TheaterBlog: The Theater has Power
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 28, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Anand
The theater has been progressing well, especially over the past couple of weeks. First off we had to put up all of the treatments on the walls:
We used two types of materials: OC703 (2" thick, covered with FSK along the rear wall) and Bonded Acoustical Cotton (2" thick). Bryan Pape, the audio guru, listed their roles as follows:
OC703 is for Front corner triangles, front wall, and rear wall. FSK is to be bonded to the rear wall material - FSK toward the room
but foil side toward the fiberglass.Triangles in front corners are 17x17x24" stacked floor to ceiling. Balance of front wall is 2" bonded to the wall. BAC is bonded acoustical cotton and is for the side walls. 5' high from bass absorbers to the 2nd column on the side wall, 4' high from there back.
Getting them on the walls was pretty easy, just used liquid nails to adhere them and then a screw with a fender washer for added security. Having pulled at least one of them down since then, liquid nails alone should honestly suffice.
With the treatments up, I needed to get a few other things done. The soffit/light tray needed to be finished. While it was already sheetrocked it needed to be mudded, sanded then painted.
A friend of mine has been decorating my house for the past few months now and she picked Behr's Stone Hearth color as a match for what was in the renders. She's got an amazing eye for design and the color came out great:
The theater also finally has power. Some of the lighting fixtures have already been installed, although I'm waiting on getting the cloth panels up on the walls before putting the sconces on the walls.
Lighting in the room is controlled by a Lutron GRAFIK Eye 3000. The GRAFIK Eye is a multi-zone programmable dimmer, which lets you dim lights individually as well as create presets for the levels of all of the lights. With an optional $700 serial interface (that's right, $700 for a serial port) you can connect the GRAFIK Eye to a computer. The goal here is to connect the GRAFIK Eye to the HTPC and have the lights dim to the right levels once you start watching a movie.
The theater also now has doors. The doors are are non-hollow Masonite Safe and Sound doors from Home Depot, nothing too special about them other than the fact that they are supposed to be better at not transmitting sound. I'm not 100% sure on what I'm going to do to the doors (e.g. whether or not to attempt to cover them with GoM on the inside of the theater or just leave them looking like doors), but I've got time to figure that out.
There are only a couple of major construction items that need to be taken care of in the room and once we get it cleaned up, the actual carpeting can go in.
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Rogue 2 - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
It's $700 because Lutron doesn't want you interfacing their stuff with a Crestron/AMX system, they want you to only control it with Lutron devices. To us in the Crestron/AMX control world, an RS232 port is gold for control and feedback. Their command protocol is cryptic too. Same reason.sprockkets - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
I found this:http://www.theaterthings.com/?gclid=CLmc09ybgZMCFQ...">http://www.theaterthings.com/?gclid=CLmc09ybgZMCFQ...
I might make a big screen out of it, but I most likely need a tripod screen, so as to use the projector anywhere.
Locutus465 - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Looks like your theater is really humming along there. This is the first blog post I've seen on this subject so forgive me if you've already discussed this... Have you chosen out specific theater gear as far as your TV/screen etc (I'm guessing you're going front projector??) and audio system?Guuts - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - link
Here's the link to his blog posts on his home theater project: http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/default.aspx?bcate...">http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/default.aspx?bcate...Also accessed on the righthand menu bar "...Blog Categories" > "Anand's Theater Construction" when on any "Blogs" page.
Will answer your questions about the projector and screen...don't remember if he talked about his audio setup yet or not.
ksfa10 - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Thanks for letting us into your HT construction Anand. I built my own in my basement 3 years ago and enjoyed every minute, well except for the drywall! Keep the blog posts coming, can't wait to see more of your equipment choices. Your projector choice caught my eye and am looking into upgrading my yamaha soon.Thanks again,
Kent
Rocket321 - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
For $700 I really expected to see a picture of that gold plated diamond encrusted serial port!!DigitalFreak - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
The home control folks need to move into the 1990's and use USB.stevekgoodwin - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Was it necessary to plaster the wall sheeting before covering with the material? Is that just what good installers do or is it necessary to block noise (would double layers of sheeting offset be better than plastering?).How are you planning to seal any gaps around the edge of the door?
(as for the other biggotted comment, dude, you should see a rich person's home theatre. They sure don't build 'em themselves).
ZeroGuardian - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Thanks for taking the time to describe the process your going to on your home theater. I'm a bit of an audiophile myself and can only dream about a setup like that as I'm still a poor college student. Can't wait to see the project after it is finished.sellout - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
Hey shrimpi while your busy counting and showing off your money your site has done downhill and downright sucks. I used to be an avid reader, but I can't say I've see a single article worth my time past the first paragraph. I know you don't care because there are many people dumb enough (myself include) that are still getting you those hits so you can sellout to your ad dollars. I know this comment won't see the light of day and there are so many flamer who would suck a fat one just to polish your nob, so I'll close it this way, there are starving people in the world, most of them back in your home country, so why don't you come back to earth, nobody wants to read how rich you are!