Home Cinema Upgrade - Recessed 300cm PJ Screen and dropped pelmet around ceiling

kryten22uk

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Up to recently I had a 55" TV on a wall mount which meant you could simply slide it down to the floor, which meant I had a clear wall to watch movies from my PJ. However at Xmas, I upgraded to a 75" TV, which is now too big for the sliding mount. So I need a new way to watch the PJ. I bought a Screen International Giotto Tab Tensioned Acoustically Transparent motorised screen, which is 16:9 with a 300cm wide viewing area. This is a recessed unit, so I needed to embed it in the ceiling. Instead of recessing in the existing ceiling I've decided to create a new dropped pelment (right word?) which will house the screen. Rather than just have the dropped pelmet on one wall for the screen, I've decided to run it around all 4 edges of the ceiling. With a protruding lip all the way around, it will house some upwards facing LED strips.

First pic shows the wall (with TV covered) along which the screen will be installed.
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Next, after removing the cornice, it exposed the cabling that I had diligently installed in the cornice only a couple years ago! These cables run vertically down the wall in trunking to the TV. This wont be changed.
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Next pic shows the fitting of the brackets which will hold the screen. This took an exceptionally long time, as it has to be pretty much milimetre perfect, and of course a joist was never going to perfectly appear in the place I wanted it. So I buffered the joists with a piece of 4x2, and attached the brackets to that.
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Before I could start installing the box frame for the pelmet I needed to know where the joists were. Joist finders were giving results all over the place as usual, and so I just cut a series of holes and marked out the joists. Good job I did, as they were not 450mm centres, they varied around 420mm-480mm, so my fixings could easily have totally missed the joists.
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Next stage then to start with the boxing frame, using 2x2 timber, screwed'n'glued. This is how far I got so far.
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Finished the boxwork for the pelmet. I ended up with a gap at the back where the PJ hangs from the ceiling. Hanging it from the dropped pelmet would have placed it in front of the window which would have looked worse. The uneven levels of the existing ceiling was a real pain, and added a lot of faff to this stage. Also spent a bit of time today moving a light switch h out the way and getting the elecs ready for the screen and the leds.
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This weekend I finished the first fix electrics, plasterboarded it, and did the tape and jointing (first coat).
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Now there was a bit of a hiccup today, despite my extensive effort to safeguard the TV, using a small hand towel, I somehow managed to hit it with my trowel and gave it a scratch. Bit gutted about that but maybe it won't show when watching.
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Enjoying this coming along. Bad luck scratching the TV, hope it doesn't show when watching...
 
Looking good, you're going to end up with a setup very much like mine, right down to the KEFs...

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Yes, it will! Looks good.

One snag I've been running through my mind is how to get the screen into place. It weighs nearly 50kg, and will be fitted at a height of around 2.2m. So I have visions of my wife holding it above her head at full arm-stretch, whilst I faff around with the bolts! :laugh:

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I'm thinking i might have to hire a lift genie for a day, but that'd be over a hundred quid.
 
if you cant get a friend and some sturdy step ladders to help then it might be worth renting a hoist like a genie super hoist from your local tool hire place. one local to me charged us £40 to lift some heavy gear for us recently. was surprised how quickly they set it up lifted the load then were gone.
 
3 coats of T&J done, and a sealant paint now applied. The missus got a bit peed off with me half arsing the covering of tv/furniture, so now I've put sofas in middle with lots of coverings and all other items removed from room.
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Next I've removed the tv/speakers and made the channeling for the wires to be hidden. Good job I used trunking rather than cable clips as I spotted I had got the FR and C cables mixed up, so I pulled them out and threaded them back the right way.
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A quick pick of the 1st fix electrics. I put a recessed plasterboard sock backbox in the horizontal board, so I could have all the cable junctions accessible. Didn't like the idea of it all being behind plasterboard. Also needed access to hook up the PJ screen once fitted. It's completely hidden to anyone walking around.
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All painting done now. All our rooms have been quite boring magnolia, so felt quite brave to go complete opposite and put in a rich dark blue. Not only that but went with a dark ceiling to. Absolutely love it, and totally cosys-up the room. I twinned the dark blue with white accents. The white is a Tikkurila Anti-Reflex, which is a fantastic anti reflection paint.

Still not got the PJ screen in yet, hoping to do that tomorrow.

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Exciting day today as I fitted the PJ screen. The fitting went relatively smoothly. I set up a high level rest so that we could lift it most of the way and have a rest while making mods.
After that it was the final lift and fitting 4 nuts to hold in place.
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I wired it all up and linked in a 12v trigger from my projector, and bobs yer uncle.
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As you can see in the photo above, the screen drops lower than I'd like, as it is recessed effectively in a low ceiling. I thought it would be simple to stop it at the height you want but apparently not. I can't really work it what I am meant to do from reading the instructions, and not only that but the instructions tell me that by setting my own drop height I invalidate the warranty!! That sounds crazy. 😞
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The adjustment looks very similar to the one on my screen. With the screen you should have got a long plastic rod with what looks like an Allen key at one end - that fits in to the adjuster A and turning it allows the drop to be changed. It's been a few years since I did it but I recall it being very difficult to get the end of the allen key in to the adjuster...
 
As you can see in the photo above, the screen drops lower than I'd like, as it is recessed effectively in a low ceiling. I thought it would be simple to stop it at the height you want but apparently not. I can't really work it what I am meant to do from reading the instructions, and not only that but the instructions tell me that by setting my own drop height I invalidate the warranty!! That sounds crazy. 😞
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Reading that, it only states that if you damage the screen due to adjusting the stops, the warranty becomes invalid.

The only thing you're going to do is adjust the bottom end stop - you're not touching the upper end stop (which dictates where the screen ends up when it's rolled away).

The instructions say that you adjust the bottom end stop by keeping at least some of the screen rolled up, and then adjusting the 'screw' at position 'A' by turning clockwise. I guess the only way to see if it falls to the correct place is to make an adjustment, and then test - rinse and repeat - until you're happy with where the screen stops.

Just take your time, and you'll be fine.
 
So, possibly a monumental cockup. In my planning and measurements I thought that the screen dropped out of the side closest to the viewer, whereas it actually drops out from the "back" of the roll.

This matters because the screen has to clear the TV which will be permanently mounted to the wall. It's going to be super tight, if at all possible, and will require me minimising/removing any spacers on the wall mount brackets.

This will also mean that the TV is much closer to the wall, so we will see how that affects the Ambilight effect.
 
So, possibly a monumental cockup. In my planning and measurements I thought that the screen dropped out of the side closest to the viewer, whereas it actually drops out from the "back" of the roll.

This matters because the screen has to clear the TV which will be permanently mounted to the wall. It's going to be super tight, if at all possible, and will require me minimising/removing any spacers on the wall mount brackets.

This will also mean that the TV is much closer to the wall, so we will see how that affects the Ambilight effect.

A possible solution, though it requires a bit of work, and some expense, is to recess an articulated TV mount into the wall. (It doesn’t have to be articulated, it just makes attaching the TV itself, and cables, far easier).

Take away the plasterboard, and build some studwork, or mount some double layered ply or some such, that you can attach a TV mount to securely - which can be inset back from the face of the wall. This should allow the TV to be mounted pretty much flush to the wall.

The ambilight will still work - just not throw the light quite so far across the wall.

The other solution is to buy a thinner TV, as Ambilight TV’s tend to be a little on the chunky side (we have one in the kitchen).
 
Thanks @The Dreamer unfortunately it's a solid brick wall so no recessing of the TV possible. I only just bought the TV a month or two ago, so would be costly to replace now. I am hopefully it will just about be fine, and will be able to check in the next day or so. But yeah, last resort is a new thinner TV.
 
ok so crisis avoided, I am a very luck boy! I adjusted the wall mount down to its absolute min, and the screen now passes down practically 2mm from the TV front. :D
You can see it (sort of!) in the pic below:
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All finished now. Final tweaks to the drop heigh of the screen, and installed the RGBW LEDs. I wired the LEDs into a hard rocker switch, as I dont like the touch-plate switches you get for them. But I also wanted a dimmer switch for the main ceiling lights, so I ended up building my own combo using VariLight modular components. Very pleased with the outcome.
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Glad the screen drop cleared the TV in the end.

Soffit looks great.

I'm interested in how you wired up the LED tape into the light switch, as most I've seen just plug into a plug socket and you have to use a remote or app to turn on / off. Was the led tape a model made for connecting into a light circuit or did you modify a plugged version somehow?
 
Glad the screen drop cleared the TV in the end.

Soffit looks great.

I'm interested in how you wired up the LED tape into the light switch, as most I've seen just plug into a plug socket and you have to use a remote or app to turn on / off. Was the led tape a model made for connecting into a light circuit or did you modify a plugged version somehow?
I bought:
  • standard SMD 5050 RGBW led strip in 24v format, with 30 LEDs/m, 7.2 watts/m;
  • 150w 24v driver;
  • WL5 Miboxer wifi LED controller
  • Remote control
I took a feed from the socket ring, into a fused spur. That then went up and provides the power to the TV, the PJ Screen and the LEDs, all via Wagos in a junction box. I could equally have powered the LEDs from the lighting circuit, but that wasnt readily accessible. I did have access to the existing lighting circuit switch cable, which is what I rerouted down into my new dimmer switch.

The power spur for the LEDs first goes into the rocker switch, and then onto the driver which converts it to 24v DC. This meant I could use normal switching, and not the rubbish remotes or touch plates that DC circuits use. Then the driver provides the power through the Controller and on to the LED strips. As there was 15m of LED strip, I wired it in three parallel sections to avoid voltage drop affecting the lights.

The remote control does have the ability to 'turn off' the LEDs, but this is never really 'off'. Indeed LED strips can consume of 50% of the power in the 'off' position, as the microprocessors are still functioning. So I just use the remote to change the colours/dimming, and use the wall switch to power it off properly.
 
Thanks. Very helpful.
 

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