Fun thread. How do you plan out a Theater room when you're building a house?

[ErinH]

Next year my wife and I are building (her dad's a contractor, BOO-YA!).

She's actually wanting me to do a dedicated "entertainment room". Most likely will be built upstairs by turning what was going to be an unfinished area, into this room.

I'm getting into home audio, and like car audio you have to plan ahead for a major install. Ie: gutting the car.

So, when you build a home, or even start a room from scratch what do you do?
Thinking along the lines of speaker position placement, etc.


Share your insight(s).

 

[mazersteven]

First the room has to be the right shape. Then you need to plan for acoustically treating the walls of the room. Then you need to plan for the proper wire and cable that needs to be run in the room. Also plan your electrical right.

 

[ErinH]

Good points.

I imagine I'm looking at a basic rectangular room, with no weird roof angles to cause issues.


What kind of treatments are out there? For my car I use deadener as a mass loader, and open cell foam to trap "noise".

 

[mazersteven]

Also plan for proper cooling of this room. With the heat generated from the gear you will need good cooling, and ventilation.

 

[annunaki]

The HVAC for the room is very important so as not to casue high ambient noise when the Heat or A/C kicks in.

Here is a great site as far as room construction is concerned. Go over it with your Father-In-law. Staggered stud walls will be your friend down the road, especially at night .

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

Consideration should also be given to if/or where windows will be placed. If you do have windows, you'll want to consider a design for easy treatment so you can darken the room effectively during the daylight hours.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Much of it is about budget.

I would say some of the most important pre-construction events that occurs is formulating the design requirements of the room.

1. Do you plan to do front projection, rear projection, plasma/lcd or something else, and at what size?

2. How big is the space you have to work in?

3. How tall are the ceilings?

4. How do you want to arrange furniture?

5. How many rows of seats?

6. What is your (realistic) budget?

There are many methods of dealing with everything, but some of the best things you can do is pull your wires early and run conduit between key locations. Think... and ask about everything. Doesn't matter that you know car audio, in many ways, but it helps. That is, in a car, you may want the lights up front that are easy to read, but in a theater, little blinking lights at the front of the room can distract from the 'theater' experience.

Front projection is awesome, but is hurt by poor lighting planning. So plan lights accordingly, or ditch the projector.

Except, a projector IS theater, and anything under 100" is just TV.

Tiered seating gets more people into the room, but requires a bit more space.

If planned properly, a projector can be pulled from the room entirely, and you can use long throw to achieve a true theater-like projection experience.

Audible noises feeding the room, including HVAC, can be real distractions, plan accordingly.

Power needs to be dedicated for certain items to improve quality and reliability.

It is impossible to pull to much wire.

Think OUTSIDE the box! If you have $10K+ in home theater gear, wouldn't it be cool to be able to disbtribute some of the audio and/or video throughout the rest of the house? If you are building, then now is the time to consider this.

I setup my home system and included about 100' of conduit in the house along with an unfinished basement. My notes on the low-voltage wiring span 11 pages. Wiring lists, distributed audio paths, equipment, etc. Everything you WANT to do, you should write down and then edit heavily to what your budget will allow.

My home has distributed HD video currently at 4 locations, with current expandability to 8 locations. It includes distributed audio to 12 locations, with expandability to 17 locations.

Yet, I don't really have a 'theater'.

All my gear is in my basement, yet none of my viewing is in the basement. Gear is remote located as necessary for easy access.

So, while focussing on the 'box' is fun, you don't want to miss your one real easy chance to step outside of the box as well for whole house audio and video...

Unless that doesn't make sense at all.

Don't forget outside!

 

[ErinH]

going OT...

BmxTrix, huh?

BikinPunk.... (see where I'm going with this?)

Do you still ride?

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I always enjoy your suggestions BMX...and to think...I wrote all my notes on a post note...

Much of it is about budget.

I would say some of the most important pre-construction events that occurs is formulating the design requirements of the room.

1. Do you plan to do front projection, rear projection, plasma/lcd or something else, and at what size?

2. How big is the space you have to work in?

3. How tall are the ceilings?

4. How do you want to arrange furniture?

5. How many rows of seats?

6. What is your (realistic) budget?

There are many methods of dealing with everything, but some of the best things you can do is pull your wires early and run conduit between key locations. Think... and ask about everything. Doesn't matter that you know car audio, in many ways, but it helps. That is, in a car, you may want the lights up front that are easy to read, but in a theater, little blinking lights at the front of the room can distract from the 'theater' experience.

Front projection is awesome, but is hurt by poor lighting planning. So plan lights accordingly, or ditch the projector.

Except, a projector IS theater, and anything under 100" is just TV.

Tiered seating gets more people into the room, but requires a bit more space.

If planned properly, a projector can be pulled from the room entirely, and you can use long throw to achieve a true theater-like projection experience.

Audible noises feeding the room, including HVAC, can be real distractions, plan accordingly.

Power needs to be dedicated for certain items to improve quality and reliability.

It is impossible to pull to much wire.

Think OUTSIDE the box! If you have $10K+ in home theater gear, wouldn't it be cool to be able to disbtribute some of the audio and/or video throughout the rest of the house? If you are building, then now is the time to consider this.

I setup my home system and included about 100' of conduit in the house along with an unfinished basement. My notes on the low-voltage wiring span 11 pages. Wiring lists, distributed audio paths, equipment, etc. Everything you WANT to do, you should write down and then edit heavily to what your budget will allow.

My home has distributed HD video currently at 4 locations, with current expandability to 8 locations. It includes distributed audio to 12 locations, with expandability to 17 locations.

Yet, I don't really have a 'theater'.

All my gear is in my basement, yet none of my viewing is in the basement. Gear is remote located as necessary for easy access.

So, while focussing on the 'box' is fun, you don't want to miss your one real easy chance to step outside of the box as well for whole house audio and video...

Unless that doesn't make sense at all.

Don't forget outside!

 

[mtrycrafts]

Next year my wife and I are building (her dad's a contractor, BOO-YA!).
She's actually wanting me to do a dedicated "entertainment room". Most likely will be built upstairs by turning what was going to be an unfinished area, into this room.
I'm getting into home audio, and like car audio you have to plan ahead for a major install. Ie: gutting the car.
So, when you build a home, or even start a room from scratch what do you do?
Thinking along the lines of speaker position placement, etc.
Share your insight(s).

You are doing it right, planning ahead, way ahead. You are not in extremes do do something because the drywall is going up in 3 days

You received a lot of good info, especially about that staggered stud construction. On that note, you will be on the 2nd floor and isolating the low frequency from the rest of the house is not an easy task, or to minimize it. You need something like that staggered stud walls for the floor too, some kind of separation or isolation. And, if you can isolate that inner wall from the rest of the structure like ceiling joists, that too will minimize sound transmission.

Even if you may not want something initially, plan for it by pre-wiring, or as was suggested, conduit of the right size to pull the wires later, or, you will be remodeling soon after it is finished.

 

[ErinH]

Well, I didn't want to ask just yet, but since I haven't been able to find a straight shot answer...

Why the staggered studs?

Why the extra conduit? Just to have a place to run the wires, I take it?



Yea, I've told my friends about how I've been getting out of car audio lately and focusing my "studying" on home audio (though I still have to get competition ready by Feb... ughhhh). They think it's a bit silly to start looking so soon, but as I talk to them I keep thinking of other things I need to consider. Now, with BMX's post there's even MORE stuff that I didn't even think of, and probably wouldn't have until "3 days before the dry wall goes up".

Thanks, all.

 

[annunaki]

You are doing it right, planning ahead, way ahead. You are not in extremes do do something because the drywall is going up in 3 days

You received a lot of good info, especially about that staggered stud construction. On that note, you will be on the 2nd floor and isolating the low frequency from the rest of the house is not an easy task, or to minimize it. You need something like that staggered stud walls for the floor too, some kind of separation or isolation. And, if you can isolate that inner wall from the rest of the structure like ceiling joists, that too will minimize sound transmission.

Even if you may not want something initially, plan for it by pre-wiring, or as was suggested, conduit of the right size to pull the wires later, or, you will be remodeling soon after it is finished.

A floated floor, insulated and isolated would work wonders for LFE isolation on a second floor room. You will lose 5"-8" of room height but it would be WELL worth it.

 

[annunaki]

Well, I didn't want to ask just yet, but since I haven't been able to find a straight shot answer...

Why the staggered studs?

Why the extra conduit? Just to have a place to run the wires, I take it?



Yea, I've told my friends about how I've been getting out of car audio lately and focusing my "studying" on home audio (though I still have to get competition ready by Feb... ughhhh). They think it's a bit silly to start looking so soon, but as I talk to them I keep thinking of other things I need to consider. Now, with BMX's post there's even MORE stuff that I didn't even think of, and probably wouldn't have until "3 days before the dry wall goes up".

Thanks, all.

Read my link. I would bookmark it if I were you. There is a TON of useful information there. Staggered studs are the best way to isolate sound in one room without spreading to the rest of the home.

 

[mtrycrafts]

A floated floor, insulated and isolated would work wonders for LFE isolation on a second floor room. You will lose 5"-8" of room height but it would be WELL worth it.

That is why I floated that idea for him to consider. If he would have used the staggered stud wall and no floor detail and the LFE penetrated all over his house, he would have pulled his hair and thrown stones this direction asking what gives, the wall didn't stop it then a remodel job

 

[annunaki]

That is why I floated that idea for him to consider. If he would have used the staggered stud wall and no floor detail and the LFE penetrated all over his house, he would have pulled his hair and thrown stones this direction asking what gives, the wall didn't stop it then a remodel job

Good call my friend.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Why the extra conduit? Just to have a place to run the wires, I take it?

You use conduit to run wires that you forget, or that are bad. To get from Point 'A' to Point 'E' - completely avoiding points B, C, and D.

You don't run conduit to put the wires you are running in, you run conduit in case the wires you install, don't deliver 100% of your expectations.

EXAMPLE: Yesterday, yes, yesterday, I visited a home that was having issues. They were having SERIOUS EMI interference causing 60hz noise on their television due to the cabling they ran from the rack to the TV (about 80 feet). My first instinct? Run optical fiber from the rack to the TV which isn't susceptible to this type of interference.

The problem? No conduit for that 80 foot run means cutting holes in PHENOMALLLY painted walls. A textured, custom painted setup which went so far as to paint all outlet covers and all the trim rings on the recessed lighting.

Likely cost of the fix normally with conduit: A few hundred bucks.

Likely cost now? A few thousand bucks.

Unlike a car, you don't just pop off a seat and some trim, you typically must tear down drywall, patch, then repaint to get that ONE wire in place that you forgot!

OH YEAH: Don't forget the antenna and satellite feeds to outside. Maybe a piece of conduit to the entry point of the house to your theater equipment rack. PLAN FOR FIOS.

Don't forget that dedicated circuits for your A/V gear are pretty much a requirement. 20amp circuits = good.

Depending on how much you are doing yourself, this all can run from regularly expensive, to very expensive.

But, you can buy rolls of coax, cat-5, and speaker wire for next to nothing. $2,000 (your cost) in cabling, could be the equivalent of $8,000+ cost in actual labor loaded cabling. So, what you can do yourself is huge.

 

[Q45]

Back-in the day before I moved up to MEP Coordination in high-rise construction, I was an electrical contractor that specialized in high-end custom homes in So. Cal. Anything from 5,000sq. ft. up to 58,000sq. ft.

I've done countless media rooms and specialized in lighting control systems.
PM me anytime for specifics.

But for starters;

Solicit the help of an A/V contractor. Seriously! The ideas are ok to be yours and the construction of the room can be done by the general. But when it comes to install, you really should have pro's do it.

Gotta use the correct conductors in the walls and make sure to maintain proper separation between A/V, phone/data & power wiring.

I would suggest using all metal boxes & steel flex conduit to pull all wiring for the A/V room. With the flex you have a built in shielding, protection of the cabling AND as time goes on and A/V equip. changes, you always have the ability to pull out and pull in new conductors to various places in the room without tearing drywall apart to pull wire somewhere because some piece of equip. in the year 2015 now uses ??? type wire.

Rule #1 - Set in place a budget for the room starting with equip. 1st. The level of equip. will constitute the level of construction required for the room.
For instance, having your room upstairs poses some problems right from the get.

There's a type of floor joist I've seen used in upstairs media rooms called "Silent Floor". There like 2x4's on the top and the bottom and a thin piece of high density press-chip board in between. Say as opposed to a 2x8 or 2x10 stood up on ends, dig? Then insulation in that floor is also going to be absolutely critical or the room below will suffer from the bass.

And my personal opinion is build the room to be a media room if you want, but stay away from the in-wall stuff. Don't get me wrong, there is some fantastic in-wall equip. now days. Subs, directional speakers, blah blah. But the thing is things change. You make changes to the furniture a couple of years from now, you can't just walk over to speaker and nudge it over a couple of inches with your foot. You gotta get a drywaller, a painter, possibly your A/V contractor back out. Jeez, ya know?

I could rock on but I'll spare ya.

PM me if you want.

Good luck.

 

[roshi]

A floated floor, insulated and isolated would work wonders for LFE isolation on a second floor room. You will lose 5"-8" of room height but it would be WELL worth it.

If you really want to isolate the room, you pretty much have to build a room like they build recording studios. Which includes floated floor, etc. You pretty much end up building a room within an air bubble that will keep the LFE from escaping. I have a cool book at home on building a recording studio, I can look up the name and stuff if you want me to.

With regard to room shape, I don't think a rectangle is a good idea, since it will give you lots of standing waves. I would probably go for a trapezoid, at least that's how I would design any theater type room.

The best thing to do (if you have the money) would be contacting a professional av-installer. However, that can get really pricey and some of those guys don't even know what they are talking about unfortunately. I have had some bad experiences with installers. So get somebody who is good at what they are doing.