TKNice's Home Theater

[TKNice]

Hey Everyone,

I'm new to Audioholics and figured I'd add my theater to the mix. It's not quite finished yet since I need curtains up front and a few other small details, but we are getting close! Been going on two years or so. Hope you like checking it out!

A few details before the pictures:

• The space is roughly 12.4' x 21' (8ft ceiling) with no windows
• Lighting consists of 4 sconces, 12 4" eyeball lights, 3 vented isle lights & rope lighting above the soffit
• Soffit dimensions are 12"x6.25" with a 3" gap to the ceiling
• The riser dimension is 7.5' x 6' and leaves a 32" isle by the entryway and 26" isles on the back and far side
• The first row of seats is 11.5' and the second is around 17'

And the gear list...

• 130" CIH Screen (optimized for 2.35:1)
• Sanyo PLV-Z2000 1080p Projector with a HTB Anamorphic Lens
• DVDO Edge Video Processor
• Emotiva UMC-1 7.1 Channel Preamplifier/Processor
• Emotiva UPA-7 Amplifier
• Elemental Designs Custom 6T6 Towers in the front & center with eD 5TCs rear surrounds
• RC55i Polk Audio 5.25"s side surrounds
• eD A3-300 12" Subwoofer w/ upgraded 350w driver
• Vudu Movie Player
• Apple Mac Mini computer for poster display
• Apple iPad for theater control
• 42" TV displaying movie posters etc (vertically mounted).
• Verizon FIOS box
• Playstation 3 for games and Blu-ray
• HTPC Including:
  XBMC Media Center Software with the
  Aeon Skin
  3.1Ghz Dual Core AMD 6100 w/ 4 Gigs Ram
  MSI Geforce 8600 GTS 256 HDMI Video Card
  
  
  HT Omega Striker 7.1 Sound Card

 

[TKNice]

 

[jamie2112]

Wow thats amazing.Really nice job with your theater........

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Nice work!

 

[MidnightSensi]

Great looking theater!!!!

I'm so jealous!

Are the movie posters LCDs turned on their side? AppleTV? Really cool idea if that is.

Have you tried angling the speakers up a bit? Maybe with some MoPads?

You need to get some real bass in there though.

 

[TKNice]

Great looking theater!!!!

I'm so jealous!

Are the movie posters LCDs turned on their side? AppleTV? Really cool idea if that is.

Have you tried angling the speakers up a bit? Maybe with some MoPads?

You need to get some real bass in there though.

Thanks for the compliments guys!

The movie poster flatscreen is a 42" TV mounted vertically and it's connected to a mac mini computer. It's not AppleTV though, it's just a slideshow of around 400 movie posters. You can see more pictures of it here.

Thanks MidnightSensi, I'll have to check out MoPads. I have wedges under them at the moment but you can't see it in the pictures. In the shot of the stage open you can see there's a spot for an extra 12" sub. I'll probably get another A3-300 when I can afford one. Need to wait till I have some money saved .

 

[CypherMax]

I love it! Nice work!

 

[ErinH]

Now that's a kickass theater room. Was it a DIY project, or did you contract out the work?

We hope to start building our 2nd house in about 1.5 years. The wife has actually insisted that we build the theater with the house, instead of planning on buying components and putting it all in after we move in (which hasn't happened yet and likely won't happen with this house). What does that mean? Simply that you'll be getting a crap load of PM's from me in about a year.

I'd really like to hear more about the automation (lighting, etc). How do you have it wired? Which interface are you using? What hardware is used? Anything you'd be willing to share. You can PM if you'd rather do that.

What you've done is pretty much what I want to shoot for as our next house will likely be our last one we build for many, many years.

Thumbs up, again, on the fantastic work.

 

[Ulvinn]

Extremely well made room, all you need is a small popcorn dispenser in one of the corners.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

You suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, I want that room. Great job!

 

[TKNice]

Now that's a kickass theater room. Was it a DIY project, or did you contract out the work?

We hope to start building our 2nd house in about 1.5 years. The wife has actually insisted that we build the theater with the house, instead of planning on buying components and putting it all in after we move in (which hasn't happened yet and likely won't happen with this house). What does that mean? Simply that you'll be getting a crap load of PM's from me in about a year.

I'd really like to hear more about the automation (lighting, etc). How do you have it wired? Which interface are you using? What hardware is used? Anything you'd be willing to share. You can PM if you'd rather do that.

What you've done is pretty much what I want to shoot for as our next house will likely be our last one we build for many, many years.

Thumbs up, again, on the fantastic work.

Thanks Erin! It was DIY to a large extent, but my father-in-law finished the basement for us and built the room based on my design and specs. I did everything else. I also had help on the front stage from a good friend of mine. I think it's better to do as much yourself as you can, especially the wiring and setup, because you'll be the one troubleshooting it down the road.

If you want to see more on the construction, I have lots of pics here from the original build thread.

What else.. the lighting is controlled by an automation program called HomeSeer (which the iPad touchscreen also interfaces with) and the switches are Insteon Switchlinc. They can do wireless via zwave, but my system is talking to them using x10 through the powerlines. I set up scenes in HomeSeer for movie, tv etc.

For the IR stuff, I have a device called a USBUIRT (you should be able to google it) that is connected to the automation server and I can "learn" all of my different remote commands right into the HomeSeer software which then can be accessed by the iPad App.

Good luck on your build btw, I spent what feels like a year figuring out all of the details so I can relate! Please let me know if I can help answer any questions you have--I'd be happy to.

-TK

 

[darien87]

Wow. Just wow. Screw you guys and you're dedicated rooms.

Looks great though. I've got a house being built right now, (should be ready in September), and though it won't be as extensive as yours, I'm really looking forward to having all the wires and connections pre-set up. Should be a definite improvement over what I have now.

I spy a Rock Band drum kit. Rock Band rules!!!!

 

[TKNice]

Wow. Just wow. Screw you guys and you're dedicated rooms.

Looks great though. I've got a house being built right now, (should be ready in September), and though it won't be as extensive as yours, I'm really looking forward to having all the wires and connections pre-set up. Should be a definite improvement over what I have now.

I spy a Rock Band drum kit. Rock Band rules!!!!

haha, I said the same thing before I got one!!

Rock Band definitely rules! I just got a second guitar and it's so nice having a guitar and bass.

 

[krzywica]

Wow....great job on the theater, looks amazing!

Are those 3 seperate servers that you have in the rack? Why 3 and what are they running?

 

[Shock]

I know I've used this one before but...

I'm going to need your address and a list of your fears.

 

[son-yah-tive]

Where is the Ticket Booth? Can't believe it. You must charge admission?

 

[ErinH]

Thanks Erin! It was DIY to a large extent, but my father-in-law finished the basement for us and built the room based on my design and specs. I did everything else. I also had help on the front stage from a good friend of mine. I think it's better to do as much yourself as you can, especially the wiring and setup, because you'll be the one troubleshooting it down the road.

If you want to see more on the construction, I have lots of pics here from the original build thread.

What else.. the lighting is controlled by an automation program called HomeSeer (which the iPad touchscreen also interfaces with) and the switches are Insteon Switchlinc. They can do wireless via zwave, but my system is talking to them using x10 through the powerlines. I set up scenes in HomeSeer for movie, tv etc.

For the IR stuff, I have a device called a USBUIRT (you should be able to google it) that is connected to the automation server and I can "learn" all of my different remote commands right into the HomeSeer software which then can be accessed by the iPad App.

Good luck on your build btw, I spent what feels like a year figuring out all of the details so I can relate! Please let me know if I can help answer any questions you have--I'd be happy to.

-TK

Thanks for the feedback!

We built my current house last year; finished up in August 2009. I wired up the room with all the necessary cabling and when we moved in, we realized we couldn't afford to spend the extra on the components needed to make it a movie room. I think I was just leary of spending $5k on a room that wouldn't get much use.
That's the reason we've decided the next house will have the gear put in as we build.

I'll check out the build for sure. You said basement... you're enclosed by concrete? Nice! Adding a basement is about $20-30k here, so I don't think we'll be able to afford that luxury. I'm jealous!

I may be pinging you back and forth. My wife really liked how you're using the ipad. You don't happen to have pictures of the ipad in use, do you? Is it a remote, or is it basically an external monitor that mirrors your on screen movement?

 

[Alex2507]

You think you're cool, don't you?

 

[TKNice]

Wow....great job on the theater, looks amazing!

Are those 3 seperate servers that you have in the rack? Why 3 and what are they running?

Thanks krzywica. One is a file server (which I should probably shut down and save power), another is my HTPC/media center, and the 3rd controls home automation stuff like lights, security etc.

You think you're cool, don't you?

NEVER! sniff sniff

Thanks for the feedback!

We built my current house last year; finished up in August 2009. I wired up the room with all the necessary cabling and when we moved in, we realized we couldn't afford to spend the extra on the components needed to make it a movie room. I think I was just leary of spending $5k on a room that wouldn't get much use.

That's the reason we've decided the next house will have the gear put in as we build.

I'll check out the build for sure. You said basement... you're enclosed by concrete? Nice! Adding a basement is about $20-30k here, so I don't think we'll be able to afford that luxury. I'm jealous!

I may be pinging you back and forth. My wife really liked how you're using the ipad. You don't happen to have pictures of the ipad in use, do you? Is it a remote, or is it basically an external monitor that mirrors your on screen movement?

Yeah, we couldn't have afforded to put it in if refi rates weren't so good a few years ago. We also hope to be in this house forever so I didn't mind doing the work.

As far as the iPad goes, the easy way to integrate it is using a $2.99 app called Air Mouse that can control both mac and PC via wifi and is basically like a keyboard and mouse. The more difficult one to get going (and it helps to know a little bit of programming) turns it into an actual remote. I don't have pictures of it in use, but I have a few screenshots of other screens I made.

This one controls the lights. There are a few scene buttons or you can also tap each light in the picture to turn it on/off.

This one controls components:

These control other things related to automation:

 

[ErinH]

Feel like flying to Alabama? lol.