theatre room roof projector wiring ideas ?
 

Just chasing some ideas for wiring up a theatre room with projector

Need some ideas of a quality way of hooking up a projector mounted on the roof at back of the room with video source at front of the room.

Now what makes this task slightly harder and a once off thing is the room is going to be on the bottom floor of the house and once the roof plaster board goes in ill never be able to get into that section of the roof again. Being that there is a 20cm gap then concrete slab for top story.

So I need something that is easy to get a cable of some length and that retains the quality. Obviously im only going to run the one cable to the projector and then just select the source

Now am thinking DVI/VGA or HDMI.

now thing that makes it slightly more difficult to choose a cable type is how they are ran through the walls and if they have plates on the wall to plug into or one continuous wire to the unit ??

Just need some ideas please any one wired there house up with a projector

Thanks.

actually just thinking about it a little more!

is the one cable going to be enough ?

units that will need to run through are going to be

foxtel
dvd player,
settop box,

maybe xbox or ps

so probably going to have to run a few cables thats ok i guess.
they could all fit on a standard plate .

just gotta make sure projector has enough inputs

I would recommend running one or two cables shielded in the ceiling to the projector and use a switch box next to the appliances before the signal heads into the wall. I would recommend using a DVI or HDMI for a digital cable and maybe a single composite cable for low quality analog signals. although I probably wouldnt bother with the analog cable.

These days pretty much every thing is digital so you may as well run the best quality signal cable you can.

If you are running an amp you'll only need to cable from the video out of your amp to the projector, because the amp does all the video switching with your DVD etc.

You can buy multicore cable (for video) and either run this in the slab through conduit when it is getting poured, or under the dropped ceiling as you said.

I'd also run the cabling for rear speakers at the same time.

You can PM for more info / ideas if you want, I did this shit for 3 years.

yeah amp switching sounds good. ill have to look into what sort of video outs the amps have. some amps have hdmi dont they.

i was also thinking a conduit through the roof and down the wall to a plate. but i still may have trouble feeding it through once its in.

And leave a draw wire in just incase... You can never be too sure you wont want to change something in the future...

guess i could use retic pipeing bit larger as not to get plug ends stuck while trying to draw and put some strong draw wire in there with plate on the wall ?

can you go wireless??

yeah but the quality is no where close to what cables would be.

Running the retic pipe as a conduit is a great idea.
Another idea, depending on how big your room is, is to put all your audio equip behind or beside where you will be sitting. This way there are less problems with all the cabling aswell you wont see all the flashing lights from amps, dvd etc. when watching a movie.

[QUOTE=skitzyrex1]Running the retic pipe as a conduit is a great idea.
Another idea, depending on how big your room is, is to put all your audio equip behind or beside where you will be sitting. This way there are less problems with all the cabling aswell you wont see all the flashing lights from amps, dvd etc. when watching a movie.[/QUOTE]


yeah thought about that but we have a huge modular type seating so couldnt fit it in the middle.

ok new idea is if i get them to remove a part of that wall where the arrow is pointing and put shelves and a tinted glass door there for all the units amps etc. and the living side of that wall and lcd is going there so all the cables can go in that space as well.

then all the cables can go right into the roof out of sight no plates on the wall at all. and run the conduit into the roof part of that cuboard and wont be able to see it.


[IMG]http://home.iprimus.com.au/tkershaw/uploads/room.jpg[/IMG]

put a false wall there and paint it or add a feature unit with a false back on it. All the nasty wiring gets done from here and then run as little as wiring as you need from here. we have done false walls/cupboards many times for customers.

yeah i not suer what to do now they said there may be pipes running in that triangle section.. which rules a false wall out hey ?

I'd recommend you run DVI cable to the projector and possibly also component video if your amp can't support all the input switching you want. But stay away from the wall plug idea, the pin outs on dvi wall plugs would suck balls, and you're just introducing more signal loss at each join in the link. Just be prepared for the cost of the DVI cable... because its gonna be in the order of $20+ a metre to get the proper shielded one that can run the distance without significant signal loss.

yeah thats ok no point skimping on the cable if going to all that trouble
but where do u buy a 5metre + dvi cable

Does your projector have DVI cable tho? I would think most don't. We used to use Telstra conduit for running cables because it is bigger than the electrical conduit.
You can buy multicore coax cable which will allow you to run component video + composit video (4 cables total). I can find the shop name I used to buy from. If you want to run your computer through the projector as well, then you'll need an additional 5 coax cables. Id just run the cables through the ceiling / floor and out the wall and terminate the end of the cables rather than trying to terminate to a wall box. You don't lose very much signal using wall plates (about 1db per connection) but it's just more fiddlier trying to terminate them to a wall box (or two)

If that triangular duct goes to another wall space upstairs it will probably have plumbing and electrical pipes, but you always specify on your plans where you want the pipework. Just speak to the tradies on site.

Depending on your amp too, and upgrading down the track etc, you might want to wire two pairs of rear speakers for 7.1 channel. Even if you just run the cable, you can always install flush mount rears later (if you have the roof space) If you don't have roof space between the slab, then you can get wooden speaker boxes that are put into the slab before it's poured.

ok amps and projector i havnt got yet no point buying them until house is built one becuase im wasting the warranty time and also they get out dated and i dont know what cables im running ill buy them once i have a plan set in and house is just about finished. coax is RG6 which will be used for all my tv points and cameras etc etc.

was thinking of running clipsal Star serve system.

as long as conduit is large enough for a plug biggest plug i could think would be a dvi one. to run free through it would be fine.

U could always chase the wires into the wall then plaster over them.. is a fair bit of work but the cables would be hidden permantely.

yeah thats it.. doesnt matter what bricks i cut or anythign becuase it will be done before they plaster so everything will be covered but thats why i gotta plan ahead lol

Hello,
Here is my info for what its worth!
1. mounting the projector on the ceiling will be a disaster with a suspended slab :) Take a look at the brackets next time in hardly normal I havent seen a good one yet. With a gyprock ceiling you can mount on the joists and come through the ceiling, and make it look as neat as possible but with a suspended slab you would have to fix direct and the mount would need some sort of cover not to look ugly. Alternatively fixing it direct to the ceiling may require a lot of lens shift and messes a lot with the optics.
[URL=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/viskoe/HT/roofmount.jpg][IMG]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/viskoe/HT/th_roofmount.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

2. In a perfect world you would put the projector in another room and shine it through a hole in the wall like the cinemas! that solves the problems of fan noise and light leakage from the air vents of the projector. However placing it behind you on bookshelf or wall unit will probably be your best option because it solves a number of problems.

3. By placing the projector behind the viewing seats you are not distracted by the unit while watching a movie, by placing it in a wall unit/bookcase it removes the need for video and power cable being routed through the ceiling.
connections that need to be made from the AV equipment can be made easily by placing the equipment along side each other on same book case.
This means decisions about video cable (vga/dvi/hdmi/component) can be ignored during the building stage. If you install only a DVI cable you will be forced to chose a projector that has this interface. (any roof mounted projector should also have a s-video or composite connection installed for old videos, play stations etc)

4. The shape of your room limits the layout and seating arrangements, the position of the door and location of the window limits this install , the room could do with being 2 meters deeper from front to back, but we dont live in an ideal world!

5. By placing bookcases or wallunit across backwall you will have provided spaces for rear speakers (you cannot use ceiling mounted rears in this install)
You can aslo easily add a center rear and also mount this in the book case easily without having to run new conduit etc should you decide to go from 5.1 to 6.1 system.

6. Get your builder to install power points in this room, 2 double GPO's on rear wall for equipment and projector, and 2 more points 1 on either side of the screen, in the corner for the powered sub woofers, you will need two points if you go down the 2 sub woofer path!, get them on a seperate circuit if you can, might help with the glitches on digital tv if the fridge starts up etc and generates spikes and electrical noise . Also get the electrician to provide a TV point at the back of the room for your set top box near your AV equipment, dont forget if you want foxtel and a CAT 5 or 6 UTP point could be good here also oh and a phone point I think for foxtel or ICE guide system. make sure he installs them up near where you want the equipment.

7. Dont forget your lighting so you can see the controls in the dark! and maybe some dimmerable ones above the seats so you can have a little light should you need it (so you can read the paper when your stuck with the movie the wife has picked out!)

8. Get you electrician to run some decent figure eight cable for your speakers and make sure that it will all fit in the conduit, withs some spare room in the conduit.
You will need front left,right,center, sub1 sub 2 so five pairs in total from the rear of the room to the front. get 2 gpo wall boxes installed side by side in the location of the triangular cavity these should be covered with the plates that already have the speaker plugs fitted to them ( each plate should have 3 pairs of speaker plugs available from Jaycar/altronics)
you will need one at each point where the speaker cables terminate, Get the cable installed along with the conduit and then at the front of the room you would have one plate in the center with the speaker conenction for the center speaker and to the left and right of the screen you should have 1 plate with terminatrion for left front speaker and sub woofer (4 speaker plugs on one plate) and the same for the right side.
This way using some made up leads with plugs yoou can easily connect up your system neatly.

9. Seating: Idealy sit about 1.5 times the screen width. so for 80 inch screen you would place your seating about 2.65 m back, this would give a viewing angle of 36 degrees which is really the top limit for cinema. Ideally 26 to 36 degrees. To get this you could decrease the screen size :( or move seat back. But then sitting against the back wall is not ideal for quality sound. Hence the reason I think you need two more meters in the middle of the room.

10. Room . Get a decent blockout curtian for the window and try and get the door to open out in this case it might give you enough space to get a decent couch in, as the doors would not encroach into the room.
Go for some dark carpet to reduce light reflections and aslo paint the wall with the screen a dark colour to increase the picture contrast, you could also do the ceiling a dark colour but most people dont.

11. Finally, plan and plan you might find that you want to go LCD or plasma so you have to throw everything out and start again so try and make your mistakes on paper rather than concrete! think hard and I am sure you will get to the best option.

[URL=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/viskoe/HT/theaterroom.jpg][IMG]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/viskoe/HT/th_theaterroom.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/viskoe/HT/theater2.jpg][IMG]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/viskoe/HT/th_theater2.jpg[/IMG][/URL]


Hope it helps some
Rgds
Emil

Thanks heaps for that. some really good ideas there. the roof is gip rock though so we will have that space between the roof and the slab. if thats what u mean ?
my brother in law just finished building with same people and we ran his rear speakers through the roof space and mounted rear roof speakers in there.
as with the alarm system i ran in the roof space.

with the style of our seats they are going to have to be on other side of room and screen with have to be on side backing to fridge cavity.
seats a like a corner modular

by suspended slab what do u mean ?

and to block out the windows im getting roller shutter put on there.

im thinking i will prob get away with running a storm water pipe in the roof space with 90degree bends at each end and then run joining pipe down the wall cut it in. on the amp side and right to a roof plate for projector side.
Leave a strong draw wire in there and that way pipe is big enough to pull anything through with out getting cought.

For the long dvi/hdmi cables here are a few recommended places from the dtvforum mob:
[url]http://www.htcustomcables.com/[/url] Aussie company - HIGHLY rfecommended.
[url]http://bluejeanscable.com/[/url] American place that is always mentioned on the intl forums

[url]http://bluejeanscable.com/articles/hdmi-cables.htm[/url] good article on hdmi cables.

[url]http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showforum=7[/url] tonnes of great info and advice on these forums.

good luck with your install.

a false wall can still be used even if you have pipes running through the area as they will be sealed/insulated anyway. It also serves as a neat hiding spot.

Very nice writeup there viskoe! I'll take note for when my theatre room comes of age.

I recommend running component to your projector - as component is the best video source anyway - so that makes 4 cables (from memory) hooked up to your projector, and into a component ready amp.
Everything then runs to the amp and from there you choose what will be displayed through the projector.
Even tho DVD's and TVs run DVI and HDMI etc etc - its all still best broken up into component - so each colour has its own cable.

What projector are you using?

[QUOTE=SINISTR]I recommend running component to your projector - as component is the best video source anyway - so that makes 4 cables (from memory) hooked up to your projector, and into a component ready amp.
Everything then runs to the amp and from there you choose what will be displayed through the projector.
Even tho DVD's and TVs run DVI and HDMI etc etc - its all still best broken up into component - so each colour has its own cable.

What projector are you using?[/QUOTE]


yeah im thinking running component and maybe hdmi just to have it there incase never know
projector i havnt got yet not going to buy it until house it finished no point . having it sit there for 2 yrs while its getting built.

and to a previous post we are going to have a suspended roof which is better means we have that space in the roof to run cables.
just gotta pre plan the bracket thats all.