Starting a 5-6 month Golf Sim / Home Theater Build

[Keith]

I've been enjoying lurking and learning on this forum. Now I'm getting ready to actually design and build a cinema/golf-sim room over my garage. Here's the current draft based on info from this forum and other home cinema forums:

• 25x15 room with 10 ft ceiling.
• 16x9 movie screen on back wall
• Retractable impact screen 6-12 inches in front of the movie screen (is that enough? I do NOT want to damage the movie screen)
• Touch screen for golf computer control
• Ceiling-mounted heavy curtains to protect the side and rear walls (see attachment):
  • For movies, they will stay on the side walls to minimize acoustic bounce interference.
  • For golf, they will cover the side walls completely and curve either behind the screen or in front of the screen: Curving in front of the screen is simpler, but curving behind the screen would provide additional protection to the movie screen. Comments/suggestions would be very much appreciated.
• The golf mat centerline will be ~ 8ft from the the impact screen and ~6 ft in front of the closest theater seats.
• I haven't figured out how to best protect the ceiling (suggestions?)

[Keith]

Looks great! Question for your sound system though as I am in the middle of building my own (yet much smaller) setup, where do you plan to put the center speaker? Currently I'm looking to place it above my screen with netting to protect it.

Whoops! Thought I was in the home theater forum. The impact screen will be retractable about 18 " in front of the speakers. I'm sure that it will impact the sound quality somewhat but I don't care about sound quality for my golf simulator. For audio, I'm definitely making it the best possible for my movie screen mounted on the front wall.

[jobruba37]

I think I might be going a similar route with the retractable screen, however I am considering just making it a net which I can pull from the side and have the screen behind it (about 18") display the projected image. I'm several months out as well as I am still putting up drywall but I'll definitely be following your progress!

[Keith]

Keith - that would be right around the impact area? Would like to see a pic of that, as I'm not able to do that with only 8" to the wall from my screen.

Not sure what you are asking. The movie screen sticks out about an inch from the wall. The retractable impact screen will be positioned ~18" in front of the movie screen. The retractable screen is supposed to arrive in the next couple weeks but I'm not sure when I'll be able to mount it. I'll be out of action for a couple weeks after a knee replacement next Tuesday. But I'll be sure to post a pic when I do.

[Keith]

Carpet and wood flooring are installed.

[Keith]

Just received 12 vant panels to protect the ceiling nearest to the golfer. Their color is a very close match to the wall/ceiling paint. I plan to use black netting for the rest of the ceiling protection.

[Keith]

• Speaker grills painted.
• Cove Lighting installation complete.
• Starting to put together my TrueStrike golf mat.

[Keith]

..........

[Keith]

Recent Installations:

• Epson LS12000 movie projector (very nice image!)
• Movie screen
• Retractable golf impact screen
  

[Keith]

Yea, I know this doesn't count as a golf simulator update, but my media room is going to do triple-duty as a Home Theater, Golf Simulator, and Virtual Reality room. Movies have been working for a couple months. And the Virtual Reality system is now working in the home theater. It takes less than 5 minutes to switch to and from movie mode: Switch to the PC input, lower the golf impact screen, move the golf mat back, attach the cord to the ceiling's cord management system, and start playing! I still have to finish hiding some of the cords and tweak the image, but I'm very satisfied with the result as is. Next up, get the golf simulator running. Hopefully, next week!

Just click on the photo to start the video. I'm not sure why it's not showing the entire link that I included.

[Brettster]

Keep us posted Keith - it's looking great!

[Keith]

Not exactly golf-related... but I installed 10 of my 11 acoustic posters in our media/golf/VR room this week. I'll post a golf update later today.

[Keith]

Retractable Golf Screen and Curtains

[Keith]

still working on the upload

[ACgolfer]

Looks awesome! Enjoy!

[VARealtor]

Man I've been watching your updates and you're really doing it - looks amazing! I can't wait and once the final product is done I hope you'll give us a detailed viewing/outline of it. I'm around a year away from a similar project and having 2 little ones I want to make it a universally game/movie room similar to what you've achieved.

[Keith]

Thanks for the feedback. I plan on putting a comprehensive post together over the next couple months....after I finish my posters and try some alternative ceiling protection.