Looks like we are taking similar approaches in some areas. I haven't installed the lighting yet but here is my selection for riser steps. I hope to sneak a line voltage low-watt night light in a deep wall handy box. Can't tell from pictures but what is the width and depth of your room?
Looks very similar to what I purchased. After a good bit of searching for line voltage step lights, I found some on Amazon. They are 7 watts and even IC rated.
They shipped with both a horizontal and vertical face plate along with the bulb and housing. All I needed was the box. I went adjustable to accommodate carpet and not wanting to need an extension.
https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-8905BA-Incandescent-Brushed-Aluminum/dp/B002WMP3R4
Currently, the room is 11' 4" wide and 23' 7" deep. Things will change as I add acoustical treatments and columns.
I'm planning on going all fabric on the walls. 
It's going to be expensive, but worth it I think.
Thanks for the link. A nightlight is 7-watt so they are probably using the same thing I'm thinking of. I decided to go back to the beginning of your forum to look for answers. I notice your drawing said the depth of your theater is 14'. Was this a typo or did you steal some space from the gaming area? You list the width as 11' 4". A 3-seat straight unit is approaching ten feet. With the generous aisle for egress do you have enough room for the desired seating?
The program that I used to diagram everything listed the depth of the theater to the soffit, not the end of the theater for some reason. That's where it came up with 14'.
I'm going to go with the Fusion Jive 1013's that run 87.5" in total width. Everything is going to be shifted away from the door, so it will be offset. I was hesitant against doing that at first, but if I dropped it down to two rows of two, there still wouldn't be a money seat. So I figured why not go with 6 if I can't have a money seat.
The theater is actually flipped 180 degrees from the original plan I posted.
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:We worked on the riser some more over the weekend. I decided that I wanted larger steps than we originally built, so I ripped them apart and made them bigger. We ran the wire for the lighting and the electric for the chairs, then filled the riser with insulation. I found some low priced step lights on Amazon after a good bit of searching. I wanted line voltage so I didn't have to deal with a transformer.
I also made a trip to Hagerstown Maryland (3h round trip) to pick up some acoustical duct liner. I got 100' of Linacoustic for the walls behind the AT screen and some JM814 for the acoustical panels throughout the room.
Just need to put the T&G OSB on the riser and that will be done. Then it's on to building the columns and framing for the acoustical panels and wall coverings.
What's the R-13 for?
Quoted from radium:What's the R-13 for?
I'm not an Acoustician, but here is my understanding. Without anything inside the riser, it becomes a giant resonator. Think of a drum. By adding the insulation, and adding some fake vents at the wall and corner intersection, it will function as a broadband bass absorber. It will help with a smoother subwoffer response and decay times.
That's the reason for the perimeter being made of 2 x 10's and the stringers being 2 x 8's. That allows the riser to be "seen" as one cavity.
There are a lot of waterfall plots flying around of people that have done it both ways. I kind of understand what I'm looking at, but not completely. As I'm going further with this, it appears as though acoustics is a lot like chili. Everyone starts with a similar base and then fine tunes things for each room. The problem is that no one will share their calculations / secrets unless you pony up $1,000+ for plans drawn specific to your room.
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:I'm not an Acoustician, but here is my understanding. Without anything inside the riser, it becomes a giant resonator. Think of a drum. By adding the insulation, and adding some fake vents at the wall and corner intersection, it will function as a broadband bass absorber. It will help with a smoother subwoffer response and decay times.
That's the reason for the perimeter being made of 2 x 10's and the stringers being 2 x 8's. That allows the riser to be "seen" as one cavity.
There are a lot of waterfall plots flying around of people that have done it both ways. I kind of understand what I'm looking at, but not completely. As I'm going further with this, it appears as though acoustics is a lot like chili. Everyone starts with a similar base and then fine tunes things for each room. The problem is that no one will share their calculations / secrets unless you pony up $1,000+ for plans drawn specific to your room.
Do you have assess to a pink noise generator?
Any high quality (notice I didn't say expensive) surround sound processor will have a pink noise generator built in the unit. Any processor that has software for room EQ will have it. Even my cheap Pioneer VSX524 ($150) that I use for a 5.1 system in the lounge area has built-in room correction software and a microphone for setting up the speakers. That uses pink noise for each channel.
Quoted from fordtudoor:Any high quality (notice I didn't say expensive) surround sound processor will have a pink noise generator built in the unit. Any processor that has software for room EQ will have it. Even my cheap Pioneer VSX524 ($150) that I use for a 5.1 system in the lounge area has built-in room correction software and a microphone for setting up the speakers. That uses pink noise for each channel.
Mine has it too, just wondering if Spyder has one.
Quoted from MustangPaul:Mine has it too, just wondering if Spyder has one.
My Denon does, but that's going to get replaced since it doesn't handle Atmos. I'll probably use it for awhile while I scrape together the $15k it's going to take to finish the theater.
We finished the riser yesterday. Two layers of 3/4" T&G OSB separated by 30lb roofing felt. Got the outlets in for the chairs too. That riser is solid. It took a lot longer to finish that I originally thought. We'll start on columns next weekend and hopefully figure those out.
Last weekend was column building weekend. I picked up 4 sheets of 3/4" MDF to use for the columns. We didn't get much done on Saturday because I ended up spending about 2 hours at the urgent care. I was ripping a 30" piece off of one of the 8' sheets when it slipped off the saw horses and landed edge wise on my big toe. I've been hobbling around since then.
Anyway, the columns are 5" deep, 11" wide and will house both a speaker and a sconce. The were built to be removable so I can staple the fabric on the furring strips I need to put up and then slide the column back into place to hide the staples. The crown and base trim will hide the screws used to hold the column to the blocking we glued and screwed to the drywall.
Oh man I hope you didn't do any permanent damage to your toe. 
A friend of mine had to have one of his toes cut off cuz it got infected from stepping on a rusty piece of metal.
Did some work this summer and dropped a couple hundred pound granite vanity top on my toe. Initially, it was just bruised and blue especially at the nail cuticle. It felt better after a couple days except for the blood under the nail. I thought it was done but as the nail grew out, there was a line of missing nail from the damage I did to the cuticle and ended up losing half the nail at that point. So even after it feels better, keep an eye on it.
Jaz
Quoted from Jazman:Did some work this summer and dropped a couple hundred pound granite vanity top on my toe
Yikes. I thought an 80lb chunk of MDF was bad!!!
They actually made a note on the medical report about there being no nail damage. It actually landed closer to where the my toe meets my foot.
Thanks for the heads up. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it now.
Weekend update time!
I'm starting to prep the walls for fabric and needed wood that would be straight, not twist and 1" thick. The guy at the lumber yard said my best option was 1" thick birch plywood. I special ordered some last week and picked it up Saturday.
If you're a carpenter or like working with wood, turn away now because you aren't going to like what I did with these beautiful pieces of $106 / sheet plywood.
I ended up ripping them down to 1.75" x 1" furring strips. 
I took a picture before I cut them up because they were beautiful.
It took a few hours to rip them down and then we went on to finish the columns. The top hole you see in each column is for a sconce and the bottom hole is for a speaker. After we finished up the columns, it was on to the front wall that's going to be behind the screen.
There are two layers of Linacoustic separated by a layer of 6 mil poly. The poly is supposed to knock down some of the high frequencies. It was weird how much sound was lost if you stood in the area that was treated and tried to hear someone talk at the other side of the room. I can definitely tell the difference.
Next up is building the false wall to hold the screen. I pulled out the screen frame and the frame measures 125" x 56.5". It's a 4K, 2.35
AT screen at 125". We ran out of time and didn't get a chance to start putting together the wall. I got a few pieces cut, but it started getting late.
The room isn't very wide, so I'm going to be left with about 11" at the top and bottom and only 5.5" between the side of the screen and the wall. I'm going with velvet on those walls because it's less reflective than even black paint. If I don't do something, I'm going to get a good bit of light reflection from the walls.
Anyway, on to the pictures.
Here is the beautiful birch plywood:
Here is the beautiful birch plywood after being attacked with a circular saw:
I don't believe in kicking a man when he is down so I thought I would wait until your toe was sufficiently healed before I questioned some of your motives. You spent untold thousands of dollars on acoustical treatment and then you choose in-wall speakers to put in some clunky 11" wide columns? Speaker manus. spend millions of dollars in R&D to perfect speaker enclosures and you build columns? Then you say you have 5" of clearance on the side of the screen. I guess you don't have any room to put speakers up front. Ideally the tweeter should be the same height as your ear. Don't see how that is going to happen. In retrospect I think the anamorphic screen is too large for the room.
Quoted from fordtudoor:You spent untold thousands of dollars on acoustical treatment and then you choose in-wall speakers to put in some clunky 11" wide columns?
Actually, I haven't spent much at all on acoustical treatments yet. Maybe you're thinking of soundproofing which is totally different. As for the "clunky" columns, I like my columns. It's an aspect of my theater I wanted since I designed it a year ago.
Once finished with the sconce, paint and trim (base, chair rail and crown), they will look great.
The columns are built inside the soundproofed shell, so the in wall speaker isn't in the wall. There won't be any more sound leakage out of the room than there would be if I set a speaker on a shelf.
As for the in-wall vs. enclosure argument, you have no clue what speakers I've chosen, so you can't argue one way or the other. I'm not throwing in $50 in wall speakers from off the shelf at Best Buy. These are Goldenear Invisa MPX. They've won more awards than any other speaker manufacturer.
The foremost experts in the industry have said on countless occasions that the Invisa MPX don't suffer from the downfalls of other in wall speakers. If you don't believe me, do a little reading and you'll find countless industry experts saying that there is no compromise when it comes to these architectural speakers.
As for the screen, if you look above, I'm using an AT (acoustically transparent) screen, meaning the sound travels through the screen uninhibited. The screen sits 24" off the back wall which is plenty of room for the Triton 5s speakers.
I think it looks nice and the columns will go well with the look you've created/intended. I come from a place where I have many opinions but if I don't like something I won't insult it. Oh well, even a nice thread still has it's negativity nannies again and again and again... 
So what else is left to hit the finish line on the theater room? Are you going to wrap that up first and then follow up with the rest of the basement? Or ? It looks like you're making nice and steady progress.
Quoted from dmacy:I think it looks nice and the columns will go well with the look you've created/intended.
Thanks dmacy. The column look was something I've wanted from the planning stages. I would have liked to have went deeper, but there just isn't the width in the room unless I dropped back to two rows of two seats. I'd rather give up some column depth and have more seats.
Quoted from dmacy:So what else is left to hit the finish line on the theater room? Are you going to wrap that up first and then follow up with the rest of the basement? Or ? It looks like you're making nice and steady progress.
There is a good bit left to do. I have to finish cleaning up the columns, frame out the walls for the acoustical treatments / fabric, paint the ceiling / columns and then all the trim. The last thing is going to be the components.
My brother in law is going to paint everything for me in about 2 weeks. The game room is completely finished except for the painting and the carpet. The bathroom is done. The bar / pool table area needs cabinets, stone work, floor and a bar top. That's going to be awhile, unless I hit the powerball. 
I think the columns look nice. I used to run a home theater company many years ago and one thing I had to remind everyone is that unless you spend SEVERAL hundred thousand dollars on your theater you will not have the "best" The important thing is to build/buy what YOU like and just enjoy it! Anyway nice build and thanks for the pictures. Are you building the Screen or is it off the shelf? The only reason I ask is I have really enjoyed the DIY aspect of Home theater in the last few years and have replaced most of my off the shelf stuff with DIY speakers/screens etc and have been VERY happy with the results.
Quoted from jamieflowers:I think the columns look nice. I used to run a home theater company many years ago and one thing I had to remind everyone is that unless you spend SEVERAL hundred thousand dollars on your theater you will not have the "best" The important thing is to build/buy what YOU like and just enjoy it! Anyway nice build and thanks for the pictures. Are you building the Screen or is it off the shelf? The only reason I ask is I have really enjoyed the DIY aspect of Home theater in the last few years and have replaced most of my off the shelf stuff with DIY speakers/screens etc and have been VERY happy with the results.
Thank you!
I was considering doing the Spandex DIY screen thing, but decided I would go with one off the shelf. It's a fixed frame Silver Ticket screen. I have to assemble it, but it really just screws together.
I pulled out the frame over the weekend to get measurements for the screen wall and it looks really nice. I didn't open the box with the screen material because I was covered in saw dust and fiberglass. I'll do that one day when I have gloves and clean clothes.
No new construction photos, but I did receive my printed fabric movie posters in the mail the other day. They get wrapped around 2" deep frames that will be filled with JM814 to act as an absorber. Each one is 2' x 3'.
I think they turned out really well. A guy on another forum was nice enough to edit the images for me so they were the right resolution and size. I ordered 7, but here are just a few.
We were only about to work on Sunday for a few hours. I got stuck working on a client's server on Saturday.
Anyway, we got the screen wall built and installed. You can see the screen frame hung on the screen wall.
We also started by building the first frame for the on wall panels that will be covered in fabric to hide the acoustical wall treatments.
I also started prepping the columns for paint.
Just one picture today. 
We haven't gotten a ton done, but we are making progress. I got the columns painted black, which was a pain in the arse. The MDF required patching and sanding of the nail holes and joints, along with 3 coats of PVA primer and 2 coats of black. I think they turned out really well.
I also got the first coat on the ceiling and then ran out of paint. It's amazing how much smaller the room feels when the ceiling is black.
We started building the on wall frames that get wrapped in velvet and cover the acoustical treatments. Once we got the first one done, I decided that I wanted to do the ceiling panels first and then put up the wall panels. The reason for the velvet is that it's significantly less reflective than even black paint. The screen is under the soffit and very close to the ceiling which was cause for two concerns.
The first is the screen wash onto the ceiling and walls, the second is the fact that the soffit could act as an echo chamber.
We had some struggles handling the screen lights that we finally figured out. Everything needed to be blocked out 1" to accommodate the Linacoustic RC.
I also got my projector delivered yesterday. I purchased an Epson 5040UB 4k 3LCD light cannon along with the higher end Chief mount. It was on sale Black Friday for $200 off and they threw in two pair of 3D glasses.
On to the pictures!
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:I also got my projector delivered yesterday. I purchased an Epson 5040UB 4k 3LCD light cannon along with the higher end Chief mount. It was on sale Black Friday for $200 off and they threw in two pair of 3D glasses.
Great choice on the projector. I've got an older model in that series and have been extremely happy with it. I wouldn't call it a light cannon, but it does very well in a light controlled room. The blacks are awesome for a projector in that price range.
Jaz
We got a good bit done over the weekend. All of these acoustical treatments take time and require a bunch of work. Wrapping panels, figuring out how to handle outlets, getting everything to fit right and hanging it all without being able to see how it's hung.
I had my wife make a run to Hagerstown (1.75h each way) to grab another roll of Linacoustic for the walls. We got All of the velvet under the soffit done, except for the panel under the screen. I might have to wait until carpet is in for that one. We got the screen completely assembled and finished the screen wall. Mounted all of the retaining clips and got her 100% level.
Then we did all the measuring to determine where I wanted the projector. Because of the low ceiling and the riser, the projector hangs pretty low. The way we mounted it, puts it about 10" behind the back of the 2nd row. That isn't a walking isle, so I don't have to worry about anyone hitting their head on it.
Once I got the mount up, we attached the projector and fired it up. It took about 45 minutes to get the picture on the screen because of the ton of adjustments. I needed to get the picture on the screen first, since most of it was on the face of the soffit and the ceiling. Then it was on to rotation, pitch and yaw on the mount, followed by more lens corrections and more pitch and yaw.
It's very close right now, but I didn't got too crazy because it's going to have to come down and go back in the box.
Since nothing is wired yet, I grabbed an extension cord, my laptop and the 2.1 speakers from my computer and queued up a movie.
I was floored with how incredible it looked. We watched a little bit of Battle: Los Angels and then some of Star Trek (2009). Battle Los Angels is a pretty grainy movie by design, but still looked awesome. Star Trek had vibrant colors and and incredible picture.
I'm so happy I decided to go with all velvet under the soffit. It just sucks up any ambient light. Other than the column reflecting a little light, it's like a black hole.
I can't wait to get this room done!!!
My iPhone pictures of the screen don't do the projector picture any justice.
Anyway, on to the pictures.
It appears as though I'm late with the update.
I got a good bit done last weekend, despite being at the tail end of a cold. It was just me, because my dad didn't want to get sick, so he stayed home.
I put another 2 coats of black on the ceiling. It looks fine under normal lighting, but if you shine the 1,000 watt halogen work lamps on it, you can see the discolorations. I don't think it will be an issue once I get the work lights out and am just using room lighting.
The far wall is completely finished except for the trim. I went with the Linacoustic up to ear level and then poly batting from there to the ceiling. I put in some backer blocks for use later if I ever want to hang the printed movie posters I bought. My thought is that I can use 4 impaling clips to hold up the 2" JM 814.
Hanging the fabric went a lot easier than I thought it would. The DMD fabric is easy to work with and extremely forgiving. I ran into a little bit of an issue in the corner where I needed to attach the fabric to the furring strip first and then nail it to the wall. Once I figured out that I want to staple on the back and not the side, it worked out a lot better. The first one I did, got a little off line, but I was able to stretch it out so you'll never know.
I ended up needing to use the landscape fabric behind because you could see everything through the fabric when you shined a light on it.
Overall, I think it turned out really nice. The red sections are actually the same color, but for some reason the camera makes them look different.
It's really starting to look like a theater. I can see the finish line!!!!!!!
It's coming along well! I'm sure with the work lights out as you said it will look great and the black will be fine. The worst part about doing painting and finish work it seems is that you are so up close to your work you're always seeing something that could be better. Nice work!
Quoted from dmacy:The worst part about doing painting and finish work it seems is that you are so up close to your work you're always seeing something that could be better. Nice work!
You're definitely right about that part.
Quoted from MustangPaul:Are you going to have a Premier Night? What will be the movie?
The plan is to have the family over once it's done. As for the movie, probably the new Underworld moving coming out in another month or so. It depends on when I scrounge up the $4k for the chairs.
Quoted from MustangPaul:Cool. All your chairs gonna be full loungers?
@4k, they better be ! Hehe
Quoted from MustangPaul:Cool. All your chairs gonna be full loungers?
Definitely.
I'm most likely going to go with the HT Design Warwick line. They run $699/chair so I guess technically it will be $4,200.
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:Definitely.
I'm most likely going to go with the HT Design Warwick line. They run $699/chair so I guess technically it will be $4,200.
http://www.htmarket.com/htwahothseto.html
That's the "sale price", too Unless that's just another word for the normal "for sale" price. Might want to look into that.
Huge holiday update!
I got a ton done over the weekend. The entire basement is now officially painted. My brother in law is a professional painter and while he was up for the holiday, I handed him a brush and locked him in the basement until he finished. Actually, I really didn't do that, but it sounds cooler that way.
I also finished up the walls in the theater, except for one spot where the mini-split gets mounted. I'm waiting on my damn HVAC guy to get the hole punched and get me the template so I can build around it.
I was using some crappy computer speakers and ran a 3.5mm audio cable from my laptop so I could demo the projector, but got sick of that pretty quick. The Denon receiver I want for the theater is $1,800 and therefor on the back burner for now. I pulled the trigger on a cheap $299 Sony I can re-purpose later just to get me buy.
I threw 3 of my old Klipsch speakers and a sub back there and went to town. I'm really happy with the way things sound.
I ordered an Intel NUC so I can run Kodi downstairs and am working on converting my database from the local Kodi to a synchronized Emby database, but am still doing some research on that one.
The paint turned out great. I'm really happy with the colors I chose, but I drove my brother in a law a little crazy with having to paint 6 different colors.
Anyway, on to the pictures!
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Quoted from wontwa:projector wormhole
I've fallen into the same wormhole. See you on the other side.
Quoted from wontwa:Any updates? One of my favorite threads on here (that also inspired me to fall down the projector wormhole due to the quality of the 5040UB images shown in this thread).
Wow, thanks!
Unfortunately not much. I've picked out my carpet for the theater and am waiting for an installer to come out on March 7th to make sure they can power stretch. They are concerned about the walls and they want to send their lead installer out before we special order the carpet.
I still need to get the trim for the theater painted and start getting that put up. I'm planning on having the carpet in the theater done and then it's just seating to finish that room.
The main hold up is my bank account. I'm waiting for it to recover before I start plowing ahead again. We bought the house in August of '15 and I started this project November '15. With the closing costs and all the money I've put into the basement so far, I'm really drained.
Combine that with the fact that everything at this stage is really expensive. Solid surfaces, cabinets, flooring, etc.
I got a little done yesterday since I had the day off following PAPA.
My HVAC guy came and installed the outdoor portion of the mini split. I worked on the wall where it mounts since I had the bracket.
I needed to shim out where it was going to get installed and we had to fish out the condensation drain, the control wire and the copper refrigerant lines. It wanted to get stuck under a piece of channel that holds the drywall, so it took about 45 minutes to get it fished through the hole. Let's just say I got worried at one point that I was going to have to open up the wall, which would have put a bigger hole in my soundproof shell.
Here are the lines once we finally got them through the hole.
This is when they were working on the outdoor unit.
I got the area shimmed out for the bracket and threw up the diffusion batting.
Then went on the black landscape fabric followed buy the acoustically transparent fabric. The landscape fabric hides any potential shadows since the acoustical fabric is perforated and gradations between materials can be seen in the right light as shadows under the fabric.
Then I had to remove a little fabric where the screws for the mount attach so it didn't pull the fabric.
Once I got that final wall done, I was able to put in the last two columns and finally wire up the rest of the sconces and the light switch.
I now have lights (other than the screen lights). 
The only thing I'm not 100% happy with is that the mini split isn't perfectly centered between the columns. The reason is that I didn't have the bracket before the drywall was installed. I didn't know how far off to the side the line set needed to be. I didn't want my HVAC guy to order it and have it sitting around for a year while I built the room.
No biggie, you'll never see it unless you're standing at the screen looking back at the room. Besides, my dad said if anyone says anything ignorant, we'll just throw them out.
WAY to go! It's really coming along nicely!!!
Im getting really close to start on my game room, I just need to STOP buying games! why do all the good deals happen right when I am about to apply for permits?!?!?!?
Quoted from Chosen_S:WAY to go! It's really coming along nicely!!!
Im getting really close to start on my game room, I just need to STOP buying games! why do all the good deals happen right when I am about to apply for permits?!?!?!?
Thanks. I'm loving the space.
Permits? 
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:Thanks. I'm loving the space.
Permits?
Yeah... I'm going to build a 2 story extension to my house, and there's electrical wires to deal with that are in the way, soooooo... I just finished the design of the exterior and I have to take the design for the third time to city hall to get permits to build
Quoted from Chosen_S:Yeah... I'm going to build a 2 story extension to my house, and there's electrical wires to deal with that are in the way, soooooo... I just finished the design of the exterior and I have to take the design for the third time to city hall to get permits to build
Cool, a 2 story gameroom.
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Maineville, OH
