Wow! I thought I had posted this already. My bad! (As in my bad memory…)
Entertainment Center, Volume 7 – Here it is…
The Big Reveal!!!!
After month’s longer than we had planned and resolving multiple issues, the Entertainment Center has been completed!
(And so are these updates!)
From Concept…
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To Completion!
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Stamp this project DONE!
The jerseys and picture are in place and Mrs. Wingnut put all the stuff on her curio cabinet shelves, just like she wanted! She went to the school on the left and has that cabinet filled with stuff from there. Mine is the right side with everything else – Canes, Fins, Bucs... Lights were installed in the curio cabinets and up-lights in the top of the speaker pocket. The fireplace worked well for us this winter.
The woodworker came up with the creative detail of the 6” fluted columns on both ends, which also create the space for the narrow cabinet on the left end. This resolved how to display bats and balls that previously took up only the front 4” of a very deep shelf, leaving the rest of the shelf depth pretty much useless and in shadows. Display problem solved! This shot also shows a better view of the screen pocket with crown molding around it.
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One design issue we resolved was the reflection of the patio and pool off the old TV because it was flat against the wall. Previously, we could only watch TV during daytime with the blinds closed. Now, we have a heavy-duty, double-arm. full-motion TV mount that allows the TV to be angled so it can be viewed from the Kitchen without any reflection. Another problem solved! (Yes, that’s VW bus owner Mike Wolfe on the TV!)
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The projection screen works just as planned! The custom order for the extra black fabric drop at the top was needed to allow it to be lowered to our preferred viewing height. We’ve watched a couple movies during the daytime and the light from the back porch is not too disturbing. If it becomes an issue, we can get roll-down black-out shades to cover the sliding glass doors and upper window.
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FYI, this is Seymour AV’s H95 ‘Center Stage XD’ screen, which is 95” wide, 53” tall and 109” diagonal. (2.4m wide x 1.3m tall, 2.7m diagonal). The decision to add the screen was because the TV was going to be limited to a maximum 60” screen. We will never be able to go any larger because of the built in cabinetry. The screen allows us to go well beyond a 60”. For Jeopardy, we feel we are part of the studio audience!
The screen is much better viewing at night. This was our Big Reveal for our friends for our Super Bowl party.
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The girls have gotten plenty of use with friends, especially with a Wii ‘Just Dance’ playoff
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The vent-free gas fireplace works well for us. The Finance Minister is from the Chicago area and grew up with real fireplaces. She wanted one in this house, but didn’t want the hassle of a wood burning fireplace. Also, the space needed for a chimney would have prevented this project from happening. So, she got a fireplace!
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This shot shows the stacked stone liner that we installed in the back. It adds a little more personality and color to the fireplace, instead of having just the black firebox.
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Now for a little a little of
shopnut's ingenuity… Continuing the goal of taking advantage of every available storage space, we added drawers for DVDs and video games.
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We could only do this because the firebox we have is fully insulated and requires only 1” clearance on the sides for any combustible materials. I just wish the drawers could have gone up the additional 12” to fill all that empty space as well.
The fireplace was originally installed 2” out from the face of the unit. We insisted the woodworker push it back to be flush and now we have less than one inch from the mantle trim to the screen when it hangs down.
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All three front channel speakers are MartinLogan Motion 8 speakers. We built the cabinet sized for these and there are many other speakers that can fit here. These are much smaller than other people may want, but with the size of our Family Room and being open to the Kitchen, we weren’t building a perfect home theater room and we didn’t need anything bigger. These are plenty powerful for our needs.
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The MartinLogan subwoofer is located in the lower left cabinet. We also have a jack behind the couch in case we don’t like having this in the cabinet.
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And finally…
How to Convert Seven Into One…
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And now the solution to consolidating remote controls and the trip to the produce department. First, a little rewind back to post 630 where I gave a little background on Universal Remotes:
A little background on universal remotes... There are plenty on the market that can consolidate multiple remotes into one remote. Most of them are infrared (IR) remote controls which sends controls by a light signal and are good for limited distances and direct line of sight to the device. This is what the basic remote that comes with new electronics is shipped with. And if something is sitting between the remote and the TV, like my radial arm saw in the garage, then raising my hand over my head to aim at the TV can work. Sorry, where was I... There are also the remotes that use radio frequency (RF) to control the electronic devices. These can basically see through walls and don't need line of sight. Then there Wi-Fi based remotes that have more access to web based programming (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.). I can also download phone apps that can control our TV or AV receiver!
Not sure why we just didn’t go with a handheld universal remote, like a Logitech Harmony, but our AV Guru recommended a network base station located in the AV rack that would be Wi-Fi based controls.
We went with Universal Remote Control brand’s MRX-1 Network Base Station. It is only about 10” x 5” x 1” (248mm x 120 x 28).
There are cables out the back that connect to IR ‘flashers’ that stick to the IR sensor on each device. These relay the RF commands from the remote, to the base station and converts to IR for each device. This is all that is visible on the front of the TV. There is one of these on each device.
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And the winning guess goes to
Todd.Brock, who correctly guessed the tablet as an iPad by Apple, thus the ‘produce department’ reference to the solution. I really wanted to go with an Android based tablet, but URC’s ‘CC Control App that is required to run the system, was only available at that time on Apple’s MX-iOS operating system. We went with an iPad Mini with the 7” screen.
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Thanks for traveling along our adventure of building our Entertainment Center. Hopefully I was able to share some tips and tricks that may be able to help someone solve a problem. If there is anything I did not answer, just ask or PM me.
Now, as far as the Entertainment Center Project goes.... Badee, Badee, Badee...That's all folks?
I’m not sure what’s coming up next, but there’s something fishy up in the Hideout…