Dedicated room build begins

[helipilot]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[ash]

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

[helipilot]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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