Update time... Wow! I haven't worked on the HT for quite awhile. A few posts back and I was trying to make a wife imposed Christmas deadline... Well, that came and went but I guess my wife has softened her deadline given the drama I went through over winter. Right now the electrician is hounding me because my eletrical permits are expiring (or have expired; that going to mean more money)... Well, I actually have been working on the HT since I'm still waiting for my boat to be splashed.

I'm at the point that I can taste the insulation and drywall. Almost all of the wiring is complete; with some future proofing wire runs left (like RG6 for satellite and ent tubing). Total amount of cable ran: 2 x 1000' boxes of station wire! 3 x 500' boxes of Cat5e! 1/2 x 1000' roll of firewire, 1/2 x 300' roll of bell wire, about 500' of in-wall speaker wire, and about 300' of RG6. This means I ran 4950 feet of cable. Now to be fair, doing a home automation/security system that is future proofed (any scenario/possibility I could think of, I planned for) will use alot of wire. Most likely I won't use even half of it within the short term.

I got 7 weeks vacation owed to me this summer! Of course, a good chunk of that is planned to be used on my boat. But I have planned a two week period around end of May to really work on the HT and get it done. Soon as I start insulation/drywall, I'll have pics.

Cheers,
Kaoru

Went through the entire thread reading almost every post. No pics though.. Would love to see some.

Went through the entire thread reading almost every post. No pics though.. Would love to see some.
The pics should be there now... my web server had a hiccup in serving up pages and I don't know really why. After some fussing around it's back in business...

Cheers,
Kaoru

Well Kaoru, summer has come and gone... your boat must be away by now (say goodbye to the Rideau waterways for another year)... so you must have an update or two on your home theatre progress!

Well Kaoru, summer has come and gone... your boat must be away by now (say goodbye to the Rideau waterways for another year)... so you must have an update or two on your home theatre progress!

Actually, my boat is not put away yet though I'm going through the preparations. I've already winterized the water systems; installed a hot water heater bypass today. Then this week I should be picking up my new trailer for the boat. Once the boat is out of the water, I'll clean both inside and out; the hull is in a desperate need of a power wash. Then onto shrinkwrapping and storage. This should all happen within the next week.

That being done, I do have a update about the HT... I'm actually getting a contractor to finish everything. Having saved some money, like doing my own installation of the satdish/HT on the boat, I can foot the bill to hire someone. I'm taking the route of being a general contractor myself and subbing the individual (and remaining) jobs. Essentially, I have some minor framing, insulation, and VB for one sub. Then onto drywall with another sub. Finally, back to the first sub for painting, flooring, and finishing.

My target (I'm not going to say goal because we know how that goes :D) is early December but, of course, it depends on scheduling the subs. Definitely more updates to follow...

Cheers,
Kaoru

Your pics at the beginning of the thread seem to be down again.. :(

Note that my Internet connection has changed over the years, I started out with a 1 Mbs connection. Now I'm at 25 Mbs down with 3 Mbs up but it has come at a cost. The way I referenced my web server has definitely changed which older posts used that reference. Since I can't edit those posts to change the link, you won't see the pic. If there is any post you would like to see, post or PM me and I'll repost.

Cheers,
Kaoru

The screen...

The following is based on research of numerous sites/people who have built similar screens. I acredit those en masse since I was not keeping track of all the pages I visited.

Materials:
Two 8' & four 6' 1x2 popular hardwood ($30)
4 "L" brackets, 4 "T" brackets ($27)
3/4" wood screws ($5)
3 metres of 55" width blackout fabric ($30)
Four 8' 1/4 round ($23)Method:

First, I determined the exact size I wanted the screen to be. Since the blackout fabric I bought was 55" wide, I knew that my screen height was going to be 52" since I need 3" to wrap around the frame. This is where the quarter round comes into play. My thinking at the time was if I used the quarter round, another inch would be required to wrap the frame. Since I wanted the largest screen, I decided to drop the quarter round (as previously mentioned in another post). I later realized that I did have enough width to use the quarter round so I did. My final dimensions was 92" L and 52" H, 16:9 format with a 106" on the diagonal. Since I'm limited to 3 pics, see the below pics on the frame's construction.

As above, I mitered (45 deg) the outside frame to give me 92"x52". The corners are glued and the "L" brackets are screwed on the back side. At first I centered the brackets on the frame which was a mistake since there was no room for stapling. I rescrewed the brackets to follow the inside edge of the frame (see pic). Following this I cut two support braces to fit between the frame and glued/screwed them with the "T" brackets (also following the inside frame edge). Flipping over the frame to the front, I mitered the quarter round to go around the perimeter of the frame with the curved side pointing inwards. The quarter round was glued and tacked with 1" brads. Note that the brad will poke out on the frame's backside. This was intentional since it creates teeth/grips that aids in the fabric stretching but you could go with a smaller brad if you want to avoid this. I sanded the frame's front side and rounded slightly all corners to ensure everything is even and smooth for the fabric.

http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/HT-2006-03-07%20010.jpg

So I'm now ready to put the fabric on... I laid out a clean drop cloth (but cardboard would have been better since it doesn't bunch up) and put the fabic down. Blackout fabic has two sides; one side being canvas/weave like and the other being a primed (all most rubbery) side. My first thought was to put the canvas side down so that's my painting surface. After some thought, I went with the primed side down since it was whiter and smoother (though rubbery to touch). According to my research, either side is good though I run the risk of have a different type of blackout fabric. It's only when I paint the fabric will I know if I made a good choice. Here is a pic prior to fabric stretching:

http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/HT-2006-03-07%20009.jpg

It's fabric stretching time! First of all, use a electric stapler (or air-powered) since I can't imagine using anything else. Also have some form of canvas stretching pliers (wide grip)... I didn't and your hands will cramp up doing this since mine did! Besides pain... such pliers will result in a more taunt fabric. Essentially the technique I used was simple... First some tips: Never touch the screen side of the fabric, just the edges. Keep your hands/work area clean (and if you have a cut/scrape that is (or may) bleeding get a band-aid!). Start by stapling the centre of one of the long sides. Switch to the opposite side and pull taunt until a center crease appears; staple center then staple ~2" on either side. Switch back to the first (opposite) side and staple ~2" either side of center. Do the same procedure on the short length sides noting that when you get the crease, it will be a triangle then diamond. After this alternate sides (going opposite to opposite) stapling the long sides more frequently to catch up with the shorter sides. The hardest part in all of this is stretching the fabric with one hand (pliers would really help!) and stapling with the other. Finish off by adding additional staples and doing the corners which is same as making a bed/hospital corners (learned in boot camp). Here is the result:

http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/HT-2006-03-07%20011.jpg

It's ready for paint in my case since I want to go digital grey (Goo Systems) to improve my blacks/contrasts. Still... I am impressed with it just as it is. Concerns: Will the fabric loosen up over time causing deformities? Will the paint adhere well, flake, crack, etc.? These questions will still have to be answered... I'm secure in the fact that I didn't spend alot of money if I have to redo something.

Well... that's it for now...

Cheers,
Kaoru

I've begun construction of my Black Ice Theater, a DIY dedicated home theater. Since this is a first post I will attach the same scene that I've loaded on my projector.

http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/labrador.jpg

Of course, for eight months of the year it looks like this.

http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/labrador_snow.jpg

More to come! :D

Cheers,
Kaoru

As promised, the following chronicles my home theater efforts in design and planning to date. Essentially, I've been putting together this design for quite awhile and obviously I've worked out something that can fit best with the resources on hand. What's on hand is an area in my basement put aside for said theater. It wasn't always that way but we do what we can... My house is a ~2200 sq. ft. bungalow so my basement is huge (and unfinished). Unfortunately, I have two structural I-beams with several doubled-up support poles dividing the area in thirds. With the basement stairs landing/entrance, a roughed-in bathroom, and prior framing (before HT bug got me) limits me to a single area and creative layout to maximize space. The other drawback is that my house sits on rock (they had to jackhammer/blast to put in my foundation) and thus my joist height is 7' 8"; so my HT willl be vertically challenged. :D

The area in mind is ~151" wide and 20'+ long but.... I have to have a hallway from the landing area past the future bathroom into the main area. There is no way around this and I don't want to have two doors for the theater with a throughfare... I want local traffic only! :) So I rotated the layout and incorporated the hallway as part of the proscenium (the lower-right and angled wall is the left boundry of the hallway, right of the equipment closet; as shown in diag.). By expanding the width (as to keep within a golden ratio) by 16.5", I get an inside width of 153.5" and a length of 216" to the screen. The area behind the screen will be for the sub/centre (the diag. shows a framed wall but really it isn't... it's only the screen and covered framing with acoustic transparent fabric. Essentially a false proscenium... ?!? Well it will look like one.

The trick to widening the theater by 16.5" is to incorporate the the I-beam into the soffit. The double pole gets encased in the column. With that said, you may have noticed the use of curves; that is the style of this home theater. Nice round flowing lines... like film and a film reel. Taking this, ceiling height, and budget (Sandman's ceiling is awesome but I can't) I decided on a large inset (faux) film reel with lighted edges/holes as a ceiling feature. I don't lose much height and fits in to the theme.

http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/HT-floorplanback2_small.gif (http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/HT-floorplanback2.gif)

The above is just a small image... click on it for a more clear image. Next up is a detailed explanation of what is going into that space and what equipment I have/leaning towards.

Cheers,
Kaoru

Is that trapezoidal area behind the screen / proscenium used for anything? Is it as big IRL as it looks in the diagram?

Is that trapezoidal area behind the screen / proscenium used for anything? Is it as big IRL as it looks in the diagram?
The trapezoidal area behind the screen is as big in real life as the diagram; the screen is 110" on the diagonal or about 8' long. Where the screen is located depth-wise may vary. That entire structure is my proscenium which in a rectangular room would be a false wall (cover with GOM). In my case it's a real wall because of the hallway; there was no way around it. The space behind is were the sub resides on (which the diagram, if you click on it for a detailed pic with DIMENSIONS) a sand filled stage. Eventually if I go for a SMX (acoustically transparent) screen, the speakers can go behind it as well.

Cheers,
Kaoru

What does it look like!?

After mocking up the HT for my daughter's birthday pary, I just could not picture how my design will look. With this in mind and having seen some renders of HTs on the AVS forums, I decided to see if I could do this myself. After doing some research (and remembering back to my university days when I did graphic stuff), I happened across Blender. An impressive tool but with a steep learning curve... Learning new tech is right down my alley.

First, I cleaned my HT floorplan making several modifications based on my experiences so far. You will note the change in the seating, it now reflects the purchased seats that I got (when they ship :) ) from the Home Theater Authority powerbuy. Other changes include the proscenium, curved riser, elimination of the entrance way, and changes to the equipment closet.
http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/HT-floorplan-new.jpg
So after fooling around with Blender, I managed to create the below pic. Not too much detail has be included and I still trying to master material/textures. Having done this, I now have a new appreciation for computer animation and the like. Is it ever hard to texture something as simple as carpet... In any case, it is still a work in progress (i.e. the screen is just magically floating!) and any comments, suggestions, help (<- especially on Blender materials/textures) are more than welcome!
http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/HT-render0001.jpg

Well... that all I can think of right now...

Cheers,
Kaoru

Be forewarned... this is a long post!

It continues with a party...

After putting in some thought into my design... I've finally refined things to need another post so I don't forget. Sorry for not posting sooner but such is life. Suffice to say that it was my daughter's birthday and I decided to have a movie party. So... with what I have on hand I created a makeshift home theater. This was an opportunity to see how the theater will look like size wise. The following pics show what kind of space that I'm dealing with.

This is what the basement looked like after I cleaned things up.
http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/basement-clean.jpg
As shown in the below pic, I put up some black plastic where the inside wall would be. Of course, since this was for the party I had to rotate the screen (a white bedsheet) 180 degrees and the projector was put on a cabinet.
http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/mockup2.jpg
Since this a mockup of what my screen would look like, I threw in a screen shot... Remember that the screen is a bed sheet which isn't bad image wise.
http://www.sculptscience.com/roller/resources/HTblog/1stscreenshot.jpg

The screen...

Speaking of screens, the challenge was to do a DIY screen with a small budget. When I started looking into screen ideas, I found Goo Systems... which I purchased with my projector. The idea was to paint on drywall for the screen. This was before my HT plans were drafted. Well, seeing that things changed... a fixed drywall screen would not cut it. So my research lead me to this solution: a screen made like a painter canvas (which I can spray the Goo digital grey)... This is not a new idea; actually my research yielded several people who have done this so I don't claim credit for my solution... and my apologies to anyone if it looks similar since I was not keeping track of all the pages I visited.

Materials: several lengths of 1x2 hardwood (I used popular; the cheapest hardwood at $30), 4 "L" brackets and 4 "T" brackets ($27), 3/4" screws ($5), a length of 55" width blackout fabric ($30), and an electric stapler (with 5/8" T50 staples; $54). As a option I got several lengths of quarter round ($23) as well but I will not be using it so it will be returned. The cost tally was less than $150 (not including taxes and quarter round).

Method: First, I determined the exact size I wanted the screen to be. Since the blackout fabric I bought was 55" wide, I knew that my screen height was going to be 52" since I need 3" to wrap around the frame. This is where the quarter round comes into play. If I used the quarter round, another inch would be required to wrap the frame. Since I wanted the largest screen, I dropped the quarter round. This gives me 52" in a 16:9 format which means a 92" length and 106" on the diagonal; not exactly my 110" but sufficient.

Second, the construction consisted of mitering (45 deg) the outside frame to give me 92"x52". The corners are glued and the "L" brackets are screwed on the back side. The support braces are cut to fit between the frame and glued/screwed with the "T" brackets. Now if you're using only the blackout fabric I suggest using the quarter round. It goes around the perimeter of the frame with the curved side pointing inwards. The purpose of the qtr. round is to lift the fabric from the frame so that it remains unseen. But since I'm going to spray on Goo (Goo Systems does note that a frame like this can be used as a substrate/base) I don't need to worry about it. I sanded the frame's front side to ensure everything is even and smooth.

So I'm now ready to put the fabric on... I haven't started yet but the instructions are simple. You stretch the fabric onto the frame using the same technique as artists wrapping a canvas. Google the web on how to make a canvas to get instructions. The goal is stretch the fabric taunt with no wrinkles, that's what the electric stapler is for; to make things easy when stretching.

More on lighting...

... which will be a howto for the Lutron Spacer system, scenes, and zones.

Where to put those speakers?

... which will be ceiling/inwall via Polk Audio.

Hot equipment + enclosed space = need ventilation

... which will be a howto on fans and temp. switch.

DIY equipment rack... cool!

... using simple shelf brackets and creative construction.

The entrance that departs...

... increasing rec room area, replace entrance with pocket door?

Seating, riser, and future butt kicker!

... framing an appropriately sized riser that floats on rubber.

Proscenium... well sort of.

... a wall disquised as a proscenium.

Well... that all I can think of right now...

Cheers,
Kaoru

Hi,

If you have been following this thread from the beginning, you've been around for a while since this thread is almost 5 years old. Obviously progress has been slow, a snail pace, a pace that, like me, find to be painfully slow. As well, life has interjected itself from time to time to delay things. The funny thing about life is that it can slow things down or, sometimes, speed things up.

This is one of those times. Believe it or not, my adventure into boating this summer (see Post #258 (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=988990&postcount=258)) has yielded unexpected, but welcome, results. The first of those results is the installation of the "Blue Water Theater"; a topic that I'll get into in later posts. I mention this as it pertains to the developments up til now. In short, we had a *wonderful* vacation on the boat cruising the very scenic and relaxing Rideau Canal. It did wonders to my health (never felt/slept better than when I was on the boat) and my wife absolutely loved it. To achieve this, I worked overtime both literally and figuratively to prep for the vacation (and install the "Blue Water Theater"). This work also included looking towards the future and what I want to accomplish then arranging things to make it happen.

Basically, I'm at the crossroads of my life. My oldest is graduating university this year looking to move out on her own. My in-laws, who are relatively healthy, are celebrating their 80th birthdays this year. This year will be possibly the last before things change... And my HT/basement is not done. The wife approved solution; throw money at it. Cashing in all that overtime allows me to hire contractors to do the work.

And my contractor, which started last Wednesday, is just finishing up all the framing, insulation, vapour barrier, and odds & ends today. In other words, this week I should be ready for drywall which I'm lining up a drywall contractor to do.

Believe it or not, HT is coming along... Here's looking to Christmas to watch movies on the big screen... (I'll be posting pics later).

Cheers,
Kaoru

I'm glad to hear you are moving forward with the project once again.

How about a few photos as the contractor proceeds along?

Kaoru, you're not the only person who taks 'a while' to finish home theatre projects.

The Rideau Days sounded like a wonderful diversion.

As I alluded to in earlier posts, here is the beginning of my Blue Water Theater construction effort that I've completed this summer. A little background, I purchased my boat in September 2009 when I only had enough time to putt around for a few weeks before I had to winterize. There's a whole story in how I managed to become a owner of a 2009 Sea Ray 270 Sundancer (now known as the 280 Sundancer). You can read the story on Club Sea Ray How I became a 2009 270 Sundancer owner... (http://clubsearay.com/forum/showpost.php?p=292299&postcount=1) It's an interesting read, which I wrote last December.

Of course over the 2009/2010 winter, I made plans to do upgrades to the boat in terms of electronics. One of those electronics was a RayMarine 33STV satellite TV dome. This was my wife's Christmas gift as she loves to watch TV and reception on the factory DTV antenna is spotty at best. Interesting enough, the standard option on my 270 was a 4:3 LCD panel TV/DVD combo with surround sound in the cabin (which doubles as the speakers for the stereo). Movie night on the boat was one of the first things the family did.

SO... come spring I began my install which was challenging to say the least. Cost wise I'd saved a lot of money doing the install myself since the labour rates are about $110 per hour and I was looking at a three day job. Since time is on my side (after accumulating a ton of overtime at work), I took three weeks to do the installation. I'll write another post as to how I did the install but the below is a pic following the lion share of the work. The pic shows the newly installed satdome (on the compact power tower with the radar dome, sat. radio, and 3G wireless). What the pic doesn't show is the satellite control (ACU), Bell TV receiver (4200), power inverter, IR repeater, Sirius receiver, and Ericsson W35 wireless hub that was installed in the Main Distribution Panel (MDP) in the cabin. Also, this pic was taken before I installed the 32" 16:9 LCD/DVD combo TV in the cockpit on the arch behind the helm seat.

http://www.sculptscience.com/images/arch-installed.jpg

Of course, doing such an install required some specialized tools like a snake camera to figure out how to snake all the cables throughout the boat. Another specialized tool that I picked up and was an absolute necessity was a 2010 Ford F150 XTR SuperCrew with MaxTow. That's a whole another story on how my wife allowed me to buy that toy... I mean tool... Here's a pic of the two...
http://www.sculptscience.com/images/toys.jpg

More to come on the Blue Water Theater construction...

Cheers,
Kaoru

A
http://www.sculptscience.com/images/toys.jpg

More to come on the Blue Water Theater construction...

Cheers,
Kaoru

NIce boat.... is that your 1st boat?

Question, do you normally park the boat stern to shore? I would think that could lead to some unwanted consequences to your sterndrive if wakes hit your boat.....

..... I finished the HT on my own.... but I understand the rational for hiring contractors.... We just redid our kitchen, and all I did was write the cheque.

P

NIce boat.... is that your 1st boat?

Question, do you normally park the boat stern to shore? I would think that could lead to some unwanted consequences to your sterndrive if wakes hit your boat.....

..... I finished the HT on my own.... but I understand the rational for hiring contractors.... We just redid our kitchen, and all I did was write the cheque.

P

The answer to your question is yes but not by choice. Originally, I planned to slip my boat bow in. However, at the marina everybody slips their boat stern in. I didn't want to be the oddball or seen as lacking seamanship (it's technically harder to slip a boat stern in especially without a bow thruster). In the end, my wife likes it better stern in since she's less nervous getting in/out from the dock. There's no problem with the stern drive and unwanted consequences since the marina basin is deep. Also, the marina basin is well protected from wakes.

As for contractors, I wish I could just write checks but the reality is that I started this HT as DIY. Once you get into it as DIY, switching to a contractor is hard. Hiring contractors in the middle of a job tends to cost more because the job is more "custom". Also, there are always little things that have to be done before and after the contractor's part of the job. Basically, I'm taking the role of "general contractor" and subcontracting the individual jobs like insulation, drywall, etc. but still doing the little things (which still take a chunk of time/effort to do).

Cheers,
Kaoru

Not a long post in words but the pics speak for themselves. First up is a pic of the game/dining area where the outer wall was replaced with 2x4 studs 16" OC, tar paper moisture barrier grade and below, R12 pink insulation, and vapor barrier fully taped. Note all the drywall, that's going up next.

http://www.sculptscience.com/HT-Pics/HT-predrywall-diningrm.jpg

The second pic is of the HT with R12 pink for exterior walls, Roxul Safe'N'Sound for the interior and a double layer up in the joists. You can also see the boxes for the sconce lights and the step light fixtures low near the seats.

http://www.sculptscience.com/HT-Pics/HT-predrywall-seats.jpg

The last shot is towards the screen. The wires hanging down is for the proscenium but I haven't decided what I'll do. The more I look at it, the more I think that I don't need any fancy proscenium (soffit above, stage below). The box at the top of the pic is my future proofed projector mount with air return via center stack duct.

http://www.sculptscience.com/HT-Pics/HT-predrywall-screen.jpg

Cheers,
Kaoru