theater approach. There won't be racks of amps and tons of pre/pros and other unnecessary stuff.I am thinking of a loud 7.1 system with a quality picture and sound. That other of stuff is out of my realm.As far as favoritism and people neglecting the system, you are probably right. I however am a soldier with high values and morals.I will use what they allow me to and not a dime more.i will order the equipment needed and install and calibrate it myself. There is no contract or billing process. Just me and my imagination...

 

[Mitch N]

With that said, lets get the ideas down on paper! :b

www.adireaudio.com has experience with PA systems, aka the Hurricane. That could suffice for 7.0, and you could use about 8 15" Tumults in the largest enclosures you could fit in there. Adire also does custom designs and planning for a fee. Perhaps you could see what they charge or recommend?

Then there is the Blueprint 1503's, those are some great subs as well.

Amplification could be in the form of Crown amps or amps from QSC (partsexpress sells them)

Good luck as there is so much to learn from this and we could all only dream of having this opportunity to build something as crazy as this.

 

[Mitch N]

With that said, lets get the ideas down on paper! :b

www.adireaudio.com has experience with PA systems, aka the Hurricane. That could suffice for 7.0, and you could use about 8 15" Tumults in the largest enclosures you could fit in there. Adire also does custom designs and planning for a fee. Perhaps you could see what they charge or recommend?

Then there is the Blueprint 1503's, those are some great subs as well.

Amplification could be in the form of Crown amps or amps from QSC (partsexpress sells them)

Good luck as there is so much to learn from this and we could all only dream of having this opportunity to build something as crazy as this.

 

[Jason Dalton]

I'd imagine room acoustics is going to be a very large factor in the design as well.

 

[Jason Dalton]

I'd imagine room acoustics is going to be a very large factor in the design as well.

 

[BryanZ]

Okay, we are talking an initial 57600 cubic feet of space, assuming it is 120' x 60' x 8'. Could be much greater than that. If you are talking 30' ceiling, cubic footage comes in at a whopping 216,000. In short, you are looking at requiring professional audio gear. I would talk to the folks both at SVS and AV123, amongst others, and see what they suggest or if they are willing to donate some gear to you. Initially this will be a rather large undertaking so do not be surprised to receive a lot of sticker shock.

 

[BryanZ]

Okay, we are talking an initial 57600 cubic feet of space, assuming it is 120' x 60' x 8'. Could be much greater than that. If you are talking 30' ceiling, cubic footage comes in at a whopping 216,000. In short, you are looking at requiring professional audio gear. I would talk to the folks both at SVS and AV123, amongst others, and see what they suggest or if they are willing to donate some gear to you. Initially this will be a rather large undertaking so do not be surprised to receive a lot of sticker shock.

 

[Brian Corr]

No offense to the regular brands, but I think you really can take companies like SVS and Adire out of the process for an auditorium this large.

Setting up something like this is really best for equipment designed to be used in large spaces. I'll bet the guys at SVS would agree. Although they may just see it as another opportunity to build a really big sub! (tongue in cheek)

The previous recommendations about Crown and JBLPro would be a good place to start. Talk to companies that specialize in large auditorium's. Be realistic, going DIY, or getting a panasonic 500u and some kit 281's just aren't gonna cut it here.

 

[Brian Corr]

No offense to the regular brands, but I think you really can take companies like SVS and Adire out of the process for an auditorium this large.

Setting up something like this is really best for equipment designed to be used in large spaces. I'll bet the guys at SVS would agree. Although they may just see it as another opportunity to build a really big sub! (tongue in cheek)

The previous recommendations about Crown and JBLPro would be a good place to start. Talk to companies that specialize in large auditorium's. Be realistic, going DIY, or getting a panasonic 500u and some kit 281's just aren't gonna cut it here.

 

[Mike SJ]

"Initially this will be a rather large undertaking so do not be surprised to receive a lot of sticker shock"

ha our goverment have sticker shock!?!?

projector will be moslt likely not made in america.
seats will most likely be brown metal folding chairs.
speakers should be horn loaded because of their efficiency.
sub should be LOUD



Id look at portable powered JBL speakers.
http://www.jblpro.com/eong2/eon15g2.htm

as far as dvd player/processor, the outlaw will probably be your best low priced dedicated processor/preamp. dvd player, well i doubt youll need an all region player
find a cheap one.

although this is for the troops, it doesnt have to be as good as Lucas' studio.


id say for projector speakers sub processor... all the electronic stuff for around $15,000 - $20,000. that includes wires screen and such.

 

[Mike SJ]

"Initially this will be a rather large undertaking so do not be surprised to receive a lot of sticker shock"

ha our goverment have sticker shock!?!?

projector will be moslt likely not made in america.
seats will most likely be brown metal folding chairs.
speakers should be horn loaded because of their efficiency.
sub should be LOUD



Id look at portable powered JBL speakers.
http://www.jblpro.com/eong2/eon15g2.htm

as far as dvd player/processor, the outlaw will probably be your best low priced dedicated processor/preamp. dvd player, well i doubt youll need an all region player
find a cheap one.

although this is for the troops, it doesnt have to be as good as Lucas' studio.


id say for projector speakers sub processor... all the electronic stuff for around $15,000 - $20,000. that includes wires screen and such.

 

[RodN]

For an idea of commercial cinema check out krix.com.au. If you go to their commercial site you'll see that they have distributors all around the world and have installed in theatres all around the world.

I'm not advertising for Krix here, but it might give you some ideas on who to go to or where to look for commercial cinema requirements, they are quite different to home theatre requirements.

 

[RodN]

For an idea of commercial cinema check out krix.com.au. If you go to their commercial site you'll see that they have distributors all around the world and have installed in theatres all around the world.

I'm not advertising for Krix here, but it might give you some ideas on who to go to or where to look for commercial cinema requirements, they are quite different to home theatre requirements.

 

[RichardHOS]

I'd contact Mark Seaton at ServoDrive (I believe formally named Sound Physics Laboratories).

They seem to specialize in a sort of middle ground between home and pro audio applications, offering products that work well for both. Might be just the thing for a large theater designed more like a home theater, and not one with arrays of speakers down the walls like a comercial theater (though you may very well find out you need arrays to adequately cover that many seats). They definitely have products to cover the low frequency end, and I'm sure their full range offerings would probably work as well.

Other than that, try Peavey. Designed and manufactured in the USA still (for whatever that is worth). Not really hi-fi by home audio standards, but would be perfectly fine for a theater that large. Some of the best sounding commercial cinema's I've been in were equipped with all Peavey speakers (they generally aren't my favorite... my point is that good implementation and room design goes a long way, even with modest (quality) speakers).

 

[RichardHOS]

I'd contact Mark Seaton at ServoDrive (I believe formally named Sound Physics Laboratories).

They seem to specialize in a sort of middle ground between home and pro audio applications, offering products that work well for both. Might be just the thing for a large theater designed more like a home theater, and not one with arrays of speakers down the walls like a comercial theater (though you may very well find out you need arrays to adequately cover that many seats). They definitely have products to cover the low frequency end, and I'm sure their full range offerings would probably work as well.

Other than that, try Peavey. Designed and manufactured in the USA still (for whatever that is worth). Not really hi-fi by home audio standards, but would be perfectly fine for a theater that large. Some of the best sounding commercial cinema's I've been in were equipped with all Peavey speakers (they generally aren't my favorite... my point is that good implementation and room design goes a long way, even with modest (quality) speakers).

 

[brentl]

"id say for projector speakers sub processor... all the electronic stuff for around $15,000 - $20,000. that includes wires screen and such."

I'd guess about 10 times that for a basic setup.

I guess we'll see

Brent

 

[chuckg]

As a planetarium and movie theater engineer with 16 years experience....I would strongly suggest using the service of professional theater designers. $15,000 to $20,000 won't even get you started!

The 170-seat theater in my facility has a 20,000 watt sound system. Our 210-seat planetarium (70 foot diameter dome) has about 30,000 watts of audio, four, yes FOUR 18" JBL sub cabs and about ten mid cabs with horns. Each of these rooms is smaller than your theater.

The lens in our Iwerks projector (70 mm) alone cost $20,000.

that being all said---I'm sure you'll have a blast putting it together!

 

[Seth_L]

I second the suggestion to talk to Mark Seaton. They do work for churches and other larger venue. They will be able to offer you some suggestions and some great equipment.

 

[Mark Seaton]

Thanks for thinking of us Richard & Seth. Thanks also to Seth for the heads up PM to this thread.

As hinted above, while I am one of the sick-minded individuals who work to harness some of our larger professional products in the home, we work on everything from small churches, nightclubs, mega-churches seating more than 3500, all the way up to outdoor amphitheaters like Blossom Music Center in Cleveland employing 57(!) of our SPL-td1s. In fact, an increasingly more common installment has been LCR and even full 5.1 surround systems in large houses of worship as there are now full 5.1 mixing consoles available (FYI, good consoles can carry 5-6 digit prices).

Of course being the cinema/home theater nut I am, whenever I see these systems I think of dual purpose integration. It sounds like Gary's application would be a great situation to come at it from the other direction with the primary use as a large theater and provisions for a public address/presentation system... If some careful planning was given, and rather minor compromises made with exact speaker placement, you could even use the system for live bands/performances.

While we aren't one of the major names in Cinema, part of the problem is that the mega-multiplexes are often unwilling to spend the minor amount more, and in the past our subs bled through to adjacent rooms too much. There are a select few using our products to great effect, and I have set up a few temporary HT systems even outdoors for larger groups. To put our products in perspective, while we are a smaller company, we are very much a thorn in the side of many majors of the pro-audio world, where our speakers are widely considered some of the best sounding in the business. Compared to the full range quality of the pro market vs. the home theater market, that's not a monumental feat(IMO), but to qualify the sound quality, quite often I directly drop the same products used in large installations into home theaters, where most are very suprised with the results. There is of course the significant difference that our products offer wide-band pattern control (control of where the sound goes) and 10-20dB more in clean output.

As others had suggested, it would be wise to have a qualified professional give input on design and system layout. I can personally bring such a design a long way to finish on the audio side, and know some highly qualified consultants and designers who can tie up the remaining details. I would consider working on such a project an honor, especially as my cousin, a Marine, is currently overseas.

The space you describe isn't all that large in the scale of professional audio. It falls right inbetween our mid and larger products so far as required speakers. To cover this sort of space, depending on the dimensions of the seating area and the ceiling height, I would likely use arrayed pairs of something like our SPL-triktrap, or SPL-td1 for the front LCR. Depending on other factors with the construction of the building and how bad the acoustics are, the td1 would be the prefered method, as well as delivering full and clean reference levels to the back rows. Surrounds could be done with anything from our SPL-runt to the SPL-td1, likely requiring 4-8 surrounds. Bass is what we are known for. Our B-DEAP-32 would fill the room well in using as few as 2 or up to 6 boxes, depending on how low we were trying to get and the demensions and available placement. With more boxes, we can do some cool tricks to keep down the level of bass that bleeds out the back and sides of the space (the back wall gets a beating no matter what ).

So far as electronics, to tackle this I would want a pre-processor with balanced outputs. This could be anything from a Integra DTC-9.4 to a Lexicon MC-12B. You would want all channels to go through a consumer to pro conversion/transformer which will eliminate many of the buzzes and noises of the system. Jensen in the proferred choice, but not the only. From there I would use a larger matrixed DSP unit like a Symetrix Symnet, BSS SoundWeb, BiAmp Audia, etc. with 8 input and 8-12 outputs. Amplification should come from the likely suspects of both QSC and/or Crown. QSC is the worlds largest amplifier manufacturer, the dominant player in the cinema market, and nice guys to boot. Crown makes some great amps as well which I use regularly. In the above chain, we can use one of a few forms of switching to enable an LCR mixer of whatever justified size to be inserted inbetween the consumer-pro adaptors and the DSP. If it is only public address and speech reinforcement, you may only need the center for this function.

Who knows, maybe you can set a trend for such a facility at other locations.

Feel free to respond here, PM, or e-mail if you would like to look further into such possibilities.

Cheers,