Bass Pig's Lair Gets a Projection System

[basspig]

Here we go, trying to paste images from a new PhotoBucket account:



and



These are panoramas I made from stitched together photos. Cheap and dirty.

 

[basspig]

Having recently built a riser platform for the second row of theater seating, I had the opportunity to stand upon that platform while music was playing at fairly loud volume levels.

The platform is made of plywood over 2x8 framework and sits directly on the concrete floor. It is covered with black carpeting.

Music listening is quite a different experience when standing on this platform. The vibration literally tickles the feet and jars the shinbones! The sensation of bass is SIGNIFICANTLY enhanced with the tactle sensation one gets from standing on wood. Granted, it's very solid compared to wood flooring and joists, so the wavelengths it responds to are much shorter, but wow, what a difference in sensation when you can feel that much vibration through your feet and legs!

 

[basspig]

We are no officially snowed-in and in winter. Temps in the single digits, snow on the ground, unplowed private road impassible to all but 4WD vehicles.
Any meet we have here will have to wait until May, when all snow is gone.
Happy hibernation!

 

[basspig]

Here's a little update on the theater seating... still waiting for Costco to get those True Ottoman chairs in stock, if ever, so I had to substitute folding chairs for row #2 for now:

April has been unusually warm this year. We had 91°F yesterday and all the snow is gone!

"The quintessential "Bass Pig" experience.. the music starts a bass line, and a moment's terror ensues, like one is in control but not really in control, like the sensation of being on a rollercoaster that's just started on the biggest downhill dash.. Bass, a whole-body experience."

 

[TheFactor]

Looking good !

 

[basspig]

Now if Costco would hurry up and get more of these chairs in stock... I can't find them anywhere online. Been looking all fall and winter and come up dry.

Am thinking of making a very low riser for the front row (just 2") for the purpose of having a wooden surface to rest on. The vibrational experience for the back row is tremendous. Tickles the feet and shin bones! Would like to have some of that for the front row too...

 

[lsiberian]

I hope business is getting better for you, but folding chairs gives me cause for concern.

 

[basspig]

The folding chairs are a symptom of Costco not carrying enough stock of the True storage ottoman "Entertainer" chairs.

Though, economically, my company is in the red about $22,000 last year. Thankfully, March has been a generally upswing month, with a record-breaking three paid gigs, matching what we did in all of 2009.

I'm probably the poorest audiophile in existence. It took me 38 years of savings to slowly build up my sound system. When I started, I was earning $2.10/hr and it took me a year to save up for the Spectro-Acoustics 210 Equalizer, which was the first purchased component in my system. I home-brewed everything, originally. I designed and built sets of vacuum tube amplifiers that powered my original system. All my dozen or so sets of speaker systems that I built over the past half-century were DIY. I lived on peanut butter sandwiches and drove around in old broken down clunker cars for most of my life. Didn't have a dating life, so that was another savings I was able to put toward gear. So after 38 years of saving, buying, building, etc., we have what you see here...

 

[TheFactor]

Well done I must say and something to be very proud of

 

[basspig]

Or as my deceased mom used to say, "not bad, for a man who doesn't have a pot to piss in."

 

[TheFactor]

lol Sounds familiar

 

[Vinculum]

Five at a time, in order that they were uploaded:

The Seymour AV Products DIY AT screen, mounted to frame and in place,
The frame being stapled, shown on floor with plastic laid out and light blocker tacked in place,

Hi Mark,

Regarding the picture of your screen laying face down on the floor, Did you wrap the fabric around the outside of the frame and staple it on the back? I think this is what you've done, creating a raw borderless screen. I'm considering this approach and wanted to check with you!

Thanx
Dr V

 

[basspig]

Hi Mark,

Regarding the picture of your screen laying face down on the floor, Did you wrap the fabric around the outside of the frame and staple it on the back? I think this is what you've done, creating a raw borderless screen. I'm considering this approach and wanted to check with you!

Thanx
Dr V

Yes, that's exactly what I did. I first tacked the black spandex on the back side of the frame, then wrapped the screen material and back-tacked that over the spandex tacking, making a neater appearance from the back side.
Not shown in any photos is two vertical struts that support the middle of the frame to keep it straight. Those were added after the first photo of frame construction and before the material was tacked on. Felt strips were added to the struts to prevent slapping noises when subsonic bass was causing the screen to move in and out.

 

[Vinculum]

I was wondering how you got away with no center supports. Now I know. You didn't! I have my wood (poplar) for the perimeter and 2 center supports. I was also thinking of recessing some magnets into the wood before I wrap the frame for some stick on masking. I'm doing a 2.05:1 ratio screen AKA "constant image area" Which gives me a large 'scope screen AND a large 16:9 with minimal masking on each. Most of my watching is 16:9, or 1.78:1. I think the CIA screen is a great solution for me.

I appreciate the fast reply!

Dr V

 

[basspig]

Poplar is a good choice. Be sure to paint it thoroughly when it's assembled, to keep the humidity levels in the wood constant.
The embedded magnets sound like an interesting idea, though it may be tricky to implement. At least they do no harm... it's not like they will cause color impurities to a CRT!

That aspect ratio is a compromise. Are you expecting to screen a lot of films with that oddball ratio? Most are either 16:9 (Avatar, and other CG films) or 2.35:1 for CinemaScope films. If your projector can do anamorphic, then it will use the full height and an anamorphic lens will stretch it out to the full width.

In the dark, I find that matting really is irrelevant.

 

[Vinculum]

Hey I used to have fun playing with magnets on a CRT when I was little. Glad my Dad never caught me! I just gave away my last big CRT television to a friend at work. No more boat anchors in my collection.

In my space, If I built a 2.35:1 scope screen I would not have the height of my old 16:9 screen. Thus I would sacrifice image size for the majority of my viewing material. The 2.05:1 ratio screen will give me large sized images for both viewing ratios with minimal amount of masking. Here's an example lifted from another forum of both 2.35:1 and 1.85:1 projected onto a 2.05:1 ratio screen.

Anthony Grimani is pushing this ratio in his "PMI 2.0 system". Here's a short video where you see some examples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWOCSWRLUzY

With my limited space and viewing habits I think it will work best for me. If I don't like it I can just make a new screen without spending a mint. DIY baby Anyhow I won't pollute up your thread with info in my screen. I'll save any technicalities for my own future thread. But you should get the idea from whats posted above.

And yes, I'm painting the poplar flat black after connecting it with pocket joinery. Thanks for the tips!

Dr V

 

[basspig]

That looks like an intelligent compromise, given the mixed formats that are floating around.. we just watched AVATAR, which is 16:9. Not much you can do with that on a wider screen! And old "academy" format motion pictures like GONE WITH THE WIND are a severe compromise.

Along that line, I just finished a week as Technical Director of the Kent Film Festival, and we had similar issues with some of the films that were letterboxed 16:9 within a 4:3-native DigiBeta format on tapes that we played in a pair of Sony HDW-1800B's. I had to go out and change the optical zoom on the projector and then go draw the drapes in a bit to mask the screen around the different formats, all in the frenzied pace of playing scores of films all day long in three theaters.

Here at the Lair, I don't worry about that sort of thing.. when the room is dark and the movie's playing, I never notice the unused parts of the screen.

 

[Vinculum]

4:3 is practically unwatchable anymore. I imagine thats close to the old academy format you're talking about.

Yes perhaps I won't need masking either, but I've always heard having the masking (or a velvet frame) really makes the picture look best. Black curtains might serve well for some easy vertical masking. I'll take it one step at a time.

I Just picked up 2 bundles of OC703 today for superchunk bass traps and first reflection point panels. Cut wood to length for my frame. Happy day for me!

 

[basspig]

Yup, it feels like tunnel vision. Academy used the entire 35mm frame, which is very close to, if not exactly 4:3. The old Technicolor movies, such as WIZARD OF OZ and GONE WITH THE WIND were shot in this format on film that had an ISO of 8, which is why the actors got burns from the lighting, it was so bright.

I suppose matting CAN help. There are automatic matting systems that are motorized, but that's overboard for me. I can still remember back about forty some odd years, seeing films in the theater where the aspect of the movie didn't match the screen. No matting, either. It was fine.

The OC73 is good stuff. Which reminds me that now that the warmer weather is here, I need to work on modifying four panel traps that I got from a friend of mine who owns a bass trap company. I'm re-tuning them to 36Hz and deploying them along the back wall.

I just shot some footage of the studio with an insanely-wide 4mm lens today. Going to edit and upload to Facebook and maybe try posting the link here later on..

 

[basspig]

Well, as we say in the biz, one video is worth a thousand pictures!

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and the HIGH DEF version is:
http://www.facebook.com/BassPig?v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=1237524108181