[gurpswoo1]

Hi all

I'm getting close to finishing my cinema room so decided to get around to getting the post up and running for what i done so far, this is a dedicated room as the room was really a room with a bed in it anyway.

This is what is started like: -

The System will be as follows: -

Projector: Sony HW-10
Surround AMP: Onkyo 876
front and rears speaker: Acoustic energy Linear 3 floor standers
Rears: Dali Vokal Centre 1
Fixed projector screen: DRH Screens php 92" 16:9
DVD player: Sony playstation 3

I was going for something like this:-

Its changed some what since i got the projector and got really creative

QUCIK LINKS FOR THE DIFFERENT STAGES: -
STAGE 1 = PROJECTOR FUN
STAGE 2 = IN-WALL AV CABINET
STAGE 3 = PROJECTOR MOUNT
STAGE 4 = FLOATING WALL PART 1
STAGE 5 = FLOATING WALL WIRING AND DOWNLIGHTERS
STAGE 6 = SUBWOOFER CABINET
STAGE 7 = FLAOTING WALL ELECTRICS AND PREP
STAGE 8 = LIGHTING WIRING AND LOFT ACCESS
STAGE 9 = PAINT AND FILLING
STAGE 10 = FLOATING WALL LED LIGHTING

[gurpswoo1]

Ok here we go

I received the projector and front speaker on the same day,
however like a 10 year old boy given chocolate by a naive parent and told not to eat it until after dinner, i just couldn’t wait so opened it up to test it on my light yellow wall.

The projector is so much bigger then you think but not too heavy: -

You can see how large it is compared to the chair. i hooked up the new front speakers to the my existing onkyo 565 amp. but used the standard sat speakers for the centre and two rears.

Amazingly you have to screw the floor plates to the bottom of the speakers yourself. impossible to do with a screw driver you need a drill. As it all black you are 100% gone to scratch the new piano surface as you can't see thorugh the painfully small screw holes.

That’s a huge amount of packaging, I was rushing abit I guess.

you can see the reflections on the wall from the high gloss finish.

Here is some picture of it up and running sorry about the
quality I'm not very good at it.

[deansocial]

looks cracking mate.when you getting a screen up?

[gurpswoo1]

The screens already here, im just finishing the floating wall off, which is a major pain to get it level. have pictures up later today or tomorrow.

[gurpswoo1]

Here's some more pic:

i decided to make the electronics shelfs built into the wall instead of using a equipment stand outside, this was really just to save space but it looks alot better too.

The based is made a solid piece of wood, the side is made from thin plywood. the frame is made from 2" x 2" ply. the wires are fed from the top.

i also installed a 12v temperture controlled fan to remove the heat, i used rubber tap washer to redice vibrations: -

I know the finish is poor so I got some 25mm metal framing from Focus Do-It-All, what a rip off store but needed it quick.

Thats alot better .

[gurpswoo1]

The next stage is the projector mount.

Becasue i don't have loft access I had to do my calculation to check where i needed the projector, from this I made a chunk out of the roof to see where the joist was.

Unfourtunantly the projector mount I ordered was not what I got and a new one would have taken 1-2 week minimum.
The minimum distance from the roof was 10 cm more, so i had to make my own supporting foundation further up in the roof.

You can see the support plank the mount is attached to running along the centre joists.

All I can say is thank good someone invented Lens Shift

The cut outs for the downlights are made and prep wiring is done.

As the mount was not the correct one the mount made it off centre, so i had to make another hole in the mount for the third support arm to correct this.

The projector is then temporarily mounted, positioned and leveled to check calcuations and make adjsutment. This will be bearings for the Floating Wall.

These are not universal mounts, whoever makes these claims need to check there definitions.

[gurpswoo1]

The next stage is the Floating Wall.

The frame is made by from 2" x 2" ply

The frame is contrusted from heavy duty corner brackets, overlapped are cut in half to improve stiffness.

Next the Floating wall was put in position and leveled correctly, this was done with several people of course.

It's then attached to the wall using 25 thick long screws, abit excessive but didn't want to worry about it falling off.

The Wall it was attached to was way out, so had to correct this to make it level.

I got 2 large MDF sheets and cut then equal in size for fitment.

It didn't matter if there was a line in the middle or didn't look flat as i a great idea to make it better.

Thats the construction complete for the floating wall.

[The Prof.]

It's looking good..
Fatal mistake though, setting up the projector before you've finished the room..
What size is that room..and have you decided on the colour scheme yet?

[gurpswoo1]

LOL,

Yeah I removed it when i realised that there was a huge amount of dust building up. It my first real av project so i was doing all this on the fly really, I learnt so mush so far.

The colours i chosen are black, red/pink and white. i wanted a room that tranfers me to a different place from the rest of the house, my escape room i guess.

The is 6m x 4.5m the roof however is slightly lower than the rest of the house as it built on a garage.

[Lemon_Sherbert]

Looks great, will be following this one.

Like what you did with the AV cupboard

[ste15101989]

Originally Posted by gurpswoo1

It didn't matter if there was a line in the middle or didn't look flat as i a great idea to make it better.

What will you do with the line down the middle? I was thinking of something similar, with a sliding cover, but in the end had to think of somethign else.

[gurpswoo1]

Hi all i got some more picture uploaded.

The next stage is the floating wall wiring, because the wall is made from breeze blocks i had to use a angle grinder for the cut out, Unfortunently the angle grinder burnt out under load about half way through and plenty of smoke came out. So i had to do the rest with a chisel no good piece of .

As you would expect it took alot longer than it was supposed to, oh well all part of the process i guess, but it's no where near as clean cutas before, ohwell here its finished:

I decided to use face plates incase i wanted to remove the speakers anytime and keep a clean finish. i made the cut outs below the main conduit.

I then used dual sheilded power cables connected to a fuse spur. The cable is both foiled and aluminimin braided shielded, its £1 per meter, heres the cable:

The wiring is then fed into centre of floating wall frame.

I also decided to loop a 4 core cable back to the speaker outlets from here, this will connect to two seperate Light circuilts. I then used metal capping for protections and cemented the rest up.

The downlighter were easier to fit.

The front centre one was put on a different switch circuilt to run indepentantly. i also tried a multi coloured blub which cost £1.25:

It gives a very good effect and im please I paid the extra 25p over the standard blub.

[gurpswoo1]

The Next stage is subwoofer placment.

I ordered a Bk elec Mon, but i decided to save as much space as possible and i knew how big the sub was, it would have looked ugly sitting by itself. So i decided to put the subwoofer in the wall. on the opposite side of the room. Again i made it as big a possible, but this time the supporting frame was made several times stronger.

The base was made using block board, the roof was going to fall down before this and i even tried to force it down and it didn't move a millimeter. i then had to build the side panel into the cabinet where another temp control fan would be placed and cables for power and sub cable come in.

This side cut out was for the subwoofer heatsink and control dials. the side panels were finished in 10mm MDF as it was more dense. I then fitted the fan using the same transfomer from the other side as will come on at the same time as the amp and projector.

i didn't want any thing coming in through the fan when it was off, so i fitted a metal mess around it then a cooker extrator filter. it was finish off with foam to make sure no air got through the edges, i also used a foam grommet for the power and sub cable.

Not much to look at but is serves it purpose and no one will ever see it.

The cabinet was fitting with acoustic absorbing foam so a local supplier. it's about £25 for 1.25m x 3m 25mm thick.

i don't have the photo of it fitted in the cabinet for some reason, but it was easy. You just need to cut with some good scissors or a knife and stick to walls using double side carpet tap not the cheap stuff from wilkos, you need two to three times as much of it or will fall off.

Thats the sub cabinet contruction complete.

[gurpswoo1]

Stage 7 - Floating wall Electrics and prep


After 3 weeks of waiting i finally got the RGB lights for the floating wall. however when it arrived i had to pay import tax, whats more some of the lights were damaged but at least it was 3 times cheaper.

Anyway i started to fit the controller unit in the floating wall connecting the supplied power supply to my shielded mains. I had to cut the plug off and connect using a 15amp connector block, amazingly the plug they supplied didn't even include a fuse, good job i was using a fuse spur.

Now for the hard part, The unit did not come with a RF remote as stated but a Infra red remote. This is a big problem as the controller was going to be behind the floating wall.

So i had to find a infra red extender that ran off 12 volts the same as the RGB lights, this is because the transfomer for all these Infra red units would not fit in the space behind the floating wall. The other big problem was that the infra red unit must be small enough to fit behind the wall as well.

I managed to find one at maplin for £14.99 heres the unit:

I then disassembled it because i needed the infra red diode to be in front of the floating wall.

I cut the three connections to the diode and re soldered then to a 3 longer 3 core wire. i then taped them up in a paint colour and drilled a hole thorugh the unit so i came out without any problems.

I then cut the power connector off the supplied transformer and connected it in parallel to the same 12 volts supply for the RGB lights.

I then placed the unit near the centre with the extending receiver diode pointing down using double sided tap. I then connected the IR extending emitter to the RGB contoller sensor.

Now I needed to connect the the RGB lights in parallel to the two 4 core cables in placed in the wall that were going back to the speaker plates at the front.

I then finished it off by connected them to the terminal block and to the same adaptor as the RGB light strip.

[Indecisive]

Very detailed & interesting thread, I will be watching this one evolve. Nice solution for the rf control, will you be able to access it all if something goes bang with minimum disruption?

[gurpswoo1]

Thanks for the comments

I wish I could say yes but that looks like an impossibility at the moment.

Taking the screen off will be a 2 second job and the mdf sheets are just screwed on, so that won't take long, but I plan to put some sort cover over the floating wall to give a clean finish. this will need to be replaced everythime I take it off.

With that in mind I have doubled checked and sometimes triple checked everything so that won't happen, I hope.

[Quantas]

Nice looking room, like the odd shape, mansard roofish, on the colour I would lose the light colour i.e white sa the reflections will be annoying, as it is a dedicated room try to go as dark as possible the experience will be improved.

[gurpswoo1]

Thansk Quantas

I have looked at the different colour schemes and it all indicates that I use a darkish colour, I think i'm going for black and dark red. I pick some up and try some tonight, I'll upload the pictures aswell.

[gurpswoo1]

Stage 8 lighting wiring and loft access.

I wanted to put in firbe optic lighting for a star ceiling, I ordered them on ebay knowing that they will come with transformer and plug together, so I needed to wirie a circult so that they would come on with a light switch insteAd of a annoying fuse spur.

First thing was to take a unswitch supply from the current ring main and connect using a junctions box.

I then had to place a normal twin 3 pin plug socket for the transformers in the loft.

I then took a wire for the switch supply back to the switch on the wall.

Now the wiring done for the lighting i had to make a loft door asI had none for this room.

I tried to buy a loft door kit but none of them fitted, so I had to make my own. I used lots of spare 2" x "2 timber for the frame and spare MDF Sheets for the door. The borders I got from Do-it-all and placed them around the edges.

[gurpswoo1]

Stage 9 - Paint and Filling.

I finally got to the stage where i can start to fill the roof up and start painting.

I measured the cut out I made right at the beginning for the roof: -

I then attached using screws to the joists and filled over the edges and sanded down.

I did the same for the other gaps that needed filling: -

Nows it time to start painting, the roof was first and on when the midnight grey which is really a very very dark blue that looks, well black.

While the roof was being painted I got a friend to paint the side skirting white to replace the dark wood stain.

Here' the roof done with only one coat, I plan to do two maybe three coats.

I then replaced all the yellow in the room with a dark red once again this was one coat.

I also painted the inside of the AV cabinet with red and I left the inside of the windows white.

Heres it with the second coat after i put the floating wall on, I stilled needed some filling and sanding below the floating wall, but the paint looks alot better anyway with the second coat.

[The Prof.]

Wow.!! It's all coming together very quickly..and looking very nice..
Just one thing though..Any particular reason for leaving the inside window frames white?
I think you'll find that very distracting with bright images on the screen..

[gurpswoo1]

Hi there

I left the windows white because I didn't want a completely black and red room, I needed something to break it up. They also stand out as a feature of the room.

I will have to have a look to see if it makes a difference with the projector

[Kenny Glasgow]

Great progress, looking forward to the finished room

[Per156GTA]

Looking very good

One observation I woudl make though, for the sake of safety and avoiding any potential short circuits/fire hazzards - I would swap the small plastic 'chocolate blocks' with proper junction boxes - like the round ones in your loft photo.

I am not a sparkie, but any sparkie I have spoken to has always advised against long term use of the 'chocolate blocks'.

I know the two do the same job, but one is only an interim solution.

If you can't change them, at least wrap the whole block with plenty of insulating tape!! At least that will provide a bit of safety!

Cheers

per

[deefadog]

Looking very, very good. I know color is a personal choice, but i would get rid of that red and go for a chocolate or something.

Also if you have follow al's and diesel's thread you will see that covering the surround viewing area with black cloth is a must have going to do mine soon

[gurpswoo1]

Thanks for all the comments

Originally Posted by Per156GTA

Looking very good

One observation I woudl make though, for the sake of safety and avoiding any potential short circuits/fire hazzards - I would swap the small plastic 'chocolate blocks' with proper junction boxes - like the round ones in your loft photo

Hi there, with the exception of the mains on the floating wall which is connected to a fuse spur and taped up. They all run on low 12 volts power, nothing that will cause harm if they somehow came loose.

However I will take note and change the choc boxes for the larger junction boxes. Thanks for the advice.

Originally Posted by deefadog

Looking very, very good. I know color is a personal choice, but i would get rid of that red and go for a chocolate or something.

I've already looked into using brown even dark blue and dark yellow, but I didin't like them that much. I think red is more of a luxury colour than brown.

I also wanted the room to be completely different to the other rooms in the house to escape to a different place.
This is what one of rooms looks like now: -

Already have lots of brown, the door, the skirting, the middle skirting (don't know the name for this) and even the bed.

[gurpswoo1]

I'm finally back, haven't really had time to finish the thread off and then forgot about it for abit. But i try to finish it off know.

[gurpswoo1]

Next stage is the LED lights on the floating Wall: -

The Edges were Rounded off to ensure the LED tape is not stressed and snaps.

Unfortunently the LED tape isn't long enough so I had to solder another small piece on finish it off. The contacts are so small and so close together that you need a precision soldering iron, which of course i didn't have. Took more than half a hour just to solder 4 wires.

[LukeFoster2006]

Great project, il be keeping an eye on this .

[gurpswoo1]

Subwoofer Placement: -

The next Stage is the subwoofer placement. Owners of this unit will tell you how heavy this thing is, we used Goldring sound isolating spikes: -

We then left a channel in the acosutic foam to allow air to channel to the heatsink and then be sucked out by the fan on the outside.

We then connected the the unit to the newly placed fuse spur to power the unit, and connect the sub auido cable to the unit: -