My Movie Theater, Lobby, AV Room, and Game Room

Joined
29 May 2001
Messages
923
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Hello All,
In the past, I posted a few times about building my own movie theater, theater lobby, game room, and Audio/Video.
A few people requested that once I progressed enough to post pics, I should create a thread.

Here are the details of each of the rooms.

Movie Theater:
22' x 29'. We worked with our architect back in 2003 when formulating the floor plans of the entire house to purposefully
design it in advance so that there is stadium seating to keep people from seeing the heads of people in front. The rear rows
are not risers built as afterthoughts, but rather we built out that room about a foot-and-a-half lower than the rest of
the 2nd story of the house. The theater has a 12' ceiling in the front where the screen and proscenium are located, and
10' ceiling in the rear. There are 24+ seats: three rows of seating with approximately 8 theater seats per row.
There are three “money seats” in the first row with automated reclining. All other seats recline and the seat bottoms
become upright. These seats were bought from an actual movie theater.
Each row is a little over 8" higher than the previous row.
I have 24 tactile transducers which are mounted below each seat and row to provide an impact to all viewers.

The speakers are complete Klipsch THX Ultra2 speakers with LCR, two side dipolars and two rear centers.
There are two big subwoofers with two 1000 watt amplifiers for them.

I have a 2 Terabyte Home Theater PC with capability of storing about 200 Standard Def DVD movies on the hard drives,
all my music, and pictures which are then distributed to other rooms in my house using Microsoft Xbox360’s as
Media Center Extenders. The HTPC also has HD DVD access with the capability of having HD DVD movies also stored on the hard drives.

The projector is an amazing 1080p 3-chip H-DILA projector, the JVC RS1. What an incredible picture!

My screen was put together last week. It measures about 90 inches high and 16 feet wide. This gives us about a
212” diagonal 2.35:1 screen with a gain that is supposed to be around 2.0.

The ceiling is a starfield with about a thousand points of fiber optic light. It has the Milky Way, a whole bunch of
constellations, and two shooting stars that span the width of the ceiling.

A soffit is built around the perimeter of the theater with 3” can lights, and we have columns strategically placed to
hide the left, right, and surrounding speakers. The center speaker and subs are hidden in the stage and proscenium.
Two rows of crown molding are dropped 3” so that rope lighting will illuminate the side and edges of the ceiling
and the walls / soffitts. The black velvet curtains will adjust sideways to allow for a Constant Image Width setup.

The walls will either be covered by red velvet, or acoustic panels to maintain excellent sound.

The Lobby has an 8oz popcorn machine maker with wheels and stand. There is a movie marquee and
we will have a candy counter and ticket taker.

The A/V room contains enough cable to allow for every room in the house to have 2 CAT5E and 2 RG6, as well as in-wall
and in-ceiling speakers with CAT5E for electronic volume and source controls. It feeds signal for 16 HD DVR, DVR,
and On-Demand boxes. It integrates with an HAI panel for internet control of the alarm, security cameras, garden sprinkler
automation, and lighting controls using UPB. All the audio and video components will be stored on two racks with an
isolated electrical panel. It will have climate control for all of the generated heat.

The Game Room is 23'x30' in dimension. It contains a 8’x9’ wet bar with sink. Adjacent to it is a foosball table and a
9’ pool table with a Stroh’s Beer billiard bar light. There are two 10-person oval red felt poker tables, and two sets of pinball and arcade machines.

Here are a few pictures. I’ll update this thread as we progress. Since our baby was born a few days ago, we’ve had to
halt construction. However, we should be finished with everything within a month (famous last words!).

Movie Theater seat that I upholstered myself as a test:
DSC01910.jpg


Game Room from the perspective of if you were playing pool. You can see the spools of fiber optic for the star field ceiling:
Theaterandgameroom001.jpg


Wet Bar with sink and wine racks:
Theaterandgameroom002.jpg


Looking into the Game Room where the pool table will be placed:
Theaterandgameroom004.jpg


From the Lobby. The floors are a hand scraped Ebony Merbau wood floor:
DSC04658.jpg


Looking into the Lobby and the double doors of the theater entrance:
Theaterandgameroom005.jpg


The screen in front with side columns and soffit framed:
Theaterandgameroom007.jpg


Note the Milky Way fiber optics from the front left corner to the right rear corner. Constellations are placed in the relatively accurate places and the shooting stars span left to right and front corner to opposite rear corner:
Theaterandgameroom008.jpg


Stadium Seating floor height differences:
Theaterandgameroom009.jpg


Screen shot of Naomi Watts in King Kong. This was a HD DVD source with the JVC RS1 projector:
NaomiKingKong.jpg


Me standing in front of the screen to provide a reference point of size. The screen is 16' wide by 90" high:
UpyoursJackBlack.jpg


Very wide viewing cone. Note that even at an extreme angle, there is minimal loss of brightness:
extremesideangle.jpg


Some more screen shots using HD DVD source:
ed0e.jpg


A screen shot with my other screen (2.35:1 for 8' wide screen):

Superman Returns:
d9cb.jpg


Superman Earth in background:
P1020153.jpg


XBox360 in 1080p:
61f9.jpg


I’ll try to answer as completely and as frequently as possible. Feedback from professionals like TURBO2GO and other enthusiasts are very welcome.

Take care,
J.
 
Last edited:
Hi Cairo,
If you want to meet up, let me know. My architect is located nearby Alamo, so I know it's not too far from my home.

Take care,
J.
 
Wow! That's just gonna be wild when it's done! When do tickets go on sale? :biggrin:
 
Next time I am in Cali can I catch a movie at your place. Pretty nice stup you have. I also like the fact the constuction site is neat. Was the bar custom built or did that come as a finished ready to install unit? I should put some pictures up of the pool house and extra garage I am building here at my place. If I get sometime I will do that.
 
Yawwn, dunno if you remember me, but I met you with James (your front neighbor), with the Blue 350z. I am selling to purcahse a late model NSX.

=)

Nice work!
Ravi
 
Yawwn, dunno if you remember me, but I met you with James (your front neighbor), with the Blue 350z. I am selling to purcahse a late model NSX.

=)

Nice work!
Ravi

Hi Ravi!
Of course I remember you. It is good to hear from you. I wish you the best in your search for a NSX. Let me know if I can help in any way.
I saw James working on his car yesterday. He must have been preparing for the Milpitas Meet last night.
Let me know the next time you are visiting James and we'll all hang out.

wayne.jpg


We're not worthy!!!!

notworthy1.gif
notworthy1.gif
notworthy1.gif
notworthy1.gif
notworthy1.gif
notworthy1.gif

yikes.gif
yikes.gif
yikes.gif
yikes.gif
yikes.gif
yikes.gif
yikes.gif

jawdrop2.gif
jawdrop.gif
jawdrop1.gif
jawdrop.gif
jawdrop2.gif
jawdrop.gif
jawdrop1.gif
jawdrop.gif

Thank you for the compliment Rob. Home theater is one of my passions. I thoroughly enjoy it.

Wow! That's just gonna be wild when it's done! When do tickets go on sale? :biggrin:

Thank you smooth. Since you are local as well, let me know if you want to visit. I'm actually thinking of doing a BBQ for the local NSX guys sometime. I spoke about it to Shane last year for this summer.

DAMN!! Porn would be so AMAZING!!!:eek:
Hey omeys_berlina,
I don't know if I'd want to see that much detail in a porn film. All the imperfections would show in a big way, and any guy watching would have a complex after seeing the male actors on that screen! The cheezy music would get me after 10 minutes. However, the sound, in particular the bass, would be awesome.


Take care,
J.
 
Last edited:
Next time I am in Cali can I catch a movie at your place. Pretty nice stup you have. I also like the fact the constuction site is neat. Was the bar custom built or did that come as a finished ready to install unit? I should put some pictures up of the pool house and extra garage I am building here at my place. If I get sometime I will do that.

Hi Steve,
You bet that you can catch a movie here the next time you are in the Bay Area. Perhaps we can set up a poker night on your behalf.
The contractors are very good and diligent. He actually has worked from 8am until 1am, and has had to spend the night because of exhaustion. Talk about dedication!
The bar was not custom built. It took a little bit of assembly and is from a manufacturer named Hooker (don't ask how they came up with the name).
I would like to see pics of your pool house and garage.
Here is my 6-1/2 car garage:
DSC04509.jpg

You can see the Game Room over the first two-car garage door and part of the second one, and the theater is on top of the area near the second garage door and the third.

Let me know if you are ever going to be in the area.

Take care,
J.
 
another one of those "depressing" prime threads.... beautiful house, beautiful new game room +theater~!!!


we should start an "NSX PRIME CRIBS EDITION" thread :tongue:
 
Hi JDMnsxR,
Believe me that I get "depressed" when I see photos of your car. It is a beautiful widebody that puts my widebody to shame. I love your car.

Your suggestion of a Cribs thread is a good one.

Take care,
J.
 
Geeze, after seeing your house and theater, my house and theater is an embarrasment! Just curious but what is the diagonal of your screen? I run a 106" screen. I have a feeling yours is much larger than that!
*edit: OMG 212" diagonal!!!!! Just wow!!! That JVC must be a light cannon to throw a 212" image. What type of screen material do you use? I have the Dalite Highpower and my viewing cone is much narrower compared to yours.
 
Geeze, after seeing your house and theater, my house and theater is an embarrasment! Just curious but what is the diagonal of your screen? I run a 106" screen. I have a feeling yours is much larger than that!
*edit: OMG 212" diagonal!!!!! Just wow!!! That JVC must be a light cannon to throw a 212" image. What type of screen material do you use? I have the Dalite Highpower and my viewing cone is much narrower compared to yours.

Hi Maximus_NSX,
I'm sure your home and theater are awesome. I'd like to stop by sometime to check it out and talk shop.
As for the screen, Stewart, Da-Lite, and the other manufacturers do not have this size screen in-stock. They said it would have to be custom made, but it would take months. I decided to have it custom-made here, so I hired a consultant to fly out here and stay at my home for 9 days. He and my contractor worked on how to make it using aluminum for the frame and drywall for the screen. He then used his paint formula, which he had been working on for years, and painted it using 7 coats. It literally took him all day and night to get it done to perfection.
The result is a perfectly smooth surface with the excellent coating of silver to give it the gain and pop to compliment the JVC RS1. The RS1 has a rating of I think around 700 to 800 calibrated lumens, but with the gain of the screen, it is a more than acceptable image. You can see that the pictures speak for themselves. I'm sure as the bulb gets used more, the lumens will drop, but I'm fine with it for now.

Here are some pictures:

This is my consultant, Maurice, holding up the frame of the screen:
HoldingaWallScreenFrame.jpg


Here is the screen sheetrocked but before it is floated about a half-inch to inch:
SheetrockFinishing1.jpg


Here is the finished surface before painting:
MudFloatFinish.jpg


Here is my contractor, Juan Carlos, in front of his masterpiece. If you need a diligent and detail-oriented contractor with very reasonable pricing, he is your man. He specializes in trim work, but can do most things, as you can see. I give him my highest endorsement, and I've worked with tons of contractors:
BigScreenandJuan.jpg


Juan Carlos suggested that I create a pulley system so that the screen can be taken off the wall and allow for the window behind it to be accessed. This was a requirement from the city for my permits, so he devised a way in which the entire screen sits on wheels on the bottom, as well as on the top connected to rails, and then using a 4-wheel pulley on each side, two people can take down this screen with minimal effort. These are all hidden behind the side columns of the stage and the black velvet side curtains. It is an ingenious idea for a dilemma that I've faced from the day the city told me the requirement about accessing the big window.

I seriously considered the Da-Lite HP, but I was worried that it wouldn't work well, since I was going to hide my projector into the back wall soffit, and the angle would seriously defeat the benefits that the HP has. In order for it to be most effective, it would be best to have it table-mounted. Otherwise, I've heard rave reviews for the HP. I'd like to check yours out sometime. Where are you located?

Let me know if you would like to stop by. I live in Pleasanton, near the border of Livermore.

Take care,
J.
 
Last edited:
I live in Soledad which 25 miles south of Salinas. I really don't have a home theater room. It's basically a 106" screen that drops over my plasma in my family room. It's pretty basic. I use the Panny 900 pj with the source being the Toshiba HD dvd player. My speakers consist of 5.1 setup w/ B&W Nautilus 805's. I would love to see your setup sometime. Someday, I would love to expand and build a dedicated home theater room. Yes, the high power is better suited for a table top projector but I run it with my pj mounted on the wall. Btw, are you on AVS forum? Thanks.
 
Hi Maximus,
You and I are not too far away. Probably about an hour?
Your setup is functional and has the wife-approval factor. That's always a good thing.
How do you like your Panny?
I think the B&W Nautilus (the ones that look like shells with those crazy rear-end "spikes") are just great performers, as well as some of the most asthetic-pleasing speakers made. You 805's are great derivatives of them.

Have you tried table-mounting vs ceiling mounting? Can you see a big difference on your HP in terms of quality and brightness?

I am on AVSForum, but am a long-time lurker. I have read a ton of other people's comments and insights, but I have very little posts. Please PM me your "handle" there, and I'll do the same.

Since our daughter was born less than a week ago, I think it may be about a month or so before I can arrange some type of gathering to mess around with the theater and equipment. Let me know if you are interested, and I'll send you the details. Right now, I'm just trying to get more than an hour or two of sleep per night. That would explain why I may be posting at 3am sometimes.

Take care,
J.
 
Beside movies a boys night out with Poker looks pretty tempting too. BTW I'm across the bay in SF.:wink:

Hi DDankey,
You got it! We'll definitely plan to stock the bar, fill the mini-fridges with beer and have a movie/poker night. NSX Bay Area guys from all over are welcome (and of course special guests like steveny, and others visiting the Bay Area).

qd03.jpg

These are temporarily in a spare bedroom until the Game Room is completed with the lights and plumbing for the bar sink, but they're still ready to be used.

Take care,
J.
 
Holy Moly Batscreen! :eek: Very nice man.....congrats on everything. Please show us the end results. :biggrin: Movie night at J's house woo hoo! Just might take me like 8 hours to drive there haha....:tongue:
 
Oh man, I would love to see Super Speedway at your place.:eek:

Otto
 
Very nicely done. I need to come up and see it. Maybe in Oct. during the NSXVA ALMS event 10/20
Great job.
 
Sounds great. I am also an avid poker player as well. LOL, seems like we have many things in common.:) I will definitely stop by someday. Congrats on the baby and get some rest!
 
Back
Top