Home Theatre -- Not Fairmont Today :(

Sorry...no Fairmont destination today. I'm not saying I'm running short on places in Fairmont to visit but I might be running short on places in Fairmont to visit. I have a few more ideas but I didn't feel like driving around to get pictures. Back to Fairmont next week. In the meantime, I will show you how to hookup your own home theatre in a very fashionable and exciting way.

Let me give you a quick runup to how this needs to work...we're setting up a small projector with XBox 360 and sound system in a garage that has no infrastructure whatsoever to handle this project. The walls are concrete block and there really isn't much of a flat area due to shelves and whatnot. So, the first objective is to find a place where we can project since we don't have a screen.

A quick trip to the Super Wal-Mart was the answer. Some flat and white to project on that we could hang from the ceiling. A sheet might work but you have the problem of wrinkles and sheets absorb light. Vinyl was my idea but it's hard to find large sheets of vinyl somewhere at midnight. So, the answer was a genius one: a roller blind!

We mounted the roller blind. to the ceiling and, whammo!, instant screen. You'd be surprised how well that worked. If you need a screen quickly, and cheaply, you can't beat the roller blind. It truly was amazing

Next, power became a bit of an obstacle. Most garages don't have the greatest electrical planning. This was definitely no exception. While this wouldn't have been my first way of providing power to the XBox and projector, it got the job done and only slightly constricted the viewing plain.

Yeah, I know...doesn't look real clean. But don't tell me you're not impressed by the KFC buckets and surge protector hanging from the ceiling. If we had thought ahead enough to buy a real extension cord, we could have run it across the ceiling to the wall and then back down along the floor. But, it's late and this needs to end.

So, we have power and a screen...now we just need to hookup the equipment. How's this for a make-shift projection stand...

Hey! It doesn't have to be fancy...just functional. Unfortunately, one small detail was overlooked...audio. The options were a small TV or a small stereo system for audio. It seemed stupid to get a TV to play audio when you were using the projector...so we opted for the stereo. The only problem was the XBox outputs were running to the projector and you only have a few inches left for the audio connections and we had not RCA extensions. Oh boy...

Well, who needs extensions when you have buckets?

How's that for awesomeness? The final setup looked something like this:

So, there you go...a home theatre system in a garage...and done cheaply. The only product we had to purchase was that roller blind...and that was a whopping $15.00. Pretty awesome if you ask me. That's how you think outside the box when attempting to accomplish a project. Well, maybe not...I don't know. It worked so I guess that's all that matters. And no one was electrocuted or killed in the making of this system...so, there's always that.

Anyway, back to Fairmont next week. Thanks for your understanding, I guess.