Place to buy a Motorized curtain opener??? (1 Viewer)

[Curt Luther]

I am in the pre drywall stage in my home theater and I would like to maybe put in motorized curtains if it is not to expensive. I am going to be putting in a front projector with a 90"+ screen. Does anyone know of some places with reasonable prices on motorized curtain openers?? Any info would be appreciated.

Curt

 

[Erik Farstad]

Curt, check out my website below and you can see what I did and then go to Smarthome.com...there's even a link on my site to exactly what I bought!

E

 

[Curt Luther]

Erik....thank you for your info. I actually got a lot of good ideas from your home theater for my own. A couple of questions for you.....

Can you explain a little more about how you put a lip on your stage and back row of seating? I am going to have three tiers of theater seats and I am planning on doing the rope lights as well and it looks like the way you did it worked well. My risers are almost identical to yours.

Have you had any problems with your curtain opener at all? I am very interested in gettin one and the price is great compared to most of the others.

Can you also fill me in a little more on the sound board and carpet or fabric you put on the wall. I was planning on just using a level loop carpet half way up my walls, but I don't understand what "blow through" means.

Thank you for the info.

Curt

 

[Erik Farstad]

Carl...I'll e-mail you shortly with the goods...

E

 

[Chad_Henry]

Actually, I'd appreciate it if you replied here, I'm curious about a lot of the same things myself.

BTW, I'm in the planning stages for my dedicated HT and I find your website to be a great help to me as well.

 

[Erik Farstad]

Ok, guys...I just figured many might get tired of reading/hearing about what I was doing...but here you go!

Curt asked:

Can you explain a little more about how you put a lip on your stage and back row of seating?

E: Sure, I just bought some 1" thick wood (I think I bougth some pine), that is say 1 1/2" to 2" thick and you first apply some glue to the edge of the riser and then to the wood and then you nail it onto the riser lip so that the top is flush. That gives you ample room to "hide" your rope lighting once the carpet is tucked underneath the lip.

Have you had any problems with your curtain opener at all?

E: None at all...it works like a charm! And the reaction of peoples faces when the curtain opens is worth it every time!

Can you also fill me in a little more on the sound board and carpet or fabric you put on the wall. I was planning on just using a level loop carpet half way up my walls, but I don't understand what "blow through" means.

E: There is much debate and opinion about this but here's what I did. I contacted an accoustical wall manufacturer and they informed me that any fabric that you could put up to your mouth, blow air into, and feel it on the other side will work to cover sound aborbing panels. Now GOM and other manufacturers make fabric for this particular use...but I'm cheap...so I found a carpet that *THIS IS KEY* DOES NOT have the rubber backing and that passed the blow through test" (though not perfectly mind you...it was not a hair dryer or anything) and applied it over my sound board.

I built my entire theater for $5,000 (not including equipment) so there are probably more "appropriate but more expensive" ways to do things...but this has worked amazingly well for what I wanted to do and I'm more than happy with the results!

Thanks for your kind words Chad and I'm here to help if I can!

 

[Domonic A]

Erik,

Very nice job, and a great step by step of your design process. I have a question about the insulation and resilient channels you used in the ceiling. Looks like you stuffed the ceiling with batt insulation, then did you tack on a layer of roofing paper before you put up the metal resilient channel? Do you recall how expensive the resilient channel was?

I was talkin to someone from Thermafiber about the mineral wool thermafiber and using the resilient channel. I think your idea of the roofing paper and insulation would be cheaper. I am going to use recessed lights so I will have to make a baffle for them.

Thanks for the grat ideas.
Domonic

 

[Erik Farstad]

Thanks Domonic on your kind words.

I did tack on a layer of roofing material (4' wide rolls) and then the RC. I got the RC from my father-in-law from a commercial job he was working on that was left over...so it was real cheap! So I can't help you with costs there...but just make some calls and you should be able to get some idea...I'd try commercial outfits first, for Home Depot and the like don't carry any.

Thermafiber is great stuff...but kinda a pain and pricey too...good luck in whatever you decide and let me know how I can help!

E

 

[David Grove]

I'm wondering if the electric curtain opening device mentioned earlier is very noisy?

Thank you.

DG

 

[John Clancy]

I use three of the same curtain motors and yes they are pretty noisy. Only the one used for the main tabs makes a substantial amount of noise so one day I plan to get around to putting some sort of sound proof box around it.

Of course, if you have music playing when the curtains open the motor can hardly be heard.

There are more powerful motors around and there is nothing to stop you using things like windscreen wiper motors. One chap I know uses one of these for a raising festoon curtain - he uses the fast speed for raising the curtain and the slow speed for dropping it. Very effective it is too.

Oh, a nice looking home cinema Eric - well done. Now when are you installing 35mm?

 

[Erik Farstad]

The motor is noticeable but I don't think it's that bad...noone has complained that's for sure...the "WOW" effect is worth any noise!

And thanks for the kind words...35mm...I don't think so!

E

 

[John Clancy]

How about Imax then?

 

[Erik Farstad]

LOL...if I only had the room for Imax!

E

 

[WojtekZ]

Erik,


WOW !!! Talk about giving it ALL away. Thank you very mutch for the detailed pics of the whole process. Such detail really makes our own planning mutch easier.

 

[Erik Farstad]

Well thanks WojtekZ! I did not do a very good job early on taking pictures and documenting things...and was not completely consistent throughout but I tried...must be why I get tons of e-mails asking "How I did this or that" which I don't mind...and is why I shared what I did.

I'm glad if anything I shared helps!

I'm not done...I still need to update my new ventilation system, rear curtains, etc, etc...the fun never ends!

E