New Build Home Theater in Kansas

[ACGREEN]

I am starting this thread even though the home theater will not be complete until the end of November. As you can see from the pictures it is in the early stages of the build. I am going to have my current 50" LCD television, but also have an electronic screen that will drop down in from of the TV for the front projection projector. All of my gear will be in a closet next to thew theater. I will have 7.1 surround with the 2 Yamaha presence speakers. I have wired for 10.4 surround and will be adding speakers and subs in the future.
I am also running a full HD video and audio distribution around the house to 4 zones. i am trying to do this without the expensive distribution hardware that usually handles whole house A/V distribution.

I'll post updates as they occur.

[ACGREEN]

pictures

[Prof.]

Hi AC,
Looks like you've got a nice space there for your theatre...What size is that area?
I'll be following your build process closely and I'm particularly interested to hear what you think of the presence speakers when you have them setup..
I have a Yammy 7.1 and I'm about to start on building my new theatre in the country cabin I've just moved into..
The room I have available is a lot smaller than I had previously, and I'm not going to able to have a 7.1 surround sound system..
I may use the presence speakers instead, so I'm interested to hear your thoughts on them..
Good luck with the build and keep us posted with updates and pics..

[ACGREEN]

Here are the new pictures of the wiring. I have wired for 12.4. I future proofed for 10.1 with the 2 extra presence speakers and 4 total subwoofers. 12 ga wire for all the speakers and 16 ga wire for the presences speakers. I also wired for a rear projection tv and a front projector with an electric screen in front of the rear projection tv. I have wire component video and HDMI to each TV.

[ACGREEN]

Pictues of the Front projector wiring and I also sprayed the HVAC ducting with a sound deading spray.

[John Simpson]

It amazes me to see how much wire is actually needed for HT... I've been watching the English TV show "Grand Designs" and some of the wiring setups in those houses are ridiculously complex. Worries me when I have to start nutting out my schematics...

You certainly look like you have it all togther AC. Did you also consider running 1" pipes with pull wires, in case you need to rewire in the future?

[ACGREEN]

I thought about running some pipes, but the way the room is set up, I can probably run cable after the room is finished. Plus, HDMI better last for a while as the 10M cables where expensive.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Looking good, AC! Are you going to sheetrock it yourself, of get a contractor? If the latter, I’d make him sign an iron-clad contract stating that he’s fully responsible for any damaged wiring, including whatever it takes to re-run or re-install it. Can’t tell you how many threads I’ve seen over the years from people crying that the sheetrockers cut or damaged their wiring.

Regards,
Wayne

[Anthony]

Ah, another AC on the forum!

Looks good so far, although I'd do something about all that water

And I'll second that on the wiring. It gets complicated in a hurry. For about $30 you can get cable tracers that work with a multitude of wire types. I have one that has four different ends (color coded) and a reader/generator. You can tell instantly which is which. This is very handy in those large bundles, especially when a label falls off. DOH!

Good luck and keep us posted!

AC

[SierraMikeBravo]

Hey AC!

I live in Kansas, too! PM me for a local site where we all get together!

[ACGREEN]

Here is the room dimensions. I am trying to maintain my home theater in the Family Room portion of the basement. I know that this will have some sound repercussions, but I will use this configuration far more then a dedicated theater room.

Please let me know what you think so far. They start sheet rocking next week.

[SierraMikeBravo]

Hey AC,

It looks to me with your screen off to the right, the sound would seem to be lopsided and not locked onto the screen. Your left speaker appears to be to far to the left compared to your right speaker. Same goes with the surround. I would suggest putting your projector and retractable screen more toward the center of the room. If there is a door way behind the screen, it won't matter since it retracts. If you decide to go with your current configuration, you will most definitely need a center channel.

[ACGREEN]

Yeah, I know. I don't want to block the doorway. I also don't think the screen is drawn to scale. When I lay it out, the mains are a couple of inches of center. I can't do anything about the rears, but my receiver will compensate for this.

Also, I do have a center channel which will be mounted above the rear projection tv and behind the front projection screen.

[John Simpson]

Shawn's right about the off-centre nature of the room... a shame the door couldn't have been relocated, as one day you'll no doubt want to increase screen size. Try and keep that in mind with built-in speaker locations (remember, you could always get an accoustically-transparent screen and have all your current speakers behind an enormous cinemascope picture).

That row of windows is going to cause you a bit of grief too -- spend up big on very heavy window dressing, and look into "screen gain" (I believe grey screens are very good at hiding ambient light and increasing contrast).

One thing that struck me was the huge open space behind the viewers. If this is a full-time HT setup, why not have the builders put in a single wall behind the seating position, open at both ends. Just to give you something to fill the air behind you and encompass the room a little.

Finally... you have a sink in your room?