Dedicated room build begins

helipilot · 12-02-2006, 12:57 AM

I finally have a dedicated room and have started to build my new cinema.

The CRT projector has been mounted and a false frame wall has been built to support my home made screen.

More info on screen here

I am currently looking for some inspiration in terms of the design for the room. I have been preparing some basic parts using "blender" to get an idea of how things could turn out

larger image

Any tips on using "blender" would be appreciated as I have never used it before and am going through a bit of a learning curve.

Current thoughts are that the screen will live behind curtains (not in mock-up yet) which will operate by remote. In front of the curtains there will be an 8" - 12" lowered ceiling border. Above the border will be curved ceiling panels. Below the screen will be a small stage with a hollow behind the screen to take the electronics. The overall size of the room is 15' long by 10' wide

I am unsure whether to hide the speakers inside false columns or just leave them in full view.

I will post other ideas as they occur to me. I will take photos along the way to keep a record of the build.

ash · 12-02-2006, 8:11 AM

One idea, hope you dont mind me saying, dont you want to hide those front speakers? In cinemas, you can't usually see them.

BTW, great rendering, you got any links for tutorials?

diesel · 12-02-2006, 9:46 AM

Just my 2p but two things spring to mind.

Could your electronics be located elswhere? I always think the displays on them are distracting, when in your direct line of view, whilst trying to watch a film.

Having said that it could just be me whose susceptible to this and you might not be bothered by it.

The other thing was the curved ceiling. From the rendering it looks like the ceiling is barreled.

As a self builder I can't help thinking that this construction would be very complicated.

When you consider it will probably be painted a dark colour (for the CRT to shine) you will hardly notice it and make the effort of creating it a bit of a waste?

What I am certain of is, that given the level of skill displayed making that fixed screen, the room is going to be fantastic.

Cheers

Andy Brown

diesel · 12-02-2006, 9:49 AM

PS

in terms of hiding/displaying speakers I would say it depends how beautiful they are. I have M&Ks and despite their fantastic performance they're not what you could ever call 'pretty', so I'll be trying to hide my front three

helipilot · 12-02-2006, 2:00 PM

A couple of renders to show possibilties with either hexagonal or round columns

I am drawn towards the round ones but they would be a lot more work to make. I suspect the curved grills in particular could be a bit of a challenge.

scharf_10 · 12-02-2006, 2:16 PM

I like the round ones better out of the two, but i think if the ammount of work is going to be too much, then just use the hexagonal ones.

ash · 12-02-2006, 3:30 PM

Mmm... looks good. But why not colour that the same as the walls (red), becuase you can still tell there are speakers there, they should be like hidden, thought it might look odd.

jolly · 12-02-2006, 4:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diesel

The other thing was the curved ceiling. From the rendering it looks like the ceiling is barreled.

As a self builder I can't help thinking that this construction would be very complicated.

Andy Brown

as a fibrous plasterer , I can tell you a barrel ceilings are no problem
I have one in my bathroom
as for the columns round or hexagonal are no problem
I made some square fluted ones for a mate
he had them either side of his pioneer 506 with his b & w speakers set into them

steve

sbowler · 15-02-2006, 6:22 PM

Cant you buy speaker cloth by the mtr and wrap the whole colums in it?

ash · 15-02-2006, 6:34 PM

Can you link us to that? Or any pics, cheers.

helipilot · 16-02-2006, 10:15 PM

A couple of possibilities for the business end of the room.

Joining a flat plane to a curved ceiling could be interesting. However it would mean that the fans of projector would be enclosed resulting a large hush box. Extra fans would need to be added to draw hot air away from the vents at the rear of the projector.

jolly · 17-02-2006, 6:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by helipilot

Joining a flat plane to a curved ceiling could be interesting. However it would mean that the fans of projector would be enclosed resulting a large hush box. Extra fans would need to be added to draw hot air away from the vents at the rear of the projector.

can be done in grg quite easily , were just working on a barrel ceiling for a customer that has a plaster grill built in for the air conditioning to be concealed behind

mattym · 17-02-2006, 8:44 AM

jolly is correct, grg is perfect for this kind of thing, we make ceiling tiles and panels from GRG and its fine, our biggest have been 2.0m x 2.5m for manchester uni, the ceiling in there had grg deflectors, we used pearlite and pva mixed on the back to stop them ringing, moulding in-situ is easy too if the workman(jolly)is skilled enough

for the fabric, interface have a large rang of fabrics that are acoustically transparent, so would be ideal for wrapping columns, if your going to make them from anything other than MDF use 'bendy mdf', its been slotted at the back to make it curve, we use it often and its great

putbinoot · 19-02-2006, 12:06 PM

bit of topic but, helipilot can you post a link to some tutorials for using blender for your type of design ie room design.

helipilot · 20-02-2006, 12:07 AM

putbinoot,

I used the tutorials from the help menu within blender itself. These take you here :-

http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Tutorials.243.0.html

helipilot · 26-02-2006, 2:23 PM

A few pics as way of update.

Work on the room has started.

The HTPC has been installed in an under stair cupboard adjacent to the cinema room. This will allow me to modify the PC without worrying about noise. It also results in only the monitor visible in the cinema room. The PC can be controlled via a pronto and via wireles keyboard and mouse. the IR and radio receivers will be hidden in the ceiling. Cable runs between the cinema room and the pc were interesting. You do not realise just how many wires are needed to put the PC at one side of the wall and the monitor at the other. The greatest benefit of this configuration is that the cable run between the PC and the projector is very short. 2m hd 15 to 5 BNC's is all that was required. In my previous setup there were five 20m runs in addition to the monitor cable.

I have started work on the stage with the basic frame now in place. The front of the stage has a curve in it which made the carpentry a little more work but the end result should be worth it. The stage now needs to be floored and some black carpet sourced to cover it. All speaker wires are now in place and will be totally invisible when the stage is complete. All speakers are bi wired which has meant a total of eight cable runs under the stage and four of them running under the carpet at the edges of the room to the back.

**inzaman** · 27-02-2006, 8:57 AM

Keep them coming, i am really looking forward to seeing this from the original idea through completion

Dankeech · 27-02-2006, 10:37 AM

Helipilot,
Great to see another project from the start. Inzaman's done something similiar and you seem to have very clear ideas on how to do this.
He's a good guy to have following your thread, and I'm interested to see progress on your HC room. Don't forget regular photos etc.
Also interested in final cost too out of interest. Keep up the good work.

Dan.

helipilot · 12-03-2006, 4:23 PM

Update time:-

The stage has been floored.

The screen was removed for safety.

The screenwall has been boxed in and lined.

Screen wall has been painted

Screen now remounted on wall.

helipilot · 26-03-2006, 5:58 PM

Things have been moving on.

The design of the room is now pretty much decided. The ceiling design has proved the most complex. I want to achieve a professional look without it being too over the top. I want to hide part of the projector so that it will reduce the noise. The ceiling/shelf system is effectively a hush box as the majority of noise and hot air is fired through vents at the rear of the projector. The bottom half of the projector will still be accessable for maintenance. I hope this compromise will give the best of both worlds. Any designs I made enclosing the whole projector either looked ugly or made the ceiling look heavy.

I have decided to go with a small shelf around three of the walls at one height and then raising slightly across the front of the screen. I tried various curved designs and settled on a flat ceiling with curves at the sides dropping into the border shelf.

The flat surface will be black and have around three hundred fibre optics. A blue/white colour wheel will be used. There will be two downlighters in front of the screen and three on either side wall. There will be blue ropelights hidden behind the shelf lip.

Since I last posted I have fitted blackout material over the french door windows and put in most of the wiring. The wiring has just be modified to allow SKY HD to be fed to the projector when it finally arrives.

Here are a few photos of the lowered ceiling temporarily in place. I have also made a mock up of the shelf/ceiling system to check it would all work before I go all the way around.

benwillcox · 03-04-2006, 7:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by helipilot

A couple of renders to show possibilties with either hexagonal or round columns

I am drawn towards the round ones but they would be a lot more work to make. I suspect the curved grills in particular could be a bit of a challenge.

I like the hexagonal columns... have you decided which, if any, you're going to go with?

In fact, would it be rude of me to ask whether you would mind sharing that blend file so that I might have a go with something similar for my own cinema room?

Cheers!
Ben.

helipilot · 03-04-2006, 11:24 PM

Quote:

I like the hexagonal columns... have you decided which, if any, you're going to go with?

I have decided to go with the speakers visible at the moment. I was worried that the columns would look too heavy in a ten foot wide room. The columns could be added at a later date if I feel the need.

Quote:

In fact, would it be rude of me to ask whether you would mind sharing that blend file so that I might have a go with something similar for my own cinema room?

The attached file should get you started.

This represents my line of thought several weeks ago. Some major changes have taken place with the room design as things have progressed.

The room is within a couple of weeks of being complete (fingers crossed). I have been so busy lately working on it that I have not had much time to post. I have around a hundred more photos taken during the past couple of weeks some of which will be posted when I get a chance.

I am off work this week so am expecting to make major progress. Today I carpeted the stage area and fitted the final ceiling panel. Fitting 300 fibre optics is pretty time consuming!

I am really pleased with the way things are going, I will try and post some update photos in the next few days.

benwillcox · 04-04-2006, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by helipilot

The attached file should get you started.

This represents my line of thought several weeks ago. Some major changes have taken place with the room design as things have progressed.

The room is within a couple of weeks of being complete (fingers crossed). I have been so busy lately working on it that I have not had much time to post. I have around a hundred more photos taken during the past couple of weeks some of which will be posted when I get a chance.

I am off work this week so am expecting to make major progress. Today I carpeted the stage area and fitted the final ceiling panel. Fitting 300 fibre optics is pretty time consuming!

I am really pleased with the way things are going, I will try and post some update photos in the next few days.

Cheers Alan that'll be very helpful. I've only downloaded Blender just yesterday, so this will be a great help with learning to use it!

I'm very interested to see your new pictures, your room size is very similar to mine so I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like!

Also saw your screen masking in another thread - ingenious, I think I might have a go at doing that too!

Cheers,
Ben

helipilot · 11-04-2006, 9:40 AM

Finished at last ! (well pretty close)

Here is a taster photo to give an idea of the end result. If you compare this with the initial renderings you will see that some things have been added as the design evolved. The curtains can be closed covering the screen for listening to stereo music.

I have a whole load of photos of the construction. I will upload some of these when I get around to taking them off the camera.

larger image

This should give you a fair idea meantime.

TiSwAs · 11-04-2006, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by helipilot

Today I carpeted the stage area and fitted the final ceiling panel. Fitting 300 fibre optics is pretty time consuming!

I am really pleased with the way things are going, I will try and post some update photos in the next few days.

Looking very nice indeed good job

Have you got pic's of the fibreoptics install? would like to see how you completed the ceiling with them all in.... also do you have a link to the supplier of said optics?

Cheers

helipilot · 12-04-2006, 7:35 PM

Quote:

Have you got pic's of the fibreoptics install? would like to see how you completed the ceiling with them all in.... also do you have a link to the supplier of said optics?

The ceiling is split into three panels. Each panel was drilled and fibre optics installed one panel at a time. As each panel was fitted the remaining fibres were pulled through to allow the next panel to be completed.

The fibre optics were split and grouped into bundles between each ceiling rafter. This meant that the bundles were easier to handle and did not get trapped by each panel as it was lifted into place.

Each ceiling panel was lined with wallpaper and painted matt black. The panels were drilled through from the black side. The panels were turned over and the optics pushed through. Each fibre was secured in place by a small piece of tape and then a blob of silicon. Fibres were left sticking through by a couple of inches.

Once the panel was screwed to the ceiling paint was used to cover the screws and each fibre painted black. Once everything was dry the fibres were clipped back to around 3mm from the ceiling. A pair of nail clippers made the job fairly easy.

The attached picture shows the final panel having the optics installed.

The optics were custom made by Fibre Optic Systems Limited. My particular unit had 300 3.5m tails and a blue/white twinkle effect.

helipilot · 13-04-2006, 1:27 PM

A view towards the back of the room

**inzaman** · 13-04-2006, 2:26 PM

Looks excellent, love the ceiling.
What is the lcd at the back of the room used for?

Dankeech · 13-04-2006, 3:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inzaman

Looks excellent, love the ceiling.
What is the lcd at the back of the room used for?

Same thing on my mind too. Must have an unusual function I'm guessing due to it's location perhaps.

Dan.

helipilot · 13-04-2006, 7:30 PM

Quote:

What is the lcd at the back of the room used for?

There is a cupboard behind the LCD screen outside the cinema room, which is where all the video sources are located. Currently thats an HTPC and a standard sky digital box connected to the HTPC via a sweetspot card. All of the audio equipment is at the front of the room under the screen. The HTPC has an Nvidia 6600GT card with two outputs. One goes to the LCD panel and the other goes to the Sony G90 on the ceiling. There is also a JS Tech master component switcher box which will allow sky HD to go direct to the projector when it arrives in late May.

Main uses of the HTPC are to serve as a media server for DVD images and audio which is controlled via Xlobby on the LCD screen. It also runs Theatertek for standard DVD playback. It can also be used to run flight simulators and occasionally use the internet. 90% of use is for movie playback. I don't want to risk static burns on new tubes. Incidently the projector has colour correction filters on green and red so HD playback should be awesome. The whole system is remote controlled via a pronto so for normal movie playback and watching sky everything can be done from there with no real need for the lcd to switched on. However when it comes to browsing my audio and dvd collection from the hard drive it comes in to its own providing an elegant easy to use interface.

I had toyed with the idea of using a touch screen but my funds have been stretched to the limit recently.