Construction
I couldn't wait to set up the audio and video while the construction was proceeding.
The screen at this point was a 4' by 8' sheet of painted drywall.
After the electrical was roughed in I took this picture with the lights on. Previous to
this, the only light was a single bulb in the center of the ceiling.
After recovering the seats, I built a riser for them and test-mounted them before the
insulation was to be installed.
The future component rack and movie storage was nothing more than the prototype
subwoofer with a DVD player and an old Denon amp I had sitting around. At this
point, the A/V wires had not been run, just tacked to the studs. Notice the surround
speaker faces the wall - the Denon amp was only Dolby Pro-Logic, not digital.
One of the problem points of this corner of the basement was the breaker panel
for the house. I solved this eye-sore by framing it in and creating a "cabinet". In the
finished pictures you will just see a non-descript door, painted the wall color, covering it.
The screen end of the theatre with the wall board up. I had a few wiring issues that
required the insulation to be put up in stages, so the drywall followed this as well. I
built the speaker terminals out of 5-way binding posts (Parts Express) and blank grey
wall plates to match the decor. The speaker connects are all banana plugs.
In this you can see the breaker panel framed in. On the upper left you can see the
projector mounts for the 1020q I originally used. The 1020q came with hook mounts
on the top, so I used angle steel to suspend a threaded rod for the projector to hang on.
Worked great for the 1020q, ended up ripping out part of the ceiling to mount the 1252q.
This is after I had built and installed the component rack. The media storage would
eventually occupy the space to the right of the rack.
This is the roughed-in component rack. The power (shown installed in the back
of the case) is a very low noise, surge protected regulator I had built years prior from
the design of an UPS. The rack is wired for all speakers, phone, network (ethernet),
and RG6 cable. The rack is painted black in the final phase.