Shed of Infinite Darkness

I'm interested in your Acoustic Treatment approach. Did you measure before / after. Or are you approaching from "good principles / no measure" method?

Looking great btw....

I used good old fashion maths to give me a rough idea on reflection points, then did the mirror method to confirm.

As always, there is a slight compromise. Lights, speakers, doors, etc get in the way sometimes, not a problem if you don't mind your panels randomly placed through the room, but I didn't, I also wanted something that looked pretty decent as well as being functional.

I have used black panels for the from two to stop any distractions of the images on the panels, this also allowed me to be a little bit more random on my placement without it looking odd.

I'm pretty sure I've got all of my main reflection points, I've now installed panels at the back of the room, just need the other side wall and the ceiling.
 
So today the AV unit has been fitted, inclusive of automatic fire extinguishers (just in case). The unit will be covered in black material when finished so should be well hidden.

I hooked up everything for a quick demo (no screen, just projecting onto a black wall). Think it's gonna be pretty amazing when finished, sounding and looking amazing already and still have the finishing touches to the room. My mrs and kids wanted to watch a whole film, even though the image was projected onto a black striped wall paper!!!! Think they were impressed, my mrs especially, she didn't realize it was going to be this good! Hoping she'll now appreciate the effort I've put in!!!

My little boy didn't seem quite as impressed as the girls though......he is only 3 months old though! :D
 

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Have you been struck by a fire outbreak before?

Most people are concerned at an early alert of fire, to protect life. Detectors near the anticipated hazards, and an alert to get people out.

What's the strategy here ? Building protection too?
 
BTW - the little fella looks to be a Woody fan....Toy Story would make a great first family film. What have you got planned?
 
BTW - the little fella looks to be a Woody fan....Toy Story would make a great first family film. What have you got planned?

It's an outbuilding so I'm just trying to give the building an opportunity to survive as nobody would ever be caught in it if something happened. My dad was a fireman for 30 years and he's pretty much built the whole building, so its precautionary really.

First family film is rogue one, no one but me has seen it and they all want to watch it. Think my first film will be hacksaw ridge but I've got a fair amount of films to catch up on ......
 
It's an outbuilding so I'm just trying to give the building an opportunity to survive as nobody would ever be caught in it if something happened. My dad was a fireman for 30 years and he's pretty much built the whole building, so its precautionary really.

First family film is rogue one, no one but me has seen it and they all want to watch it. Think my first film will be hacksaw ridge but I've got a fair amount of films to catch up on ......

Yes, Rogue One is a good film for the family. I have not seen Hacksaw Ridge, on my horizons somewhere though.

Your Dads influence makes sense now. Is that CO2 auto deployment?

Do you have a good detection system?

I would have concentrated on eliminating Sources of Ignition. There really won't be any down there when unoccupied, if you have the electricity turned off. Is that the intention? If the whole system is protected by an House upstream RCD at 30mA it will also cut out for electrical faults involving current to earth.

For info, my system has 3 optical & heat detectors to a mains / battery powered alarm system, instant notification via emails & Siren locally.

The power is also cut off to unrequired AVR equipment automatically on exit of the building - nothing in gets left in Standby.
 
Yes, Rogue One is a good film for the family. I have not seen Hacksaw Ridge, on my horizons somewhere though.

Your Dads influence makes sense now. Is that CO2 auto deployment?

Do you have a good detection system?

I would have concentrated on eliminating Sources of Ignition. There really won't be any down there when unoccupied, if you have the electricity turned off. Is that the intention? If the whole system is protected by an House upstream RCD at 30mA it will also cut out for electrical faults involving current to earth.

For info, my system has 3 optical & heat detectors to a mains / battery powered alarm system, instant notification via emails & Siren locally.

The power is also cut off to unrequired AVR equipment automatically on exit of the building - nothing in gets left in Standby.

Yeah, I will be doing something similar. My room is also on a RCD at 30mA connected to the main house, but also has its own internal fuse board. I'm not sure what I am doing about keeping the electrics live when not in use though as there are some benefits of them being live (pre-heating the room for example)

The extinguishers are clean agent - they mess with the formula of a fire to put it out without causing any damage to existing electronics, furniture and furnishings. They have an in-built sensor in them that activates if the temp goes above 79 degrees. They are designed primarily for server cabinets, so a similar sort of setup to what I have, you can't see them now all electronics are in. See here for more info 1kg Clean Agent Automatic Fire Extinguisher

I've not sorted out my alarm as yet, although I have just ordered a canary and cocoon alarm system to try. They both look very simple but effective, the canary monitors the room air quality as well as any intrusion, so I would imagine it would notify my of a fire.
 
More food for thought. My Mains Power is sectioned OFF - "essential" services (Alarm, AC Unit, Extract Fan, Network Sw/Wifi, External Lights, designated sockets for ) which are left ON. And the "Controlled" circuits - Radial to AVR equipment and Subwoofers etc.

When I Full Set the Alarm, Power is Turned OFF to the Controlled Sockets. When I Part Arm - it leaves these ON (as Projector takes a while to cool down and power Off, and I can't be bothered waiting). I then remotely activate it to Full Set to Kill all AVR equipment.

The only downside is the Sky Box takes quite a bit of Standby Power, so is controlled. But if I want to record anything.......d'oh.

Your option to turn everything OFF at the RCD, or on the way out on certain breakers will be a compromise, but still an option if concerned about sources of fire - certainly easy enough if going on Holiday.

You have gone to a whole load of time, planning and doing this to a very high standard - have you considered a UMIK and REW to make the final adjustments as you approach the end? Plans for a Calibration?
 
More food for thought. My Mains Power is sectioned OFF - "essential" services (Alarm, AC Unit, Extract Fan, Network Sw/Wifi, External Lights, designated sockets for ) which are left ON. And the "Controlled" circuits - Radial to AVR equipment and Subwoofers etc.

When I Full Set the Alarm, Power is Turned OFF to the Controlled Sockets. When I Part Arm - it leaves these ON (as Projector takes a while to cool down and power Off, and I can't be bothered waiting). I then remotely activate it to Full Set to Kill all AVR equipment.

The only downside is the Sky Box takes quite a bit of Standby Power, so is controlled. But if I want to record anything.......d'oh.

Your option to turn everything OFF at the RCD, or on the way out on certain breakers will be a compromise, but still an option if concerned about sources of fire - certainly easy enough if going on Holiday.

You have gone to a whole load of time, planning and doing this to a very high standard - have you considered a UMIK and REW to make the final adjustments as you approach the end? Plans for a Calibration?

My fuse box within the building has two separate fuses for lights and power, I suppose in real terms, its the lights staying on (I have porch and external lights also), is the most important aspect along with the alarm system.

My only immediate concern is the lack of internet/wifi within the building if I turn the mains off. I have got a unifi wifi disc being installed soon, my IT guys reckon it will easily reach my building from the house, so this could solve that problem. I can also add an additional fuse to the fuse box as it is located in the porch which hasn't been decorated as yet.

Calibration I will likely get done once the PJ has had a few hours on the clock, Gordon from Covergent AV has done a few calibrations for me in the past so I'll give him a call at some point.

UMIK / REW I'm not so sure on, I really don't know enough about it to gauge whether it is worth the money or not. I know you've got the same AV7200 as me, does Audyssey help or would you recommend the Dirac route?
 
My only immediate concern is the lack of internet/wifi within the building if I turn the mains off. I have got a unifi wifi disc being installed soon, my IT guys reckon it will easily reach my building from the house, so this could solve that problem. I can also add an additional fuse to the fuse box as it is located in the porch which hasn't been decorated as yet.

Calibration I will likely get done once the PJ has had a few hours on the clock, Gordon from Covergent AV has done a few calibrations for me in the past so I'll give him a call at some point.

UMIK / REW I'm not so sure on, I really don't know enough about it to gauge whether it is worth the money or not. I know you've got the same AV7200 as me, does Audyssey help or would you recommend the Dirac route?
My building has its own Wifi Access Point and Network, linked to the Main House via Ethernet 6. I get issues - like iPad staying on House network and not switching readily to Cinema wifi. Connecting to House network to Control Daikin AC (Cinema Network) requires a refresh before linking....so your One wifi solution may be better. I'd be interested in how you get on with that.

Gordon is the man for PJ....

UMIK is ~£100 - and REW is free. Worth it for someone who is looking to go the whole hog and have a dedicated room. I learnt so much about what Dynamic EQ, and Audyssey was doing, to help in positioning/setting up the Subwoofers. Also understanding Reference and Flat curves - and why Flat was better for my AT screen and room. For me.


Dirac is where I may end up going - but the USDvGBP happened at the wrong time for me. And it means another Power Amplifier if I want to do all 11 channels. -so about £2.5k - so not at the moment.

I am interested in your room treatments, and in a few other threads, as that may be the next step for me.
 
The Fire Agent link was useful - thanks.

I have just looked at your thread again - any chance of an update on Kit List....it looks like you had a few different options but now bought some stuff.....
 
The Fire Agent link was useful - thanks.

I have just looked at your thread again - any chance of an update on Kit List....it looks like you had a few different options but now bought some stuff.....

Yeah, I ended up buying a few new pieces that I hadn't budget for.

Kit list as follows:

Epson 9300 Projector
Denon x7200 AV Reciever
IOTA 7 channel Power Amp
Pansonic UB700 UHD Player
XTZ Cinema Series Speakers 3 x M6, 2 x S5 and 4 x S2
Monitor Audio Bronze FX 2 x 2 (surround backs)
2 x Monolith Subwoofers
DIY Screen with adjustable masking between 16x9 and 2.37:1
Black Premiere Home Cinema Seating x 3
Unifi Ubiquiti Wifi Disc
Sky Q
Xbox One S
PS4
Logitech Harmony Elite + Hub
Philips Hue Lighting - 2 x 3m Colour Strips, 15 x white GU10s, 3 x colour GU10s
Amazon Echo Dot
DIY acoustic panels x 16
 
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My building has its own Wifi Access Point and Network, linked to the Main House via Ethernet 6. I get issues - like iPad staying on House network and not switching readily to Cinema wifi. Connecting to House network to Control Daikin AC (Cinema Network) requires a refresh before linking....so your One wifi solution may be better. I'd be interested in how you get on with that.
All of my equipment is hardwired to the main router, but the unifi will have the same access point as the main house. BT are also doing something similar now which looks like a plug and play solution.

I find it really annoying that the iphone/ipad doesn't automatically detect the strongest signal, I'm pretty sure my older HTC used to do this. You would have thought this would have been a straightforward firmware update. I have exactly the same issue in my house at the moment. I have wi-fi extenders/powerlines currently installed. My phone will battle for 0-1 bars of wi-fi connection whilst I am sitting next to a wifi extender that it chooses to ignore unless you manually select it!!
 
You really don't need to kill the AV equipment when left in st-by mode. They are designed to operate this way.

Proper ventilation and an RCD will suffice. I do like the clean agent extinguishers.

I agree, there isn't a need to....there has been an influence on fire prevention here (and I know you know this subject well), so was providing an opinion on further reducing sources of ignition when unoccupied. Outbuildings may go a few days without a visit, so no advantage to Standby either.

My reason for powering off though is mostly energy. While most devices are 1w or less, I have found some devices (Onkyo AVR and Sky boxes) can be nearer 45w ea. My Subs are also Always On instead of Auto, taking 100w (but this was my choice as I didn't like the small thump on activation).
 
I find it really annoying that the iphone/ipad doesn't automatically detect the strongest signal, I'm pretty sure my older HTC used to do this. You would have thought this would have been a straightforward firmware update. I have exactly the same issue in my house at the moment. I have wi-fi extenders/powerlines currently installed. My phone will battle for 0-1 bars of wi-fi connection whilst I am sitting next to a wifi extender that it chooses to ignore unless you manually select it!!
I don't do iOS, however, Android has exactly the same 'feature' - cling on to the wireless connection even if it's barely usable. It's a known bug (or limitation) that has been around for a long time unfortunately.

There are some apps that claim to help, like Wifi Roaming Fix, however, they are not particularly effective in my experience. The intended solution is set the minimum signal level (dBm) so that the weak AP will be ignored as it will be below the set signal level.

Generally you have to configure the wireless APs to allow roaming, and set the minimum RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) so that the AP drops the client if the signal level between it and the client drops below the minimum threshold. Once the AP drops the connection, the client should then hunt for another wireless AP, and hopefully will connect to the one with a stronger signal. Unfortunately most clients operate on a preferential basis, and will usually try and connect to the last AP it was connected to!

Another option is to reduce the wireless TX power on each AP so that the coverage is reduced, and there is also less chance of wireless overlap. This should mean that where you would normally get a weak signal for the client to cling on to, there will now be no signal at all, so the client will have no choice but to connect to an alternative (hopefully stronger) AP.
 
@adam-burnley beat me to it, with my UniFi I have turned off zero-handoff and then use min-RSSI to force devices off to other APs, along with nearby (physically) APs on different channels and it seems to work well.
 
Completely agree with you. Nothing wrong with belt and braces.

I would still love to come over and take a look btw.

I know this wasn't meant for me, but happy to demo my room to anyone as soon as it is ready.
 
Carpet down, speakers up, seats in. Feels like a cinema room now. Just got to build the screen, AV cabinet, 12 acoustics panels and 4 corner bass traps, then I'm ready to rock!! Ignore the white plugs, they are temporary....plus the seats look shiny as I've put some leather food on them, they are normal Matt black.
Looks great! Well done! What is the foot stool for though? Don't those seats have a foot rest for reclining? What size and type of screen are you going to make?
 
I know this wasn't meant for me, but happy to demo my room to anyone as soon as it is ready.
Looks great! Well done! What is the foot stool for though? Don't those seats have a foot rest for reclining? What size and type of screen are you going to make?

The footstool just makes it more comfortable, I'm quite tall so the recliner part on my legs only comes up to the back of my calfs, the footsool take the weight of my feet. It also means I dont need to recline my chair to put my feet up.

Screen size is 96", I know I could have gone slightly bigger, but I think this is perfect for my viewing distance and also allows for the girls to sit closer on the bean bags without too much discomfort.

My screen is built exactly the same as this one http://www.seymourav.com/articles/DIYFixedFrame.pdf

The only difference is that I have masking that attaches to both the top and bottom to hide the black bars giving me adjustable ratios of 1.81:1 and 2.37:1

When the masking is attached you cannot tell its not permanently fixed to the main frame.
 
Have you already built the screen?

The velvet surroundings and masking I still have from my last screen, it is just the main structure that needs building.
 
The velvet surroundings and masking I still have from my last screen, it is just the main structure that needs building.
I will look forward to seeing the finished result then. Thanks for sharing all the information on this thread, it's very useful!
 
I think this my favourite panel
IMG_3586.JPG
 

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