[Serenity Now]

Hello All! :wave:

Its been a while since I posted here and I'm back to update you with where I am at with my theater build. The original design phase thread is here:

http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...4134-oyster-bay-theater-design-pic-heavy.html

Since then I have gone through some tweaking within the space and have started the build. Here is a shotgun post to bring you up to speed.

I have tweaked the final design after reading and researching as much as I can into small room acoustics and home theater design. Read 2 books and have been scouring the internet for as much info to soak up as I can. Here is the new room renders with these new nuggets of knowledge incorporated.

Top View

Front Wall

Rear of Room

Closeup of back wall shelving and diffuser treatments

Thus concluded my planning Phase and I started to get ready for the build. :T

 

[Serenity Now]

I began to plan out the space and make the necessary changes to the basement to realize the space.

After existing basement demo, first was to remove an existing support column in the space. The white post is the center line of the basement and the left wall of the theater goes there.

Pre-Demo

Post Demo with Offending column without paint in center.

The space began to open up as we had the oil tank relocated to the mechanical room in the basement.

Then it was time to get and engineer involved to make a decision about how to go about removing that post smack in the center of the theater space. :sn:

 

[Serenity Now]

The engineer had several options available to remove the post. The most attractive option was removing the existing carrying beam and post altogether. This required installing a recessed LVL beam and tying into the existing floor joists and beam pocket. It went fairly well and after a hard weekend of work we were pretty much finished. :T

Existing Beam with electrical temporarily relocated

Shoring walls up to support main floor

Existing beam removed and floor joists modified for new 4ply 11 7/8" x 1 3/4" LVL install

LVL installed, glued and bolted up

and finally the shoring walls down and the column problem eliminated! :bigsmile:

I finally had a space I could work with and make the plan happen.

 

[Serenity Now]

From there I began the framing stage. I decided it would be best to replace the existing basement windows at the same time to eliminate destruction down the road. The framing part was pretty standard. I decided to include a double studded wall to divide the theater from the rest of the basement. The other 3 surrounding walls are backed by a concrete foundation. Exterior framing came first, followed by the dividing wall and laundry and mechanical spaces in the basement.

Exterior Walls

Basement Dividing wall with opening for planned french double doors.

The room was finally starting to take shape and I finally had real dimensions to start to figure out exactly where things would go in the room and how to tackle the rooms lighting and acoustic treatment layout.

 

[Serenity Now]

The framed dimensions in the room worked out to 14.5'x 22 x 7.75' I took these measurements into a handy program I found to calculate first reflections points from my front loudspeakers. The baseline for the speaker position was decided by the space I had for a false wall before I started to impede the window along the sidewall. Luckily, it worked out that the speakers planned location was 40" from front wall to front baffle and 30" from sidewall to middle of front baffle. The false wall would land at 42", giving just enough space to set the L/R speaker toe in on either side of the planned 112" screen.

I was then able to accurately lay out the room for treatment panels and ended up with a final draft of this for the space.

Now that the location of the acoustic panels was pinned down, I could begin the electrical rough-in for the theater space.

 

[Serenity Now]

The space ended up with 5 dedicated circuits, one of which was for a double conversion online UPS to feed all sensitive components in the system.

The circuits are:

Lighting 15A
Heating 15A
General Power 15A
Subwoofers 15A
UPS 20A

The 20A UPS system is already installed and currently supplies some main floor electronics. These include the living room television location and my 2ch setup in another room on the main floor. As far as the theater is involved, the UPS will feed the Projector (Epson 8345) Bluray Player (Oppo BDP-103) AVR (Arcam AVR360) and 2 150wpc power amps (a 2ch and mono channel for front soundstage.)

The Panel in the house was replaced as part of the basement development. Surge arrest is now provided by an onboard breaker slot MOV. All critical A\V loads in the house are on the same leg in the panel. All "noisy" loads were concentrated on the other leg where possible. These include lighting, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine etc.

The basement electrical rough in was soon finished. The AV rough in began. I decided mid build to include prewire for ATMOS implementation later. The plan is for an eventual 7.2.4 system as soon as processors come down to a reasonable price. The midpoint of the front\rear wall is serviced by a 2" line and tees off for an optional TV and projector location respectively. I decided to integrate the Bluray player into the rear media shelf and added a conduit and power drop there.

Rear wall

Front Wall

The chase for the front wall will carry the main channels and 2 subwoofer cables. This way I can avoid costly wall plates and add wiring in the future if necessary. The wiring\conduit plan was also put into place should I ever want to switch to a pro setup with powered monitors. Maybe I'll win the lottery.

The termination point of the conduit and ceiling\surround prewire locations is in the media cabinet on the exterior of the theater dividing wall. Here, 8 receptacle locations have been roughed in from the UPS system as well.

Here is a render of the final outcome. The tall cabinet will be where the AV gear lives. The smaller cabinets are for a beer fridge and a snack\blanket cupboard. I have yet to decide on color or cabinet choices. But you get the idea of how it will work out. :T

 

[Serenity Now]

Theater HVAC

The house had no existing forced air ventilation system. All heating is provided by hot water baseboard heaters from an oil fired furnace. The house was build in 1968 and I'm not sure ventilation was as common place then as it is today. The basement was not overly damp or dank, but it does get humid during the summer months.

We decided an HRV would be a good choice to control humidity in the house and provide adequate ventilation for the basement and main floor of the 2 storey house. The theater room is serviced by dedicated 4" flex duct supply and return lines ending in DIY diffuser boxes I made up.

here are the boxes made from 8x12 rectangular duct with end caps and takeoff added.

I decided it was best not to try to bulk out the ceiling in the space. I settled on a supply near the rear of the theater beside the entrance. The exhaust is located just outside of the false wall planned location. I'm hoping this should create a nice close circuit in the room and keep air fresh and the temp comfortable. Inside the room I have prewired for a 2 stage thermostat location to kick the HRV into high gear if required. A preliminary test standing in the room (without drywall yet) with the system running on high resulted in no audible noise and breezy airflow. With the room enclosed I think it will likely be ok on the air circ front. :T

Here is the left wall with the vent locations and an overview of the pre-wiring

 

[Serenity Now]

Lighting

I really admire the many threads out there where lighting was carefully considered as a design element as well as functional. At the outset I wanted a soffit with tray LED rope lights. I soon realized that a soffit wouldn't work in the space with the windows being so close to the ceiling height.

As a compromise I decided to plan for the lighting to be incorporated into the acoustic panel locations. Each panel in the space will have a sconce floating on it as a lighting and design element. I have already fashioned panels for my listening room that turned out very well and function great as broadband absorbers.

They are constructed of 1/2" MDF boxes with foam crown moulding sprayed in a gloss white finish. I used a simple shear backing fabric on both sides of Quiet Zone insulation. The front fabric panel is made of wool and was custom woven to match a tapestry at the rear of the room that acts as a flutter echo buster.

Seen here measuring roughly 36x48

The theater space will have a similar panel scheme with different dimensions. Right now I am playing with the idea of 36x72 but it is still up in the air of course. I'll have to make a mockup later when the time comes. Sconces will be mounted to octagon extension rings on the roughed in sconce locations. This will make them appear to be a part of the panel, but will be completely isolated in terms of weight and electrical safety.

The effect I am looking for is something like this

The room is prewired for 2 zones (front and rear) sconces and 2 overhead light locations on a seperate switch. The rear media storage shelf will be lit by 2 gimbal mount pot lights in the ceiling. These will be switched by a toggle beside the media shelf at the rear of the room.

So far I am going to put the sconces on Lutron Maestro IR switches to integrate into the harmony commands on the remote. The overheads and rear media lights will be standard switches.

 

[Serenity Now]

Ok, that pretty much sums up where I came from and where I am at. :bigsmile: I am really excited to keep rolling on this in the new year but decided to take a break for the holidays.

I'd really appreciate any last minute pointers or stuff to consider before I board up the walls. I should mention that the space will be insulated in all 4 walls and in ceiling with Owens Corning Quiet Zone. The double dividing wall will have insulation in both walls. On each wall and ceiling will be 7/16' resilient channel at 16" spacings with 5/8 drywall throughout. I have only planned on 1 layer of drywall at this time. I still have to make backer boxes for the 4 ATMOS speaker locations and for the 2 Pots above the media shelving.

I am postponing any further work until I hear about any interesting developments from CES regarding DTS's answer to ATMOS.

phew! Ok, I'll be quiet now. Have I missed anything? Any help would be greatly appreciated. :T

 

[Medi0gre]

Excellent start. I like the post removal, good job. That was a smart play. Now get back to work, I need to keep up on my coveting.

 

[Serenity Now]

I just got your sig. Army of Darkness? Bruce Campbell FTW. Thanks for the encouragement. Stay tuned.

 

[r.s]

Hello, I´m new on this forum.
Lots of hard work but.........:T

 

[Serenity Now]

I've made a little more progress worth sharing. I constructed some backer boxes for the in ceiling ATMOS locations and installed. After some knucle wrap tests on the back of the box measured from the kitchen above, I think they will do the job. :T. They are approx 1cu ft internal volume as recommended by fusseli in the diy speaker section. Here is one installed and tested.

Next is the doors mentioned in another post and answered by Tonyvdb. They are 2 panels of 3/4" MDF with internal plywood framing and insulation. Kind of like mini wall sections. The 2 x laminated 1/4" glass panels in each door will be seperated by 2" with ports in the window casing for resonances to be absorbed by insulation in the doir cavity. The doors are 2 3/4" thick and I guess them at 120lbs once finished.

 

[NBPk402]

Looks great! :T:T

 

[tonyvdb]

Yes, great job so far :yes:

 

[Serenity Now]

Thanks guys! Putty applied to electrical boxes today and doors filled and setting up overnight to sand and prime.

Pretty much ready for drywall once I get the projector pipe flange installed. Hard to track down an 1 1/4" rigid pipe flange at home depot. :huh:

Now that I'm rolling its hard to believe its actually happening. Sooo excited.

 

[NBPk402]

Thanks guys! Putty applied to electrical boxes today and doors filled and setting up overnight to sand and prime.

Pretty much ready for drywall once I get the projector pipe flange installed. Hard to track down an 1 1/4" rigid pipe flange at home depot. :huh:

Now that I'm rolling its hard to believe its actually happening. Sooo excited.

Just stick with it and it will be done before you know it. Just don't bring any equipment in until you are 100% done or you will never finish ( I wish I had listened to that advice last July... I would have been done in August). LOL

 

[Talley]

Just stick with it and it will be done before you know it. Just don't bring any equipment in until you are 100% done or you will never finish ( I wish I had listened to that advice last July... I would have been done in August). LOL

yup haha

 

[phillihp23]

Looking good, excited to see the finished project. :T

 

[Serenity Now]

Thank you sir! I get more and more excited by the day. Hard to go to work when I want to be working on the basement. :bigsmile: Have to start putting the feelers out for a good taper.

Rolling along. More pics to share. Insulated and channel up.

Mountain of drywall

Walls done and ready to board ceiling soon.

Floating drywall on resilient channel