[rigman]

I have over the past 8 years had a cinema room in whatever house I lived in although they have always had some major compromises. I like most on here dreamed of a dedicated room totally light controlled, enough seats and all the other toys that goes with it.

I moved to my current house 3 years ago and have been using the dining room as a cinema room. This was not ideal as it was around 12 x 12 so everything was crammed in.

After much spending of money on rest of the house doing bathrooms, kitchen etc it finally came to the garden being the last thing to get done.

However I had toyed with the idea of extending the dining room to make a bigger cinema room I did not want to spend money on the garden then build an extension ruining all the previous hard work. I persuaded swmbo and she was very keen on the idea as she loves the cinema as much as I do.

The room now is 20 x 12. The room was due to be longer (21 foot) but major isues with the garden and the retaining wall limited it to the size I ended up with. The house is built on a hill as seen in the picture and I have a few levels of garden held with retaining walls.
The extra foot would have cost a lot of money so I figured it was not worth the cost.

The room is almost finished but here are a few pictures of the start of the journey. I will post more later.

Note my DIY skills are very dodgy at best although I did purchase some power and hand tools and it is amazing how your skills can improve with the right kit.

My biggest disappointment is the camera which is a Sony T2 cynershot which is absolutely hopeless in low light and does not show the room as it really is. Some of the pictures of the internals ended up looking like they were taken in a snowstorm due to digital noise.

The first set of pictures are the original site and the extension is going on the middle bit of the house. You can see the layout of the garden and the various retaining walls. The side wall is absolutely massive and is over 20 inches thick and 15 feet high in the highest place.

[rigman]

Here are a few of the extension being built. You can see the boards and scaffolding holding back the garden.

[rigman]

In the meantime I was busy in the garage putting them dodgy diy skills to the test.
Here you can see the front part of the riser for the rear seating.

You can also see part of the light tray and the columns in which I intended to place the speakers. In the background of pic 4 up a height are the soffit frames.

[rigman]

In the meantime some of the shiny new toys were arriving

Carada 2:35 118" wide BW screen with Prismasonic 5000R anamorphic lens

[mossym]

i'm guessing the rate the pics here are going up this build is pretty far along...another carada owner too, there is quite a few of us on here now

[rigman]

I was still busy building columns

My equipment rack arrives and behind it you can see the rear part of the riser. I plced it in the living room as I had run out of space in the garage

[rigman]

The build was progressing. Here are some of the interior of the old room after it was stripped out. There are 2 entrances the double doors were originally covered by my old screen. The single entrance door I turned into an equipment cupboard.

The marks on the wall are where the old acoustic foam was stuck

[rigman]

More later

[rigman]

Originally Posted by mossym

i'm guessing the rate the pics here are going up this build is pretty far along...another carada owner too, there is quite a few of us on here now

Yes it is but I did not start the thread earlier because I was doing the fitting out and did not have time to be honest.

The other reason was if it all went horribly wrong then I would have been too embarrased and taken an axe to it all which is not something I would have wanted to do in public

[inzaman]

Originally Posted by rigman

The other reason was if it all went horribly wrong then I would have been too embarrased and taken an axe to it all which is not something I would have wanted to do in public

I can understand that, look forward to seeing the build as i have been curious as to your set up - having read your many pj posts

[blasted]

looking good, will be expecting some screen shots.

[rigman]

Here is the extension nearing completion on the outside and some shots of the inside before the windows and plaster went on.

As this is a totally light controlled room I asked the builder to plaster straight over the windows on the inside. I figure that if I ever sell the house (and I have no intentions of ever selling it but never say never) then if the buyer did not want the cinema room as is then I could just cut out the plaster and dress up the window surrounds to make it back into a normal room.

[rigman]

The plastering is done and the windows are gone.

I was busy working so I asked my wife to do some painting of the ceiling, skirtings and doors black which she did a good job although not the most accurate edging in the world it did not need to be as it was all going to be covered over later.

[rigman]

My first job was to build the screen wall and as recommended by a lot of people in the know (especially on avs) I covered my screen wall with acoustic material.

I used Auralex as I had a load of it which I had reused in the various rooms over the years. Not the prettiest looking stuff but thankfully it was all going to be covered in this room.

The main wall is covered in 4" wedges and both of the sides have 12" Lernds base traps from floor to almost ceiling (to take into account the soffits).

The wooden frame was built so the screen was clear of the foam. I did not put the bottom support on until much later when I finally unpacked the screen.

[mossym]

looking good so far, keep up the posting, want to see how this turns out

[rigman]

Here is a couple of pic of the back wall.

The radiator has been painted black and I have placed some diffusion tiles in the centre of the wall to help the surround speakers. The speakers I have for the rears re M&K S-85s and the sides are tripoles M&K SS-150

On the left is the plastered over single door entrance. In the second picture I have cut out the rack hole and proof fitted it for size.

The two columns are just there to check for size and placings

[rigman]

More later

[rigman]

For the side walls I had decided on using 60kg density 1" Rockwool from the floor to just above ear height when seated. I planned to then cover this with cloth. This meant that I needed a support frame which was 1" thick x 2" wide for something to attach the cloth to.

I spent a fair bit of time in the garage cutting 25mm MDF 8' x 4' sheets into strips of 2" x 1" to use as the frame.
I also cut a few sheets of 18mm, 12 mm and 6mm for other jobs (soffit sides, Light tray, Riser cover etc)

Here are a few shots of the framing

[rigman]

The Rockwool was stuck on using spray glue which worked very well. The camera is not working too well on these.

[rigman]

The soffits finally go on and are filled with 4" rockwool and the rear one is filled with left over Auralex. The wall framework and soffits are also being painted black so you dont see anything behind the cloth

Am I going too fast

[skaterstan]

Originally Posted by rigman

Am I going too fast

No, keep going!

[rigman]

The soffit sides and the rope light tray going on. I originally placed mahogany veneer on the sides and when it first went on it looked great. However when I looked later it had bubbled up and no matter what I did I could not sort it. Eventually I got fed up and ripped it all down and started again. I sealed the board and stained it instead and apart from a few blodges it turned out to be quite nice.

I did think of other options for the sides including laminate flooring but decided it was too shiny. Another option was real wood flooring with the tongue nipped off with a circular saw but again I gave up as I could not find the right wood, colour and shade

The light tray is made from ripped down 1.5" x 2 inch and 1.5" x 3" glued together then the edge routed with a roundover bit.

It was also time to start covering it all with cloth and I decided to have a red and gold velvet striped cloth at the top and black felt speaker cloth at the bottom. This was held at the top by sliding it in between the wall frame and the soffit and then stapled along the sides and bottom. Some of it kept sagging as due to the walls not been perfectly straight some pieces were not held as tightly as the others. If I was to do it again I would staple on the cloth before the soffits were put up. I eventually sorted it by additional screws and wedges.

The last pic is one of the wall lights of which I ended up with 5.

[rigman]

The bottom of the soffits I decided to leave open to allow them to be able to absorb some of the base energy. I covered them with a long length of black speaker fabric. This picture reminds me I still need to fill the screw holes

The spotlights were also fitted. I have 3 above the screen and 2 in the rear between the columns.

[rigman]

The columns were a pain in deciding what to do.
I had always intended on covering the top with black cloth but with the bottom of the column I had various options. I eventually covered them in the same cloth as the top but in a sideways direction.

I also had difficulty in making the black cloth at the top look uniform. I tried wood, chicken wire (which made it look like a lion bar with lumps and bumps all over )
I eventually used some excess carpet which was great to bend into the right shape. 4 of the columns were for the speakers so obviously I had to make sure there was suitable cutouts for them.

The first picture is my first prototype. There is a slight gap at the top as the carpet was not fitted and I made allowances for the thickness in my measurements.

The second and 3rd pic is the screen fitted . What a breeze to put together that was.

The 4th is the carpet

The 5th is the spots and the 6th is the 4 channel varilight dimmer. I could not do the cloth here due to waiting for the electrician to finish...Damm them part P regs.

Sorry again for the poor quality of the pics

[rigman]

The build was going great guns and I missed a lot of the steps due to being on a roll and a self imposed deadline

More later

[rigman]

Once the carpet was fitted I then built the riser. Unfortunately I did not take many pictures of this as I said I was on a roll. The riser is approx 11" high and is 8 foot x 6 foot with a step at either side. There are a number of chambers which were filled with fibreglass and rockwool. I then cut a different sized hole at the outside of each chamber. This is designed to act as a broadband resonator.

I also placed edging around the outside which I stained to finish it off. The carpet is just bits left over. I have ordered a full piece to cover the whole top which should arrive within a couple of weeks. I was waiting for the final sizes for this hence the delay. The second pic is a bit blurred but it gives you an idea.

The rack was also fitted and populated with the gear. A rats nest at the back but I intend to tie it all up and make it a lot neater.

[rigman]

I made some cover panels for below the screen and the sides to cover the remaining auralex.

The panels were just a wood frame with black speaker cloth stretched over them.

The projector was then fitted and setup along with the speakers.

For my front speakers I have 3 M&K S-150's these are fantastic speakers I have owned them for years and is the only pieced of equipment I have never wanted to upgrade. The sub is a Velodyne HGS 18.

The processor is a Lexicon MC12HDEQ. I dont live too far from York and was in driving distance of CSEsolutions who are the distributor for Lexicon. They kindly loaned me a their set of microphones and just want to thank Mark for his help.

The projector is a JVC 750 and the anamorphic lens is a Prismasonic FE5000R. I would just like to thank Graham N on this forum for his help and advice on setting up the lens.

Here are some pics of the PJ and lens

[rigman]

The seating was then place in the room and the trim all finished off. I went for 2 electric recliner leather setees which are pretty comfortable. The rear one is sat on the riser in order to see over the front.

For the trim I used architrave at the cloth interface on the wall and around the equipment rack. I still have some trim to finish off around the columns but have to cut quite a few mitres for that.

Again the pictures are not great and I have now decided my next project is learning photography

I covered the door in cloth as well. Can you spot it in pic no 5
You can see it a bit better in pic no 7 just to the left

Here is a montage of images of the room as I post. One of the latter pics show the equipment rack trim fitted which I did yesterday.

Please be gentle.

[rigman]

Here is one of the riser as I say I am awaiting a full piece of carpet to finish it off.

Last night was the premier and I have to say that it was just awesome. The kids picked Harry Potter and Goblet of fire.

The pj and anamorphic lens quality is superb. The Carada screen is so much better than my old Dalite. I was worried that it would be a bit dim with a bigger screen but there was no problems. I am not very good at spouting superlatives but I am over the moon with the room and the experience. I now have the perfect house and the room I always wanted

I have some issues with my Harmony 1000 remote but will sort that.

When I get a better camera I will post some screen shots.

cheers
Darren

[Leumas_10]

Wow, proper little cinema in your house . Looks top draw mate, great stuff.

Sam