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Topic: State Electrical Inspectors. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......

Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 01-21-2002 10:55 AM

Over here there are still laws on the statute book governing the use of nitrate in cinemas (1985 Cinematograph Act), and what safety precautions a local council must check before granting a cinema a licence to project nitrate to a paying audience.

AFAIK, the only cinema left in the UK which is licensed to show nitrate and still does so on a regular basis is screen 2 at the National Film Theatre in London. Screen 1 used to show nitrate but stopped after Dolby and DTS penthouse readers were installed in the early 1990s and the enclosed spoolboxes had to be removed to make way for them.

The last nitrate print I saw there was 'They Made Me a Fugitive' in late 98 or early 99. It was scratched to hell, but the dense, silvery picture still looked great...

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Pete Naples
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1565
From: Dunfermline, Scotland
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 01-21-2002 12:46 PM

I think ( and I may well be wrong here ) that the Tynseide in Newcastle also has Nitrate Licence.

The whole UK cinemas act is well in need of a re-write. I've seen a 6 screen multi opened last year, with buckets of sand and drop down shutters. They'll be insisting on metal lined booths next!

Generally I find that electrical inspectors/ clerk of works etc have absolutely no idea what they are looking at in the booth, so just leave us alone. The only connection to equipment done by electricians is usually the incoming mains. Often they hang the surrounds too, and we get them to connect as they go.

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John Anastasio
Master Film Handler

Posts: 325
From: Trenton, NJ, USA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 01-21-2002 01:03 PM

Actually, Paul....he took five seconds to look at the cable, said "fine" and left! He didn't even inspect the connections. That damn cat peed on everything. I had a pet rabbit one year that chewed the insulation off a 110 volt line going to an oil-filled heater. The cat came along and provided us with some spectacular if somewhat stinky fireworks. He disappeared shortly after that....just walked out of the house and never came back.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 01-22-2002 10:21 AM

Pete - I had a tour of the Tyneside just before Christmas and the DP75s in screen 1 certainly had spoolboxes, but I didn't notice any porthole shutters and there certainly wasn't a direct exit from the projection box to the exterior of the building, so I'd be surprised if it had a nitrate licence.

What it does have, though, are carbon arc lamps in both screens! I'd never seen a film projected using carbons before. Looks totally different - a sort of blueish light. I guess colour prints would have to be graded totally differently if carbons were still in widespread use.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-22-2002 10:27 AM

Carbons should be whiter not bluish if so they may have the trim at the wrong spot.
In many locations if the booth is common to multiauditoria then the fire shutters are required to eliminate the passage of fire from one aud to another via the booth, just like is required in airducting
In fact in many locations duct closures are used

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Pete Naples
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1565
From: Dunfermline, Scotland
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 01-22-2002 11:21 AM

From what you've seen Leo, I too would be surprised if the Tyneside had a nitrate licence! I suspect I stand corrected.
Yeah it does run carbons in both screens, there is a little piece in the latest Cinema Technology mag about that very fact.

Gordon, I've never come across drop down shutters in a new install apart from this one. It was built in a region where no one has opened a new cinema for probably eighty years, so I guess the inspectors are not used to dealing with such things, and go by the book. Duct closers are not unheard of here, but far from common.

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