Home cinema room build - pro with some am

[CharlesElliott]

I thought some of you would be interested in our cinema room build. We moved into our house in 2019 with the intent of refurbishing it - we did the ground floor in 2020, the first floor in 2021 and then not a lot in 2022 - so 2023 is really the final phase and the more fun stuff. Our house in two storeys but with ‘rooms in the roof space’ which, in our case, actually means a Mansard roof with a single large room the full size of the floor, minus the eaves. The fact that this is already a ‘habitable room’ makes things easier from a Building Regs point of view. We are planning to sub-divide this single large room into four new rooms and a landing - the cinema room, a games room / kids room, a guest bedroom and a bathroom.

Although the cinema room spec and equipment is very much ‘pro’ as we are working with a specialist company, some elements are quite ‘amateur’ - I am doing all the architectural drawings and hiring the contractors to do the work, except the second fix and equipment install for the cinema room which will be done by the experts.

[CharlesElliott]

So this is the area we are starting with. Two sloping ceilings certainly not ideal, a window within the dormer and a skylight.

Edited by CharlesElliott on Saturday 18th February 17:53

[CharlesElliott]

Lots of options for layout were explored, but it the end we settled on the below. A new wall constructured in front of the rear wall to house the screen and speakers, and gain enough height with respect to the sloped ceiling. The rack will sit behind a door to the left of the screen. The projector will be at the rear of the room and will sit in a box that actually extends into the bedroom behind to get the throw within an optimal range. The rear seats will be on a raised platform and will be cinema style, with a sofa in front on the floor. We were advised - multiple times! - that this would result in a compromise with the rear seats further back than optimal and the fronts a bit too close, but we wanted to be able to seat more than four so that's it. Screen size is nominally 2690 wide but we will confirm once everything is built.

[Panamax]

CharlesElliott said:

the fronts a bit too close

Surely understatement of the year.

Also the screen's going to be 1.5 m high. People in the front row are going to crick their necks looking up at it.

[CharlesElliott]

Panamax said:

Surely understatement of the year.

Also the screen's going to be 1.5 m high. People in the front row are going to crick their necks looking up at it.

Centre of the screen is ~920mm. We haven't lost too much if the front row isn't used, we just end up with one row. But I bet that sometimes, we use the front row.....

[justin220]

Nice project but unless I've read that wrong, that won't be pleasant viewing on the front row being that close to such a big screen.

[CharlesElliott]

justin220 said:

Nice project but unless I've read that wrong, that won't be pleasant viewing on the front row being that close to such a big screen.

You might be right - final screen size still to be confirmed and if we don't use it, then we won't actually have lost anything.

[justin220]

Have you ran your distances and screen sizes through any of the online calculator?

There is also a handy riser height calculator if you need, which varies quite a lot depending on screen size, seat height and distances

[CharlesElliott]

justin220 said:

Have you ran your distances and screen sizes through any of the online calculator?

There is also a handy riser height calculator if you need, which varies quite a lot depending on screen size, seat height and distances

The screen / speaker locations and the riser are calculated and specified by the design company but.....if I run it through Carlton Bale's calculator, the front row is about 8cm too close to meet THX standards - so not much in it. And we may tweak the screen size yet.

[mgv8]

What is the plan for room treatment to get it to sound the best?

[CharlesElliott]

The walls / ceiling will be made up of a sandwich of acoustic plasterboard, SY70 and OSB. On top of that there will be sound diffuser panels and speakers and then everything will be covered with a fabric track system.

[Panamax]

CharlesElliott said:

And we may tweak the screen size yet.

I'd tweak the projector into the bin and go for a TV of suitable size, but that's just personal opinion. In one of our rooms we watch a modest 65" from 4.5 metres and it's absolutely fine, so you have massive scope to flex your set-up.

IMO if you go too big on sound you'll overwhelm that room - there's not a lot of ceiling height. Make sure it sounds good at low level and not just when it's shaking the foundations.

[CharlesElliott]

Panamax said:

I'd tweak the projector into the bin and go for a TV of suitable size, but that's just personal opinion. In one of our rooms we watch a modest 65" from 4.5 metres and it's absolutely fine, so you have massive scope to flex your set-up.

IMO if you go too big on sound you'll overwhelm that room - there's not a lot of ceiling height. Make sure it sounds good at low level and not just when it's shaking the foundations.

thanks - will definitely be looking at all sound levels. The ceiling height is standard 2.4m (excl the sloping bits) although I agree that that picture makes it look lower. The current plan is for the screen to be 2.35:1 ratio (Panavision / Cinemascope) rather than 16:9 as films will be the primary source. Can still watch 16:9 but it will have black bars at the side.

[Digger]

Panamax said:

CharlesElliott said:

And we may tweak the screen size yet.

I'd tweak the projector into the bin and go for a TV of suitable size, but that's just personal opinion. In one of our rooms we watch a modest 65" from 4.5 metres and it's absolutely fine, so you have massive scope to flex your set-up.

IMO if you go too big on sound you'll overwhelm that room - there's not a lot of ceiling height. Make sure it sounds good at low level and not just when it's shaking the foundations.

Or both - have a retractable screen?

[CharlesElliott]

Digger said:

Or both - have a retractable screen?

Yes - could do. But quite a lot more cost.

[CharlesElliott]

With the AV company having drawn the finished room plan, I needed to draw the build plans that take into account the existing large room and account for the wall build up (which is up to 86mm in total) for the carpenters to do all the studwork. There is also going to other rooms up there so this is part of a bigger plan. Here's what I have come up to allow the carpenters to get to work.

[CharlesElliott]

OK.....so let's get building.

This is the overall plan and speaker layout.



Here is the screen wall in progress. The centre speaker is positioned just to the right of picture centre. On the left is a door that will provide access to the rack and behind the screen wall.



And here is the platform on which the rear seats will sit.



Next up will be wiring and all the cutouts, which will be quite a task.

[CharlesElliott]

I'm still going! The electrician has been and we have the wiring in. There are

3 x front speakers, plus sub
4 x ceiling Atmos speakers
2 x side speakers
2 x rear speakers

plus lighting (walls, ceiling and floor), AV cables for the projector, network cabling for a switch.

In addition there is lighting and blind control from Control4. All of the equipment will sit in a rack behind the access door in the screen wall. The old skylight in the ceiling will be boarded over.







Next up is boarding and wall treatment.

Edited by CharlesElliott on Thursday 4th May 20:06

[dickymint]

Great stuff there :thunmbup:

As regards lighting have you considered Phillips Hue Sync Box and lamps?

[redrabbit29]

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