Official announcement for starting construction for my HT room! (1 Viewer)

[JJMJ71]

Here is the latest and greatest going on with the build at the moment. I have been working like crazy trying to get things done before the carpet is installed. Well, this update should of been posted a day or so ago, because the carpet got installed yesterday.

Well the good news is my new countertop came in on Monday, so they were able to get that done in good time and yes it is the correct length! Like I mentioned the carpet got installed yesterday and I do have pictures of it, but the site I upload to is not currently working. So I will post the pictures that I have that was leading up to the carpet.

This is a picture of the concrete wall that I had to make look good some how, along with making a nice transition to the studded wall.



Here is a closeup of how it all turned out.



Here is the equipment placed in the rack to measure for cable lengths.



Here is the DVD storage rack all painted. Now I have to finish putting in the shelves.



Here is the sconces that I ended up going with.



Here is the Concession area with all the doors installed.



Here is the IB sub installed into the wall.



Looking into the mouth of the beast!



Here is the business end of the IB sub.




That is it for now, but as soon as I have the pictures of the carpet in the room I will post them.

Thanks for checking out the build.

Cheers,
JJ
__________________
Life may not be the perfect movie we hoped for, but while we're here we should at least enjoy it on our home theater....
Author Unknown

Sunbeam Cinema Build Thread

 

[Robert_J]

From the looks in the picture, the Monster power conditioner has a voltage display. Plug everything in and play some bass heavy scenes. If you get a voltage drop, then the Behringer should go to another circuit. I have mine plugged into a 20 amp circuit by itself. I'm thinking of getting a second. Use 3 channels to each power a pair of 18's and the 4th channel to power a pair of 12's. Use the 18's when I want to go all out and the 12's when I want to keep the noise contained in the theater.

-Robert

 

[JJMJ71]

As promised, I finally got the pictures with the carpet uploaded and here are few shots of the room. I also have matching red GOM cloth to help pull everything together for the acoustical treatments.









I worked on the baseboard last night and got about half of it done. Going around the steps is no fun!!! :frowning: The one good thing about it though is that it looks really good when it is in place!

Cheers,
JJ

 

[ljb17]

Very interesting read JJ. I go searching the net for my first thread about a HT development and I find a neighbor. I am just West of St. Louis and starting my own HT project. I will probably steal a few ideas from you as I am a novice in this area. Thanks for the picks. Can you tell me any more about the screen you chose as that looks like the right size for me. The screen is the portion that I have received the most varied information.

 

[JJMJ71]

Do you live in the suburbs of St. Louis or are you farther out? When I get my room up and running, if you are interested you can come by and check it out.

One bit of advice do as much research as possible before you build it will pay off in the long run. I did quite of bit of reading and there are things I definitely would have done different.

The screen can vary on a couple of different factors. Some of the variables in choosing a screen are seating distance, projector requirements, where you want to place your speakers and last but not least how much you want to spend.

Depending on what your seating distance from the screen will give you an idea of how big of a screen you would want to go with. I am running a 120" diagonal screen and my first viewing distance is about 12'. I personally would not go any bigger than that with that viewing distance, but again this is personal preference. If you like to sit in the front row of a theater to watch a movie then going bigger might be an option for you.

The projector will determine also to some degree the size of the screen and what type of color and gain it should have. Some projectors will not be as bright as others so if the projector is somewhat dim then you would need to increase the gain of the screen to make it brighter. The downside to increasing the gain is your viewing angle starts to decrease. So if you go way up in gain you almost have to be sitting straight in front of the screen to see the picture, (that is to some degree over emphasized). It seems that the majority of the people are going with a white screen. I decided to go with a grey screen to help make the blacks a little more black. Here is a projector calculator where you can select the projector that you may be interested in and will give you a lot of valuable information on distance of projector mounting and screen information.
Projector Calculator

The speaker placement is also a consideration. You can get a screen that is acoustically transparent and place your front 3 speakers directly behind the screen. I would have done this but the cost of the screen swayed me in another direction. I purchased my screen for around $500, it is an elite ez-frame and comes with black velvet already on the frame. I am pretty happy with it from the few movies that I watched on it before I took the screen back out for construction purposes.

I hope this helps you out, I have a general understanding of this information and I do not by any means think that I am an expert on screens. Like I said, read up and do searches in the forum for subjects and if you can't find your answers that way post a thread and someone will give you the info that you need.

Good luck with your build!
Cheers,
JJ

 

[ljb17]

I live in St. Charles, but work in St. Louis.

I have been cramming with reading about this and wish I had done more research, but as I got the go ahead from my wife to hire someone to finish the basement I jumped on it. The contractor is doing the HT now and I am scrambling. I was originally going to get the projector you did, but found a great deal on the Sharp XR-30X and couldn't pass it up. I am not thrilled with the throw ratio as my plan was to mount it behind the wall of my 14X18 room and 18 feet if the max distance I can have for this projector which leaves me little room for error. I guess this goes back to your point about research. I am trying to do mine on the fly for the most part. I am relying a lot on this site and folks at Magnolia in BB.

 

[JJMJ71]

Your are around a 45 minute to an hour drive from me.

I am sending you a PM ljb17.

Cheers,
JJ

 

[davidlinlin]

ok!!

 

[Chinadog]

JJ, coming together nicely! I like the color scheme. What do you have left?

Bud

 

[JJMJ71]

Thanks Bud!

Finally, everything is coming together nicely. I need to hook up equipment, install the A/V rack door, finish up the projector box and a few other little misc. items. I will be posting an update shortly with some pictures of the progress.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Cheers,
JJ

 

[JJMJ71]

Well here are the latest pictures of what has been going on.

Here is the room in its current state. I have all the fabric around the screen done and I will be putting the screen back into the frame tonight along with installing speakers. As you may have noticed I am still working on finishing out the baseboard. I also need to get the acoustic panels installed on the walls.




Here is the A/V and DVD rack with the trim installed along with the sliding glass door. The remote has found its new home in the wall also.




Here is another shot of the A/V rack door slid back out of the way.




I am finishing up mounting all the countertop pieces to the top of all the halfwalls.




My wife got me a great addition to the theater for Christmas. She got this blanket along with a shirt and some hand towels for the concession area with our cinema name and logo embroidered in them. We are planning to get two more blankets embroidered for the other two couches yet.




We are really getting close to the finish now and have a tight schedule to keep, since we will be hosting 3 parties in the next week for extended family Christmas gatherings and our New Year's Eve gathering.

I will post more pictures this weekend as items on my checklist keep getting scratched off!

Cheers,
JJ

 

[JJMJ71]

Hello all,

I hosted my first open house along with two Christmas parties for each side of the family within a weeks timeframe. I have the majority of all construction type work done, except for a few acoustic panels to finish up. So for the most part this is the general finished product. Now on the technical side I still have some work to do with setting up lighting scenes IR repeaters, and getting an HD DVR receiver from Direct TV yet.

Well, here are the latest photos of the HT room, Concession area, and the bathroom. Sorry some of the pictures are a little fuzzy since I didn't use a tripod and a flash. Wanted to get the true color in the picture without the flash.



Here is a shot from the back of the couch.



Here is a shot of the A/V rack with components installed and DVD rack open. I still need to finish putting shelves in the DVD rack yet.



A shot from the stage looking back. I was doing some adjustments with the projector so I left the front panel off of the hush box.




Here is a shot of the back of the theater room with the posters highlighted.

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This cobra picture is the theme behind the blue color of the room.



This is a shot of the concession area.



Here is a shot of the theater room with my extended family for one of the Christmas parties. Looks like there were still some comfy spots left yet!




Well there they are, like I said I am very happy with the results so far and still need to do a little tweaking yet on the system to get the sound dialed in, but everyone that has seen it has thoroughly enjoyed the movies or clips that I have showed them.

Again, I would like to thank the members here on the forum for all the great information and exceptional builds that I have seen and learned from.

Cheers,
JJ

 

[God_Speed351]

I am so glad I found this forum since your theater dimensions are exactly the same as mine. So now I have a plan for a layout of my seating. The only difference is that my celings are only 8'. I really like your layout alot.

 

[Mudcon]

NICE

 

[logan8246]

Well JJ, Its been awhile in the building, but it deffinately looks like the end results were worth all the effort. I love the seating, the bar tables attached to the back row of seating and especially the media center with pull out video storage.

Congratulations on a job well done and hope you enjoy it as much as I am mine.

btw.
What is the first full movie you watched on it?

Did you listen to the sound system before and after you installed the sound panels and did you notice a difference?

(first HD movie I watched was 300 )

 

[JJMJ71]

Thanks all, for the kind comments!!! We have been thoroughly enjoying the room and it has come a long way. The first full movie we watched was the Incredibles with my 2 year old daughter. The first Bluray movie that we watched was Casino Royale and the first HD movie we watched was Batman Begins.

I did notice a little bit of a difference with the sound panels installed. I still have 3 more to install next to the rear seats yet and two panels all the way at the back of the room. I am down to some setup details along with other small finishing touches that need to be done yet.

If anyone has any questions or comments please don't hesistate in asking!

Cheers,
JJ

 

[Steve Jones]

Your room looks awesome! You should be very proud of what you have accomplished. I hope my room looks half that good when I am finished.

 

[JJMJ71]

Thanks Steve for you comments! Have you started on your build and if so did you start a thread for your build on the site here?

Cheers,
JJ

 

[Steve Jones]

I have started the room. I haven't posted any pictures. I did take a bunch before we started the drywall. Maybe I should post them.

 

[JJMJ71]

Yeah, this way if you have any questions people can see what you have going on and can help you out with whatever your inquiring about. Sounds like you have a good start on your build. People are always interested to see how other people are designing their theater.

Hopefully we will see your build up here soon and stick with your build, it is definitely worth it!

Cheers,
JJ