Home Theater Installation: Smooth installation from there on out

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Art Feierman

Smooth installation from there on out

Next, they had to get the wiring from the screen cut opening, across the ceiling, to where the projector would be going. They were able to drop out our existing "whole house sound" speaker, which is mounted about 5 feet from the screen wall, to make it easier to run the wires, and they put two more cuts in the ceiling, one mid-way, and the other by the projector's soon to be location. No surprises!

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Shown below, Kory and Joe, the owners (and installers) of My Custom Theater, as they get ready to start work on Day 1.

At that point, they started running all the wires. This means running the speaker wiring, the screen control wiring and power, and the HDMI video signal, from the lower wall cut by the equipment, up to the screen cut-out. From that point, the power, and control, for the screen, as well as the speaker wiring for the three front speakers (built into the screen housing), exits the ceiling, while the power for the projector, and the speaker wiring for the two rear surround speakers (in the projector housing), continued, through the ceiling, to the cut by the projector mount.

When finished there were bundles of wires hanging down from the screen area cut, and from the projector area cut. To finish up day one, at this point they drywalled all the openings, then we all had a round of beer (am I a good customer or what?), and we went over the day's activities.

That didn't take long: Day 1

By the time the dry walling was done, it was about 3:30 in the afternoon. Total time so far, five hours and fifteen minutes!

By the way, during all their work, I naturally had to come in and out of the room to see what they were up to, asking questions (I can be a disruptive force), to a greater depth than most would have (afterall, I had to write this), and general kibbitzing, not to mention interrupting to take dozens of photos of the work in progress.

Day 2: Smooth as Silk!

The team returned, as agreed, around 10am. The dry wall was ready to be painted over, and that was the first business of the day. They slapped on one coat over each of the drywall areas in the ceiling and wall. A second coat would be added if needed. While it was drying, the guys started getting all the equipment and mounting brackets ready.

The first to go up, was the long mounting bracket for the screen. The bracket was attached to the wall just below the ceiling. (I do believe you can mount the bracket to the ceiling as an alternative.) They then put the mounting plate for the projector housing, into the ceiling.