Re: AV & Media Room Design

["Robert L Bass" <RobertLBass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> One easy method is a closet with access to
> both front and back...

One home we did in CT quite a few years ago
had a large, unfinished basement.  They built
the HT room in the middle 1/3, leaving about
1/3 for utility space and another 1/3 for bathroom,
guest room and a small kitchenette.

I had a reveal made to cover the bottom of the
RPTV (a 50" Mitsubishi) which fit into an opening
in the wall between the HT and utility area.  We
built custom in-wall and in-ceiling speakers for
effects channels, used a pair of Martin-Logan
towers for the mains and built a matched pair of
12" subs to fit into the wall behind each of the
main speakers.

There was a closet in the plans for the theater
but I convinced the homeowners to let me take
it over.  I had the carpenter frame a "window" in
one wall of the closet.  The opening was nearly
floor to ceiling, designed to exactly fit a standard
rack (they come in 1.75" increments).  IIRC, the
rack was 48 spaces (7') high.  We installed
Middle Atlantic custom rackshelves (cf. earlier
post to this thread) for his Yamaha receiver,
two dual mono-block amps, power controller and
source gear.

There were channels being built on the ceiling
to hide HVAC ducts.  I had those built a few
inches wider to accommodate conduit for the HT
system, whole-house audio, alarm, intercom
and phone cables (this was before structured
cabling became a household word).

That single, 7-foot tall rack held all the A/V gear
he needed for a 4-story (basement + 3 floors)
home.  If I were doing the same thing today
we'd need a bit of space for a couple of media
servers.  Other than that, I'd have done it pretty
much the same way.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

=============================>
Bass Home Electronics
941-925-8650
4883 Fallcrest Circle
Sarasota · Florida · 34233
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
=============================>