What would the minimum dimension be for a decent HT (1 Viewer)

[PAPutzback]

I want to seat about 10 people max, use a projector to get the big screen, have the option of using 7.1 audio and that is about it.

I am house hunting right now with a basement as a requirement. So I need to know the minmimum dimensions on the basement. I also went with a front projector because my theory is that with the lack of depth required for a rear projection tv I gain a foot or two in the room from screen to viewer.

And is their a glossary of the construction terms. IE what are staggered walls.

 

[Leo Kerr]

For ten people, I'd say you need to decide if you're going for the "70mm effect" or the shoe-box effect.

What I call the "70mm effect" would be two rows of five seats, meaning an approximately 14-15' wide hall, maybe about 12' deep, minimum. Projector over-head or against the back, screen close to the front. Not sure how big you'd actually want the screen, the front row would be about 6'-7' away in this configuration.

The other way would be for three rows deep, three-four seats/row. Here you might want to consider height as a critical issue, because you'll need some rake to the house. But here your hall would only need to be, say, 8' wide, but give it 12-14 feet long, and do a near-full-width projection. The projector would almost have to be over the audience, so be careful about projector noise, and ease of servicing the unit (over the seats.)

Leo

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I think it’s called staggered stud construction, a stop-gap method technique used at increase soundproofing between two adjacent rooms.

The best soundproofing measure is to construct two fully independent, free-standing walls right next to each other. The “next best” thing is staggered-stud, where the two walls share the same header and footer boards, but use independent upright studs. Here’s an internal wall picture:





As you can see, the uprights are staggered, every other one aligning flush only with one side of the header, so that when the sheetrock is installed on both sides of the wall, the two walls are physically decoupled – except for the header and footer, of course. Not as good as dual walls, but still very effective. Doubling up on the sheetrock on both sides also helps considerably.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[king]

I worked it the other way around. I think you need to know approx what size screen you want first. I wanted a 106" diagonal screen at the least. This way you know how far your projector needs to be (throw dist. in my case about 18 ft.) and also how far back your first row of seating needs to be. Then figure out how far back your second row of seating should be and how wide your seating is for 2,3 or 4 seats etc. This should give you a very good idea of how big the room needs to be...

 

[PAPutzback]

Thanks for thet tips. So Staggered stud walls as show in the pciture is for interior wall then.

 

[BruceSpielbauer]

Yes, this type of construction is used for an interior wall.

Ideally, the staggered stud wall can be used for all four walls of a home theater. If sound isolation (soundproofing) is a concern, you will have to make certain you pay attention to all possible locations where sound might escape, to avoid wasting your time and money and efforts.

A quote, regarding the staggered stud approach:

"A well-constructed and sealed staggered-stud wall design has a very high STC of 60. This design uses an extra wide base plate. For example you use a 2" x 6" base plate and alternately position the studs to the outer edges of the plate, 1 to the inside, next one to the opposite edge etc. No stud actually touches both walls so there is no direct sound path. You can improve on this design by using separate base plates under each set of studs. The insulation is snaked through the stud-to-wall gaps along the entire length. This leaves no voids to let noise through. ( Basically you are building two separate walls.)"

Here is a link with more on the same topic:

http://alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/faq10b.html


In practical terms, there is only one type of construction that most can achieve which can yield even higher results than the "staggered stud" wall detailed above. That is the "double stud wall."

The double stud wall consists of two separate stud walls, running parallel to each other. A small gap is left between the two (I left one inch in my own construction). Then, the sequence when it is finished is as follows:

(Working from the inside of the home theater toward the outside)-->

Two layers of 5/8" drywall. (the 5/8" stuff adds mass, which helps get rid of the subwoofer noise).
The inner stud wall, using typical construction, 2 X 4s, complete with regular 2 X 4 top plates, 2 X 4 bottom plates, etc.
A 1 inch gap. Regular fiberglass insulation -- in batts -- is used in here, both in the stud walls and also the 1 inch gap.
The outer stud wall. It is again typical, with regular 2 X 4 standard construction.
Two layers of 5/8" drywall. (again, the 5/8" stuff adds mass, which helps get rid of the subwoofer noise).

This construction is perhaps the most effective that can be achieved in STANDARD construction techniques. However, it has the drawback of causing one to lose a lot of space due to the overall space required. Expect to lose about a foot, due to the overall "depth" of such drastic methods. A foot for each wall. My 15 foot wide home theater suddenly turned into a 13 foot wide room (gulp.)

The staggered stud construction you were discussing can be ALMOST as effective, especially if 5/8" drywall is used in two layers. Since the top and bottom plates are made from 2 X 6s (which are actually about 5 1/2 inches wide), expect to lose about 8 1/2 inches in total at each wall, to build this sort of thing, assuming you were to use the two layers of 5/8" drywall on both sides of the wall.

The construction tricks above can do a lot to help the midrange and high frequency sounds from leaking. The 5/8" drywall does a lot to help to keep the low frequency subwoofer sounds from leaking, especially if done in two layers.

Finally, caulk, caulk, caulk.

And, consider solid core doors.

-Bruce