My Basement Renovation

PC Access on PC

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:32:36 +0000

PC access on TV

A tower PC is hidden under the A/V rack with an access door. It is attached to teh Onkyo 806 with a DVI to HDMI cable and setup w/ 1080p.

A wireless bluetooth keyboard from logitech (actually made for the PS3) works flawlessly from anywhere in the the room:

Wireless bluetooth keyboard

Squeezebox Duet

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:58:43 +0000

Wow! That’s the first thing that came to mind after my new Squeezebox Duet connected and played it’s first song from my iTunes library on a laptop up in the kitchen. Yes, I’m in the basement with this nifty little hand held controller (it’s shame to call this thing a ‘remote’) browsing through my catalog of 200+ gb of music that resides on an external drive connected to my laptop on another floor. Everything is here in my hand, and it reacts quickly as I jump around from artist to artist, switching through different albums, songs and playlists. I am a lifelong tech guy whose tech related interests focus on A/V and computers. For my adult life, the past 25 years, Ive always been on top of the cutting edge in these areas. Now that I have all but abandoned my 2,000+ CD collection, my listening has been iPod based. I update the ipod from my ever growing itunes library and use dock in the house and in the car. The Logitech Squeezebox Duet is exactly what the doctor ordered. I told my wife after hooking it up last night that it is one of the most impressive pieces of tech geek equipment I’ve come across.

Logitech Squeezebox Controller

The little puppy sits in its cradle next to the Harmony 890 (another great device) waiting for me to take control of an incredible amount of music. Not only is my entire iTunes library on the palm of my hand when holding this, but full access to online music services as well as 100′s of internet radio stations, pre-configured and categorized from the jump! I was scrolling through over 50 stations in the “Christmas” category alone! I click on one and bam! Rudolph is blasting through the room in “all channel stereo”. I found west coast sports stations, band-specific stations, all the stuff I recall from being a satellite radio subscriber. The neat thing is, it’s all organized, in the palm of your hand, and connected to your systems.

squeezebox duet controller

Flipping through my iTunes on the Squeezebox Controller

What is really cool about this thing is on the first screen I chose the basement system. I can now connect receivers in the living room, kitchen, and on the deck. From this controller, I can control all of them, just choosing what room I,m dealing with first! I can play a different song in each room or have the same song synched to multiple rooms.

With each song selection, the controller pictured above is sending a wifi signal up to my PC and telling it to shoot the tunes down to the squeezebox reciever, also wifi, which is attached to the Onkyo806 in behind the rack:

Squeezebox Receiver Behind Rack

The squeezebox receiver gets the signal and feeds it to the a/v receiver via digital coax:

squeezbox receiver digital connection

Notice there is also an ethernet port if you’re not doing wireless. For setup, I downloaded some software (squeezeserver) and let it scan my iTunes over night. I did this while awaited delivery of the hardware. When the hardware arrived, I plugged my WEP wifi key into the controller when it asked and it connected wifi pretty quickly. I hooked up the receiver and the control knew that right away. A few minutes later I was jamming.

The Squeezebox Duet has been an incredible addition to this basement system!

The X(box360) Marks the Spot!

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:32:26 +0000

The furniture has been in for a while and some built-ins are completed…leave it to the install of the XBOX360 and finalizing the custom middle-atlantic rack to prompt me take a few photos…

The XBOX elite waited patiently for the middle atlantic faceplate and shelf to arrive…it fit like a glove!

Middle Atlantic Rack with XBOX360

Final Middle Atlantic Rack

Madden 10

sit back

xbox360

time to battle...

More Basement Shots

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:37:00 +0000

I’m no photographer and always use the auto settings on my dSLR but finally took the time to research indoor photo shooting a bit to try and get a better shot. I followed the simple advice of using a higher ISO speed, the largest aperature setting, and a shutter speed of 1/50 and with no flash there was a great improvement:

Basement Renovation

Basement Stairs w/ Carpet

basement renovation

Basement Staircase

Using a Power Bridge

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:29:08 +0000

When using a centralized power conditioner in an AV rack you need get the power from remote equipment like the screen, projector, subwoofer, back to the rack. A power bridge does this by essentially running a code-friendly extention cable through your walls/ceiling. I picked up a couple Power Pro Kits at monoprice for about 50 bucks a peice. They are pretty simple to install. Two faceplates at either end, and they connect to a standard single gang box. They have clamps, similar to the speakercraft speakers, that grip the drywall as you tighten the screws. Included is a heavy duty about 3-foot power cable that you attach to the end of the run via the “male” connection in that box. The two boxes are joined via romex (not supplied).

Shown below is the sub and the termination point for the sub and the TV. The same box is behind the screen.

Pro Power Kit/Power Bridge: As I took this photo I realized I had the sub plugged into the standard outlet - this was just a mistake and obviously defeats the purpose of the powerbridge!

Power Bridge at Sub

power bridge behind rack - TV & Sub.

Some Screen Shots

admin — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:35:38 +0000

Framed Recessed 58" Plasma

Panasonic 58" plasma recessed in wall

Carpet Installed

admin — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:33:22 +0000

Basement Carpet Installed

middle atlantic rack w/ wood frame

Framed Recessed 58" Plasma

Basement carpet finally installed. Wood framing around the screen and rack also complete (still need to sink some nails)…

Closing in the Rack Closet

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:36:56 +0000

I had to cut about six inches off the bottom of the door to get it to fit under the support beam. I had only 67 inches of clearance and the rough opening called for 82. It was actually pretty easy with a jig saw.

A/V Rack Closet

I’m not sure how, but I screwed up my rack space counting when ording the final parts. I guess I thought I had one more space avaialble than I did when I ordered a 1u filler and a 3u filler from Middle Atlantic. The plan was to leacve 2u for a shelf….ended up with 1u. Maybe I meant to order a 1u and a 2u…I’ll be placing yet another order…

Middle Atlantic Rack

Sealing Basement Floor

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:24:41 +0000

Although the basement is dry, I decided to put down a few coats of DryLoc anyway just to be safe. Almost ready for the new carpeting here:

sealing basement floor

New Basement Carpeting on the Way

Notice the screen was finally mounted!

Extra Protection from Basement Moisture

DryLoc Basement Floor

Installing Speakercraft AIM Wides in Ceiling

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:51:14 +0000

The Speakercraft AIM Wides were chosen for their aimable dual tweeters/cones. They feature the same easy-install flip out drywall supports as the in-ceilings. They were a little heavier than expected which made installing a little tricky for one person, but I managed. Having banana plugs on the wires helped a lot here.

I aimed the tweeters/cones as follows, with the side surrounds going front to back and the rear surrounds going side to side:

Speakercraft AIM Wide Placement

The woofer in the AIM Wides is 8″, giving the total diameter close to a foot:

Speakercraft AIM Wide

Handy push spring connectors:

Speakercraft AIM Wide Connection

The drywall Support clamp in closed position, where it is when raised into the hole:

Speakercraft AIM Wide Support Clamp Closed

The AIM Wide’s drywall support in the open position, where it flips to after you start screwing ii in:

Speakercraft AIM Wide

Speakercraft AIM Wide Template:

Speakercraft AIM Wide Template

…and the hole!

Speakercraft AIM Wide Installation

Word of CAUTION: If you are using a power screwdriver/drill of sorts….which really helps with an above-head installation, be very careful and slow…the clamp sort of sneaks up on you and can damage teh drywall:

Speakercraft AIM wide installation