# My latest screening room install



## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

As a contrast to the Avalon pics in the Vintage forum, here are some pics of the last screening room install I did. It was designed by me as well. I have to get some more pics of the final product though. 

First up. the wiring gutters. Top one is LV, bottom one is HV. This is on the far left side of the booth facing the screen, behind what will be the #1 projector: 











The opposite end, which ends up behind the sound rack, Notice how The LV gutter extends further to allow the flex runs into the rack: 










The first of the LV flex going into the rack. I had to add more because I had more LV than I thought at first...:










The front wall, with some of the wiring roughed in. The Angled Hoffman cans are for the projector controls (the low one) and the AMX touchpanel (between the port windows). The EC for the building ran all of the HV from the panel to the locations in the gutter in front of each projector and the sound rack. Each projector got 208 30 amp 3ph (for the xenon lamps), 208 20 amp single phase (for the Woods VFDs for the motors) and 120v single phase 20 amp for accessory power, the same circuit serves both projectors. The convenience recepts. under the gutter have their own 20 amp circuit. Notice the pass-thru to the LV gutter from the slab? :









Close up of the LV gutter, with the slab pass-thrus and some of the LV wiring. The 2" on the left goes under the slab to behind the screen for the speakers, The next one is a spare, the third one goes to the front of house for the podium A/V connections. The 3/4" with the white wire is the house right surround speakers. :












Another shot of the LV gutter with the sound rack peeking in on the right. The black cables are the 12/4 lines to the speakers behind the screen, they came up from the 2" EMT on the left of the previous pic. The white wires are the 14/2 to the side wall surround speakers on the right side of the room. The left side wall lines came in via a 3/4" EMT at the far end of the LV gutter, and the rear wall surrounds enter the rear of the gutter via 3/4 flex. The EC had to take part of the gutter off because they forgot to drill the 3/4 flex in during rough. Oops. :










One of the projector (#1 machine) bases set into place. The 3/4 LFMC is for power and the 1" LFMC is LV. The feet had to be removed after I got the machines set up and put light out on the screen. The Lutron system is in the background. The EMT's on the right wall are for the left wall surrounds and the RS-232 cable to the Lutron interface installed above the tile ceiling.:










The breaker panel, which serves the booth and other loads. All of the EMT on the left goes up to the ceiling and branches off to various places in and around the room. The feeder and all loads drop down that 3" into the gutter near the floor..it was a tight fit. :










More to follow in the next posts......


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

Nice work looks good...:thumbup:


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## ElectricJoeNJ (Feb 24, 2011)

Really nice work!!


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

More of the booth and sound rack: 

Rough ins for the track light and dimmer for each projector:











The track lights and dimmers: 










The sound rack, bolted in place and equipment starting to go in: 










The power amps in the bottom of the rack, a total of 3.600 watts of audio power. The amp's power cords dressed in place on the power stack I built. The Dolby Cinema processor and QSC Booth Monitor/Crossover are in too. :









The custom power stack I build for my racks. The red recepts and constant hots, and the black ones are switched with solid state relays for the power amps. There are five circuits total, with no shared neutrals. Note the bonding wire. :










More if the equipment going in, and as you can see a lot of the LV wires haven't entered the rack yet. The pull can on top of the gutter houses terminal strips for all of the surround speakers. The barely visible can at the bottom of the gutters holds the solid state relays for the amplifiers. :










The LV can at the podium location: 









The speaker lines behind the screen, prior to the screen rig going up. I punched a 2" hole in the lid of this can and passed the lines through a clamp: 









To be continued...:


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

HARRY304E said:


> Nice work looks good...:thumbup:





ElectricJoeNJ said:


> Really nice work!!


Thank you guys!! For the record, the EC installed all of the pipe and gutter (except the pipe going to the Hoffmans) I did the LMFC. I did the rack, pull cans, track lights and all the LV wiring. 

I just wanted to clarify and not take credit for the pipe work. 

The EC on this job did a great job, they were a pleasure to work with and adapted to all the odd requests quite well.


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

Last of the booth pics:


Sound rack complete, with following gear from top: Furman PL8 Plus Power Conditioner, AMX Axcent 3Pro server (Later changed to an AMX Axcess Card gage server), DEVLCAM dual LCD monitors for checking video, Dolby CP650 Cinema Processor, QSC DCM 10D Booth Monitor/Crossover, Denon DNV-310 all region DVD Player, Samsung BDP 1500 Blu-Ray Player, Raxxcess Ipod Dock, Sony Mini DV/DV CAM deck.:









More rack gear, including Samsung worldwide VHS deck, Denon AVR Receiver for video surround sound processing, P.A. System preamp, Behringer Compressor/Limiter and Feedback eliminators for the P.A., and first of the QSC amplifiers. :









The amplifier stack, all QSC DCA 1622, 300w/ch. From top: Left, Center,  Right (all bi-amp), Surrounds (L/R), P.A., and subwoofer, each channel drives an 18" subwoofer. :









Sound rack, monitor speaker on the front wall, and the #2 projector's lamphouse. The 6" flex exhausts the heat from the 2kw Xenon lamp. The 1" EMT was installed by me, it takes the video cables to the video projector.: 










The #1 projector, just about ready to run a film..just need to add the upper reel arm. The reel shown has a 2000 foot capacity, enough for 20 minutes of running time. :









A shot from just inside the door...showing both film projectors, and the port up high where the video projector will be mounted on a shelf. :


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

Ok, time to look at the screening room itself: 

Looking back to the projection room, you can see the video projector on it's shelf up top and the acoustic panels on the wall. That wall is a double-wall with air gap and two layers of sheetrock on each side for sound isolation. The three projector ports are dual-pane, optical glass with anti-reflection coating. (Those six pieces of glass cost over $1,000.00!!), the other two ports are standard glass. (Obviously the glass hasn't been installed yet in this pic.) : 










Surround speakers by QSC on the house left wall: 










And on the house right wall. A few issues came up here, first off, the speaker on the right is directly in line with the support column...despite the placement being reviewed with the blueprints and builders several times, they actually relocated that column during the build!! (After the forms for the walls were set and poured.) Also, the University's Design and Planning dept. forgot to spec the acoustic panels on this side wall, despite being spec'd by me and appearing in the plans. Methinks someone was trying to save a few bucks. Luckily, the impact of these two flaws on the sound is very minimal. :










The screen wall prior to the screen rigging being installed. Behind this wall is solid concrete, behind that is the building mechanical room. :









The screen and maskings. The wire hanging in the center is for the P.A. speakers. The wood is for the valance fabric. Screen by Harkness. Rigging and drapery by Valley Theatre Fabrications, Dave Tidball, master rigger. : 









The curtain installed and open.: 










The ADC Corp. masking motors. The one in front is a "Logi-Stop" for the side panels and can have up to 20 preset postion stops. The motor in the back controls the movable bottom panel that changes the height of the image area on the screen. It is a "Jogging" motor with no preset stops other than the mechanical limit stops. : 











One of the three QSC Speakers behind the screen. They have three driver elements, a High Frequency (top) Mid Frequency (middle) and 15" woofer in the cabinet. The switch you see allows you to select passive crossover (the amp sends full-range to the speaker), Bi-amp (used here, HF and mid Freq. is one channel of the amp, LF is the other) and Tri-amp, where each element is driven by it's own amplifier channel. These speakers ROCK!! Great sound quality and great price, they make JBL's (the industry "standard") look like Radio Shack specials. :










I'll be back in a few days with the finished room pics and a screen shot playing a video.


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## travelingelec (May 31, 2011)

I thought most new installs were going digital? No film?


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

travelingelec said:


> I thought most new installs were going digital? No film?



For commercial cinemas, that is true. This is a University screening room, where we run a lot of video and 35mm film. This is the second screening room on this campus, the first one is one I have run since 1997 (which is why I got the bid to do this one, lol.) and it also has film equipment. When I did this install I ended up donating most of the same rack gear to that room to update it and make the rooms similar in capability. 

Digital cinema is still quite pricey on a per-screen basis ($65k per screen for projector and server ONLY, minus the sound system), by comparison I spent less that that on ALL of the equipment (projection AND sound) and screen for this room and the donated gear. 

The type of programming the University plays is, so far, not yet on D-Cinema media. (DCI) I imagine in the next ten years or so a fair amount of program will be DCI. At that point both rooms will need to trade out their standard video projectors for D-Cinema machines. Luckily, most of the D-Cinema projectors have accessory cards/inputs to play "standard" video media.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

Nice Work MXslick, did you install connectors on the conduits going into the LV gutter ? It looks there's none.


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

dronai said:


> Nice Work MXslick, did you install connectors on the conduits going into the LV gutter ? It looks there's none.


Nope I did not, it was an oversight on both the EC and my part. I did use some "catapillar" protection (used to line edges on panels and holes) on them to keep the wire from getting cut. Link: http://www.middleatlantic.com/rackac/cablem/cablem.htm#gr

I used the GR-30.

I did use connectors on the LFMC that passed thru to the LV gutters of course.


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## CTshockhazard (Aug 28, 2009)

Cool work, thanks for the pics.:thumbsup:

What are the angled front cabinets for?


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

Hmmm... I wonder if the panel that feed the projection room utilizes a shared neutral? :jester: :laughing:


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

CTshockhazard said:


> Cool work, thanks for the pics.:thumbsup:
> 
> What are the angled front cabinets for?


The two below the windows are for the projector controls that I design and build, the upper one is for an AMX Touchscreen. You'll see the finished panels in my next series of pics.  



Peter D said:


> Hmmm... I wonder if the panel that feed the projection room utilizes a shared neutral? :jester: :laughing:


LOL nice try. And BTW, the EC spec'd a 200% neutral for this panel's feeder...for once I didn't have to ask. (I think it mainly happened because of the Lutron dimmers being fed from the same panel though.) 

This EC, like the last few I worked with, had the brains and courtesy to not argue my "no shared neutrals to the sound rack" spec. :001_tongue:

(For those who don't know, BBQ and I have had some um, _spirited_ debates over shared neutrals.. and Peter D has worked with BBQ, so I am sure the stories got shared.) 

In my field, virtually every time a shared neutral was involved at the sound rack, we had issues which were cleared up by removing ONLY the shared neutral from the equation. 

Voodoo? Magic? Some strange law of electrical physics? I don't know for sure and don't care. I spec what has worked without fail for me. :thumbup:

Now for lighting, general purpose recpts and even the projector motors in 120v, single phase installs I have no problem with, and have used, shared neutrals with no hesitation. 

But when my electronics are involved, it is done my way or else. :laughing:


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/trd/2538522056.html


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

I have heard of them and they do not have a good reputation....that's why they're looking on the dreaded CL.....

And if you think doing resi electrical is a pain in the asteroid, doing resi A/V is far worse. I rarely do jobs for family friends for that reason.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

The commission structure looks good.


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## tkb (Jan 21, 2009)

How do you forget connectors on the stubs out of the slab?
Now the stubs aren't bonded.

Kinda Hack. :no:
Square holes on the bottom, oversized holes on the top...really?


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

tkb said:


> How do you forget connectors on the stubs out of the slab?
> Now the stubs aren't bonded.
> 
> Kinda Hack. :no:
> Square holes on the bottom, oversized holes on the top...really?



Yeah, the EC was embarrassed when I pointed it out to him...the guy who did that was the same guy who forgot to punch thru the flex's for the rear wall surround speakers. 

Good call on the bonding issue..honestly at the time it didn't even register that the bonding is non-existent. Oops. Candidly, I'm not losing sleep over it. There are other conduits under the slab and they are all tied to the rebar, so maybe I can consider them as bonded that way. 

One of the great aspects of this job was I was involved all the way from planning, to groundbreaking, to pre-concrete pouring, etc. I caught a lot of things, but I am sure I missed some things (like this) too.....


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## randas (Dec 14, 2008)

mxslick said:


> Yeah, the EC was embarrassed when I pointed it out to him...the guy who did that was the same guy who forgot to punch thru the flex's for the rear wall surround speakers.
> 
> Good call on the bonding issue..honestly at the time it didn't even register that the bonding is non-existent. Oops. Candidly, I'm not losing sleep over it. There are other conduits under the slab and they are all tied to the rebar, so maybe I can consider them as bonded that way.
> 
> One of the great aspects of this job was I was involved all the way from planning, to groundbreaking, to pre-concrete pouring, etc. I caught a lot of things, but I am sure I missed some things (like this) too.....


First thing I noticed too. 

So you post pics of the work taking full credit for it but once someone points out something wrong you blame it on someone else


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## Edrick (Jun 6, 2010)

randas said:


> First thing I noticed too.
> 
> So you post pics of the work taking full credit for it but once someone points out something wrong you blame it on someone else


Umm he said the conduit and such was done by an EC where is he taking full credit? You need to get your glasses checked. 

:thumbsup:


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

I personally think he should be ashamed of himself.


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

randas said:


> First thing I noticed too.
> 
> So you post pics of the work taking full credit for it but once someone points out something wrong you blame it on someone else


So instead of saying something constructive, you spout off without reading the entire thread before your post, which is something everyone else did? 

Let me spell it out for you, from _*Post #5*_: 



mxslick said:


> Thank you guys!! *For the record, the EC installed all of the pipe and gutter (except the pipe going to the Hoffmans) I did the LMFC. I did the rack, pull cans, track lights and all the LV wiring. *_*
> 
> I just wanted to clarify and not take credit for the pipe work. *_
> 
> The EC on this job did a great job, they were a pleasure to work with and adapted to all the odd requests quite well.


Is that clear enough for you now? Oh, and a tidbit from the post you quoted: 



mxslick said:


> *Good call on the bonding issue..honestly at the time it didn't even register that the bonding is non-existent. *Oops. Candidly, I'm not losing sleep over it. There are other conduits under the slab and they are all tied to the rebar, so maybe I can consider them as bonded that way.


AND post #11:



mxslick said:


> Nope I did not, _*it was an oversight on both the EC and my part.*_


 (in reference to the missing connectors and bonding)

I can admit my mistakes..so STFU. 



Edrick said:


> Umm he said the conduit and such was done by an EC where is he taking full credit? You need to get your glasses checked.
> 
> :thumbsup:


Thank you. You are correct....some people need to _*READ*_ before they post......:whistling2:



Peter D said:


> I personally think he should be ashamed of himself.


So says the hackmaster.....:jester::laughing::laughing:


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

Ok, here's some updated pics of the finished installation for y'all to enjoy: 

The opening page on the booth touchpanel. The film mode buttons turn on all the audio and controls, curtains and lights do not react until commanded by their respective buttons. The video mode button take you to a "Source" page, where you select what video deck you want to use. When you select a source, the audio comes on, the video projector turns on and selects the correct input, the curtains open automatically. The system off button does what you would expect it to do, shuts down everything but the lights.:










Snapshot of the DVD player control page. This is legacy AMX hardware so the graphics are very simple. Later generations (and the upgraded versions of this series) have very advanced graphics, you can use "gif" and "bitmap" files for your button icons.: 










The custom pushbutton panels. Each one controls both film projectors, the lights and curtains. The buttons are backlit using a dual-voltage system and diode isolation; Standby is lit with 5vdc, active is lit with 12vdc. (The contrast doesn't show well in the pics, but in a darkened booth it looks great.) The knob in the lower right is for the volume control for the wall-mounted monitor speakers. :









Here's a shot of the rack mounted video monitor as I was doing a dvd playback. Note the different AMX Card Cage directly above the monitors. The "DO NOT TOUCH" label came into play when the department head started playing with the buttons directly below and almost wiped out the settings on the processor!:










One of the 35mm projectors, note the upper reel arm. The orange button on the black plate lower left is for "jogging" the projector at slow speed to position the film leader at the right point.:









The projector opened. The top part is known as the projector head, the bottom part the sound head. Film path on these machines is pretty clean and easy to thread. :









The video projector on it's shelf. This is a single-chip DLP with high-speed color wheel. The device on the top right of the projector is a VGA to CAT5 link. I have a trim plate for that 1 1/4" Penetration, I keep forgetting to bring it in. :









The AC power to the video projector. There is a box mounted behind the tile, fed with mc cable. I installed that box and receptacle. :









The next post will show a few more things in the booth, then some more shots inside the auditorium.


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

And to wrap up our tour of this room: 

The breaker panel installed by the EC, GE bolt-ons. The top double and triple poles are for the projector motors and lamps, respectively. Circuit 17 is the 120v "base power", it is left off unless running film.:









A better pic of the LV and HV cans behind the rack, as alluded to in the earlier post. ( I guess I should have opened them up but I was pressed for time today) :









The LV flex stack entering the rack, they are all full. Power is the lone one behind (and highest):









Another view of the completed rack. The Tripp-Lite UPS on top serves the Dolby Processor, QSC monitor/Crossover and AMX system to allow the show to go on through power glitches that would otherwise shut things down. I used to spec APC but their new stuff is all garbage.:










A shot of the auditorium from the stage, right side of house. Room seats 94 people. That is rope light in the coves. :









A shot of the finished curtain rig and the podium. There is a small touchpanel in that podium to allow full contorl of the system (except film projectors), lights, curtains and sound. There is an LED "LittleLite" and a gooseneck mic built in as well. Note the P.A. speakers above the center of drapes. They are, as is all the audio gear, QSC. : 









A shot of the LED step lights..I must have sneezed or something on this one, but the effect is cool: 









Speaking of cool, I'm gonna wrap this up with a screenshot from a video I made some years ago, I did lectures on film projection technologies here at UCI, this shot is of the feed arm to an "Endless Loop" film platter system: 










Well, that's pretty much it for this screening room. It took about 3 months once the room was released to me for the install, including testing and setup of audio, film and video. 

Like any complex system, it has been evolving and changing since day one, we are adding new capabilities and tweaking the existing. I would have shown the wiring in the rack, but with all the changes (and having to keep the room ready to use at all times) it has gotten a bit messy. (Actually it's pretty bad.) But that is part of the next phase of changes, to clean up the internal wiring even more. 

Hope you all enjoyed the tour. 

Next time up: The screening room I have run since 1997, you'll see some surprising differences..and similarities.


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

Time to bump this up with the latest updates, including a new Digital Cinema System: 

New projector, Christie CP2210 with fully motorized lens. Weighs in at around 100lbs, and puts out so much light I had to turn the lamp wattage down to minimum AND de-focus the bulb to get the light down. (Specs call for 12-14fl, I got 22fl with min power and defocused bulb, it started off at over 60(!)fl.) Notice I also finally cleaned up the LV cables penetration (upper right corner). Also note the dual AC power cords, one is 208v lamp ballast power and the other is 120v for all the electronics, protected by a UPS in the server rack shown in other pic :









A view of the LV cable connections to the projector (sorry for the crappy focus):









The proper way to do AC power in a grid ceiling :laughing:: 









The server rack, mounted across the room from the sound rack in the other pics earlier in the thread. Top to bottom: Pull-out keyboard/mouse; Kraemer Video switcher/scaler; Dolby DSS200 Digital Cinema Server; (Behind mesh panel) Gateway PC for remote logging and monitoring; AMX Axcess Mini (has serial control cards for the server and video switcher); Power supply for the AMX system (Panel with blue light); and at the bottom Middle Atlantic 2200va UPS which protects the projector electronics, server, AMX power supply, Dolby CP-650 sound processor and QSC DCM monitor (Both in the main sound rack.) The UPS output is cord and plug connected to a 4s box with EMT to the main sound rack and MC cable above the ceiling to the video projector location.: 









A screen shot of the serial commands the server sends to the AMX system to control various functions: 










I thought I had gotten pics of the new conduit work to add the Digital system but I can't find them. I will say that it was a real "female dog" to get the conduits added from the server rack to the sound rack, the ceiling space is literally 10lbs of feces in a 5lb bag. If I find the pics (or remember to take them on a service visit) I'll add them to the thread.


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## jeffmoss26 (Dec 8, 2011)

Cool stuff!


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