HT016 – Custom 3D Home Theater Design, before you build

Episode #016
Host:  Mike Deckys
Guest: Russ Jones – Founder – 3D Theater Design
Topic:  Custom 3D Home Theater Design, before you build

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One this episode of The Smarter Home Theater Show we welcome Russ Jones. Russ is the founder of 3D Theater Design  which is a home theater design firm located in the Northeastern United States whose specialty is helping imagine and then render a custom designed 3 dimensional model of your proposes theater or multi-media space.  With over 20 years of experience in designing and building, Russ and his team can help make your home theater dreams a reality.  So we’ll start off by welcoming you to the show, Russ.

Russ:  Hi Mike.  It’s real nice to be here today.

Mike:  Well, we are real glad to have you here, Russ. Thanks for coming.  All you have to do is search the home theater forums and pretty quickly two truths are revealed.  First there are countless oops threads where people have made mistakes and boo boos and they want to share their experiences with others in the hopes that they don’t make the same mistakes.  The second is that unless you have hundreds, and I mean hundreds of hours to read and research, sift, sort, analyze or maybe you just have an obsession to spend every free moment you have for the next 12 months filtering and sorting and reading through all these threads and try and take in all this information, you are probably better off just hiring a professional to take care of the design for you.  Now I want to know why it is so much better to have a 3 dimensional design of your proposed theater space than sticking with the traditional 2 dimensional blue print plans?

Russ:  Well, Mike, like most plans that you see on paper are only 2 dimensions and a theater is really truly a 3 dimensional space.  We like to use a lot of elevation platforms in our plans.  And also there is just many factors vertically that are important.  Speaker height, platform height, seating height, speaker locations, not just where they are in the room but the height of the location in the room.  And a theater, you think about it, you are actually inside this realm where you are getting bombarded with all kinds of things from all directions.  And the 3-D aspect makes sure that everything is in the proper place.

Mike:  So by going through this exercise in 3 dimension you call hopefully avoid some of the oops and you won’t be a contributor to that thread.

Russ:  Absolutely.  What we do is – I look at this as actually a space analysis.  Where we create a model of what we have to start with.  In some cases it might just be an extra bedroom and that is a fairly simple project.  This part of the country we have a lot of basements.  And basements are where a lot of the people put these dedicated home theaters. We start by building a 3-D model of the existing space that located all the columns, the beams, the duct work, the pipes.  Something as simple as maybe the access to a furnace filter could come into play.  It would be pretty upsetting to get your project all done and then realize that the one side wall of the theater is denying access to your furnace filter. And that is just a simple thing.

Mike:  Okay, now I know that 3DTheaterDesign.com  you use a detailed 21 question survey that you have potential clients fill out before you even begin to quote them on a project. Why go through all the details?

Russ:  Well, actually, you might be familiar with the old expression “The devil is in the details”, and we feel that this definitely applies to creating a quality home theater. The details are really what all combine to make a great finished product.  Small detail that might be missed can really wind up being a problem later when it is too late, or maybe too costly, to correct.

Mike:  Like that furnace filter that you just mentioned.

Russ:  Right.  That is just one example.

Mike:  Now if you want to end up with a terrific room and an awesome space why is it so important to have that complete design completely thought out and planned out before you even begin construction?

Russ:  With any project that is really worth doing the design is very important.  Again, like I say, we like to do a complete analysis and through this we feel as though we can save a lot of time and money later on, and aggravation.  We feel like the best way to deal with mistakes is to find and correct them on paper.  Or in our case what I like to refer to as cyber space before they occur.  An experienced house painter knows that the prep work is what is the most important step to a great finished job.

Mike:  That is the truth. Now, in your series of questions that you ask potential clients, you ask questions such as the age of the home, the overall size of the home.  How does age of the house come into play?  And why is the overall size of the home important versus just trying to find out the overall size of the planned theater space?

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Russ:  Like mentioned on our website, we not only design these projects but we also have a division of our company where we construct these projects also.  To us that is one of the reasons why we get into some of those questions.  Because, for example, the age of the home, the difference of a home that was constructed maybe two years ago versus a 50 year old home can be substantial, due to the building practices and materials that were used.  And because we not only design these products but construct them as well we like to have all this information.  The existing structure can greatly affect the way in which you would go about construction.  The designs would be affected by that.  Our experiences in the construction field give this as an advantage.  What we do on the internet, we don’t actually build the project we often act as a consultant for other contractors or maybe a do-it-yourselfer that wants to do the project themselves.  So as far as the age of the home there is a lot of factors that might come into the actual construction of the home.  And would affect the theater construction.  And as far as size we feel that our projects are all about function.  And the theater room itself must function within the parameters that you have available.  But it is very important to have the theater function in the home.  And in some cases if you are just doing an extra bedroom you don’t have much choice in that.  But if you are looking to maybe finish a basement we not only design the theater, but we come up with the best location for the theater based on other parameters that the customer might give us.  For example they might be looking to finish the basement and they want an extra bedroom with a full bath.  They might want a workout room, a kids play room, there is a bar.  You know, it really depends.  So we make sure that not only is the theater designed properly but it works in proper conjunction with everything else that is around it.

Mike:  I imagine that some things like electrical is probably an issue.  You have mentioned a 50 year old home, I imagine that the electrical that they have running through the house is a lot different than something that they have running through the house that is 2 years old.

Russ:  Absolutely.  And these are all things that need to be taken into consideration.  And as part of our team that we work with here at 3-D Theater Design  we have experts in all of these fields.  An electrical thing is one aspect that a lot of people really don’t think about.  Of course, you have to have adequate electricity, but one of the big things that comes about with the theater is making sure that the electrical is grounded properly.  A lot of times you can get a ground hum that actually will show up in the audio or the video portion of the theater.  On the video part a lot of times it will be bars that will be scrolling down the screen.  So we usually always suggest that a dedicated isolated ground for that purpose.  And another thing that comes about, and I’m not an electrician but I understand a fair amount of this, you want to make sure that everything in the theater is on the same phase, which is on the same basically side of the panel that you are working off of, because if they wind up out of phase it will create possible issues with audio and visual signal as well.

Mike:  Oh, I didn’t know that. So everything should be on the same side of the panel?

Russ:  That’s what the experts tell me.   That’s where we find the people; we work with the people that are experts in every one of these fields.  My personal specialty is the architectural aspect of this. The functional aspect of making sure that everything is put in the proper place in relation to everything else.  But we have people on our team that help us with the expertise as far as the audio visual equipment, electrical and those aspects.

Mike:  Now on your questionnaire too, you also ask some seemingly obvious questions like ceiling height, is there any exposed duct work, what is the floor material made of, but I got to ask you, how often is that stuff overlooked when people get all excited about the cool new features that they are going to have in their new theater?

Russ:  Like I tell you, Mike, some of these details are not even considered by most folks.  From an actual construction standpoint they are very important for several reasons.  Acoustical isolation and sound quality of the space, it is very important.  Unwanted reflection, whether visible or audible can have a very negative effect on the finished product.  When we first meet with the client they usually had a preconceived idea of how the room should be laid out.  A lot of times they will say we want the screen on this wall.  The seats over here.  And sometimes this is what we go with but quite often we turn things completely around because of things like duct work, ceiling heights, existing door locations, what is in the next room.  A lot of this has to do with our extensive use of seating platforms and related transition platforms too that we like to use.

Mike:  You’d mentioned seating platforms a couple times.  How is a seating platform different from a transition platform?

Russ:  Well, typically a lot of home theaters that you see, and again if you are talking fairly basic, you don’t have a whole lot of choice where you would have just maybe a platform for the back row that you step up into to get to the back row of seats.  What we often like to do in larger projects we like to do is have, what I call, a platform transition area.  And a lot of times that will involve maybe entering the theater from another space or entering a lobby type area.  A lot of times these areas are transition areas to where you will actually step up maybe one or two steps as you enter this area.  And already be raised up so that when you leave the lobby and enter the actual theater area (or if it is not a lobby, if it is like a little foyer, vestibule) you come into the theater and you are already up at the higher level.  And then as you move forward through the theater (whether it is just two rows or maybe three) you step down from there.  So it really gives it a lot more of a theater type effect.

Mike:  So it is almost like you are going down into a pit.  As you go forward then.

Russ:  Exactly.

Mike:  Okay, well that is pretty neat.  Well, it sure is a lot of information and thought that should go into planning a theater.  It’s important stuff.  I know I am more of a shoot first and ask questions later kind of guy, but maybe I should rethink my position on that.  I would love to talk to you more, Russ, because we are running a little bit long in this episode and I have a ton more questions written down.  So, would you be willing to come back for another episode and talk some more with me?

Russ:  Sure, Mike.  I would be happy to do so.

Mike:  That would be great Russ.  I look forward to that.  And I would also like to remind our listeners that to please not forget to support the Smarter Home Theater Show  by supporting our sponsor. Your support of them helps support us.  Just go to SmarterHomeTheater.com  and click on Support The Show to learn more.  And don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter for insider tips, cool contests, and more.   Just go to www.smarterhometheater.com and learn more.  Alright, Russ, if somebody wants to check out the services that you offer what is the best way for them to go ahead and do that?

Russ:   You can find us on the web at www.3DTheaterDesign.com.

Mike:  Okay, great, and we’ll talk to you soon Russ.

Russ:  Thanks Mike.