How to build a dedicated home theatre

[Prof]

Firstly to clarify, "a dedicated home theatre" means that the room you will be using will only be used for watching movies and perhaps some TV..

A home theatre can range in price from approximately $5000 - $500,000 and more !! Some American home theatres cost over 1 million dollars !!

This tutorial will describe how to build the lower end of the range..

Firstly you will need to find a suitable room..The bigger the better, but it must have four walls and a door..Open rooms connecting other rooms will not be suitable..

The other aspect of a suitable room is whether you need the theatre room acoustically removed from the rest of the house..

This requires an additional construction to the room to isolate it from the other rooms..

I will include briefly what needs to be done, but for the most part I will proceed on the basis that this will not be needed..

There are a variety of building materials that are used to construct rooms in a house..Timber or steel framing with plasterboard walls, or brick or concrete block walls..

Each of them have their own acoustic values..

The stages of the building process...

1. Selecting the room..

2. Acoustically isolating the room..

3. Selecting the wall and ceiling paint or fabric coverings..

4. Choosing the type of floor coverings..

5. Setting up the front of room for screen and speakers..

6. D.I.Y the screen or purchasing a commercially made screen..

7. Adding acoustic panels on the side walls..

8. Adding acoustic panels in the front corners..

9. Adding acoustic panels to the rear of the room..

10. Selecting the front speakers..

11. Selecting the surround speakers..

12. Selecting the subwoofer..

13. Choosing the lighting..

14..Selecting Amplifier/ receiver..and ancillary equipment

15. Selecting Blu-ray player..

16. Programming the whole system..

So as you can see there is a lot to building a dedicated home theatre..But the end result is a very satisfying movie experience.. 

More to follow..

[EricL]

Hi @Prof

I'm super impressed with your home theatre set-up. Would it be possible for you to post a panoramic picture of the entire room? How many people can fit into the theatre? I'm really curious as to what kind of gear you've got, any chance we can see your projector and audio set-up? 

I never thought of putting ceiling trays to lay in acoustic fibreglass. That's definitely something I'll include in my build list.

Thanks for all the handy recommendations.

Eric

[Prof]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the compliments..I don't have a video of the room at the moment but I'll see what I can do..

The theatre only being small can only seat 3 people..Unfortunately the door opens into the room inline with the recliner seats, so I can only fit 2 across the room..and place a small chair for the third seat..You'll see what I mean when I get a video done...

So are you in the process of building a theatre at the moment ?

[EricL]

Hi @Prof

It's like one of those classic car builds, you start gathering the parts for the build and when you have enough parts you put the car together. I've tucked away amplifiers, speakers, and a screen. I've invested in a midrange projector and a Firestick. My best find was a large portable aircon unit. I'm slowly investing in really good speaker cables, but it feels like a long way off. I suppose it's just a matter of time and I will eventually start my set-up.

Eric

[Prof]

Eric...Building your first home theatre can be a daunting task...

When I built my first home theatre, I was like a duck out of water !! All this technology was new to me but I was determined to have that real movie experience at home..

I read as much as I could find..in magazines more than anything, and then later joined a home theatre forum..

You will most likely make a few mistakes along the way ( depending on how complicated your build will be ) but there are plenty of sources to get help should you need it..

The most difficult thing is wiring it all up and programming it  !! You just about need to be an A grade Electrician and a computer expert !!!

I was fortunate in as much that I had some training in electronics..

I wish you well in your endeavours and if you need any help just let me know...

[KatieC]

Hi @Prof,

If someone has a smaller room with a door that swings in like yours, could they do a pocket door and still keep the acoustics intact? Would there be a different process for sound proofing a door like that? 

Katie

[Prof]

Hi Katie,

Yes you could have a pocket door providing you weren't concerned about any sound leakage into the rest of the house..

Acoustically speaking..If it's a small room you will most likely be placing your second reflection point acoustic panel on the wall in front of the cavity for the pocket door..So it shouldn't have any adverse effect on the room acoustics...

[Prof]

Hi Eric,

Sorry for the long delay in answering your post...

I had a major computer crash and lost all of my favourites and all passwords..

I've only just yesterday got back most of the information again..

Earlier before the crash I tried to send you a video of the theatre room, but Jason informed me that their post system can't take videos..The only way of providing a video is to do it through YouTube..I don't particularly want to do that, so I'm trying to find a work around..

[Noyade]

Tremendously impressive system Prof!  😁

Always loved the big screen idea for homes.

I remember sitting in the front row of the Wollongong cinema in 1979 watching Alien - and thinking wow!

As tellies got better, especially in resolution, I re-thought that moment around 2007 - thinking if you can't have/afford the cinema sized screen in the home, maybe you can bring the telly closer? So I built this mammoth trolley on wheels that moves up and down the bed with a big old Panasonic plasma onboard. At night, with it around 1.5 metres from your face - you get that Alien experience.

Kinda works -  in a way....😏

[EricL]

HI @Noyade

That's an excellent way to get the home theatre feel.  Would it be possible for you to post some pictures of the entire trolley? This will give our members a good idea of how big it is and how it's constructed. I can imagine it would look huge if it was just at the foot of your bed. 

Thanks for sharing your version of a home theatre.

Eric

[Noyade]

Hi Eric.

It really is a dumb idea, compared to what the Prof is doing, but the projection system I wanted at the time was simply too expensive back then.

I tried making it without steel brackets - but the forces involved were too large. The Plasma TV is around 80 kg - 58 inch screen - I can't lift it alone. I'm probably also alone in believing the Plasma produces deeper, richer and more vibrant colours than what I see on other screens.

I had to increase the height in one year as we bought a thicker mattress. 😊