Finally finishing the theater

[computerpro3]

Back in 2006, I was still in high school and living with my parents. When we moved to our new house, I made a deal with my father - I got shafted with a really small bedroom (my sisters wanted the big ones), but he would finish the basement with me and make it into a hangout area with my friends. It would kill several birds with one stone - add value to the house, teach me some construction skills, and most of all be a fun thing to do together.

Everything was going great for a while, until quite frankly we ran out of cash, and then things got really crazy with his company getting sold. In the meantime, I graduated high school and now am in my last semester of college.

Over this thanksgiving break, we'll be finishing it up together - and doing it right. We paid to have the insulation put in and the mudding and taping done (since mudding and taping blows), but nearly everything else will be done by us (not stuff like the wood stove install, etc). He hired a home theater contractor to help things along, but turns out they have no idea what they are doing so I had to take over managing the project.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it from both an emotional standpoint (something we never got to finish) and the standpoint of "playing with new toys." Granted, since I live 700 miles away now I won't get to enjoy it often, but it will be still be a hell of a lot of fun to build.

Here's the equipment list. All of this is ordered and will be delivered in the next couple of days except for the projector, which will come in December (but I'm bringing my own projector home so we can watch movies over Thanksgiving).

JVC RS45 Projector
Pioneer SC-55 Elite Receiver
Pioneer Blu-Ray player
7 channel Elemental Designs ED[c]6 with upgraded DE 250 compression drivers
Seaton Submersive Hp subwoofer
Da-Lite Permwall Cinemavision screen (they were out of stock so we ordered a Draper instead)
APC UPS's
RTI Remotes
HTPC
DirecTV
Middle Atlantic Slim 5 Rack
GIK Acoustics Bass Traps and Acoustic Panels

The room is a sealed room in the basement, with black ceilings, dark blue carpet, and dark grey walls. It will be completely light controlled and acoustically treated. The basement in general will have an area for LAN parties, a poker table, air hockey, and foosball. There will also be a bar with a tap (eventually) with a LCD tv mounted behind it, and zoned audio for parties.

Below are some pics from back in 2006. I'lll be updating the thread over the next week with final construction pics.


The wood:

I hated this shit so much:

This, however, was fun:

Before:

Drylocking:

My friend helping us out:

The floor plan back from 2006 (actually the plan hasn't changed that much)

Some cheesy render that I thought I was really cool for making:

Look for updates around monday or tuesday.

 

[sonicboom]

Looking good, will look great once everything is done. How does the htpc tie in with the direct tv though (or does it at all)?

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Nice, I think you'll be glad that you settled on the Submersive HP. Depending on how you're building the ceiling, you may want to invest in quite a bit of Green Glue.

 

[computerpro3]

Drywall is up and paint is on. One more coat for the home theater is required since there are some variations. Riser is built and filled with insulation. We considered venting it to make it a broadband bass trap but settled on ordering complete room treatments from GIK Acoustics instead to save time. Our deadline on a functional theater is in two days, complete with everything LOL.

When you walk into the room, the riser and screen are centered. In the actual room itself, the soffits are not even because the aisle is on the left side (there is no aisle on the right). This was the best compromise with our available width and seating size. There will be two rows of 4 Palliser electric reclining theater seats.

The ceiling is flat black and is an incredible absorber of light. For example, this is me trying to take a ceiling bounce flash with my Canon 580EX II flash. It just swallows it up:

Where the middle Atlantic will go. Honestly, we wish we put the equipment in another room entirely but since we framed it out five years ago it's a bit late. We can always move it later. It will be covered by a hinged faux-acoustic panel.

16 inch riser made according to riser height calculators.

Where the bar will go:

Rack closet:

Outside the theater:

Back to work! Carpet going in today, rack, screen, and sub are out for delivery. Garage is completely full of boxes, sconces, etc.

 

[AQ_OC]

Great job so far. Enjoying reading and learning. Did you or will you run all of your speaker wire and ethernet cabling inside the walls?

 

[computerpro3]

Fedex came 3 times today, UPS once. Rack and shelves, wall sconces, bar mirror, Draper screen, beanbags for overflow seating, signed movie posters, customized family theater sign, wine glass inserts for the theater seating, and I don't even know what else.

Have four more deliveries schedules for tomorrow including Sub and speakers. Elemental Designs can't get us all 7 by thanksgiving, but they are overnight the fronts and center at least so we will have them tomorrow.

Everything in this picture WILL be installed tonight, come hell or high water. We can't get into the basement right now due to carpeting in the HT room and a wood stove install going on, so we are going to buy black velvet for the screen wall and wood strips for the frame.

 

[yowen]

until quite frankly we ran out of cash

you meant, didn't want to sell the Maserati? lol.

Not trying to hate by the way, everything looks like it is going to be great, can't wait to see more.

 

[computerpro3]

you meant, didn't want to sell the Maserati? lol.

Not trying to hate by the way, everything looks like it is going to be great, can't wait to see more.

That was five years ago. Thankfully, times change.

Carpet is done, wood stove is in, bar is built and assembled (just a cheapy from Namco), screen is built (which I'm hugely disappointed in the build quality, but it's a temp screen anyway), and the rack is built.

We literally finished working five minutes ago.

Tomorrow, sconces are mounted, speakers, sub, and temporary projector come in. The theater should be live tomorrow.

 

[computerpro3]

The Draper screen really looks like shit. We are thinking of trying to build a DIY Cinemascope screen instead. The only thing that sucks is my HD65 (the temporary projector until the JVC arrives) can't do cinemascope, but oh well.