My Home Cinema

mark.carline

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I thought I would start a thread on here to show a few people what I have been doing with my home cinema. I also thought it would be of use to a few people I have been emailing that are doing something similar....

I currently have planned for this room the following:

1) Installation of a Sony VPL-VW10HT projector on the ceiling
2) Use of a LMP PC projector mount from www.lmp-pc.co.uk
3) Installation of a Futronix P100 2 way remote control programmable lighting dimmer (see http://www.futronix-info.com/p100.htm ).
4) All speaker and projector cables not visible (behind plaster or under floorboards).
5) All cables terminated to gold plated connections on white faceplates
6) Electronic projection screen (controlled by the Sony projector trigger output).
7) Victorian Cast Iron Fireplace (to give the room a focal point when not in use as a cinema).
8) 4 x Art Deco Cinema style (maybe) wall lights.
9) 15m rope light round the room to give that cinema effect - See http://www.futronix-info.com/Sofitel.htm )
10) Home made 500Watt Sub
11) Wired for Cat 5 (512MB ADSL Router) and Sky Plus.
12) Two chairs (would love a Lazyboy from www.lazyboy.co.uk but budget may not allow!)
13) All work done so that the room can be converted back into a normal room (just incase we decide to use it for anything else).

...and all trying to keep "her indoors" happy with the way the room looks.

I'll post pictures on here when I make progress....
 
before I started working on the room......
 

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Looking good, keep us updated with progress, looking forward to seeing the finished article.
 
Thanks...

well...

1) Fire place is in
2) Speaker cables pulled though and burred behind walls
3) Walls sanded and covered in lining paper.

Next things are:

1) Paint ceilings
2) Decide how to hide the rope light behind the picture rail
3) Choose the wall lights
4) Fix the projector mount to the ceiling
 

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Mark.

I am following your thread with interest as I am about to embark on a similar project. Could you please let me know what the room dimensions are.

Ty
 
heres what I did with the speaker connections for the front and rear surround connections

1) Two way gold plated speaker binding posts from maplins
2) Soldered onto cable and channel down the wall
3) Plastered into wall ready for further filling

1)
 

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I'll post some pictures up here later but i've managed to work out how i'm going to hide the rope light around the room.

I wanted to use the rope light all the way round the room at picture rail height for that cinema reflected effect (ie I want all the light to come off the ceiling and I dont want to see it directly. The light will be controlled via the Futronix P100 dimmer which can handle a maximum of 300W per channel (the P100 supports two channels).

B&Q sell 10m and 5m lengths of rope light that can be joined together with an "allways on" power cable (didnt think that flashing rope lights would look any good somehow!).

The total length of the room (i.e. all four walls) comes to exactly 15m all the way round so I got the 10m and 5m rope lights above from B&Q. I have also purchased three bits of wood as follows:

1) B&Q 18mm x 18mm square wood
2) B&Q Standard picture rail (they only have one type).
3) B&Q 18mm x 18mm scotia beading (designed for wood flooring).

I then did the following:

a) Fixed the 18mm x 18mm square wood to the wall using rawl plugs and screws
b) Glued and pinned the scotia beading to the underside of the square wood.
c) Glued and screwed the picture rail to the front of the square wood where the bottom of the picture rail is the buttom of the square wood.

If you work it out this then the hight difference between the square 18mm wood and the hight of the picture rail leaves a gap behind the picture rail where the rope light can fall into (the rope light is around 14/15 mm thick).

Kind of like this:

OO|++
OO|++
##|+
##|
xx/
x/
x

where:

O = Rope light
|+ = Picture rail
x/ = Scotia beading
# = square wood


The power cable to the rope light has been fed down from the ceiling in a plasic trunking which has then been plastered over, filled, wallpapered etc....

I'll try and post a picture of its profile to try and explain what I have done.

p.s. To ensure that the rope light doesnt overheat I will be programming the Futronix P100 to control this rope light to a certain maximum brightness for the rope light and for further safety I also will be fitting a fused switched socket in the loft with a 3amp fuse.
 
Well I am wellllllll pleased...!!

Just tested the hidden rope light now that the ceiling is finished.

The futronix P100 works great when it dims up and down....
 

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That looks excellent! You're making me feel very inadequate (in DIY realms ;)). Are you doing all this by yourself?
 
Looks great. I wish I had thought of something like that, I just went for poxy flush fit ceiling lights.

Check out LMP for your projector mount, very high quality piece of kit for not very much money, will look great in your room. ( check out my site in my sig for some pics )

Although, I get the feeling from the quality of your DIY work that you may be thinking of hiding your PJ in a box, or a motorised platform that drops out of the ceiling? I am assuming small projectors here, are you going CRT?

Can you dim those lights from an ordinary dimmer or do you have to have this futronix gizmo?

Looking forward to the finished product - keep up the good work.
 

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