United States of America
I like to share this little project, build with the help of my wife and son, which consumed many evenings over the last 4 months
For a long time I wanted to build a Star Trek themed home cinema, never had a spare room in the house to make this happen. Last year this changed when work moved me from Australia to the USA. Our new house in the USA had exactly what I was looking for.
It started with a completely black media room that was a standard feature of our new house. This room just begged for a makeover.
I got myself a load of wood and plasterboard and started building away, no plan on paper, just a vision in my head.
Building of wooden framework; curved sections with cabinet’s in-between and frame for false ceiling.
Adding some plasterboard over the view screen pillars and false ceiling. Install blue LED ribbon in ceiling.
Adding a bit of paint, didn’t like the color, just a bit too dark.
Adding more paint, much happier with this result. Painted fake windows on the wall and metal gray on the rear wall.
First attempt with our brown recliner set and DVD storage cabinets open. Was not happy, needed a bit more work.
Changed to the light beige recliner set and put doors in front of the DVD storage cabinets and put some 19” monitors above the cabinets showing LCARS displays.
Left side view.
Monitor on top of cabinet shows an LCARS clock/slideshow.
Entrance/Exit doors.
Display case in fake window section showing some of the Star Trek memorabilia we have.
7.1 Speakers hidden behind monitor and light panel
Right side view.
Monitor on top of cabinet shows an LCARS weather station/slideshow.
Fake doors covering small entrance door to Air-conditioning/heating system.
Display of gold painted models of the enterprise, starting with the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Work in progress, looking for the right size models of the Enterprise A, B, C and D
7.1 Speakers hidden behind monitor and light panel
Rear view.
Back wall and ceiling still a work in progress.
Front view.
Main speakers hidden in the pillars next to the TV.
LED lights in the false ceiling and blue LED ribbon hidden in the false ceiling.
(still need to find a new place for the printer)
Almost end result in the semi dark (lights behind glass rear panels still on.
In the dark all you see are the LED lights and blue LED ribbon shining softly over the interior.
HTPC / network system diagram. This gives you a bit of an idea of what technology is involved in this room and how it is linked to the rest of the house.
HTPC_2:
Thermaltake Mozart SX case
Win 7
2.4GHz Core2Duo
2GB Ram
400GB HDD
DVD drive internal
DVD drive external
Bluray drive external
7.1 speakers direct
5.1 speakers via SPDIF
Nvidea 9400 with HDMI
1000/100 network
MS IR Remote
MS HTPC IR Keyboard
So, this project is nearly completed. Still needs a little work to give it that special Star Trek look.
when I started this project I was using the LCARS skin (by Catavolt) for MP and that looked awsome, unfortunately the skin is a bit outdated and with upgrading to the most recent version of MP and some of the plug-ins I was forced to let LCARS go
For a long time I wanted to build a Star Trek themed home cinema, never had a spare room in the house to make this happen. Last year this changed when work moved me from Australia to the USA. Our new house in the USA had exactly what I was looking for.
It started with a completely black media room that was a standard feature of our new house. This room just begged for a makeover.
I got myself a load of wood and plasterboard and started building away, no plan on paper, just a vision in my head.
Building of wooden framework; curved sections with cabinet’s in-between and frame for false ceiling.
Adding some plasterboard over the view screen pillars and false ceiling. Install blue LED ribbon in ceiling.
Adding a bit of paint, didn’t like the color, just a bit too dark.
Adding more paint, much happier with this result. Painted fake windows on the wall and metal gray on the rear wall.
First attempt with our brown recliner set and DVD storage cabinets open. Was not happy, needed a bit more work.
Changed to the light beige recliner set and put doors in front of the DVD storage cabinets and put some 19” monitors above the cabinets showing LCARS displays.
Left side view.
Monitor on top of cabinet shows an LCARS clock/slideshow.
Entrance/Exit doors.
Display case in fake window section showing some of the Star Trek memorabilia we have.
7.1 Speakers hidden behind monitor and light panel
Right side view.
Monitor on top of cabinet shows an LCARS weather station/slideshow.
Fake doors covering small entrance door to Air-conditioning/heating system.
Display of gold painted models of the enterprise, starting with the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Work in progress, looking for the right size models of the Enterprise A, B, C and D
7.1 Speakers hidden behind monitor and light panel
Rear view.
Back wall and ceiling still a work in progress.
Front view.
Main speakers hidden in the pillars next to the TV.
LED lights in the false ceiling and blue LED ribbon hidden in the false ceiling.
(still need to find a new place for the printer)
Almost end result in the semi dark (lights behind glass rear panels still on.
In the dark all you see are the LED lights and blue LED ribbon shining softly over the interior.
HTPC / network system diagram. This gives you a bit of an idea of what technology is involved in this room and how it is linked to the rest of the house.
HTPC_2:
Thermaltake Mozart SX case
Win 7
2.4GHz Core2Duo
2GB Ram
400GB HDD
DVD drive internal
DVD drive external
Bluray drive external
7.1 speakers direct
5.1 speakers via SPDIF
Nvidea 9400 with HDMI
1000/100 network
MS IR Remote
MS HTPC IR Keyboard
So, this project is nearly completed. Still needs a little work to give it that special Star Trek look.
when I started this project I was using the LCARS skin (by Catavolt) for MP and that looked awsome, unfortunately the skin is a bit outdated and with upgrading to the most recent version of MP and some of the plug-ins I was forced to let LCARS go
