That's a pretty cool layout. I don't think I'd want a center channel in the ceiling however. Also, I am not much of a TV guy. I have been using a projector of some sort or another for about 3 years, and I just like them better. Of course, with the light in your room, it might be kind of difficult to watch during the day.
I'd put a vertical center channel (or one of the same speakers you use for the right and left speakers in the corners) just above your fireplace. Then, get something like a retractable acoustically transparent screen from
www.seymourav.com. Chris Seymour, the guy who runs the company, is my neighbor. He let me borrow some scrap material to try in my bright room so we could see how a Panasonic AE100U projector works with a lot of light. The newest AE200U projector is pretty low cost, around $1200 or better on sale, and is 2000 lumens so it is a good choice for something like this. Anyway, here are some screen shots:
The first two pics are shot on a 115" wide (cinemascope) piece of fabric that I actually hung over top my blinds. This was done in the evening. You can see the light bleed through on it. The screen was huge, but at the edges where the blinds aren't at, it was a pretty decent picture. My wife and kids were sad when I took it down since our own theater has been out of commission for a month...
The next few pics were all taken with a smaller piece of fabric on the wall opposite the big window and patio doors. It's a 52" diagonal screen at 16:9. The images show the contrast between the video display and the wall beside it, but somehow the camera was adjusting the base color to what was on the screen, so the color looks worse than it did in real life.
Evening, Full lights on in the room:
Evening, Partial rights on in the room:
Next Morning, no lights on, just light from the open blinds opposite the screen:
Ok, so my angles are crappy and the exposure is odd... *grin* But you can see that with the lights off in a room, that a bright projector is still visible. If you are wanting your setup to have a real movie feel, then the center speaker behind this fabric would be awesome when the room can be darkened some. However, normal TV watching during the day won't be too great, but it'll still be visible... just kind of washed out since "black" can never really be black on a white screen with a lot of light in the room.
Anyway, this isn't just a plug for my next door neighbor, as this is what I would really do for myself in this situation. Of course, I hardly ever watch TV or play video games during the day. It may be different for you in that regard. But seriously, with the center channel speaker behind the image, it's just plain awesome! I'd go with the 85" wide 16:9 screen with the black backing for best performance. That's just under a 100" diagonal. That would keep the image small enough to still have some decent brightness, and would sure feel big compared to a 40" or 46" TV.
Anyway, this is just my two cents some some interesting tests to see if it's a viable solution...
Btw, the projector is still set up in that room right now. Even a slightly washed out image in a bright day room is better than the 24" computer monitor I have hooked up for viewing while the basement gets fixed. *grin*
Later!
