Stage is built and the proscenium framed in. The frames will be covered in fabric. My speakers are floorstanders that will stand hidden behind the side "walls" on the stage.
Right side of the stage (well, "stage left" actually...). Shows where the old light was removed.
Other side of the stage. This one was a bit easier as I just built it up to the soffit on that side. You can also see the rear portion of the soffit is now removed. A curtain rod will be mounted back there.
Riser is built. Approx dimensions are 5 ft x 9 ft x 8 inches high. It is filled with insulation, but not permanently attached to the wall. The bottom has some heavy poly attached to it. I can slide it on the carpet to move it, but it's not easy. Which is to say the platform is very stable.
The circuit for these lights also ran power down to the outlets below. I couldn't leave a junction box with live wires covered over where the light used to be so I removed all that and ran a new line down to the outlets. Had to cut a couple holes to fish the wire down.
I was experimenting with some various locations for the side surround before pulling the wire down through the wall.
Stage wall is covered in 1" thick insulation - Manson Akousti-Liner 'R'. You can see the panel lines in the flash photo but when you're in the room you can't see them. My original plan was to put some fabric over it, but I think I'm just going to leave it. Most of this wall will be covered by the screen anyway.
The wood block on the wall is the bottom part of a French cleat that is used to mount the screen. The insulation is just glued to the wall using spray-on contact cement. Easy-peasy. :) The framing is all painted here and the speakers are set up. I made a shelf on the top of the procenium to hold the center channel.
The back of my DIY blackout cloth screen.
Closeup shot of the cleat on the back of the screen. I thought I might have to adjust it up or down a bit to get it to just the right spot for the projector, which does not have a vertical lens shift (Infocus 4805). Turns out my measurements based on the Infocus projection calc tool were bang on, and no adjustment was needed.
Closeup of the cleat on the wall. When mounted the screen is about 1/2 inch off the wall. It's kind of a "floating screen" look which is what I wanted.
Curtain open/close mechanism. It has an wall wart power adapter and there's an X10 module there for remote control of the opener. It will all be hidden behind the fabric and not visible at all. The outlet was already in the wall, I just added an extender and replaced the outlet and cover with a black one. I made the black extension cord from a spare PC power cable I had laying around. The outlet and cord are barely visible in normal light in the room.
Doing a trial mount of the projector. Just a few dollars worth of plumbing hardware and some careful measuring. The mount plate is some MDF I had laying around.
Another view of the mount. The 2x6 is fastened to the joists with some 3" screws. It's strong enough for me to hang from, I'm sure it will be fine for a 6lb projector.
View from the back. I've since painted the mount black, but you can't see it at all anyway once the ceiling tiles are in. The mount is completely concealed by the projector itself. I made a new mount plate and also painted it black. The plate is about 2 cm below the ceiling and you can't really see it either.
Shot from the back of the room. Those are some spare insulation panels leaning against the walls. Just experimenting with potential locations for absorption panels.
Front wall with the screen mounted. Final dimensions of the screen are 104x54 inches. This gives a nice 96x54 screen area for 16:9 format shows and I can zoom to 104x44 for 2.35 films if I want. The curtains will be used as a simple masking system for the sides in 16:9 mode. When zoomed for 2.35 format, the bottom "black bar" is completely off the screen. I may make a simple pulldown mask for the top if I decide one is warranted.
Picture with the ceiling tiles painted and re-installed. In the flash photos, you can see that a couple tiles came out a bit darker than the others. In normal room light, it's not really noticeable and not at all when the lights are out. I painted the tiles with a roller, if I had it to do again, I would spray them. One piece of fabric on the front of the proscenium is installed here too.
A shot with no flash. I still think it looks better in person. Nice stain on the carpet. The carpet in here will be replaced once this and some other work in the basement is done. I had some nice thin stretchy fabric for the proscenium but after putting it up I decided it let too much light through (reflected from the screen and back out) so I bought some fabric a little bit heavier. It works well and is not very stretchy, which I found made it easier to work with.
I decided to move the equipment into the room. Of course, I made that decision after I'd run some new power circuits and all the video/audio into the location under the stairs. Arg. Anyway, I was able to re-wire and move it all without any serious problems in an evening or two.
Front of the stage with the carpet installed. A friend with many years experience in carpet laying helped me with it. I think it looks great.
Picture of carpeted stage with no flash, but the room lights are all up high.
Another shot of the front. I have some paint touchups to do next, then I'll finish the fabric on the front.
A shot from behind the second row of seating. Note the fancy 2x6 "speaker mounts" and dangling wires. :) This is a test run for the back speakers, I'll have to work out a better mounting system once I'm sure the location is OK.
From the stage to the back. The 1/2 white, 1/2 black tiles look alright, I was worried it would be too weird. I'm leaving the entire room open for now, but I'll probably close it off with a back wall eventually.
Same shot with flash. I just painted the back section of the room, you can see the paint is still wet.
Closeup view of the cabling for the projector. This is just a standard desk grommet cut into the ceiling tile. I think it worked to quite nice.
Side shot of the new mount plate. It comes up quite close to the ceiling, there's just enough room to rest the lens cap on top. The height is exactly right for my planned screen height and it hides the mount plate and the flange completely.