In this clip we show the overall design of our theatre. The theatre took approximately six months to construct from scratch in a home basement. Our goal was to build a home theatre that was not just fully automated but also very clean in design and at a price that is very affordable. When it comes to home theatres people often assume that is very expensive and that they will never be able to afford it. So they don’t even bother to look into it. Sure, for a hardcore enthusiast with a lot money to spare the sky is the limit. But you can also build yourself a very descent home theatre and on a reasonable budget. The video you’re about to see is an example of such home theatre. So without further ado, sit down comfortably in front of your monitor, dim the lights and prepare to be blown away.
The first thing to consider when you are thinking about a home theatre is what you will use for your video display. If you plan on using a projector the room will need to be dark which means that your walls and ceiling should be of dark color and preferably matte texture. The goal here is to prevent as much as possible the light reflected from the walls and ceiling to shoot back toward the screen. Otherwise, your picture will appear washed out and lacking in contrast. In our case we went a step further by angling our walls and have outfitted them with a carpet like material to improve sound acoustics.
When constructing our theatre we decided from the beginning that all of our equipment would be integrated seamlessly into the room. We didn’t want any of the equipment to show this includes any wiring. Visible equipment and wires would go against the intended clean look and could prove distracting during the viewing experience. The front speakers and sub woofer have been placed sideways in a custom enclosure beneath the screen and fitted with a sound passing fabric. As a result the speakers are kept hidden (unless you get too close) from view but without skimping on sound quality. On the left side of the room we hid all of our equipment in a cavity behind one of the moving panels. We also have access to the back of the equipment from an adjacent storage room for connection purposes. Near the back of the room you can see a custom casing which encloses our Sony projector (commercial model CRT). Due to its size and weight we chose to position it on the floor. At the back we’ve integrated our surround speakers (part of a 6.1 system) into the back walls again to achieve that seamless appearance.
As mentioned already our home theatre is fully automated and all of our equipment including the lighting and screen curtains are controlled from the Logtitech 880 Harmony Remote (programmed by us). Consequently our light controller had to also be programmed before it could be triggered by remote. We programmed our Harmony with the typical activities which include “Watch Movie”, “Watch TV” and “Listen to Music” but, also extra such as different aspects and an intermission sequence, etc. In our clip youll see both the activation and deactivation sequence.
So, you had long week at work, come back home and are itching to watch that one flick you’ve been craving for all week. You pop that movie into your Blu-Ray player, sit down comfortably and press “watch a movie” on the Harmony Remote. In our theatre this starts a detailed sequence of events. First, all the necessary equipment (Blu-ray player, receivers, equalizers, etc.) are turned on and switched to proper input. Since the equipment is completely hidden away from view an IR receiver and transmitters were installed for seamless control. With all the equipment set, the light controller is triggered which also had to be pre-programmed with clever macros in order to control our lights, screen curtain lights and the curtains themselves. Once triggered, the lights begin to dim and when they are down completely a second signal is sent to a motor that gracefully opens the curtains revealing our 106″ Elite screen. With the curtains opened midway another signal is sent to kick start the Blu-ray player and un-mute picture on the already turned on projector. Voila, the movie now starts! If you were paying close attention you mightve noticed delays between lights dimming and curtains opening etc. These were timed out perfectly to accommodate the sending of signals which set the equipment and the projector warm up, etc. All signals need to be sent one by one so by interchanging light commands with component commands we ensure that our equipment is set to play when the curtain opens up. Otherwise, the room would be ready but not the movie or vice versa.
When we are done watching all we have to do is hit the power button on the Harmony Remote which triggers our deactivation sequence.
For more information on what we do please visit our site at:
http://www.advhts.com
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