new guy, new theatre

[67kato]

Hi all,

I am new to the scene and I am in the process of building a dedicated theatre room. I could use some help with certain construction ideas. I have a moderate sized space in a basement (13'-6" x 21' w/ 9'+ ceilings). We plan on a projector set up with 100" screen (hopefully). The rough framing is almost finished and I am looking into the electrical end of things. From what I have read here, it seems that we will be trying out a 7.1 sound system. Having said that, I will be running the flexible conduit from the power center to the speaker locations. Here is where the questions start:

1. Do the conduits terminate into a single gang box at the speaker locations?

2. I assume that half the speakers will be free standing (yes or no?) so where should I mount the terminations?

3. Is there any reason to run 5e wire to the speaker locations?

4. Should I be looking into anything else?

Thanks for the help. I will try to post some progress pics soon.

Kato

[bpape]

Welcome to the forum.

That's a very nice space you have. Higher ceilings are great. To be brief with your questions:

1. That's can be done. If so, it's usually a low voltage box.

2. Actually, for a pure HT, none of them are floorstanders except the sub. You'll be cutting them off at 80Hz so save your money or get better monitor types and a better sub. Also, surrounds go 6-6.5' off the floor.

3. No.

4. Tons of things. Where do you want to start? Set your seats first where they'll sound good. Set everything else around that (speaker location, screen size which drives PJ location, quality, brightness, etc.) Also, watch your HVAC very closely. That's the place that is usually the biggest isolation issue in any room.

Welcome to the madness.

Bryan

[67kato]

I appreciate the advice. Its a lot easier to do it right the first time. I have attached a quick and dirty floor plan. I'll take some more pics tonight. I gotta run.

thanks,

Kato

[MatrixDweller]

67kato wrote:

1. Do the conduits terminate into a single gang box at the speaker locations?

You can use a low voltage receptacle at the termination point. The orange ones I used have a hole in the top and bottom that conduit could be fed into but there's no locking mechanism. If you tie down the conduit to the stud it shouldn't move much laterally. It can however move up and down a bit when you snake your wires through it. You can also get double gang and triple gang boxes if you need them for bigger wall plates.

67kato wrote:

2. I assume that half the speakers will be free standing (yes or no?) so where should I mount the terminations?

Probably at no lower that normal receptacle height (1ft or so) for floor mounted speakers. It's only for aesthetics so what ever you think looks nice is acceptable.

67kato wrote:

3. Is there any reason to run 5e wire to the speaker locations?

Not unless you plan on having a network device there. A single run of cat5e isn't the best for speaker wire, although I've seen some people use it as such. If your conduit is sized right you can fish new wire as needed down the road.

67kato wrote:

4. Should I be looking into anything else?

- Connections for subwoofer(s), **** kickers, step lighting, IR repeaters if your closet is not at the front, etc.
- Use the largest diameter conduit you can so that running cables in the future is easy.
- Watch bends in conduit and use the glue sparingly (but enough to work). Rough edges or excess glue on the inside of the conduit can snag cables and make fishing difficult.

[67kato]

Thanks for the input Matrix Dweller.

Since my last reply I went off on the electrical. We drilled lots of holes and ran a lot of wire but we are still not done. I found the low voltage outlets and connections to the flexible conduit at our local Home Cheapo. The terminations snap into the conduit and then lock into the outlets. They go together real easy. I also picked up and installed a bunch of 4" recessed lights. We wired for rope lights in the soffits. I started looking into the projector placement as well. We have the room to run 1 1/2" conduit to it with only two bends but I am having a difficult time figuring out where it will go in the ceiling without actually having the unit yet!!!! Any ideas????

I am still looking into the surround speaker placement. As per Brian's suggestion and other posts I've read, the surrounds will be about 6~6.5' off of the ground, so we will mount the terminations up that high.

The bass shakers are definitely in the plan. I will run power and flexible conduit to the risers. Is there anything else that is needed?

I haven't thought much about it yet, but what is necessary up front for power, signal? IR is not necessary because we will have line of sight to the components. I do plan on installing a permanent screen.

I have about two weeks to hang sheetrock before the taper comes, so I am moving fast. I want to get the electrical stuff ironed out so that we still have time to insulate. fun fun fun......

Thanks,

Kato

[bpape]

OK. Now you have the height. Now where front to back (side surrounds) and side to side (rears) are you going to put them? That's going to depend on the seating position. Screen size also depends on seating position. PJ, PJ mounting position, etc. is determined by screen size and seating position. Seeing a pattern here?

Seating position needs to be considered VERY VERY early in the process. It really drives everything else if you're doing it properly. Many many people make the mistake of doing seating last and letting everything drive IT, instead of the other way around.

Bryan

[MatrixDweller]

67kato wrote:

I started looking into the projector placement as well. We have the room to run 1 1/2" conduit to it with only two bends but I am having a difficult time figuring out where it will go in the ceiling without actually having the unit yet!!!! Any ideas????

1 1/2" conduit will work well for HDMI and component. If you plan on putting multiple cables through the conduit it might get tricky and DVI or VGA could be problematic. It's the connectors that tend to make fishing difficult. These days one HDMI cable to the projector does the trick. Hopefully the next revision of HDMI, or its replacement, uses the same connector or similarly sized one.

Check out www.projectorcentral.com and look at your projector and use their projection calculator. You'll want to place the projector so that it fills you screen and produced the most light. Too much zoom or too far back can diminish the brightness. I sort of boils down to screen size and projector on where to place it optimally. typically somewhere between 10' and 15'.

What projector are you going with?

Remember that you'll need a power outlet on ceiling for the projector also.

67kato wrote:

I haven't thought much about it yet, but what is necessary up front for power, signal? IR is not necessary because we will have line of sight to the components. I do plan on installing a permanent screen.

If you can, run a dedicated circuit for your gear do so.

[67kato]

Brian,
Before we started framing, I read a lot of threads here and paid attention to set up. We thought quite a bit about the seats and the risers.

The result is that I intend to start the first riser at about 12 ft from the screen and the center of the seats would be about 14.5 ft. The second row would start at 16.5ft and the center of the seats would be at about 18.5 ft. This would give me about 2 ft behind the seats to the wall.

Any thoughts? I know we don't want to be too close to the screen or the back wall right? We are also considering using leather couches instead of individual seats to fit more people in the room.

Thanks,
John

[bpape]

You don't want to be too close to the back wall. You won't be too close to the screen if you pick the right size screen for where the seats are

If it were my room, I'd sit the first row so that the seated ear position in that row is just about at 13 feet or slightly more. That actually gives you more space for the back row and puts you in a better place in the front row.

Bryan

[67kato]

MatrixDweller,

HDMI is the way to go. I have a power run to the projector area as well. It's coiled up in the ceiling until I figure out where its going.

I am not sure about the projector yet. There are a lot of choices out there. Budget will probably dictate unless I win the lottery in the week!! Since that is unlikely I can probably squeeze out about $4~5k for one. Any suggestions?

During my Home Depot run last week, I picked up a 100amp sub panel for the basement. I intend to bring over three or four dedicated outlets from the sub panel for the gear. Lights are on their own circuit as well as regular outlets in the room.

Thanks for the input,
John

[67kato]

Right on. I will tape it out tonight to see how it fits. I plan on looking at the couches over the weekend to get a handle on their size. I want to make sure that there is room to move on the risers.

[67kato]

Brian,

Should the surrounds be at the ear height of the first row or above at the 6' ht? I am still planning on a 7.1 system.

John