[bigdady1955]

Hey everybody. I'm so happy to have found and be accepted as a member of your forum. I love home theater. I can recall back in the early 70's splicing 2 extra speakers onto my stereo in order to have quad sound in my room, (well to me it was quad). Since the early 90's I have dreamt of building a home theater. My dream is finally being realized. We are converting our 22 x 22 foot garage into a theater. The final dimensions will be 22 x 17. A wall five feet in from the garage door will be built the length of the room allowing me to have some storage. Originally, the plan was to seal off the garage door and have access to the storage space through a door in the theater. Not ideal, but there was no other option. Well, actually there was. In order to keep my garage door functional, the tracks would have to remain in place. This would neccesitate building two soffits across the ceiling -one one each side- to hide the tracks. Like I said, "we had no option". Fortunately, my contractor came up with a great idea. He shortened the tracks to a point just inside the storage area and attached them to beams inside the room. I can only get the garage door up half-way but at least now I have access from the outside also. These are the pics of where we are as of today. I'll post more as things progress.


Outside the garage

Inside the garage

The problem with the tracks. The storage wall will be built from the left wall to the right 5 feet in from the garage door

Construction of the riser

The wall for the storage area is framed out. Notice the shortened tracks

The completed riser

HVAC installed

More HVAC. The hole in the ceiling is where the the HVAC unit was brought into the attic

The front of the theater wired and ready for insulation

The insulation is almost done

Sheetrock

The room is mudded sanded and ready for painting

My current setup which will go in the theater (minus the t.v. of course)

Klipsch RF-83 fronts
Klipsch RC-64 center
Klipsch RB-81 rears
2 Velodyne DD-15 Subwoofers
Anthem MCA-50 power amp (currently in the shop. I broke off one of the speaker terminals) My AV store was nice enough to lend me an Arcam amp until mine comes back
Integra DHC-9.9 pre/pro
Pioneer BDP-95D blue-ray player (for my intro DVD)
Samsung BD-P2500 blue-ray player (not yet installed. I'm waiting for the theater to be complete)
Panamax M5400-PM surge protector
Directv HD DVR (I am replacing this with the FIOS bundle next week)
JVC DLA-RS20 projector
110" Firehawk screen

Like I said earlier, I will post more pics as things progress.
Thanx to all of you who so warmly welcomed me to the forum.

 

[bigdady1955]

Thanx for the feedback. I forgot to attach the renderings of the theater. This is what it will look like.

 

[bigdady1955]

No,no,no, what I said is if I wanted to keep the garage door functional, it
would require building two soffits to hide the tracks. That was an option. I went on to say "we had no option" meaning that was something Iwouldn't ever consider. I would never have two soffits running across my theater unless there was no other choice. That's the reason for the workaround (shortening the brackets so the soffits would not be necessary). Thanx for the feedback.

BDG

 

[bigdady1955]

Hey BDG... we gotcha in the right forum now... :T

Your initial starting point is very similar to ours, although our garage is a tad bigger and instead of leaving storage at the garage, we chose to make about a 5' hallway on the house door entrance side.

Your finished project looks like it will be stellar for sure. :yes:

Thanx for moving it Sonnie!

BDG

 

[bigdady1955]

The painting was completed today. Next is the carpet. It should be installed in 2 weeks.


Rear of theater

Front of theater

 

[bigdady1955]

The carpet is finally in. I'm very happy with the way it came out. The colors are light brown with maroon lines. Next week the panels, moldings, and equipment will be delivered and installed. The theater should be finished by Friday.

 

[bigdady1955]

Thanx for the feedback Kirby. The ceiling is flat black but if you look at the renderings, there will be two panels attached.

BDG

 

[bigdady1955]

I know Prof. it seems like alot to me also, but they say it will be done. Mind you that the ISF calibration and Audyssey MultEQ Equalization will not be done until we come back from vacation on 6 April. To answer your question in regard to the number of workers, it includes:1 carpenter 1 carpenters assistant
2 installers and 2 delivery guys.

Thanx for the feedback

BDG

 

[bigdady1955]

Prof. You were right it was too much too soon. They start on Monday 23 and will be done Friday 27th. I had my weeks wrong.

BDG

 

[bigdady1955]

Prof.

Lol... this month. The panels are already constructed and framed as are the pillars and console. It's just a matter of putting them in place. According to the contractor, Monday they will be bringing everything over from the AV store, Tuesday thru Thursday everything will be hung to include the panels, moldings, baseboards, console and chairs. On Friday they will install and set-up the equipment, do a basic calibration, and I should be ready to go Friday night. I agree it seems like alot to do in 1 week, but they say it will be done. Actually, they've come in ahead of schedule. The estimated completion date was supposed to be the week of April 6th but everything came in early, so I was moved up. If they do get it done, I'll post a quick picture Friday with more to follow later (hopefully Ill be too busy playing).:yay2:

 

[bigdady1955]

Thanx Prof.

BDG

 

[bigdady1955]

I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll take your word for it. Can the center channel really do all that?? Obviously you know more about this stuff than I do. Thanx for the feedback.


BDG

 

[bigdady1955]

Yesterday everything arrived except the seats which will come Thursday. Today the pillars were installed as were the lighting controls and rope lights. The console was assembled and some of the mouldings were attached.

The console before assembly

My projector and power amp. My project manager got a nice discount on the JVC HD750 (which is the same as the RS20) so we went with that. I decided to upgrade the power amp from the MCA-50 to the Anthem Statement P5. I've read some fantastic reviews on the amp so I decided to go this route.

The acoustic panels awaiting installation

A couple of the pillars

The assembled console

The rope lighting

 

[bigdady1955]

Today, the acoustic panels were mounted and the mouldings were finished. Tomorrow, the chairs will be installed, some vent covers attached, the screen mounted, and the equipment set-up. Friday, will be the final painting, a basic calibration, and tying up any loose ends.

The rear wall of the theater

The rear side wall

The front of the theater

The ceiling panels

 

[bigdady1955]

Prof,
Today things were delayed so they weren't able to accomplish as much as hoped. The chairs were assembled and installed, the projector and screen put up, and the equipment which goes in the console was connected. Despite the delay, they expect to be 99% complete with mainly the touch-up painting left to do by the end of day tomorrow.

 

[bigdady1955]

Today everything was finished minus a few vent covers. There was however, a minor catastrophe. The installer was having trouble with the lens cover on the PJ. While taking it down, he dropped it, and needless to say it no longer works! My AV store sent over a replacement which is all I could ask for. The PJ is a Sony VPL60 which, if mine looks as good as it does , will leave me more than satisfied.

Prof. I agree the seating does seem a mile away, but I think that is a function of the pictures. According to my project manager the distance should be 1.5 times the screen width. With my screen width of 8 feet, the front row should be in the neighberhood of 12 feet away. We're actually 10.5 away, which frankly, I find too close when sitting there. My daughters, on the other hand, love the impact. The second row is 15 feet away which is as close as we can get and still be able to recline without hitting the chair in front. I would loved to have put in a 120" screen, but unfortunately 110'' is all that would fit. And yes, I would love to someday have a 235:1 screen, but that's another story for another day. I've attached a picture of the first thing we watched, which is that wonderful love story "Walle" lol. After taking care of the kids, it was my turn to play. I'll post more later.

Thanx for the feedback.
BDG

.

 

[bigdady1955]

Prof. I think the screen appears that way due to the large wall it's on (17' wide). As a better point of reference, look at my subwoofer (Velodyne DD15) in the attached picture. The sub is 18" wide and if you eyeball it in the pic.(I measured it), you can fit exactly 3 of them side by side from the wall to the edge of the screen. That's a total of 54" (4.5 feet) on each side of the screen. Take both sides of the screen, (9 feet total) from the 17 feet and you have the 8 foot width --within an inch or so. Again, the pictures don't accurately reflect the proportions of what you see posted. I'll post more later.
BDG

 

[bigdady1955]

Prof... Yes the center is behind door number 2 lol..

Nothing more has been done since Friday, so there are still a couple of touch-ups to be made. For all intents and purposes though, the project is complete. There were a couple of hiccupps with the programming on my remote, but those will be corrected tomorrow... hopefully. I've attached a few more pics which, like my others, are too blurry ( I have no idea how to work my camera in a darkened room). Well, that pretty much does it. Everything is done except for some grill covers and a few places that need touch-up paint. Thanx for the feedback ( especially you Prof.). It's been appreciated and made the process so much more enjoyable for me.

 

[bigdady1955]

Prof... That's exactly what I've been doing. Thanx for your kind words, encouragement and willingness to take the time out to comment!

 

[bigdady1955]

Hey Jason... Thanx for the feedback. To answer your question about the screen, no its a Stewart Firehawk G3. I want to be able to have some ambient light for when I watch my baseball games, and this is the screen that was recommended to me. If you read one of my earlier posts, you'll see that a minor mishap happened to my projector, so I haven't had a chance to evaluate the performance of the screen. That will have to wait another 10 days.

Take care
BDG