Studio art junior Josh Spencer, left, and his roommate, computer engineering junior Keith Jackson, have equipped their room with an 8-foot projector on one wall to watch movies. The two, who have known each other since the eighth grade and have been roommates for three years, have 10-15 people over for a movie night every Tuesday in the triple room they share in Shaw Hall.
Studio art junior Josh Spencer has made a night at the movies more than just a night out — it’s a living space.
With a projector screen that takes up almost an entire dorm room wall, Spencer has created a home theater in his Shaw Hall dorm room that has now become a staple in his college lifestyle.
Playing movies mostly off his computer, Spencer said the projector can hook up to basically anything a normal TV can, including a DVD player and game systems.
The State News sat down with Spencer to find out what makes his room so unique.
The State News How would you describe your room?
Josh Spencer It’s pretty awesome. It’s a lot of fun and there’s always something to do. Right now we have eight computers in here, the projector, a (Nintendo) Wii and three sound systems. So there’s always something to do.
SN What gave you the idea for the projector?
JS We were on the Internet one day and we saw somebody who made their own projector by taking apart an LCD screen and putting it on an overhead projector and we were like, ‘Well, we can do that.’ So we did and we had that for a while but then we wanted something better so we got this.
SN Did you originally find this to be a good way to meet people?
JS Oh yeah. People always walk by and stop in and are like, ‘That’s so cool!’ We just invite people in. It’s a great way to get girls to come in the room.
SN If you had more funds, how would you improve the setup?
JS I would probably make a better stand for it because we did ours in about 10 minutes. I would get an actual pull-down screen so that it was all the same color.
SN What are theater nights like in here?
JS Every Tuesday night we have movie night around 9:30 p.m., and we just tell people to come all the time. There’s usually about 15 people in here and we just hang out and watch a movie. We usually have the same amount of people every time.
SN How is the surround sound set up?
JS They’re just computer speakers, but in the front we wired in our own so we have seven speakers, so it’s 7.1 surround sound. The subwoofer is under the couch, so when you watch an action movie or something you can actually feel all the bass and feel it vibrate and everything.
SN Living in the dorms, do you have trouble with the setup being so loud?
JS Nobody’s ever said anything to me about it being really loud. I play my music loud all the time and the movies are always really loud and no one says anything.
SN Do you use the projector screen for anything aside from movies?
JS Sometimes we hook the Wii up to the projector, so that’s a lot of fun. It’s like actually bowling.
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