# Tanner Ridge Cinema Construction Thread



## YW84U

Well, after some procrastination, I thought I would finally get around to posting my construction thread over here at the Shack!

*Build Pics Updated as of August 2008*





































The construction began on July 15, 2006 - I'll try and port over my posts from another thread, so that Shaksters can follow along the journey from the beginnings....the entire build was DIY, save and except for calling in the pros to do the carpet.

Quick & Dirties:

Room: 12.5ft x 20ft x 90in . Single drywall, mineral wool sound control, sealed door
Screen - 136" 16x9 DIY screen - drywall, with Behr SilverScreen coatings
First Row - ~12 ft
Second Row - ~19ft on a 13.5 in riser

Equipment - 
Optoma HD72 PJ
Sony STR-DE945 AVR
Sony STR-DE 345 AVR for LFE
Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD
Panasonic RP-56 DVD
Behringer DSP1124
Toshiba VCR (for CATV Tuning)
HotLink Pro IR Repeater
Harmony 880 Remote
Paradigm Monitor 7 mains
Paradigm CC270 center
Paradigm ADP-170 surrounds
Paradigm PS-1000 Sub
Aura Bass Shakers x 4
Insteon Dimmers / remote dimming
Schwack of DIY Acoustic panels/treatments


Rolling back the hands of time, here (in semi-chronological order) is the build:
____________________________________________________________________
July 2006

Let the journey begin! I'll preface this with a bit of background:

This will be my second HT, but first attempt at a truly 'dedicated HT' - my first setup in our previous home was an X1 in a hushbox shooting onto a 4:3 "poorly finished" drywall screen in the basement. Nothing fancy at all, no room treatments, risers, stages....basically a darkly painted room with a projector and a ratty couch. 

I was transferred to another city, and so the new house hunt began. Talk about WAF, but one of the criteria insisted upon by both of us was that the new place had to be able to accommodate a dedicated HT. Strangely enough, HT became one of our family institutions and we could not see living without one ever again! We ruled out a rather lovely updated home instead to go for a 'fixer upper' because it had the most workable floor plan. I love that woman - gave up spiral staircases and a fancy kitchen just for HT  

*The Plan:*

Buildout a modest dedicated HT in the basement, with as much DIY as I can pull of with the least amount of expense.........(sounds familiar, right?). Can lights, sconces, risers, stage, equipment rack of sorts, and definitely some forms of room treatment!

*About the DIYer:*

Computer geek, happily married dad to two wonderful boys. No trades experience, but willing to tackle just about anything....

*The Room:*

Basement of a 1967 four-level split in an area called Tanner Ridge . Room dimensions 13X20, with a ceiling height of around 90 inches. The room in its original state began as a quasi rec room, with beat-up old drop ceiling, 70's wood paneling that had been primered, tattered blue carpet, two windows and a lovely concrete block chimney jutting into the finished space. It was a room without a purpose.....

*The Budget:
*
As some of the audio I had already, I will be trying hard to keep everything in or around the $5000 mark. I'm a paycheque to paycheque kinda guy, and my overdraft can be like a Wimbledon game sometimes...

*Equipment:*

Salvaged from the old place was a Sony STR-DE 925 AVR, Panny RP56 DVD, Paradigm CC270 center, Paradigm PW-1000 sub, a couple of SPL mains and some older Realistic Mach Ones (heading into retirement).

Newly purchased during construction so far has been an Optoma HD72 PJ, Paradigm ADP-170 surrounds, a Sony STR-DE 345 AVR to drive the 4 Bass Shakers that the Mrs insisted I pull the trigger on  , and a Harmony 880 she got me for my Bday.

To get/wish list includes an IR solution (Buffalo or Microsmith), replace the SPL mains with Paradigm Phantoms or equivalent, Insteon or other economical PLC to replace my old X10, considering a BFD depending upon how the final room setup sounds, and likely build a HTPC after the dust settles.



I started demolition of the room in Mid-July this year, and have been progressing using the following formula:

HT = (work+overtime)Xweekend
. family commitments-mental health2


I will be posting some back-dated progress photos in the next few posts, in an attempt to 'catch up' to the current state.


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## YW84U

In the beginning.......


Here is the patient - suffering from the advanced stages of 1970-itis:










and looking towards the back:










Work began by tearing down to the studs to see exactly what I had to work with. Challenges will be the chimney jutting into the space, the two windows, and figuring out what to do with the two closet areas....


A quick floorplan for reference:


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## YW84U

After enlisting the help of my kids (I said "this will be the first and only time you EVER get to wreck the house, got it?"  ), I got a chance to survey what had been done by previous owners....



















The basement appears to have always been dry, so I had no moisture issues. Only one wall is not fully above ground. I was rather amazed that the insulation was just direct onto the concrete with 1 inch furring strips with panel overtop - I would've though some sort of vapour barrier would have been there. Luckily, HVAC routing was already nicely between the (now petrified) joists, but the electricals were nothing short of anemic for the room.....

The next mission was to kill off the two windows - I opted to cut 3/4 plywood inserts with black cloth to place into the cavities for this. I really, really cleaned them first, then used wood blocks to permanently secure them in place. I planned to frame out two new walls to eradicate the 'shelf' from the foundation and provide a flat clean surface to be able to place sconces and perhaps columns.


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## YW84U

And the framing began! I contemplated all of the various sound techniques discussed on AVS - staggered stud, GG, DD and such, and after much thought, felt that standard 2x4 would be suitable. The room is the farthest point from any bedrooms, no neighbours relatively close, and the whole family is usually present when a movie is on. I also did not want to lose too much area to the structure, so I kept it as minimalistic as possible. I created 3/4 plywood firestops to cover the gap between the new and exisiting framing both along the joists, and again at the mid-point of the wall. The excess space on the top half was filled with R12, and the entire room is destined to be filled with Roxul Safe'nSound mineral wool. I felt that my soundproofing requirements would be adequately addressed with at least knocking down some of the mids and highs with the mineral wool. I anguished over flanking and such, but thought - "Hey, we like it turned up, and the neighbours are far enough away".....










I chose to run PVC conduit the length of the room to 'futureproof' things as best as I could. I was leaning towards keeping the front wall as a DIY screen with a stage, with an option of perhaps going AT later down the road. I ran speaker wire x 2 to LCR, as well as a run of RG6 to each LR for line-level to the sub. I figure this way, I'll have more sub or speaker options as technology changes. One Cat5 was run to the centre in order to support IR.




























This will be by far the best insulated, most solid room in the whole house once this is over!


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## YW84U

The next challenge was to address the concrete chimney - it cut into the room about three inches, with a footer that added about another three to that. I figured that I could live with carpeting over the footer, but really wanted to be able to have two sconces on each wall and have it all line up. The exisiting framing was busy holding the joists up, and was doing a good job for the last 40 years, so I opted to leave it and 'add' another three and a half inches. I don't recall how many 2x4's I ripped down on the table saw, but at the end of the day I was able to bring the framing out enough to run a straight shot of drywall down that side (assisted by furring strips).










While thinking about wiring runs, I hatched the idea that it may be good to have line-level inputs near the front seating - for if the kids want to plug in their Xbox, my laptop or whatever. I ran 3 sets of RG6 plus two Cat5's to a box that will be just to the left of the front row. That way, if some new toy is introduced at a later date, it can be removable and avoid having to muck around in the equipment closet.










The equipment closet was destined to occupy the left side of the existing space, and I'm planning a DIY 19 inch rack solution for it. As for the other side closet, after much debate, I chose to keep it as storage - for those items like Christmas stuff and odds/ends that you only really look at once in a while. A louvered bifold door will occupy the right-hand side, and can be accessed by pulling the seating forward a small amount. This door will also provide access to the rear of the equipment closet by way of an access between the two spaces (it was either that, or dig a tunnel to get in from the back  )










I built a soffit to contain the PJ as well as hide the small HVAC run that was unable to be moved. (Chin-Up Certified!). The soffit allowed me to move the PJ a bit forward and reduce the throw distance, as well as serve as a hushbox to reduce noise for the back row. The smaller opening to the left of the future bifold will be built into a shelving unit to hold DVDs and other items....


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## YW84U

It was around this time that I hit my known limitation - electrical. I have five perfectly good reasons at the end of each of my wrists not to DIY for this one. I know many members have had all sorts of grief with electricians, so I am so very thankful I was able to line up a fantastic one I had sweettalked from my workplace to come over and do a side job. All I had to begin with initially was one receptacle, two flourescent lights that were tied in to the closet light and another flourescent in the adjacent laundry/furnace room, and a three-way switch at the top of the entry stairs. My plan involved seperating these circuits, and pulling from two other feeds that were not very populated. What I ended up with was:

Four 4 inch IC cans overhead
four sconces
seperate closet light/switch in both closets
3 gang in equipment closet
4 gang at bottom of stairs (for cans, stage, sconce and step lights)
pre-wire for stage lights (three 3 inch cans)
receptacles: one for sub, one for the riser, one for an exit sign to go near the of the stairwell, one near the front inputs, one on the opposite wall, one for the freezer on the other side of the HT wall
runs for four step lights (2 in stairwell / 2 in riser)

I had provided all of the materials, and I had never even asked about a quote, as I was only concerned with getting the work done the right way. The guy came over on three different occasions, and was nothing less than meticulous. Even took the time to teach me everything along the way! When I asked to square up, I braced myself........he said $250......I asked how many times he wanted the $250???? Stunned, I said "Uh, how 'bout $325?". In the end, he talked me down to an even three, and promised to come back to hitch up the stage cans when I'm ready.

I think I've found my first guest for when the HT is up and running! I can't say more than enough about this fellow - truly professional!

Anyway, the wires, insulation, and other goodies are now in:











And it is time for me to learn how to drywall! I've repaired small areas before, but never anything of this magnitude before...










I had the drywall delivered, and had anticipated being able to manhandle most of the sheets.....

Thank god there is a rental place just down the street that happened to have a lift! Another financial bonus that week - I rented it on a late Saturday afternoon of a long weekend - the rental guy said that I would have to bring it back on Tuesday morning........but he would only charge me for a day! Wooohooo! More time for me, seeing as I was gonna tackle this without the benefit of any helpers......


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## YW84U

Okay, that really sucked!! I took the weekend to hang all of the drwall I could between Tylenols. I did discover that the Dremel bit does a great job of cutting out for boxes and such - in the hands of someone else other than me! Wasn't too bad, but there was definitely some 'ooops' and explicatives along the way! Oh well, I guess it's a way for me to try out my mudding skills (as yet non-existent):










I know, I know....I just didn't really have any other place to put the beater couch, so I made due.....










Yeah, yeah, I know.....yes that is the HD72 hanging all shrouded in my soffit...I couldn't resist!!! I was weak!! I needed a gentle boost after the drywall episode!

But what is a PJ without a DIY mount?  



















It was a PITA trying to track down M3 screws long enough, but well worth it in the end. Total cost under $25 including the Lexan!


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## YW84U

After extracting 200lbs of drywall dust, I was more than happy to get some primer on and watch it transform into a room once more:










The octopus of wires had grown - in additon to the LCR, I ran dual speaker wires to the surrounds, riser, and back if I migrate to 7.1 later. RG6 out to the riser as well, as a 'just in case'. My plan is to hit up the boxes with Leviton QuickPort wallplates to keep all of it tidy.










As for the screen, I spent an inordinate amount of time up close and personal with the drywall there - a couple of skim coats, sanding and touch ups with the worklamp 1/4 inch away in order to get it flaaaaattttt.











True Love: WAF authorizing the painting of any large surface in your home flat black

Boy, what seemed quite roomy certainly shrunk in size once that black paint went up!

I also learned never to touch it after it dries


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## YW84U

Sconces were quite the adventure - I never would have thought that picking something out could be so difficult. Seemed like the really 'nice' ones had price tags to match. Being budget conscious, I opted to get in touch with my creative side, and settled for some cheap ones from a box store. Problem was, I liked the design / light pattern, but the face plate was chrome.



















With some surgery and automotive header paint, I was able to whip these up to snuff:



















I threw some 60W Reveal bulbs in them to whiten up the light, and overall I have to say they go well with the anticipated decor. I felt good that they came in under $200!

The step lights were next to go in - I had found some LED line voltage ones online for $14 each. They give off a crisp white light










As the HT lies between the living space and the laundry room, I felt that LED would be better suited - I could leave them on 24/7 for a minimum of cost, and ensure no one face-plants going up/down the stairs!










For those who may be wondering, the paint color for the room is a very dark green - sort of what you would find in an Irish Pub. I had the same color in my last wanna-be HT, and I had found it perfect - Once the lights go dim, it appears almost flat black and the walls virtually disappear. Seems to hide marks well, and the bonus was that now only I know where my mudding/taping mistakes are!

I can't wait to ditch that carpet!!

Anyway, 'nuff for now - I'll try to put some more up over the weekend!


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## YW84U

Work has progressed quite steadily over the last while, and I've gotten to the point where the equipment is up and running. The quickports are a great way to terminate all of the various cable runs, and the color coding (and labels) will help make sure my kids plug things in the right way:










I still have to touch up a bit around the front row input cover (where I went too far with the Dremel), but overall I'm happy with the results.

I fired up the PJ, and began to finalize the screen size so I can start to plan out the stage/proscenium:










At the end of the day, considering the throw distance, it works out to a sceen of approximately 138" diagonal 16x9. The final room dimensions came out to 12.5x20x7.9 feet - this ends up leaving me about 17 or so inches on each side of the screen for speaker/sub placement. More flat black to address the front wall:










Looking at the stage area, I am limited as to how deep I can go by a door to the laundry room about 32 inches from the front wall. I've been debating whether to go with a curved design, or some sort of combination of straight angles. In order to enclose the sub (18 inches deep) and provide at least enough room for the rear ports (3 inches), I will be left with a 'shadowbox' for the screen of nearly 21 inches. The center is destined to be mounted above the screen, as I have about 12-14 inches to play with. I will also be adding the 3 3 inch can lights likely behind it for screen wash. The stage floor can come up maximum to about 10 inches with layers. This would leave me with roughly 3 to 4 inches to build a 'border' around the screen wrapped in blackout cloth to give the area a more finished look.


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## YW84U

The stage planning goes on - I've attached a couple of sketchup pix with a **rough** plan.....I'm almost tempted to go with a curved stage and a striaght/angle solution on the top portion. A curve might allow me to come a bit further into the room and give it some added depth while allowing some clearance for the adjacent door. I wonder if it would look funny if the top curve did not match - I am limited by a HVAC vent on the ceiling around 38 inches from the front wall.



















I'm still not sure if that 21 inch depth for the shadowbox will look right. Work on the stage is at a standstill for now until I can settle on a final plan.

However, work continues on all of the other little things that need to be done! (And boy, there are many  )


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## YW84U

As for seating, we debated over Berks and other theatre-style seat solutions. At the end of the day, we decided that we would opt for leather sofas - in our last HT, our time was sepnt as a family snuggled up together wathing ovies, and we felt that the theatre seats were too seperate for our needs. Plus, we could have the option of cramming more guests in without dealing with armrests and cupholders!

As it turned out, we stumbled across a 50% off sale at a local box store and ended up with two black leather sofas for under $1K. Funniest part was when the salesman launched into the whole 'extended warranty' routine - I aksed him if that would still be valid if after ten minutes getting them into my door I ripped off the bottom to install the Bass Shakers........  .

He haggled with his supervisor, but there was no way they would honor the warranty if I 'modified them'! No biggie to me, but the looks on their faces as I attempted to explain my plans was priceless!

Got them home, and then started the long drama of getting them into the theatre - apparently, the previous homeowner got a deal on 28" doors. Not so good with 30" furnishings! After several failed attempts at twisting, turning and such, I reverted back to my favorite tool - the sawzall!

I now had two sofas in place, and a 32" doorway to boot!

The Bass Shakers went in without a hitch: 










I placed two per sofa direct onto the solid portion of the frames, vertically for now. I don't know if a horizontal mount may improve the experience - I may remount them later as I experiment. I ran the LFE demo and some other flicks to get a feel for them, and I can say that if balanced proper, they add a completely new dimension to the HT experience! A big thank you to those that have plowed the road ahead of me - I never would have thought of something like this on my own !










This is how it sits as of today. I still have yet to:

- Figure out the stage / run IR back to closet
- finish the step up to the riser
- carpet
- finish off the closet interiors / add bifold / make DVD storage cabinet
- quickport the equipment closet & tidy cabling
run ventilation - Tstat and fan to dump the hot air through the staircase into adjacent foyer
- equipment rack - I've shelf-mounted everything using the standard double-tang brackets from inbehind for now. I plan to AutoCAD some 2,3 and 4U faceplates to match the components out of 1/8 aluminum. There's a shop down the road that will mill them out for me rather inexpensively
- dimming - Insteon? Lutron?
- trim - debating black or going with a darker wood stained trim for crown, stage and such
- spend quality time with REW and my new RS SPL Meter
- treatments - considering panels at first reflection points and such

Work has slowed down as a result of work commitments (and because now we are able to watch the odd movie here and there  ). I'm hoping to forge ahead over the next few weeks and get the stage done so I can finally ditch the hideous blue carpet........

For those following, here are some stats:

Room - 12.5x19, ceiling at 90 inches
Riser - 68x112 in , 13.5 in high
First row - 12 feet
Second Row - 18 feet
Screen - 117x72 inches 13 inches from floor height


Budget:
Constrcution, wiring & materials - ~$1600
Seating - $1100
PJ - $2200
Family Movie Night - PRICELESS!!

So I'm at about the $5K mark right now. Carpet obviously puts me over, as well as dimming and trim. I will try to finish off keeping it within ~$1500 or so! Haha!


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## YW84U

After a brief hiatus, I've managed to get back to construction. I spent some time mudding and taping the equipment / storage closet, and have now gotten onto the stage. After much debate and crawlling through hundreds of threads, I decided to go with a curved stage. After looking at it now for the past 24 hours, I'm very glad I decided to go radius - I think the extra work pays off in a more 'cinema' kind of look.










Following the techniques outlined many times by others, I opted to decouple for the areas where the subs/speakers will live and just run sand in the speaker platforms.










I managed to find dry play sand! It's been raining here for the past two weeks, but fortunately a local supplier keeps some in a heated covered area. I ended up buying 8 bags, but at the end of the day, only used about 3 1/2. I'll keep the remainder to level out my paving stone walkways come this spring.










The sand definitely gives the structure a good solid damping effect. I just had to kick it a couple times to give me a mental idea of how it might sound when being smacked around by the sub!










Tonight or tomorrrow I will lay down the 3/4 in ply, 30lb roofing felt and 1/2 in sheathing, and start on the framing. The rains worked in my favor, though - I picked up the 2x6 for the curved front, and it was nicely pre-soaked so it would bend far more easily!


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## YW84U

Well, I've finally gained a bit more ground this weekend. I managed to finish off the step to the riser, so it's not as long a hike to up the back row! I opted to fill it with the leftover sand from my stage adventure, and notice it sure has a dead sound when you trample on it:










The stage was the next project. I finished off the 3/4 and 1/2 plywood sheathing for the top, then began on the sides. I ensured that all of the column was freestanding on the stage base, as not to contact the walls or ceiling and thus transmit more sound energy. The 26 degree angle was fun, and the math made my head hurt !  










The sub fit in just nicely, and left me about 4 or so inches in the back for the ports to fire. At the end of the day, I will end up with a shadowbox of approximately 24 inches or so. I was a little hesitant at first, but I think I'm gonna be okay.......











After cranking out the matching twin, next began the top portion. I left about a 1/8 inch gap all way around, again to leave it seperate from the other structures (mind you, I cinched it down tight to the joists above. The thing must've weighed near 50 lbs - I recruited my spouse and eldest to help hike it up to the ceiling while I attempted to screw into the joists. After 6 arms turning into a jelly-like consistency, I stepped backwards to see that the whole thing ended up about 3 inches askew.......  

The Mrs. made an expression like --->  , and figured 'no one would notice'....but, as you all know, it's hard to hide a few eighths outage! After having the feeling in our arms return, we managed to get it to line up, and thank god, everything was LEVEL!











I did however discover that the few eights of an inch that the image was off was more pronounced in the company of a structure that was in fact level. A few twists of the mount wingnuts, and all was well in my universe once more  

*<INSERT OBLIGATORY SCREENSHOT>*










*</OBLIGATORY SCREENSHOT>*

The Mrs did say however she is now able to 'see what I was taking about' as I described my vision........

The stage rear and side walls will be treated with insulation to reduce front wall reflections and hopefully minimize any boundary effects. The fronts will be covered in black AT cloth, likely attached to bevelled frames of various sizes. The edges around the screen will probably be bevelled 4" wide MDF wrapped in velvet. I think I may go black with the stage carpet as well. This week, I will mount the centre channel and the three can lights for the screen wash, round off the stage lip, paint the thing flat black and maybe then take a breather for a bit and watch some movies!

Other milestones to complete:

- finish equipment/storage closets
- entry door / closet door
- carpet......
- mouldings and trim
- equipment rack faceplates
- REW + requisite acoustic treatments

I'm sure my list is missing something, but I can see the end in sight now!


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## YW84U

*Let there be light!!!*  





















I'm sure glad I paid attention to when the electrician came! It was a bit of a chore working overhead, as I got a flu shot this morning - the big, hairy male nurse shot the thing like a lawn dart, and my shoulder was a little stiff! I'm just taking a short break, then back down to mount the centre channel and line it up. My thanks to whoever came up with the stage lights idea - definitely worth the extra effort. 

I can tell, since the Mrs stopped by from work, looked at it, and made a face...not a bad one, but you ALL know it............. the one that comes in combination with a shaking of the head ever so slightly  

I need to create an emoticon for that!


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## YW84U

After a question from other users about the setup:

Actually all of my final measurements were based on a combination of limitations, and a desire for as big a screen as I could pull off...


Here is a shot of 16x9 material:










and another with 1.85:










I took a tape measure, and sitting in the back puts me about 58" behind the front row occupant. I took the shots at eye level while slouching a little. With 16x9, if the Mrs sits in the front row (she's 6/1000ths short of six feet), I do lose some screen view, albeit rather minor. My 12 year old is about 5'8", and it just clears him - as long as he sits still  

I've found that with film material, the letterboxing gives me more than enough 'headroom' so that the front row does not become an issue for me. I was concerned at first with the relatively height off of the floor - the stage is 2x6 with 1/2 & 3/4 plywood. In the photos, you can see about a three inch 'frame' around the 16x9 material, and the top of the stage rounds out to about 12 inches or so from the ceiling. Each column is a hair over 16 inches wide as well. The riser is 2x12 with the same toppings as the stage.



My rationales for the 'unusual' setup:

I would have gone a little higher on the riser, but I'm 6'5", and have spent many occasion schmacking my noggin on stuff! When I'm on the riser standing, I am about four inches from contact with the ceiling. This one is taken from the stage, while bracing the camera up against the framing ~12 inches from the ceiling:











I wanted to mount the PJ as far back as I could to incorporate it into a soffit-style structure, and keep it from being 'orphaned' in the middle of the room. My thoughts were to both reduce noise, and avoid reading all those posts about 'how to run HDMI/Power/iPod dock to my projector'  . I had to run a soffit anyway to hide some HVAC stranded in the right rear corner. As the PJ was now 'maxed out' as far as throw length, I worked on the screen calculations and testing. My zoom ring is as 'small' as it can go, and I have very little tolerance left for focus adjustments. I knew I would be just over the 1.5 times seating rule, and somewhere near 46 degrees on the THX viewing angle stuff, but I do like to sit near the screen in a commercial theatre..... so a little extra real estate was fine by my tastes. The HD72 puts out a great picture, lots of light, and I cannot notice any 'screendoor' from the front row.

I knew I would not be able to stash the sub underneath the screen, due to the low height off the floor. So, I ended up planning out the columns to house the sub with very little wiggle room to the sides. I ultimately wanted three or four inches to create a black MDF frame around the image, so I based my tape measure off of the image dimensions and constructed the other stuff around it. Must be lucky - it seems to have worked out with a minimum of grief!
I better zzzzzzzzzzzz before I have to report to my 'non-HT' job.


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## YW84U

Well, I managed to get some minor work done this weekend, I tidied up the stage wiring and closed up the junction box. Paint was the main theme for Sunday...

Now my stage comes in black!










I'm going on a bit of a road trip, so I figure I'll stop by my Paradigm dealer and see if I can wrangle a good price on a set of Phantoms for the front mains. The SPL's are quite tired, and it would be nice to keep the imaging consistent across the soundstage. Also will need to look at IR solutions for the front - perhaps may end up pulling the trigger on the HotLink Pro, and just extending it using the Cat5 run I have up at the centr channel wallplate.....

Next up will be hanging a couple of doors, and finishing out the equipment closet and ventilation. I'll wait until the majority of the last construction is done prior to getting the carpets in.

I think maybe it might be worthwhile to invest in some sort of air cleaner; seems like a lot of dust is still airborne (at least when I take pics  )


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## YW84U

Well, after a brief hiatus and road trip, I attempted to line up replacement speakers for the old SPL's. Apparently, Paradigm no longer makes the Phantoms. However, I managed to score a great deal on these, and happily lugged them back home:










Paradigm Monitor 7's, V4. 

A closer look:










They seem to be a good match for my centre so far. Preliminary testing shows that I feel they will round out my system quite nicely! Now, just need to clean up the temp wiring, and start on some fabric frames for the proscenium.

I also managed to print off some plaques to dress up the entryway - kudos to the authors of these fine works of art!










I'll tidy up the dolby framing after I finish tackling some of the bigger leftover projects in the theatre...

Now, onto the equipment/storage closet!


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## YW84U

Hanging the PJ and connecting the audio is a bad thing.....took me this long to get back at it! Nonetheless, I've taken on some of the equipment closet wiring and cooling issues, in the hopes of getting some more done before year's end.

The wiring mess:










I'm using Leviton Quickports for the project, and can say I'm very happy with their product. I ran double evrything to the closet, but figured I would not bother putting in the connectors for unused wires just yet. So far, I have (from left to right, top to bottom):

Top Plate:
Left - speaker wire x 2 + LFE for Sub
Centre - speaker wire x 2 + Cat5 for IR or whatever
Right - speaker wire x 2 + LFE for Sub

Bottom Plate:
Left Surround - - speaker wire x 2 + 1 for future 7.1
Right Surround: - speaker wire x 2 + 1 for future 7.1
Riser (Upper + Lower) - speaker wire x 2 + RG6 + Cat5

Input Plate:
Cat5 x 2, Video-in, L/R Audio-in










I know, I haven't finished off the drywall sanding, but I'm procrastinating on that one....

As for cooling, I felt that if I could shunt the warm air from the closet into an adjacent foyer, that adequate and quiet cooling would prevail. As the closet has a staircase, I figure that the warm air would collect ever-so-nicely near the top of the closet, and would be an ideal spot for a fan/vent.




























As you can see, it works out that it is about the same height as the projector, and is only about 8 or so inches away. The HD72 pumps the air out to it's right side, so I fashioned up some sheet metal to make a vent/fan mount that will draw air from that side.










The fan is a RatShack 120V 4" fan, and moves a ton of air rather quietly (can't remember the CFM). I salvaged it from my old entertainment unit where I had it performing the same kind of tasks. Like others in the forum, I included a fan thermostat mounted in the cavity with the PJ










I've set it at 80 for now, and was quite surprised that I did not hear it kick in. I still have to finilize the wiring on it, but bench tests seem to be successful! I'm debating whether to have the Tstat running on the switched power of one of the amps, or leave it plugged in 24/7 on its own circuit. From the foyer side, you can hear the fan a little, but boy she pumps out about five times more volume than my HVAC vents! Hopefully it doesn't wreck someone's hairdo as they walk up to the livingroom!

Next trick, will be to finish the closet spaces with paint and such, then onto the entry and storage doors. I'm gonna have to wait a bit for carpet, as my funding is currently being diverted elsewhere....


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## YW84U

Okay, it's been a while since I've updated ......  

Work slowly continues intermittently, but has spilled over into the rest of the house now! The entryway to the theatre was horrid, and we had plans to convert the ground floor 'extra family room' into a Master Bedroom. Seeing as I am still waiting for my theatre door to be delivered/made, I started to tackle the theatre entry.

Here's a shot from the family room leading down to the theatre:










I wanted to make the entryway a nice 'landing' type area, and ditch the extra set of stairs leading down. I have no idea what the previous owner wanted with twin stairs.....

So, I figured I would continue on with the existing wall:










I filled the framing with Roxul, and just went with a single layer of drywall. The french door is fairly hefty / solid, but would still be a weak spot for sound coming up from the theatre. I had to relocate some wiring and such, which bogged down the process a little...


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## YW84U

....and then finished the wall off with a sconce light to provide lighting for the entry area










My first attempt at making a DIY architrave over the door - seems to look decent, and improves the WAF! Frosting the glass on the door was a bit of a PITA - I ended up finding some adhesive film that would provide privacy for the future bedroom, but still allow light into the area.

Next trick was to demo the extra stairs:










It's amazing how much the area opened up after that!










My plan is to build a knee wall and enclose the remaining stairwell - the top half (with the door) will be a new walk in pantry for the kitchen, and the lower portion will be general storage.

I'm thinking it may be a good place for a poster box - the WAF suggested maybe even a popcorn cart, but I'm thinking that this area will be a bridge between the theatre and the Master BR.....I'm not sure yet if I want to keep the area a little neutral or give it some HT swag.

I'm killing time right now waiting for my door - I ordered a 1 3/4 solid-core door with exterior weatherstrip and a low-profile threshold. It's been a month, and I'm itching to get this area cleaned up and done!

More to follow.....


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## YW84U

And perhaps the biggest reason why construction has slowed the last few weeks.....










The Ministry of Finance and Household Goings-on granted my application for Hi Def Content! I managed to scare up a great deal on a Tosh A2 - I'm very happy with the price/performance so far on both SD and HD content on the Optoma.

The only issue I have, is that when playing a SD disc, the HD72 goes into purple-screen mode - only to be resolved when I fire another HDMI resync to the PJ. Not a deal-breaker, however, I will have to find a tweak for resolving the HDMI issue.

Anyway, I've been holding off on carpeting the theatre until I get the rest of this area ready to be done. Yeesh! This stuff is like plumbing - once you touch one thing, you end up having to touch it ALL!


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## YW84U

And so I whine about my door, and BAM! it shows up! Maybe I should whine and snivel about winning the Lotto or something  










I must say, that this thing weighed about the equivalent of a grown man with his kids on his shoulders! Hanging the door was not too bad, but the shop was a little off on the measurements and I ended up having to cut it down almost an inch. Better too long than short!

The neoprene weatherstrip covers the three contacts, and additionally I have a door sweep for the bottom, and this aluminum low-profile threshold with a rubber gasket seal:










I'm going to hold off placing the threshold for now until the carpet guys come in - I don't know it the carpet will be tucked under, or terminated just up against it.

I've noticed with preliminary sound tests that it makes a significant difference in sound reduction to my ears. Doesn't stop the LFE per se, but I think that even though it is not sealed completely yet, it should be more than adequate to alleviate moderate viewing sounds from rolling through the house.


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## YW84U

And a shot from the theatre side:










Some drywall / paint touchups, casings, and should be good to go for trim after carpet.

Carpet tack strips are sharp enough to create a puncture wound far greater than a shark attack  

But hey, what's a newly hung primered door without blood smears?


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## YW84U

Well, about 20 movies later, I managed to get back to building!  

I'm finishing up the entryway leading the the theatre - putting in the closet for the pantry/storage:




























I wanted to move or widen the door leading into the area from the foyer, seeing as most of the house had narrow 28" wide doors. The theatre door would have been just 'sticking out' a bit if I did not move the jamb over a couple of inches, so more demo mayhem:



















I had to get creative with recreating the proper header over the doorway, as there was a cold air return set into the concrete floor. After deliberation, I opted to sister the stud into the return and affix it to the concrete below, as I figured that one 2x4 would not really reduce the amount of airflow into the furnace from the area, and I was more interested in keeping the integrity of the structure.

However, this left me with a messy gap between the tile floor in the foyer and the width of the new doorway. I figured I could get creative and fashion up a new threshold out of some oak pieces to cover it over and add some strength


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## YW84U

And so, after some paint on the foyer side and some wider casings to cover the difference in the jamb widths, I ended up with a much better entryway to descend into the theatre:










a view to the right, into the future Master BR










A new closet to stow away those household odds and ends:










And finally, the entry to the theatre:










I'll be pulling the trigger soon on the carpet for the theatre and entryway, and then be able to finish up the baseboards and likely put up some crown as well.

I've still been putting off finish sanding the drywall in the equipment closet  I suppose I better get back at it, but I know I have to remove the equipment again before the dust flies........


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## YW84U

Well, I got out of procrastination mode, and began to tackle the equipment and storage closets at the back of the HT. I have come to dislike drywalling!

Out went the equipment (much to the protest of the kids), and the sanding began



















Oh, what a joyous occasion when you come to the realization that the primer is up, and the dust is now OVER!! I'm always amazed at how just a simple coat of primer will instantly transform a space into something that looks 'normal'










This area will be home to general storage of stuff I don't use very often - out of sight, out of mind! Onto the painting......


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## YW84U

As for the equipment closet, flat black was the theme of the day. I had mounted a cool little 50W halogen fixture inside to at least provide some basic lighting while mucking around with cables and such










For the rack itself, I went with the shelf./bracket combinations available at the hardware store. Gives me some latitude to adjust for height or new equipment down the road, is sturdy, and a fancy pre-made rack was out of my financial reach.....










The most interesting part of painting out the closet was the concrete knee wall at the back. Rollers just did not want to fill in the gazillion dimples in the concrete! I used up some flat black spray paint instead to get most of the white pock marks. 

Something I remembered from a couple of years ago, is the need for good ventilation, especially with aerosols. I had attended a scene once where a lady from a renovation/restoration company was working in an under the stairs area of a basement with a plastic drop sheet taped to keep the aerosol primer overspray in. She had been working with a halogen spotlamp, which ended up arcing at the extension plug - immediately igniting the entire closet area, her clothing and the plastic sheet (which shrunk onto her and lit also). She did not survive after two days in the hospital, as she was over 80% burned. Needless to say, I remembered this rather vividly as I started spraying, so off went my lamps, open went all of the doors and a fan was placed. Took about a good hour to vent the fumes from one half can of spray paint.

I put this out there just to remind everyone to please always think safety when you are building out your HT....


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## YW84U

A little more paint, and some trim dress it up nicely...










And back goes the equipment










I painted the trim with a satin automotive paint, which is really good at not showing 'touch marks' you get from flat black surfaces and is very washable. Next up will be picking up some aluminum sheeting, and cutting it into face plates to cover the gear. I've started mapping out the equipment profiles on AutoCAD, as I found a shop nearby that will machine out the cuts for me if I can provide them with the CAD files. I found some aluminum for about $50, and I think I might be able to get the machine shop to cut the templates for me for beer money. More on that to come..... 

I also pickup up some black split-loom tubing from the autoparts store, so as I re-wire everything, I can contain the cables in a more organized fashion. The wall plates are now labeled, and ready to go










I didn't bother putting keystone jacks in for all of the extra wires I ran, as I figure I can do that later whenever I have the need for them.

Next up will be cutting and blocking the louvered door for the closet, jambs, trim, and the DVD shelf.

I'm so glad that the drywalling is done


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## YW84U

I figured since I was drywalling, I touched up the last few blemishes on the DIY screen. I suppose no one else really noticed, but they were bugging me - especially with the stage lights washing down....

I put on two coats of Kilz 2 latex primer overtop, and followed up with two light coats of what would be considered as Behr SilverScreen (discussed extensively in the DIY Screen Section).










Overall, I'm very happy with the screen results - texture, finish, etc. I was anxious to see if going more grey would make a difference in contrast and PQ. What I have found, after a couple of movies, is that the blacks are improved - as well, the letterboxing is less noticeable. I did a quick AVIA setup to adjust for the different screen, and only really bumped up the brightness a hair to compensate for the new surface. I think I will keep test driving this screen paint for a while, and see if anything may need tweaking down the road. So far, I give it a thumbs up versus just the Behr UPW flat I was using thus far.


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## YW84U

From the earlier pics, you can see that I framed out an area about 19" wide (standard rack width), then ran a 5/8 board around the inside to finish it like a 'door frame' - this was so that when I get around to making face plates, they can be 19" wide, and have the 5/8 wood edge to screw into to mount them. This was then finished off with trim molding on both sides. I attached two adjustable rack rails (with double slots) to accept varying lengths of shelf supports - these are from the local hardware store.

For each component, I used a 9" shelf bracket, finding that these were more than deep enough to accommodate my various gear. Now if I had cut the shelf 'square', the equipment would not sit flush with the front of the rack. So what I did, was when cutting the shelf, I 'notched out' the fronts - making a 5" x 18" portion that fits the shelf flush to the front:










Of note, is that the shelf bracket comes with holes to screw down the shelf - each shelf was screwed down to secure it. This is important, since some of the weight will be sitting over the area not supported by the bracket per se. This is okay, as the shelf brackets themselves have the two notched tangs on each side, preventing the shelf assembly from being able to tip forward. I started from top to bottom, leaving some room for air gaps for the gear, but not too much that it would be hard to make a faceplate for (or look funny). Once the shelves were in, the equipment was just slid into place.

Now this left me with a wiring spaghetti in the backside:










Saturday was spent cleaning up the wiring octopus ....


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## YW84U

First up on Saturday was wiring for network and cable into the closet:










Again, Leviton Quickports were the flavor of the day. Two Cat5e and one RG6 coax to feed the monsters in the closet










I picked up some various sizes of split loom tubing and heat shrink from the autoparts store, as well as cable clips and such. I concealed the speaker wiring in the split loom, and sealed it off with shrink tube. Banana jacks were added as well, rather than just using the screw down portions of the wall plates










I labeled each one, seeing as I'm getting older and forget things once and a while 

I wanted to keep the backsides of the components as 'clean' as possible:










The big question was what to do with all of the power cables of many lengths, and how to tidy them up a bit........


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## YW84U

The solution: a huge split loom tube, running the outside perimeter of the rack! This way, I could loom the wires from one shelf to the next inside the tube, and direct them out to whichever shelf I liked. I combined both the power cables and some of the input feeds (except optical):










I started along the bottom, secured it to the lowest shelf, and then ran it up one side of the rack.










This way, everything is relatively tidy, and can be removed/changed if necessary. Perhaps this is not as grandiose as some of the commercial solutions, but I figured for about $20 and a day's effort, it just makes things a little nicer to work with.

I carried on the same flavor with the Bass Shakers in the sofas as well - that way, I can easily unplug them if I need to move them around to vacuum up popcorn and such










Wow, that flat black sure looks lousy with a camera flash  . It does look better in person.......I'll have to swiffer everything again from the looks of it!

Now onto dealing with the access louvered door and DVD storage cubby!


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## YW84U

Time for the DVD shelf - some 1/2 inch MDF did the trick:










Alas, it will not hold my entire collection, but at least I can have a few faves on hand (Demo Disks, Happy Feet and a whack of Sci Fi).

Trim, paint, and voila










I've got most of the trimwork done, expect for a few odds and ends to tidy up. Next mission is to cut down the louvered door I bought from 80" down to ~ 68 inches or so. I think I will haul out the old Wagner Powergun to spray this one...the idea of painting those infinite slats does not seem enticing....


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## YW84U

Time for an update I guess!

Last weekend, I cut down the louvered bifold doors to about 66 1/4 inches...good for midgets to pass thru!  I was originally going to spray them with latex, but the thought of hooking up the sprayer and such kind put me off. So four rattle cans of satin enamel later, I have nice black really short doors











I started on the cover for the projector / soffit. Originally in my plans, were to ensure airflow came from the right hand side (intake) of the HD72.










So I created a beveled 'frame within a frame' for the lens, and then blocked out the left hand side with more MDF










and wrapped it with black fabric to finish it off










It's held in place by way of velcro, and that the backside of the frame is cut to fit into the 1/2 inch gap I had previously left around the drywalled opening. This way, if I need to service it, it will be easy to access and have some extra elbow room to play with.

I've found it cuts down the fan noise from the PJ just that little bit more - not tons, but I suppose every little bit counts  

More on the next post!


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## YW84U

This week was spent with touching up all of the trim and moldings, installing the bifolds, and finishing trim on the roof of the stairwell. I also made another beveled panel to match with the projector cover - I figured it made the soffit area look a little more 'balanced' to my eye.

In its current state:











and without the can lights - you can see the wall color really drop off without the cans! It pretty much goes entirely black once just the screen is on and nothing else is on










I'll be finishing trimming out the staircase this weekend, and I have a carpet guy coming in next week to have a look. I took home a sample of a charcoal gray, but it looks almost brownish-purple with my lighting. The piece is just sitting to the left of the upper sofa. I think I'm gonna have to grab a few more samples before I commit to a specific color. Most likely, I will go for a medium-plush carpet - It will make the wrapping around stages and risers look a little more uniform, and I don't mind vacuum marks (let me know where the kids have missed on their chores!  )


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## YW84U

Well, I pulled the trigger on carpet this week - I ended up going with the 'steel grey' medium plush, from the sample in my earlier pics. It's a pile height of about ~10mm, and will rest upon a bed of 8lb underlay throughout. I was considering carrying the same carpet up over the stage, but after some thought, will be having the stage done in black similar fibre carpet as well. Apparently, black carpet is not a big seller, and I've had to really hunt around to find something that will match the floor texture (I always tell the sales reps that the carpet is for my kitchen - the look on their face is proceless!  ).

So at the end of the day, it looks like the carpet man will be removing about $2K from my wallet as he runs out the door  . This is for the HT room, stairs, closets, and the upstairs landing. Man, flooring is $$$$$$!

I'm told it will be about mid-June before the installers can do their magic, so in the meantime, I might start working on the cover plates for my DIY equipment rack. I suppose there's no sense in starting on any acoustic panels, seeing as I should measure the room response once the carpets are in and see where I have to go.

My 3 HDDVDs finally showed up from Toshiba!! At least that will help me get through the wait


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## YW84U

Well, so much for working on something other than the HT......

I ordered up my IR solution - ended up going with the Hot Link Pro from Microsmith, along with the extension kit. I had thought about extending the emitters myself, but it will be so much simpler just to plug into my prewired Cat5 rather than splicing a whole bunch of wires.

Now to await the delivery man  

I'll post an install write-up with pics when I receive the goods!


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## YW84U

Welcome to the Mircosmith Hot Link Pro Install portion of my thread!  

After cruising around the forums and such, I never really came across much info with pics as to the installation of this IR repeater, and I'll tack on a little review as well.

So...........

Here we go!!










I ordered up both the Hot Link Pro as well as the optional Extender Kit. I figured I would be able to splice and extend all of the wiring on my own, but after considering the price of the kit vs. my time monkeying around, I thought to my self "Self, don't bother!".

In the first box, we have the receiver/emitter block, with the plug-ins for the power (via standard Wall-Wart) as well as an RCA connector for the receiver 'eye':










I didn't measure the length of the emitters, but unless you were doing something waaaay unusual, I don't think anyone would really run out of wire between their components if they are in the same cabinet area.

Here we have a looky at the 'eye' receiver window - close up:










As some of the marketing stated, this thing is quite sensitive (not uncontrolled weeping, but the 'other kind'). For fits and giggles, I fired it up on the desk just to see if it was the case. In a 9x9 room, with the eye not really pointed at anything in particular, this thing picked up signals thrown even while the remote was behind my back. The LED confirmation light helps - it grows in intensity as the signal gets stronger. I didn't find anywhere in the room where it did not reliably grab the IR signal from OEM remotes or my Harmony 880. BTW, the LED confirmation is light is Blue - and **** bright!










So in my case, I'm running IR back to my equipment closet, and had prewired for either cat5e or standard speaker wire to run the signals. Next, onto the surgery!!!


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## YW84U

Okay.....

The instructions are not terribly detailed with pics as to how the extender kit comes into play. For the benefit of anyone else like me who prefers pictures...........










Here is a closeup of one of the two extenders. The backside has a slot of the emitter wire to feed through, and the front has ports for either rj45 on cat5, or plain old two strand wire.

First step, is to determine the polarity of the ribbon wire - the + side will be the one closest to the confirmation LED. You peel back the wire for the LED only, and somehow mark the + side with something so you don't lose your place whist flipping things around:










The kit actually has a couple of + stickers there for you! 

They recommend making your cut somewhere ~ 6 inches from the main block to provide some leeway while working on the cable.

This next part just somehow feels 'wrong'.....especially on something new you just took out of the box!  










Phew! Off to go get a wobbly pop to soothe my nerves after that..................


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## YW84U

Next...

Take one end and feed it through the slot in the back of the extender, and feed the ribbon cable up overtop of the IDC fitting - take the time to ensure that the wires rest nicely between the metal connectors to ensure a proper contact. The extender box has polarity marking on it, so you can't really go wrong:










The top portion of the fitting is scotch-taped inside the extender box - you can remove it and now place it over the cable, making sure it lines up within the fitting:










The lid of the extension box provides a 'clamp' that when closed, will force the IDC fitting down onto the cable and engaging the contacts










And within moments, you have yourself a nice, secure connection










For the other end, just rinse and repeat!!! The polarity will be on the other side, but it all goes together smooth and quick!

You're now left with the main receiver block with LED and eye on one extension, and the IR emitters coupled to the other. It's just a matter of now connecting them with cat5, or speaker wire of your chosen length with the screw-down terminals.

Total time (minus wobbly pop) ~ 5 minutes. I have no idea how long it would take to me splice the emitters separately without the kit, but I don't think I could have done it more cleanly and simply myself


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## YW84U

Since I had prewired cat5e, I opted to make two small patch cables to run from each end of the box to run into my jacks at the front and back:



















The kit comes with velcro mounts that grip the unit quite well. I mounted mine just in behind the centre speaker on one of the framing members. Plugged in the 12v Wall-Wart, and mounted the receiver eye and LED:










A mounting bracket come for the eye - single phillips screw, and it was snug and aimed with the window towards to room. LED had a clear double-sided tape for adhesion as well.

In the closet, it was merely a case of cat5 patch cable, and mouting all of the emitters to the IR windows of the components. Lots of wire to run up to the PJ and shelving, and the extra was just tucked into my split loom tubing to keep things neat.










Everything fired up right first time around. Now that I had extended the IR, I wanted to see if any of the sensitivity was reduced in any way. With the 880 pointed anywhere towards the front of the HT, a strong IR signal could be obtained with no misses. I've found that if I do point towards a side wall, it is less sensitive and can miss the odd command. However, if I use a macro on the 880 and leave it sit on an arm rest pointed towards the front from the back row - the unit performs flawlessly. (It's actually kinda cool to see the LED tap out the macros like morse-code!  ).

After living with it for a few days, I can say that I am more than happy with its performance. Unless I'm intentionally hiding the remote from it, the unit repeats everything reliably. The blue LED is quite bright - so if you're one to fidget with your remote often during a movie in a dark room - you may consider placing it somewhere out of the sight-line to reduce distractions 

Time to start AutoCADing the face plates for the rack components while I wait for the Carpet Man!!


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## YW84U

*Tomorrow is carpet day!!! *









Today was spent removing all the old trashy berber both in the theatre and the entrance.... not only had to remove the carpet, but the other floor coverings the carpet was intended to 'hide'....

First off, the entryway - not too bad, but had to deal with some ancient tiles left by the Roman Formica Installers...










Fortunately, they broke up nicely and took only about an hour. Next up, was the theatre










Yay! remove carpet to find CARPET! I guess they didn't feel like taking the old stuff off before they primered the entire basement. Nice.......maybe I can sell it on Ebay as an antique? Maybe I'll leave it, and it'll be back in Vogue in another twenty?  

They had glued that stuff down to the rubber backing in the day - but I quickly found out that after 40 years, the rubber disintegrates into a chalky mass that crumbled to the touch. Spent some quality time with my ShopVac and a scraping blade to get it outa there.

Onto the Scraping of The Goo.....



















Took a couple of hours of scraping to get the glue off of the concrete, but I think I'm ready for the carpet boys in the am!

It's so nice to be getting closer to the finish line !! More to come tomorrow......


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## YW84U

*Well, today turned into Almost Carpet Day .... *









The installers came, and quickly set about laying the tack strips and underlay - 

but _then_......

_the big question_......


*
"Hey, what color is your carpet supposed to be?"*

*"....Uhh, steel grey"*

*"We seem to have been shipped one roll of **grey and one roll of blue.......*

Apparently, my other roll from the same dye lot is in a Calgary warehouse somewhere..... So, it appears like Carpet day will come in another two or three weeks  Unless I opted to go with an American Civil War motif in the room, it looks like today was doomed from the start.

Fortunately, they were able to wrap the stage for me. They did a great job!



















I don't know, but the purple underlay is kinda starting to grow on me! 

A couple weeks of keeping the kids from stepping on the tack strips........but how come those **** strips that cost mere pennies are sharper than razor blades, but we gotta pay $18 for refills for our Gilette shavers????


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## YW84U

*HOORAY!!! * 









The carpet is IN!  



















A different crew this time, but they did an excellent job - I was worried about how the wrapping/upholstery work would turn out. After speaking with the installers, they thought it was good that I opted for a pile carpet, as a commercial style might not have wrapped so nicely, and would have been a lot tougher to get 'right' with all of the edges and angles. When I built the riser, I had an idea 'in my head' of how it would look, but I think it sure looks a lot better than I had first expected



















They managed to hide the various seams very well. When they first rolled it out with all of the lights on, I all of a sudden had a knot in my stomach - worried that the color/style would look goofy and that it would now be too late to 'turn back'!

All in all, once it was all down, I felt better about the whole ordeal. The color might seem a little off with my camera though. With just the sconces and stage lighting on, it definitely is a medium charcoal....it does not show up well in the pics, but the color pattern is a little 'mottled' and not so much one solid color when you look at it in the light










Another major milestone behind me! Next up, some baseboards, acoustic treatments, face plates for the rack and covering the proscenium. I ordered up some samples of black Dazian to try out - Janus, Celtic Cloth, and the 'new' Exposure line of material. Hopefully, one of those three will fit the bill!

It's soooooo nice to walk on something squishy and comfy now!!!!


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## YW84U

For baseboard, I've tried holding a few stained pieces up against it to see what it would look like, but I'm 99% sold on going satin black - it seems to have a nice contrast, and ties in with the rest of my 'blackness'  . I think I'll go shopping for molding tomorrow!

For crown, I originally had thought of a crown / rope light combo, but an now thinking of doing something a little 'different'...... I've been looking more towards 'lighting trusses' - you know, the kind used in studios/rock concerts where they mount the lighting from? I was thinking instead of a traditional 'theater' look, maybe going to more of a 'studio' look. I might fashion up some 'decorative' 3 or 4 chord trusses out of PVC or metal piping to run along both sides of the walls to transition to the ceiling. Maybe even hang a couple of really small Gel lights or replicas on it for added effect? (I can't justify buying VariLights, but it would sure look pretty cool, tho!! Maybe some rotating Gobos with my theatre name rotating on the floor??  ) I'm going to play around with that a bit before I really commit to it, though......

How that ties in, is I was also thinking about when I deal with the first reflection points on the ceiling - to maybe make two frames for the centre and overlap/angle them back down towards the seating - I think the term is 'clouds'....kind of like a louvered effect with the two. I'll try and bash out a sketchup, as it's hard to 'splain with words 

Mind you, I might hatch another idea and change everything in an hour or two like usual!


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## YW84U

I swapped out the white Decora stuff for the black variety, and it looks far better! I had to take it a step further, and then tried them with stainless plates, and found them more appealing than just straight black. It seems a little more modern, and is not so shiny to be a distraction - but perhaps enough to add some interest to an essentially boring chunk of hardware.

A looky:



















I took the covers off of the two step lights and rattle canned them satin black - the middle louvered portion remains white for now, and I'll see if I will maybe paint the whole fixture. I ran out of paint tonight, but I got the riser lights done at least:










Kinda hard to tell with the lighting - I'll have to take some good photos when I'm nearing completion. I still have to paint the 7.1 wallplate at the back, as well as the input plate on the sidewall when I track down some more paint.

I'll deal with the bank of 4 once I decide on whether it's gonna be Insteon or what have you.....later on that stuff.....

Baseboard time has arrived as well:










Just in the process of painting the theater ones satin black, and hopefully get them in on the weekend. 

Spent some time tonite touching up all of the scrapes and dings from the carpet install - man, that stuff is rough on paint! Glad I didn't do the baseboards before the carpet!!


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## YW84U

Well, baseboards fell by the wayside over the weekend  

But I was out shopping for something totally unrelated to HT, and happened upon some ottomans that would be great for the front row



















I stumbled across a local store that had three of these for not a bad price. They have flip-over style lids with trays built in, and are very sturdy.

I figured they would work well to cover off:

- footrests for the front
- trays to put your spillables and such
- storage for those 'miscellaneous items'
- three extra seats to cover off overflow seating

Now, back to painting.......


----------



## YW84U

I sent away last week to Dazian for samples of their Janus, Celtic, and the 'new' Exposure fabrics, but have still not received anything in the mail  

I plan to have a look at the three, and hopefully find one that will be suitable for the proscenium and the wall treatments. I think GOM is a little too pricey for my budget right now, so I'll be exploring the alternatives.

Managed to make some good progress this week - the baseboards and all of the trim are DONE!!

Inside the equipment closet:










View from the entryway:










BTW - my friends think I'm nuts, as I ran nice trim and baseboard even into all of the closets and cubby holes...... hey, I figure, I might as well 'do it right' all the way around, and show that I really do care (even if no one else sees it!)  

As for the small footing I could not get rid of, I opted to cut the baseboard down a little as I made the corners, so it would not look 'too large' as it rode overtop:










I had a bit of a struggle trying to figure out how to tie in the baseboard to the mutiple angles formed by the stair stringers, riser lip et al.....I managed to cut up some really funky angles and run the baseboard around to meet up with the very bottom of the stairs:










And an overall shot:










It's sooo nice to be getting near to the end - I notice it now, not having to cut wood as much anymore  

I still have to change over the white wallplate for the future 6 or 7.1, but no rush.
Next up, will be the fabric for the proscenium, and the acoustic treatments. I might also fiddle with trying to create some faceplates for the front of the rack to finish that off as well.

Nearing the one year mark............. 13 more days to go!!


----------



## YW84U

Progress slowed to a crawl..............

But, with summer out of the way, and I'm now finished with my appointment with 4 yards of bark mulch and 160 feet of lawn edging...

Back to it! During the two month hiatus, basically the only things I've accomplished in the HT have been ordering 60 yards of Dazian Expo Cloth (to make the panels for the stage and sound treatments), watched movies , did tons of reading, and for kicks I bought me one of these:










I've been getting geared up to start taking the room measurements with REW and my Radio Shack SPL meter, and I have no doubt that I'll have some acoustical issues with the low frequencies despite the treatments. The Behringer DSP1124P has been used by some to be an effective parametric EQ for subs, so I figure it will be good bang for the buck for tuning the response on the bottom end. I was thinking - with this having two channels and a rather good slope adjustment, I wonder if I could use the second channel for this as a 'quasi' low-pass filter for my Bass Shakers? I'm going to do some digging and see if it'll work - and save me from having to track down some other low pass filter to keep only the LFE stuff in my seats.......

I figure that I will likely turn all the portions of the stage columns into bass traps using the Roxul mineral wool I have left over. So far, no luck finding any OC703 for treating the first reflections points - I will have to keep digging to find either that or an equivalent available in my area.

Once I get started, I will try and post some graphs - perhaps one without treatments, then some showing the progression as I add to the room. I don't have a calibrated mic (yet), so I'll be relying on the SPL meter for the time being.

More learning to do!


----------



## YW84U

My Expo cloth came in this past week  I've framed out the inside portion of the shadowbox, and have started filling the empty cavities with mineral wool to serve as bass traps as well as deaden the front wall area




























Have to grab some more insulation this week, and finish up the rest of the panels. Am sure glad I splurged to the pneumatic crown stapler! Makes short work of the fabric install


----------



## YW84U

As well, I've been playing around with REW, and graphed the Sub without any forms of room treatment:










I'll work on setting up the filters on the BFD once all of the treatments are in place. I imagine the 90hz dip is the crossover on my sub; my AVR only allows crossovers of 60,90 or 120hz - I'm assuming that if I set the AVR and Sub both at 90hz, that it will be the best fit? 

For the ceiling first reflections, I was considering something along the following lines for panels










having both overlap to some degree, and then placing two smaller 2x2 ft panels to cover off any first reflections from the mains. Still have to do up the panels on the sides as well, but am not sure what shape they may take.....

Decisions, decisions......


----------



## YW84U

Last night I finished off placing the rest of the Roxul into all of the cavities on the stage. After a couple of test movies/songs, I've come to the following conclusions:

#1 - My, that sounds better. Waaaay better! Deadening the front wall is a must for anyone. Imaging is vastly improved.

#2 - I have surrounds in the rear!! Never noticed them that much before....I'll have to recalibrate them, as they seem like they are now at +15 over the mains 

I haven't measured the response difference with the trapping yet, but subjectively, I didn't realize just how such a minor change could reveal huge results. I put the sub XO maxed at 150 and let the AVR XO at 60zh - the mains seem to handle things well. It will take some fiddling and measurement a little later to ensure they integrate well at the crossover point. I also managed to work up a set of filters on the second channel of the BFD, with a cutoff of ~45hz - waiting to test it out to see if it takes some of the 'whomp' out of car door slams and James Earl Jones dialogs 


Now onto the panels for the first reflection points.....this just keeps getting better and better!


----------



## YW84U

Well, more stapling! Made some more progress on the panels for the proscenium



















Each of the panels was a ripped down 2x4 stud, 45 degree bevel, then stapled and held in place with velcro strips. I have also discovered that a 28 degree angle on the face of the columns translates into a whole bunch more math when figuring out the angles for the panel faces 

Sure slows the process down! Hope to be finished this by week's end.


----------



## YW84U

Finally, another milestone - the screen wall is DONE!!



























A total of 12 separate panels, all held snug with velcro. Sure makes a large aesthetic difference - sorta like when the drywall goes up, or when the carpet goes in.... 
I'll be adding a ~1 inch beveled strip of velvet or some other light-absorbing material just around the edge of the screen soon, just to finish the trim off and define the edges of the image.

The IR repeater still works 100% even though the eye is located behind the fabric - kudos to Hotlink!

Onwards to more absorption and acoustic panels!


----------



## YW84U

Okay, it's been a while.........

I've finally located a local source for OC703 2" , and am on the quest to build panels. I've approximated the first reflection points by using the mirror method, and taped up the walls for reference:










Now in order to hit all of the points, I'll need a panel almost right snug to the proscenium, and a ton of coverage towards the seating areas.

A sketchup gives me this first option/rendition, using a combination of 24", 18" and 12" wide panels (thanks bpape for the input!!!!):










Since the seating is offset and not centred in the room, the opposing wall has points that fall just a little forward of the ones seen in the pics. I prefer some symmetry, so the panels will cover off both sides the same and provide coverage.

A different view:










The 703 will be in hopefully later this week, and the panel construction will begin. I still have yet to 'map out' the ceiling


----------



## YW84U

At last, the ever-elusive OC703 is in!!










I swear the lumberyard guys are comics or something.....when I ordered it, I was told that the 2" came in 2x4 sheets in stack of 12. My head math said "hey, that should be 2ftx4ftx2ft per bundle, and I needed two bundles. So I order it up, wait, and happily go to pick it up in the SUV - thinking that one bundle will definitely fit, but two might not, depending how squishy the stuff is....

So I ask the guy "think both will fit?" as I point to my chariot. He shoots back with a solid "in _that_?", and wanders off towards a forklift. So now I'm thinking 'why on earth would lumberguy need a forklift? Two bundles of 2x2x4.....maybe he's lazy. Maybe they screwed up the order. Maybe my head math isn't as good as it was in Grade 8?? I begin to worry...

Around the corner the forklift comes with a pallet with what I swear was six or eight cardboard fridge boxes, and the guy's headed straight for my truck!!  I'm reading the pick slip, and it says two bundles.......I'm staring to feel an aneurysm building, coupled with the hemorrhaging my wallet is about to feel with the restocking fees....

I was in the midst of swallowing my thyroid when at last the lumberguy pulled two boxes off the forklift and cheerfully exclaimed "I think they'll both fit!!"  Niiiicccceee 

And they did both fit!

Time to go home and calm down before firing up the saws


----------



## YW84U

And so, I ripped down some 2x6 spruce to make the frames. Each frame piece is 2" deep x1.5 wide, with a 45 degree bevel on the edges. I opted to build a series of 15, 21, and 27 outside width frames to visually break things up a bit as in the earlier sketchup. As it turns out, I didn't need two full-width panels towards the middle as there appears to be sufficient coverage without.

Frames:










Frames a la Dazian:










Tomorrow, I will hang them using french cleats and likely a few brads in the bottoms for good measure.

I still have yet to address the ceiling, but that will be the next project!


----------



## YW84U

Ta Daaa! 

The laser level was sure my friend (think it's the first time I've ever used it!).



















I spaced them about ~2 inches apart - it looked like the angle of incidence from the speakers wouldn't have much chance of a reflection even with the gap. From a seated position, it's a bit more obvious:










Boy, using no flash sure makes them look 'purplyish', but they are in fact black, and the green walls are supposed to, well, be dark green!  I will sometime actually take some 'decent' non-flash pics that show the colors of the room properly.......

Anyways, what a huge auditory difference so far - when you talk in the room, it's like there's a super sound-vacuum sucking everything up! I was worried a bit about aesthetics, but I received a solid WAF 'thumbs up' last night - so not to worry. 

Onto the ceiling now.....however, still trying to figure in my head how to secure these puppies so that they don't fall and crush people.....


----------



## YW84U

Well, as a bit of a diversion from making panels, I opted to start on framing the screen. I managed to find a good deal on some black velvet this afternoon, so I went about cutting some MDF into strips.



















As it turned out, I had anticipated about a one to two inch framed border around the screen on the inside of the shadowbox - but I had not figured in the calculation for the carpet tack strips and the last minute decision to go with underlay on the stage. This left me with about an inch or so all the way around except for the bottom was about 3/4 of an inch. Not as 'beefy' as I would have liked, but there's no way I'm tearing down and rebuilding now! 

I fired up the PJ onto 'blue screen', so that I could bring the edge of the frames up against the outer row of pixels - for consistency's sake. The little tolerances on the inside edges were negligible, and I was able to pull up the carpet just a touch to get it to meet with the framing.

Overall, minus the 1/4 inch error, I'm pleased with the results that the black velvet border provides. It's the blackest material in the room, and really makes a nicer transition to the screen. Can't say if it improves contrast, since everything is so black anyways  










At last, screen wall is DONE!! 

Back to acoustic panels tomorrow.......


----------



## YW84U

Okay then , I had a couple of PM's in regards to the panel construction/703 saga, so I thought I'd post a bit more of my process here to hopefully assist those who may be interested...

Tonight I finished up another 6 panels, and took some pics to show some of the guts of them. Here is a 21"x48" panel frame - cut down from 2x6 KD Spruce from the lumberyard into 2"x1.5" pieces:










You'll note that the ends aren't beveled yet - once I brad/glue them, then I bevel the remaining portion while my table saw is still at 45:










I end up with a decent cut that's fairly close, and sand off whatever might affect the lines that show under the fabric:










Here, I'm fixing to finish up my two ceiling 'cloud' panels for the centre channel reflections










A gazillion 18ga crown staples later, the Expo Cloth is stretched and secured










The OC 703, I rip down to 18" inside width for the frames by using the tablesaw, goggles, and a 3M respirator (safety first!!), and friction fit it into the frames. I left the backs of the 703 open, as the mounting was flush to the wall/celing and I felt that fiberglass won't be escaping from the fabric seal around the back edges of the frames










Now seeing as I'm using a cleat system to secure them to the walls, ceilings, I ripped down some more spruce on 45's, and secure it inside the frame like this - with a cutout of 703 so that the receiving end can catch on the lip










For the ceilings, I added three small metal tabs screwed to the frames to take the weight and secure the opposite ends. All were screwed in with heavy duty drywall anchors if I didn't luck out and hit a joist....

Onto the finished product......


----------



## YW84U

Finished ceiling panels - 










Here come the clouds 



















I figured seeing as the other panels were making things a bit predictable and 'boxy', I would use the front panels to add some angles and depth the the front stage area where everyone is supposed to be looking 

I suppose the area where I have a good 4" depth of OC703 may mystically help with lower frequency absorption, but it at least works on the first reflections and I figure looks a little different from the 'norm'....

Boy, it sure feels great to be getting that much closer to the end of the build  Just some minor trim and rack work, plus calibrations to go, then I think I'll take a little break!

Cheers All,


----------



## YW84U

Well, time for an update 

I ordered and received my Insteon setup - 3 V2 Dimmers, A Keypadlinc as well as an X10 IR controller (IR543)




























I'm happy that the KPL was the latest firmware version 1.5. I figure what I'll do, is use dimmers on the sconces, stage cans and overhead cans, and leave the steplights on a regular switch in the 4 gang box - I never turn them off or want to dim them, so may as well apply the KISS principle!

The KPL will end up at the top of the stairs leading into the theatre - I figure that way, if the LEDs are bright, it won't matter, and will keep the bank of switches looking more consistent . With any luck, I'm hoping to have the KPL have one load to dim (overhead cans), leaving only 2 separated dimmed loads in the 4 gang and then will not have to de-rate them (even de-rated, they are still well within specs, but less heat is always better).

I'm going to have to put on my electrician hat and sort through my earlier mess:










Hoping maybe to have it done this weekend or early next week. I'm still debating as well as to whether to put the IR543 next to the IR Repeater eye in the proscenium, or if I should put it in the equipment closet with an IR blaster....


----------



## YW84U

Well, after some electrical finagling, the IR/Dimmer solution is up and running



















Sorry for the blurry pics.....must've had too much coffee....

I put the KPL at the top of the stairs, so the primary load controls the sconce in the upper hall area, and the others controlling the screen cans, sconces and recessed in the theater (using Insteon Links for a virtual 3-way). The top right button I programmed for X10 to control all of the miscellaneous Christmas lights around the house 

Adjusted the ramp rates for the local switches in the theater so they fade up/down with some pizzazz 

To get it to integrate with the IR-543, I assigned each of the local switches an X10 address, and put the IR-543 into my Harmony 880 as a device. The X10 commands I'm using are the on/off variety by way of sequences programmed into the 880, and added them as separate buttons in the activities screen. Works like a charm!

The only glitch so far, is that the X10 is most happiest when it's on the same line as the switches - I tried a few different places to plug the 543 in, but it's 100% reliable when I plug it into my riser - I'll have to pop another outlet inside the equipment closet to power it at a later date. I used one of the HotLink IR blasters on it to relay the IR from the front of the proscenium.

I still have yet to figure out some scenes to program in - lots more reading and tweaking to do as time goes by.

I was glad that the WAF factor was good on this one  Even she thought it 'was cool'...


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## YW84U

More tweaking - I figured out how to add various lighting sequences with the 880 - so now, when you hit PLAY, the lights fade down. Also programmed the PAUSE button to bring just the sconces up, and the STOP to bring up both the screen cans and sconces.

Much more of this, and I'll be tempted to hook up my kids' bedroom lights for IR (god way to get 'em up in the morning )

Just working on figuring out how to get the KPL to follow the LED status for the different lights, and program in some different scenes. 

So far, so good.


----------



## YW84U

Well, enough tinkering with the Insteon stuff for now.....

Really, all that is left is to put in a handrail, make the faceplates for the rack components, fiddle with Insteon, and......

Calibration 

Figure may as well get started! So, I ran to my local Audio shop, and scooped a great Boxing Day deal on some equipment:

Behringer Xenyx 802 Pre-Amp:










Behringer ECM8000 Measurement Mic










I also assembled my trusty SPL, Creative USB External card and the requisite cabling to hitch up to the laptop to measure with RoomEQ Wizard.










I had already set the Feedback Destroyer 'loosely' to tame the sub in the corner with the SPL earlier, but now I want to do full range measurements using REW and tweak the audio as best I can.

My approach will be to set up the BFD channels according to how many people are in the theater (2,3,4 etc) and EQ the sub depending on the population. I did some preliminary testing last night over all 6 seating positions, and there is a wild variance of response for each seat  I will be working towards making seats 1,2,4 & 5 the 'better' of the bunch, and will sacrifice the other two (only if necessary)......

The seating 'numbers' used for my graphing and such will be as follows:










I will do my best to document my process/progress as I go along


----------



## YW84U

First off, I have my Aura Bass Shakers connected to the second BFD Channel (Engine) so I can use filters to create a low-pass filter for them:










I have them set to drop off at about 40Hz or so, to prevent them from kicking in when James Earl Jones talks or someone slams a door onscreen . So far, it seems to work quite well at keeping unnecessary shaking from going on. I have it set just above the target level in the graph - I can tune it up and down by just changing the gain on the 40Hz filter to match tastes.

In all, this will leave me with 12 PEQ filters for the other BFD Channel to play with EQing the Sub. I'll be taking full range readings, and hopefully be able to tweak any higher frequency problems with the basic EQ built in to my AVR.

More to come......


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## YW84U

And so I setup the Mic as so for Seat 1










and followed the same for the remaining seats. The measurements were taken at a 75db SPL, with no EQing/filters

These graphs will serve as a baseline for the tweaking journey.

Seat 1









Seat 2









Seat 3









Seat 4









Seat 5









Seat 6









It appears to me that 4 and 5 are fairly okay, but seat 3 is the worst of the bunch  Methinks that once I start to apply the filters, Seat 3 is going to lose no matter what!

It'll take me a few days to sort out my plans 

I have a thread over in the REW forum, where this is being explored further - I will try to post results here for the benefit of anyone following along.


----------



## YW84U

AND HERE WE ARE! I have folded space and time to cover off what's happened in the past year or so in the build. All the posts from here on in will be 'actual time' :yay:

Happy New Year and 2008 to all, and look forward to seeing you in the forums!


----------



## Sonnie

Wow Tom... you have really outdone yourself with your install. :hail:

To take that room and turn it into what you did is absolutely awesome! 

I love the colors and the way you did the ceiling panels. The entire setup is splendid.


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## YW84U

Sonnie - welcome to the end of my posting frenzy, and Thanks for the kind words! I did promise you a few months back I would get around to posting :whistling:

Alas, I'm still not **quite** finished with it - just have to finish calibrations, put in a handrail, rig up some faceplates for the rack components......

and who knows - with you guys throwing terms like SLLT and stuff at me, I may never be finished :spend:

Happy New Year!


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## Anthony

Wow. That's all I have to say! 

Great work!


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## thxgoon

WOW!!! That's amazing seeing what the room used to look like. Nice projector mount too btw. Good job!:clap: I wish I could hear how great that room will sound with all of that treatment in there.


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## John Simpson

Stunning Tom, simply stunning. That thread will no doubt help more people than you'll ever know, me included! :clap:

The "mirror method" eh? I'll have to look into that. One question: do you find the shadow box and stage setup to be beneficial? My aim to is to better the commercial cinemas, and that could be a way to go...

Again, bravo!


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## Big Worm

Very nice work!!!!! Congrats! And thanks for the very detail build thread.


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## YW84U

I very much appreciate the positive responses to the thread! I posted it here in the hopes that it might help someone looking for ideas for their rooms or construction info. Goodness knows, I'm going to be leaning on everyone here for as much help as I can get as I tackle the tweaks and audio/video side of things!! I'm by no means an expert on any of this, but am more than willing to help or answer any questions I can about what I've learned so far (I made lots of boo boos, and whoever renos the room in 20 years will find lots of bloodstains on the lumber :duh.

It started out as a rather 'innocent' project, that went way farther than I had originally intended (200% over budget, year and a half longer than planned, fancier than my napkin drawing....). It sure was easy to get caught up in it - even the Mrs was saying "In for a penny, in for a pound!" when it came to forging ahead :kiss: Somehow, I really don't think it will ever be 'completely finished'.......



John Simpson said:


> The "mirror method" eh? I'll have to look into that. One question: do you find the shadow box and stage setup to be beneficial? My aim to is to better the commercial cinemas, and that could be a way to go...


I found the mirror method to find the first reflection points quite handy and simple - I was always working by myself :sad2:, so what I did was used a table lamp with a 60W bulb, and placed it in each of the seating positions. I then ran a mirror along the walls and ceiling until the light would 'shine' onto each of the various speaker locations. Moved the mirror and marked with painter's tape (around the edges of the mirror to ensure enough coverage) - you can kinda see where I was going with this in the following photo:










The panels were originally quite high, so I turned my mains upside down to put the drivers lower to ear level (thereby dropping the two outer areas to about where the middle tape marks are). This made the panel placement a lot more uniform and narrowed my coverage area as well. If you have help, you can use a helper with a flashlight at ear height to shine onto the the mirror for you - would make things a lot simpler!

I find the stage/shadowbox definitely not critical, but it was beneficial to me; IMHO it brings a bit more of the 'theater' feel to the space, in that there's no mistake as to the 'purpose of the room' when you walk in. I do like having the fronts hidden from view - it makes it a lot harder to try and discern where the sound/image is 'coming from'. Plus, there's no visual distraction from the screen image, and creates a great place to hide acoustic treatments, IR repeaters and such. Also adds a bit of a 'buffer zone' to keep back those inquisitive guests that want to touch the screen :mooooh:

If you have the room/budget/time to do one, I found it to be one of the most fun and rewarding parts of the build! (Well, maybe except for the 300 or so kerf cuts with the circular saw in order to bend the 2x6 for the stage front :unbelievable

Cheers,


----------



## DIYHT1

Really Nice room, congrads!


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## YW84U

Well, the sound tweaking has kinda taken a back seat for the time being......but of interest, is that it would appear that the IR-543 used for controlling the dimmers has passed away....it developed a faint 'buzz' inside the unit, and is flaky when sending X10 codes to the dimmers  Time to RMA it back to SH and get a replacement. Fortunately, I've still got an old X10 RF keypad so at least I still don't have to get up!!

On the tech front, I managed to stumble across a skookum deal - 










wandered into Futureshop and saw their 'Table of Woes' freshly stocked with DVD players. Hidden away underneath a pile of open box players sat a Toshiba HD-XA2, with no price tag. I queried the sales guy as to 'how much', and he said he didn't know and had been hiding it until the manager could come up with something. He said it was a really old unit and I should get one of the A3's instead for a few bucks more..... I went back today for curiosity's sake, and ended up negotiating it for $289! They all thought I was crazy for wanting a 2nd generation model with all of the new A20's and 30's out......

So far, compared against the A2, the build quality on this thing is far better, and from the limited testing done earlier, I am impressed with the upconversion of the Reon chip. I'm sure that despite however the format war ends, I've still ended up with a great player for all of my SD content  . The only negative thus far is the bejezus bright blue light at the bottom of the unit - lit up the whole theater! After a round of window tint, I settled for a strip of black electrical tape to tame the beam.

Back to tweaking....


----------



## Blaser

This is a wonderful HT:T One of the best I have seen so far...


----------



## YW84U

Update time I guess...

I've abandoned the audio tweaking for now...been busy at other stuffs . However, this weekend, I've decided to start finishing off my rack. I always loved those MA racks with the custom templates, but alas, that won't work within my budget.

So, I trotted down to the metal store, and picked up some 1/16" aluminum plate for $30 (DIY is affordable!)










I figure, may as well start from the top down, so first on deck is the Sony AVR for the bass shakers










I used my new DeWalt jigsaw (Xmas gift from the WAF), along with some flat files, power sanders and lots of patience, and ended up with one of these:










Sorry for the bad pic, but the camera fogged up a bit from being outside . Now that I have a decent fit (couple thousandths here and there), I will primer the plate and coat it with satin black auto trim paint to match the moldings. I imagine this will take up a good part of the week to get all of the components cut out. I will use some screws with rack washers to finish off the sides and secure them to the 3/4 wood I left exposed near the moldings.

More to follow.....


----------



## Bent

I'd have a million accolades for you regarding everything you've done so far, an absolutely stunning job with exceptional attention to detail - but the one that stands out foremost in my mind is his theater is 12.5 feet wide... so will mine be. 
I will use this one as my inspiration.
:clap:

I'm impressed on how you've maintained a strict budget and achieved champagne results, congrats.


----------



## YW84U

Thanks Bent ! Yipppers, I guess I have champagne tastes on a beer budget!! Come to think of it, more like a Kool-Aid budget :spend::spend::spend:

Some more progress today - 
Panel #1 is now complete  A nice rub with some steel wool brought out any scuffs from my manufacturing process










A coat of primer, and a couple of satin black










And installation - I used phillips drywall screws, with a nickel #8 finishing washer on each mounting hole










So far, so good I think. However, I am still as yet undecided whether I want to keep the finish washers nickel, or black them out. 

Anyone have any thoughts? I've seen both varieties in other rack threads, and I'm on the fence which way to go with the washers as there doesn't seem to be a 'right way'.......

Can't wait till I get to cut plain old rectangular pieces :mooooh:

Cheers,


----------



## Rodny Alvarez

> Anyone have any thoughts? I've seen both varieties in other rack threads, and I'm on the fence which way to go with the washers as there doesn't seem to be a 'right way'.......


NICE!:clap:

I think black washers would look better to me:hide:!:bigsmile:


----------



## Big Worm

Very nice!


----------



## Prof.

Very nice indeed...

Definitely black..Anything bright and shiny will stand out and catch your eye when projecting..


----------



## John Simpson

Looks really good Tom! I'd offer to marry you, but my wife would complain about lack of bed space :hide:

Do you find those fill panels reduce airflow?

BTW, what is that wallplate for on the right of your rack? I'm on the hunt for some quality plates and that looks the goods.


----------



## YW84U

Hi John,

Ha! Bed space would be the _least_ of your concerns....I am told I apparently snore AND hog all the blankets :dontknow:

As for the panels reducing airflow - I admit it....I haven't finished yet (sidetracked), but I imagine that it will have an impact. I'm planning on making vent panels for the lower unused rack area just to ensure that I leave a little breathing room. I think that since the rack heat can rise via convection up into the soffit where the vent/outside exhaust fan is, even running without rack vents should still be okay - there seems to be a good number of air exchanges in the closet already (it also pulls air in through the louvered bifold entry door area).

Wall plates - they are Leviton QuickPorts, Decora style - they come in various number of keystone hole configurations with snap-in modules for speakers, RCA, and such. However, they are all white! I used a satin black auto trim paint (same for rack) that adheres really well and is durable, and finished it off with a generic stainless plate from the local box store.

Oh yeah - as for the nickel trim washers - I think I'll leave them as is for now until I populate the whole rack and stand back and have a looky.....maybe they will help offset/assimilate my rather 'silver' BFD into the blackness raying:

Cheers,


----------



## YW84U

Okay, I'm off the fence now 

nickel, black, nickel.....

After putting on another panel or two, it became markedly clear that black was the 'new black'. Thanks everyone for their input!



















So far, so good on the panels - I'm quite happy with the way they're turning out (and at far less cost that the MA RSH series ). I hope to get them finished up this week.

I reinstalled the replacement IR543, and low and behold, it is flaky just as the last one. This leads me to believe that either the X10 part of the dimmers is not working properly, or that there is some new undiscovered noisemaker on my powerline 

The Insteon side of things has been bulletproof, though. Time to really consider upping it to either an IRLinc or an ISY 99ir. The ISY would be complete overkill, but at least gives me the option to expand the automation later on.

Arrgh!!


----------



## thxgoon

Wow, nice work! Very professional looking. Some day...:daydream:

I couldn't help but notice the number of filters set for your BFD. Are those all for your subs?


----------



## Bent

Fort X-10 signal strength, I use a Elk ESM-1(I think) signal strength meter, it cost about 50 bucks, and lets you know if a signal is true X-10 or not, it's good for trouble shooting, cause you can use it to help find out sources of noise.
As well, it helps find "signal suckers", such as power supplies for computers, microwave ovens, etc. You just turn off a breaker, send a command and check the signal strength - then turn that breaker on, turn another off - send another signal, and repeat.
I use an Appilied Digital Ocelot programmable logic controller with a PSC-05 powerline interface for X-10 control of my 3 Leviton DHC scene dimmercircuits and have 100 percent reliability after doing some signal strength issue troubleshooting.


----------



## Bent

I believe he's using one bank of filters for his tactile tranducers.


----------



## YW84U

thxgoon said:


> I couldn't help but notice the number of filters set for your BFD. Are those all for your subs?


Bent was on the money! The top bank of filters is the 45hz XO for the bass shakers, and the bottom is for the sub. I suppose I can get away with far less filters, but I've yet to take the time and tinker with them properly :hide:

Bent: as for the X10, it was 99% reliable upon first install, but then suddenly dropped off. I have all 3 dimmers programmed with an X10 address, as well as each one is also linked with a KPL via Insteon. What happened, was only one dimmer (screen cans) would reliably respond to the IR543, and the others would not....sometimes, a command for light 3 would not work, then a command issued right afterwards to light 1 would cause light 3 to come on. Very inconsistent! I thought it was the 543, as it seemed to develop a slight 'buzzing noise' from inside. With the new one, I noticed it buzzes as well, and has a slight 'hot electronic' odor :mooooh:.

I did factory resets of all the switches, re-linked them, and the behavior remains. I also tried an RF keypad with an x10 module, and still note the same behavior (light 2 100% accuracy, 1 and 3 barely respond). Different housecodes were also tried but to no avail....nothing changed electrically in the house, and the 543 is on the same circuit as the dimmers with only about 10 feet of wire between them. Quite strange! It could be that two of the three dimmers are not happy x10 customers, or that now the switches are broken in, that they have evolved into x10 signal suckers....

However, the KPL using Insteon has been bang-on for the entire install, which leads me to believe that the protocol works better in my situation. My debate is that the IRLinc at $99 and being released (Soon?) may provide a better Insteon-based solution for the theater lights....but....I like to dabble with HA, and have been thinking of deploying more Insteon switches in other locations in the house sometime down the road. If that is the case, I think the ISY with an extended PLM may be the way to go. I don't want to drop $99 on the IRLinc, and then spend more on the ISY later thus making the IRLinc redundant (the ISY is only a couple hundred more). The other option I'm considering is to get a PLM, software, and IRLinc to perform the duties - but I'm not sure that there's software yet able to deal with the IRLinc, leaving me to revert back to X10 triggers for Insteon events for now...

Part of me just thinks that I'm better in the long run to stick to only Insteon, and take a good look at the ISY. I'm hesitant, seeing as the extended PLM is new, and I don't want to risk having to replace it as they work out any firmware bugs.....

Decisions, decisions :yay:


----------



## Bent

I hate to say it, but I've heard that INsteon isn't quite as reliable as they would have you believe.

Is it tough to configure your insteon dimmers as straight X-10 dimmers to see if they work that way?
Then, do Insteon dimmers respond to scene commands?


----------



## Guest

Wow, thats pretty much the same idea I am making for my home theatre room. Once I move into somewhere bigger...

Wow you have a VHS player in your equipment rack in a room that amazing, personally I would've hidden that thing or already transferred everything over to my HTPC... which I have almost done already.


----------



## Scotty79

Awesome work, absolutely top effort.

Makes me wish i had the spare cash AND the ability! :duh:

Any chance you could post a linky to where the plaques were obtained?


----------



## YW84U

Bent said:


> I hate to say it, but I've heard that INsteon isn't quite as reliable as they would have you believe.
> 
> Is it tough to configure your insteon dimmers as straight X-10 dimmers to see if they work that way?
> Then, do Insteon dimmers respond to scene commands?


Hey Bent - I'm currently running the dimmers as X10, but only for the remote dimming duties. It's not hard to configure the X10 side; you place them into 'linking mode' and fire an X10 command set 3 or 4 times, then it will flash the lights and retain the address. But I don't think there is a way to 'shut off' all Insteon features to them, so "pure x10" would not be possible. The two suspect switches don't seem to accept the incoming X10 address all too well lately, which leads me to think there is either powerline noise, some internal failure, or a signal sucker somewhere in the chain......But the Insteon communication has been 100% reliable, even across the different phases - that's what makes me lean more towards working out an Insteon IR solution as opposed to troubleshooting the x10 side of things. I'm contemplating doing an RMA for the two suspect switches to see if the behavior resolves - there's a two year warranty, and I've found that their support has been very good to date. If I had an Ocelot or other more robust X10 hardware already, I would be more inclined to stick with pure X10 - but, I figure I'm starting with essentially a blank slate, so I can go with pretty much anything right now.

For those reading this and wondering about Insteon and such - I know that some have had troubles with Insteon, and I'm prepared for that. I figure that 100% reliable hassle free HA would require top end hardware with top end pricing - and for me, to turn some lights on and off, is just not justification for that. X10, Zwave, UPB, Radio RA all 'appear' to have their quirks and QC issues, and realistically IMHO I don't think there is a great economical consumer grade solution out there just yet. This kind of stuff is so eclectic, that I understand that development of new or improved devices takes a long time as opposed to big-market electronics that everyone and their kids rushes out to buy (iPods, cellphones :spend. As an early adopter of stuff, I guess I'm a little more forgiving if something doesn't work right the first time around :daydream: Mind you, I'm not being a cheerleader for Insteon over any other solution; I haven't directly compared anything directly to it other than older X10, so my experience is quite limited. I equate it to dealing with XP crashes, Linux crashes, dropped cell phone calls....I think it's hard to get anything 'perfect' when we ask a device to do so many different things with so many uncontrolled variables :dontknow:

My toaster works every time, though! :bigsmile:

Cheers,


----------



## YW84U

strykr said:


> Wow you have a VHS player in your equipment rack in a room that amazing, personally I would've hidden that thing or already transferred everything over to my HTPC... which I have almost done already.


:bigsmile:

I'll bet there's some that will say the same about the HD-XA2!!!! 

Alas, I still keep it there for now, until it gets replaced with an HD digital box or HTPC someday. It's nice to be able to watch the odd show here or there, but we don't really watch a lot of cable right now to justify changing it out. It'll stay there at least until I get time to transfer all of the kid's 'growing up' videos over to DVD :whistling:

I think it would be an absolute hoot to have it blinking *12:00*, though!!!!!

Cheers,


----------



## YW84U

Scotty79 said:


> Any chance you could post a linky to where the plaques were obtained?


The DTS/THX stuff? I have not a linky, but I can email them to you (they are huge JPG files, so likely I'll have to break them up into three separate messages). I just put them on an SDcard and had a local camera shop print them out on 'nice' paper for me - cost somewhere around $5 each - and slapped them in some inexpensive frames. Be it known I am not the original author of them, and I'm unsure who to give the credit to - I've had them for some time, and only made some minor changes to the original TIFF files for my own purposes :bigsmile:

If you PM me an email addy, I can send them over to you as ZIP files. If all of a sudden I become 'hostage under siege of requests', I'll have to come up with some way of hosting them for FTP download or something.....if any interested Shaksters have hosting room for them, please let me know, so then everyone can have access to them!

Cheers,


----------



## raw23062

ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING! Very impressive and well done. I wish I had found this website before starting my project. You are alot further along than I am, but very inspiring and the reason I joined the shack. Remarkable how the room was transformed. Love all of the picture documentation.


----------



## Scotty79

> If you PM me an email addy, I can send them over to you as ZIP files. If all of a sudden I become 'hostage under siege of requests', I'll have to come up with some way of hosting them for FTP download or something.....if any interested Shaksters have hosting room for them, please let me know, so then everyone can have access to them!
> 
> Cheers,



thanks Tom, I appreciate the reponse, it'd be great if you could email them over... However I don't have access to PM yet...


----------



## Guest

Ya.. thats one thing I miss about my old VHS.. the blinking 12:00.. lol.. always was too lazy to reset the clock


----------



## YW84U

Scotty79 said:


> thanks Tom, I appreciate the reponse, it'd be great if you could email them over... However I don't have access to PM yet...


Scotty - you have a PM in your inbox as we speak :bigsmile:

Cheers,


----------



## Scotty79

much oblidged!


----------



## YW84U

Well, I finished off the rack faceplates this weekend :yay:. After some consideration, I opted not to make a vented panel for the bottom, although I had picked up some steel mesh in anticipation...

Here is the final product :



















I still may make a vented panel later on down the road, but I think I'll see what the temps and airflow are like for now. I thought just a blank panel left it 'cleaner' looking  . I left the bottom one about 5" wide, although I think it may have looked a little better if I had broken up the space with two panels perhaps.

All in all, it took a little more work, but I think the process was fun and rewarding!

Next step - figure out a handrail for the stairs....

Cheers,


----------



## John Simpson

Beautiful as always Tom.

How do you find the Feedback Destroyer? I've been wanting to ask someone if that does the same sort of job as Audyssey Pro... I'm guessing you wouldn't need both?


----------



## Bent

try to devise a way to mount a DIY hand rail with a "french cleat", then if you need to remove it quickly to move big stuff in/out, you can.

PS- the rack looks great.


----------



## YW84U

John Simpson said:


> How do you find the Feedback Destroyer? I've been wanting to ask someone if that does the same sort of job as Audyssey Pro... I'm guessing you wouldn't need both?


Hi John - the BFD in my case is almost not necessary, as I lucked out with my room response. I do however really enjoy that I'm able to fiddle/tweak/fine tune with the BFD and REW combination (haven't finished playing with it quite yet :bigsmile. I wouldn't think the BFD would be near as robust as the Audyssey, but seems to be a great & economical choice to PEQ a Sub or two. I haven't read up much on the Audyssey, so I'm unable to say much in that regard :huh: , but I would venture a guess that an Audyssey would make a BFD redundant.

Cheers,


----------



## YW84U

Bent said:


> try to devise a way to mount a DIY hand rail with a "french cleat", then if you need to remove it quickly to move big stuff in/out, you can.


That's a good idea! Mind you, I really don't think the sofas are ever coming out of there without a sawzall - it was a tight go getting them in before the door frame went up :hide:.

I'm thinking about doing something 'different' for the handrail - maybe something aluminum and/or black powder coated? Not sure yet.....I've looked at the usual wooden sorts, but have yet to find something that I want to put up....

Cheers,


----------



## BrianAbington

I know this threads been sleeping for a while...but I just joined the other day.
Very nice room. 
My dad has a set of the paradigam monitors that you are using. His are the first versions. I don't know if paradigam has made changes to them from his versions, but a few years back my sister was home alone for an afternoon and discovered that the tweeters do not like very high volumes for prolonged amounts of time. Other wise I love paradigams speakers
In my opinion the equipment rack looks great. I like the bottom pannel being larger...makes it look like a "future expansion bay".


----------



## YW84U

SQCherokee said:


> I know this threads been sleeping for a while...


As for thread updates and other postings - now that Spring has arrived, I've been distracted with other 'tasks', so not much has happened on the HT front lately. Still thinking about the ISY while shoveling bark mulch, but have yet to pull the trigger on it . Still have yet to source out a handrail as well.....maybe if I stretch it out, I can then truly say I'm 'never finished'? :whistling:. So far, the Paradigms have appeared to have stood up well to sustained high-volume usage (better than my ears, anyway :bigsmile - I wonder if perhaps they modded something with the v4's? I'm certainly more than happy with the sound for the value of them - I wouldn't hesitate to reccomend people give them an audition for their own applications.

As for the HT, the only thing I've done other than the usual movie-watching is add in a UPS for the PJ:










I put an APC 550VA 330 Watt UPS solely to offer some protection from the outages the area seems to periodically suffer. It's not huge, but it should hold it long enough for it to auto-power off after 5 mins of no input signal from the source components.

On another note, I think I've found another good reason to support building your own HT:

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=82643e7d-e233-4cd6-818b-6448ebaf48e5&k=82647

Recently, over 100+ cars were keyed at a Silver City Cineplex where I used to go. To top it off, there was another huge quantity of cars keyed again just the other day at a local community center and restaurants addle: It's a shame that idiots like that ruin a nice night out at the show......

Cheers,


----------



## BrianAbington

I love paradigams. I am honesly considering buying a pair of monitors unless I can get my dad to part with his...hehehe


----------



## BrianAbington

one other thing...could you pm me an e-mail address for you? I have a question I would like to ask you.


----------



## YW84U

Well, it's been a while since I updated any progress on the HT - been busy doing the usual 'fix the landscaping/deck/lawn stuff that Spring brings :dizzy:

But , now begins the foray into Home Automation 

I opted to replace the X10 lighting controls with the Universal Devices ISY99IR Pro - is it a small, Linux-based controller that is nearly a God-send to anyone who uses Insteon and/or X10:

One ISY to run the show (not in it's permanent location yet BTW):









One PLM Modem to provide comms over the AC:









For those who haven't used Insteon, it is the 'newer' X10 - in that it controls switches, outlets and such using data over existing AC powerlines. The bonus over X10, is that the communications are more robust, and allow for rebroadcasting of data as well as an 'ACK' or acknowledgment of receipt. I've played with X10 over the years for things like Christmas lights and so forth, but never really found it reliable enough to venture too far with it. I first started with a few Insteon switches to run the lighting for the HT (as mentioned in earlier posts), but found the X10 side of controlling them a little too basic and sometimes flaky. I wanted to be able to get more out of my switches - varying ramp rates, scenes etc while still maintaining IR control via my Harmony remote. Now, I know there are some that have had troubles with Insteon - I too have had to iron out some bugs here and there, but nothing major or anything I would consider a deal-breaker. I did initially look at other alternatives such as Zwave, UPB, but settled with this route due to costs. I have champagne tastes on a beer budget, plus I love to tinker 

Anyway, the device itself it quite small, no bigger than a cable modem. Hookup was dead easy - Cat5 to the PLM for comms and providing power to the ISY, and another Cat5 to one of my routers. With UPnP on the router enabled, the ISY shows up via a Javascript Window once you invoke the icon now listed in My Network Places, or you can get at it through a web browser:











On the main interface (PS - you can telnet into ISY as well if you are feeling Linux-y and want to tinker), you have a myriad of options - first off, is that linking devices together is now so painless! No more 'tap-tap', run around the house, 'tap-tap', run back.....you simply add the Hex Address for the device in, and then simply drag-and-drop it into various scenes you create with other devices.

Here is a screen cap of my Screen Can Lights - ramp rates and such are achieved by adjusting the sliders. The adjustments are far more refined than setting them locally with the paddle method:










For the HT, I set up a scene with a Keypadlinc Button 'B' running as the controller. I then placed the screen cans and the sconces into the scene, and tweaked the on levels and ramp rates to taste. On the IR side, I installed one of my IR repeater flashers onto the receiver for the ISY, and programmed the Harmony with some Phillips TV Codes (for RC5 compatibility). Voila! A button press of the Harmony triggers the KPL button and brings the lights up/down. To geek out a little further, I programmed the Harmony so that a Sequence is invoked when you hit 'Play' - the DVD starts, then the lights all dim a few seconds later including the lighting at the outside entry to the theater about 8 seconds after that. I've set up similar programs for 'Stop' (lights on) as well as 'Pause'. The nice thing is, that I have ISY monitor the status of all of the lights, so that the KPL buttons now light up and properly follow the status of each associated light, which I couldn't do with just the X10. Here's a screen cap of the program I use so far to control the HT lighting:










All of the programming works on conditional statements; the beauty of it is that your imagination is the limiting factor. You can trigger events by IR, time, switch presses...the list goes on. You can also control ISY via Web using a PC or your mobile device. This is kinda 'My First Program', so no doubt, I'll be changing it again once I learn a bit more about conditionals!

For fits and giggles, I set up a test so that anyone going into the theater 'double-tapping' the sconce light switch would then cause the sconces and screen cans to go 'fast-on' - plus, the ISY would then send an Email to my Blackberry advising of the status change. Easy to tell what the kids are doing after school 

I'm still tinkering around with various combinations of triggers and events, but have to say that I'm very impressed with the potential of the unit. If you were only controlling a few lights, the ISY would be complete and utter overkill.....but when I deployed the first switches in the HT, it was with a view towards automating other parts of the home - and that's where this device fits in. I'm putting in the odd switch here and there - sort of a 'piecemeal' method of expansion as I figure out more things to try with it (very addictive, actually ). Also, I believe there is development plans for an ISY for ZWave and UPB as well, which may perhaps be of interest to those here in the forums that have deployed those systems in their HT/house.

I hope you find some of my observations of value; I'm still in the green stages of learning all of the programming and tweaks, but am happy to answer any questions as best I can.

Cheers,


----------



## Anthony

Hey Tom, good info on the Insteon stuff.

I'm an X10 man myself and have found it to be pretty reliable, as long as you don't try to do too much. I have just have some lights, my security system, and the occasional Christmas decoration controlled by it.

A word of caution, though: The big complaint about Insteon is their reliability. Anecdotally they have had failure rates of 10% to 50% (based on someone buying 10 for their house and then complaining that 5 had failed). That was a couple years ago, so hopefully the kinks have been worked out. Just don't overload anything -- I try to stay under 50% of the rated load just to stay safe.

As usual, great work though!


----------



## YW84U

Thanks Anthony! There was an issue with paddle failures some time back, but that was addressed/remedied and no one seems to be having the reported failures to the degree it once was. I figure for the same cost as a basic Maestro dimmer from Home Depot, the Insteon route is worth exploring :bigsmile: . Plus, I can still use X10 motion detectors and other goodies while waiting for SH to release more Insteon-capable stuff.

Do you have an ELK or some other X10 security on the go? I was thinking of looking into integrating other stuff with the ISY down the road....

Cheers,


----------



## kjlewie

Hello,

I'm a new member who was directed to this thread for options on a clean looking front wall. That was 3 hours ago when I first started reading the thread. Like a good book, I couldn't put it down. Great pictures and commentary. The theater and the thread are both incredible. You should write a "How to DIY HT" book. The planning, vision and skill displayed in your HT is off the charts. Among the many impressive details, the xbox port near the front couch is a great touch.

Do you have any thoughts on how to use the shadow box with a front wall that has no side wall on one side (see below)? I love the idea of the shadow box, but it seems like it would look bit strange without two side walls.

Thanks,

kjl


----------



## YW84U

kjlewie said:


> ..... thoughts on how to use the shadow box with a front wall that has no side wall on one side (see below)? I love the idea of the shadow box, but it seems like it would look bit strange without two side walls.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> kjl


Thank You for the kind words! Sorry for the delay, but life is....****, I'm sure all of us have been busier lately :bigsmile:

A shadowbox **may** look a little strange just on its own, but that may also depend on what the rest of the room looks like. Do you have a sketch or other photos we could see? My first initial thought was maybe to consider putting in a small wall towards the front of your room - maybe three feet wide or so....but then again, I'm not sure how wide your HT part is and/or how the other spaces tie into it. Depending on your shadowbox depth, some nice fabric frames on that one side might look great and be interpreted in the same sense as 'furniture' - like a wall unit or the like. Enclosing or containing the HT space would also have an impact on the audio - is this a factor in your design goals?

I would encourage you to start up a build thread and open this up to the masses (there are some fantastic resources here on the board). If we could get a current sketch, we could banter around some ideas that may help you get to where you're going in the way of acoustics and aesthetics .

Cheers,


----------



## Anthony

Tom,
I have a GE Simon III with X10 power supply (you need the special PS to pass the X10 signals).

It's not ultra X10 feature-loaded, but it turns on specific lights when certain sensors are activated during time slots. It also turns on our porch light every night using X10. At Christmas time, we use it (and its timer feature) to turn on the lights.

The signal strength on it isn't very strong though, so I can only put things there that are on the same leg of the house circuit. I never got around to getting a amp/phase unit to tie in both and boost it. My other x10 controllers put out more signal and don't have this problem.


----------



## akakillroy

YW84U said:


> The step lights were next to go in - I had found some LED line voltage ones online for $14 each. They give off a crisp white light


Can you tell me where you got these?

Thanks!


----------



## YW84U

carls64 said:


> Can you tell me where you got these?
> 
> Thanks!


Hi carls64,

They came from Pegasus lighting:

http://www.pegasusassociates.com/products/NightLights/LEDNightLights.html

There's a couple of different styles to choose from, and they are all around $13 each. I'm very happy with them, and certainly would have liked to have installed them all over the house if I could!

Cheers,

Tom


----------



## akakillroy

Well done by the way, I am borrowing a number of your ideas for my project, I especially like your "rack" I am going to use that idea for sure.


----------



## YW84U

Well, it's taken months, but I've finally gotten around to dealing with the handrail for the stairs  Not really a huge accomplishment, however, it's just one of those 99.9% done items that you never seem to get around to......

I was looking to have something black to fit in with the rest of the room, but didn't feel that painted wood handrail would suit it all too well. So, after some combing around the local hardware stores, I came up with an aluminum powder coat solution:










Deck railing 

The trouble was, that the mounting brackets were terrible and I didn't trust them all to well. I found some 'regular ones' in brass that I figured I could adapt to my purposes










Not really a perfect fit, but with some quality time spent with a grinder, it would fit into the channel of the rail. So, with some grinding, some self-tapping sheet metal screws, and about 3 bazillion measurements, at last I have a rail that is to code:










I stuffed the insides with Roxul to reduce the 'clangy' resonance that it might introduce, and it seems to have given it a bit more 'heft' and feels a bit more solid to the hand.

It's amazing, but I guess I'm so used to a railing not being there, I keep forgetting to use it now 

So I sat down, looked around, and thought to myself "I'm DONE!". Wept uncontrollably for a little, then thought - "wait.....I can't be done....maybe I can upgrade or tweak something further?". I updated the front page pics to at least make myself feel a little better 

More to come 

Cheers,


----------



## akakillroy

Great work! You continue to inspire me! :hail:


----------



## YW84U

On a topic that's quasi-related to HT building, I wanted to post about a recent electrical experience I had this week and hopefully encourage forum members to consider their main breaker box as part of their home maintenance routine.

I had gone to my panel to look at some circuits to figure out where I wanted to install some more Insteon dimmers. When I opened the door, I could hear an ever-so-slight buzzing sound! Knowing that generally electricity is a quiet process, I began listening harder and it appeared to be coming from the 100 amp main. I popped off the lower panel portion for the branch circuits to have a looky, but did not see anything overtly wrong. I was hesitant to remove the upper portion that housed the main breaker - having 10 perfectly good reasons at the end of my wrists not to touch it! I called in an electrician friend immediately. What we found was a veritable ticking time bomb:




























The wire from the meter base service to the main breaker had been degrading over a long period of time (40 years, actually....) - the insulation was beginning to disintegrate and creep up towards nearly contacting the inside of the panel - you can see the flat spot on the top loop of the wire.....

Needless to say, I had the service cut and the issue dealt with ASAP! But, thinking about it, how often when we are building that we never think of checking up on connections and the condition of the mains? Even in newer homes, if the mains were not torqued properly, this process of arcing or degeneration could occur and none of us would be the wiser until perhaps too late  I spent a bit of time looking up info on breakers, boxes and such as I am going to upgrade to 200A service later this fall with a new panel (my panel isn't made anymore, and finding the new breaker was an almost futile event), and I stumbled across a number of articles and sites that deal with an issue over a certain brand of panels and associated failures:

http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm

I had no idea that this info was 'out there' and would certainly not be able to make an informed choice as a consumer as to what type of equipment would be installed in my home. Before I upgrade, I will now surely spend more time researching what equipment is available.

Bottom line, is that I'm putting this out there to encourage everyone here to think safety and check on your systems periodically!

Cheers,


----------



## Bent

good job noticing the buzz.
sometimes (ok, most of the time), an arc-fault interrupting breaker like you use on a bedroom feeder can buzz. This is certainly different.

I inspect my service entrance panel once a year, and being a power utility employee, I also pull my meter and inspect the socket each year as well (obtaining new meter seals isn't a problem for me...).


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## tenzip

I used to work for Square D in the UL certification and production engineering lab. Federal Pacific is, I believe, now owned by the same parent company, and hopefully the current production is of better quality, but their old stuff was a nightmare. It was a running joke in the lab. "What, are you cold? Go warm your hands over that Stab-Lok panel."

Good advice to everyone to check their service equipment at least occasionally, and it's not a bad idea to check outlets and switches, as well as light fixtures. I remember seeing a friend turn on a light at his house, and a spark literally shot out the switch. I made him go to the local big-box hardware and buy a switch and helped him replace it. That was an old switch, not a wiring problem, but still!

For those not comfortable doing it, having an electrician come in to do the job on the main panel is not terribly expensive, especially compared to the alternatives.

And by the way, beautiful job on your HT. Truly an inspiration. Makes me cry to look at mine, off-white walls, exposed duct work, etc. But then I turn the lights off, and can easily ignore the ugliness while the movie is going. I'm going to PM you, I'd like a copy of the .jpgs for the signs, if you still have them available.


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## Ozzmosis86

Beautiful HT! I am working on designing mine and may start construction this winter, it will probably a 1yr+ project though. I plan on stealing :hail: alot of your ideas and expanding on some. 

Thanks!

Andy


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## celsing77

tenzip said:


> I used to work for Square D in the UL certification and production engineering lab. Federal Pacific is, I believe, now owned by the same parent company, and hopefully the current production is of better quality, but their old stuff was a nightmare. It was a running joke in the lab. "What, are you cold? Go warm your hands over that Stab-Lok panel."


Chris no kidding on those old Federal Pacific's, i had one replaced about 5 years ago when i bought my house. I heard they were actually all recalled, they could basically start a fire at the drop of a hat.

Tom awesome job on the home theatre, you have given me a ton of great ideas and inspiration. http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/images/smilies/jump.gif


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## raZorTT

Great job Tom!

I might have to steal your faceplate idea on your rack! It looks great!

Cheers,

Simon


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## repdomain

I love your theatre project. Did you place any mineral wool around or on top of your sub?


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## YW84U

Sorry I've been absent from the forums lately - been 'on the road' as of late, with no reprieve in sight.....:hissyfit:

BTW, Thanks again to all for the kind words! As for the sub, the cavity in the lower left of the proscenium only received a small amount of Roxul - only against the two flanking walls and a little along the underneath of the shelf supporting the mains. The stage side and front were left open. It's really tight in there, with maybe about a few inches of clearance left on any given side.

I have no idea if that really contributes anything positive to the acoustics per se - I just went on the assumption that at least a little more absorption could help deaden the screen wall for the higher frequencies (and not effect the sub itself). :huh:

Cheers,


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## deacongreg

Great job, great job, great job!! How do you like the Paradigms??


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## BrianAbington

this is still one of my favorites


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## deacongreg

SQCherokee said:


> this is still one of my favorites


Excellent.


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## YW84U

deacongreg said:


> Great job, great job, great job!! How do you like the Paradigms??





SQCherokee said:


> this is still one of my favorites


Thanks, guys! <insert blushing here>

The Paradigms? I am very happy with them :yes:. I listened to a few manufacturer's lines before finally settling on them, and was impressed by both their sound and the value (and hey - they're Canadian to boot!). Although, I did own the CC270 center well before I sprung for the Monitor 7 mains, I note that the timbre across the front soundstage does vary a bit. In reality, I'm probably really the only one who notices it :coocoo: I was looking at the cc370 for a better timbre match maybe down the road, and possibly upping to adp370's in the rear one day.......

I'm still also looking at swapping out the old Sony AVR for an Onkyo 705 or equivalent - I would like to push the Paradigms a bit more with some of the newer audio available and see how they fare. But so far, there's been nothing to convince me to 'move away' from what I feel is a good product line!

Cheers,


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## deacongreg

YW84U said:


> Thanks, guys! <insert blushing here>
> 
> The Paradigms? I am very happy with them :yes:. I listened to a few manufacturer's lines before finally settling on them, and was impressed by both their sound and the value (and hey - they're Canadian to boot!). Although, I did own the CC270 center well before I sprung for the Monitor 7 mains, I note that the timbre across the front soundstage does vary a bit. In reality, I'm probably really the only one who notices it :coocoo: I was looking at the cc370 for a better timbre match maybe down the road, and possibly upping to adp370's in the rear one day.......
> 
> I'm still also looking at swapping out the old Sony AVR for an Onkyo 705 or equivalent - I would like to push the Paradigms a bit more with some of the newer audio available and see how they fare. But so far, there's been nothing to convince me to 'move away' from what I feel is a good product line!
> 
> Cheers,




Ohh, w/o question, they are great speakers. And I`m talking about the whole lineup. Which, is rare that a companies whole lineup is excellent. Awards across the board, reasonable pricing, what else could you ask for.


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## roffe

What a great looking home theater! :T

I may borrow your acoustic ceiling panel idea for my own project.


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## savior sound

Hey Tom, very nice HT build! What is the name of the color you used on the walls?


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## YW84U

savior sound said:


> What is the name of the color you used on the walls?


Ha! I had to dig it up out of the garage :bigsmile: It is a Sico piant named 'TAIGA - 4164-73', a Satin Flat finish. The details are a 171-503 Neutral Base, SICO 4000, Base 3, A-7C4,Q-3C24, V-40.

I really love this color for the HT - when the lights go down, the wall color fades to black, and has no hue whatsoever! Plus, it hides any drywall mistakes I've made very nicely :daydream:

Cheers,

Tom


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## Guest

What a beautiful job... the room looks amazing. I hope you are enjoying it.


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## imbeaujp

WOW !


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## deacongreg

cool.


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## radtech7

Beautiful setup, You did an awesome job!!. I will use some of your construction techniques.

radtech7


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## radtech7

Beautiful setup, You did an awesome job!!. I will use some of your construction techniques.

Thank You,
radtech7


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## YW84U

Well, the long-awaited Oppo arrived yesterday, and it's now a test to see how much of a pain it would be to swap out components in my DIY rack.......










and is ready to be introduced to the rack. As I was keeping the Xa2, I figured it made sense to retire the Panny RP56 to another room and put the BDP-83 in its place.










Removal of the Panny was dead simple - unplug connections and pull out from the back of the shelf. I put the Oppo in for a test fit, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was the identical width, and only about 1/8th of an inch narrower in height. WOW! Apparently I have a dust generator somewhere in the basement!! 










Install went easy as well - I put shims under the feet to bring the top of the unit flush with the rackplate, leaving only a slight gap visible at the bottom.










Overall, it looks good, although I think I will cut a new plate for it to eliminate the minor gap and make a new notch for the IR repeater. For a temporary placement though, I am very happy as how simple it was to swap out - maybe 15 minutes or less.

I'll get onto making the new plate in the next while - after some of the outdoor projects get caught up first. Plus, looks like I need to make some time for calibrations and testing the new player out 

Cheers,


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## Anthony

Looks good in there. We expect a full writeup on how you like the new player 

How are you cutting the blanks? Jigsaw, or do you have access to a full machine shop?


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## deacongreg

Very nice.


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## Sonnie

Hey Tom... be sure to post some final pics of your room in the Gallery forum and link to it from your sig. :T


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## phillihp23

Excellent Job!! Love the HT. One of the Top Builds....Thanks for sharing...I am working on my first build currently.


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