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Topic: Screening Room set-up

Richard Quesnelle
Film Handler

Posts: 67
From: Penetang, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 04-23-2000 02:59 PM

Hi Everyone!

I was curious on how to go about putting together a home screening room.

What size of room is needed? Type of screen used? Projector layout?

Thanks

Rich

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Martin Frandsen
Master Film Handler

Posts: 270
From: Denmark, Europe
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-23-2000 03:54 PM

Me to, i've been thinking about that to: how would the ideal screening room for home or professional use be? It can be a problem focusing at short range, how do you deal with that?

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 04-23-2000 04:34 PM

What's the biggest room you've got available? Is there an adjacent room on the back side you could knock a hole in the wall to serve as a projection booth? Otherwise, a free standing tiny booth will have to be built to house the projector (possibly 2 or a platter).

Setting up with short throws and large images is not really a problem assuming you've got the correct lenses. Just look at these multiplexes today commonly using 30mm and 25mm lenses! It's nothing more than your situation on a larger scale.

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-23-2000 05:43 PM

I have a friend who has a small screening room. It is 12' wide by 24' long and 8' high. The screen is 4.5' tall by 11.5' wide. Check out the Gary Stanley room in Pictures. He has 11 seats.

I was recently at Century's Corporate screening room which has the same size screen as Gary in a shorter room. It has 24 seats. Brad has the photos.

What is the smallest screening room you have heard of?

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-23-2000 05:45 PM

What is the most compact projection system you can think of?

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 04-23-2000 06:20 PM

Assuming you are talking about staying with a full sized and not a portable projector for home use in a small room, Century SA with ORC 1000 running either 6000 foot reels with an intermission (ewwwwww!) or ideally the same equipment with a platter. Assuming the platter was in a nearby room with a couple of guidance rollers, a room of about 4x5' would be cramped, but would get the job done, including a sound rack. If the platter was to be in the booth, then you would probably have to have something along the lines of 5x10'. If there was to be no platter and changeovers, that same 5x10' room should still do the job. Only problem there is the keystoning from two off-axis projectors in a small room with such a short throw. I've set up screening rooms like this in apartments and small houses where we simply broke out the drywall and built a free standing booth around it that was better insulated than most commercial theaters.

Of course, a rewind/inspection table would have to be in another room.

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Greg Mueller
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1687
From: Port Gamble, WA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-23-2000 06:55 PM

Mine is 16' wide has a 27' throw and 9.5' ceiling. I have a 6'x14' Hurley screen. The booth is 16' wide and is 15' deep. I have raised the floor about 2'. No problems with focus and I'm using a 1kw bulb and it's plenty. I actually designed the house around it.

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Pete Lawrence
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 192
From: Middleburg, PA
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 04-23-2000 07:58 PM

I'm in the process of setting up a small home screening room in my basement. Screen will be 8' wide with about a 30' throw. Currently I have a pair of DeVry XD portable machines with 450 watt xenon lamps. Changeovers only, no platter. I'm working on re-building a pair of full size machines, Simplex E7's with RCA 1040 sound heads and ORC1000 xenon lamps.

One of my problems has been to short a distance from projector to screen to allow the scope lenses to be adjusted correctly. The solution was to use a pair of good 16mm scope lenses until I can move the wall back a little more. I've been experimenting with using two mirrors in front of each projector to raise the booth port as high as possible to clear the tops of heads. I only have a 7' ceiling. If this works it would also help with the off-axis projector problem by allowing me to use one port for both machines.

So far its been a lot of fun, and I've only had to sell my soul to Edw. Wolk Inc. for parts! Seriously, the older equipment can be quite inexpensive, but parts prices can kill ya. So can good lenses! With a little work and TLC the machines should be good for another 50 years.

A friend of mine is running one of the nicest home theaters I've ever seen. Two full size 35mm machines (Christie consoles, Simplex XL and RCA Sound heads) in a finished third floor attic with about a 40' throw. Also 16mm and Video. Fantastic setup, but just thinking about getting that stuff up to the third floor scares me.

Pete

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Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 04-23-2000 08:11 PM

Pete:

Please get pictures of both yours and your friends' screening rooms posted here on the picture warehouse.

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Harry Robinson
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 155
From: Franklin Tennessee
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 04-23-2000 08:46 PM

Boy, it looks like somebody finally came up with the subject I've been waiting for. I, too, am building a screening room. We had the architect design the whole house around this thing. It will come as no surprise to anyone on this forum that I have taken some pretty severe kidding from my non-film handler friends about my obsession.

I actually added three feet to the wing of the house in order to get a 25' throw. The actual screening room is 24 by 16 with a 16 by 8 projection room/recording studio control room/office attached. The screening room steps down from an eight foot ceiling at the projection room level, to 10 feet at the screen. I am planning a 13 by 6 screen with a curve based on the radius from the projection source. John Harvey in Dayton OH was a great source of ideas on how to accomplish this.
I also plan to install a D-ILA video projector because of it's single lens configuation and xenon light source.
I'm using a Super Simplex with an RCA 1040 sound head and 6000' reels. I plan to get a stereo reader when I've completed the rebuild on the gear. I have access to enough recording gear to improvise mic to line level amplification and Dobly A noise reduction. Maybe I'll be able to go digital in the future.
It's fun to share all this with someone who can appreciate it, and at the same time I'd love to hear any feeback on ideas that work (or don't) when you get into something like this.

We break ground the first of May. (Of course my lovely wife, Debbie, has gotten her way with every other aspect of the design of the house.)

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Jeff Stricker
Master Film Handler

Posts: 481
From: Calumet, Mi USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-24-2000 07:44 AM

Unfortunately I have no room for a booth. The projector just sits in my workshop/hobby room. Fortunately I have 200+ watts of audio and large speakers to overcome the racket from the projector.

I'm running a 2" lens that gives about a 7 foot wide flat picture with a 15 foot throw. At this distance the rear of the lens nearly touches the Brenkert gate when it is open.

For scope I have been able to adapt a 16mm anamorphic adapter to a B&L 2.5 in lens and have good results focusing at 15 feet.

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Phil Hill
I love my cootie bug

Posts: 7595
From: Hollywood, CA USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 04-24-2000 05:43 PM

I would be interested in the screen sizes and the viewing distances from the 1st "row".

I've been collecting equipment for the last couple of years and now I want to put it all together...

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Greg Mueller
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1687
From: Port Gamble, WA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-24-2000 05:50 PM

If you go over to Schneiders' home page you can down load a nifty little progam that will let you play "What if" games with throw, screen size, etc. It's free and accurate. You can pick out the lenses you will need for different formats with it (I'm sure its intended use)

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Phil Hill
I love my cootie bug

Posts: 7595
From: Hollywood, CA USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 04-24-2000 10:31 PM

ISCO has a calc program too. Both the Schneider and ISCO programs are excellent and can be downloaded from their websites.

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timothy johnson
Film Handler

Posts: 50
From: minneapolis, mN 55419
Registered: Jul 99

posted 04-25-2000 07:14 AM

it's all I could do in my home until I can afford to move, I have a 12'wide X 17'long screening room with eight rocker seats w/cupholders. My screen is 10 feet wide in scope, my projector is in my dining room, the screening room is the former living room. The walls are dark blue, with a black ceiling and black masking all around the screen. My lenses make the 18 foot throw possible, they are awesome, isco scope and schnieder flat. I have a Gearless Christie 35PG with a XE-Lamp 1600 watt.I use large reels that hold 8,000 feet, I can get an 8 reel film on two reels. The picture is mind-blowing, it's better than sitting in a large auditorium with a 60 foot wide picture, because I like the tight focus and small grain in my personal screening room, it has gotten to the point I don't see movies in the theater much, I wait to see it in my house for the first time. As for sound I am running the reverse scan from the christie to a CP-65, with Dolby SR,A, and SRD, as well as DTS. I have 1,500 watts of sound all around, with a yamaha 18 sub, and a clark sythesis sub sonic seat shaker (matrix will rock your bones) If anyone is interested in DTS, CP-65, and SRD(DA-20) in their home, please feel free to contact me. tjohnson@lifetouch.com 612-826-4491

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