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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Sensurround (Page 2)

 
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Author Topic: Sensurround
Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

- posted 04-20-2002 01:06 AM      Profile for Paul Mayer   Author's Homepage   Email Paul Mayer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
As to the whereabouts of those original cabinets, eight of them live on (in reworked form) as subwoofers under the screen at the Hitchcock mixing stage on the Universal lot. I attended a SMPTE/AES meeting there last year and got to hear the depthcharge sequence of U-571 on that system. Impressive, but the performance of the system did make me feel queasy. The room engineers claimed during the Q&A that the original tuning was flat down to 10Hz--they had to raise it due to complaints of discomfort.

The room's performance with those cabinets is impressive, but I wonder what accomodations the guys have to make when mixing a production on that stage. I've never heard that kind of LF performance at any "regular" theatre.

Paul
Gimpy Film Putter Inner

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

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

- posted 04-20-2002 10:32 AM      Profile for Gordon McLeod   Email Gordon McLeod   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We have a bunch of them at cinepshere as the subs for the 35/70 presentations and they make the place rock

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Edwin Graf Diemer
Film Handler

Posts: 47
From: Red Bank, NJ, USA
Registered: Jul 2000

- posted 04-21-2002 06:40 PM      Profile for Edwin Graf Diemer   Email Edwin Graf Diemer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Sensurround was great fun, especially with "Earthquake". In Delaware it played first-run at the Branmar Cinema in Wilmington-the only theater in the state to have it at the time. The theater was in a strip mall and Mom still remembers seeing the lines of people from the bookstore she worked at. It still had cracks in the projection booth ceiling when it closed years later because of the engagement.

NBC broadcast "Earthquake" on its "Big Event" series. The Sensurround effect was simulcast on various NBC FM affilliates-for example, WFLN in Philadelphia carried it. It worked very well-the film was shown over two nights and the earthquake segment was on the first, so that evening was the only one to be simulcast.

Another "Sensurround" story-I remember reading in a film magazine about kids seeing "Earthquake" over and over again. They would stand in the back of the theater, and when the quake hit they would grab their legs and roll down the aisle!

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

- posted 04-21-2002 08:57 PM      Profile for John Walsh   Email John Walsh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
A friend of mine told he ran Sensurround at a theater in Florida. There was a pet store next door, and it killed all the fish. They (insurance) had to buy new fish.

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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi

Posts: 215

Registered: Apr 2004

- posted 11-25-2011 04:25 AM      Profile for System Notices         Edit/Delete Post 

It has been 3504 days since the last post.

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Jerry Axelsson
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 107
From: Stockholm, Sweden
Registered: May 2005

- posted 11-25-2011 04:25 AM      Profile for Jerry Axelsson   Email Jerry Axelsson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hello friends,

I am looking for SENSURROUND documentation. Manuals, ads, info sheets 35mm ads, trailers etc. Please contact me off-site if you can help out.
Any scanned pdf:s would be greatly appreciated.

Also looking for a SENSURROUND processor in good, working condition.

Please contact me off-site.

Thank you in advance.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 11-25-2011 11:44 PM      Profile for Frank Angel   Author's Homepage   Email Frank Angel   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Jerry, the American Cinematographer Mag had a full issue on EARTHQUAKE and probably the most complete information about every aspect of the sound system, even including the worldwide print inventory with format information. If you can get your hands on that at a public library, that would probably be exactly what you are looking for. My copy is in storage otherwise I would give you the issue volume number and year. Look thru the issues the same year EARTHQUAKE came out.

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Don Furr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 509
From: Sun City, Ca USA
Registered: Nov 2002

- posted 11-26-2011 07:16 AM      Profile for Don Furr   Email Don Furr   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Jerry that mag that Frank is talking about seem to be for sale on Ebay. Check item #360384363491.

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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001

- posted 11-27-2011 03:19 PM      Profile for Mitchell Dvoskin   Email Mitchell Dvoskin   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Was there ever a Sensurround processor? While I would not rule it out, in all the Sensurround booth I was in back then, it was either just a crossover routing the extended sub bass to some powerful Cerwin Vega amplifiers, or in one case, a manual switch that turned on a "rumble" generator that sent rumble to the Sensurround amps.

Anyone know if there was ever an actual Sensurround processor?

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Robert Throop
Master Film Handler

Posts: 412
From: Vernon, NY USA
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 11-27-2011 03:40 PM      Profile for Robert Throop   Email Robert Throop   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
There certainly was a SenSurround processor. I had two which I sent to Thomas Haurslev in Copenhagen. There were different mods depending on the film. For example "Earthquake" had a rumble generator triggered by control tones on the soundtrack. "Midway"
used information from the soundtrack and sent it to different banks of speakers.

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 11-28-2011 10:24 AM      Profile for Bill Gabel   Email Bill Gabel   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
There was four versions of the Sensurround processor.
Mod. I (Earthquake), Mod. II (Midway, ...), Mod. III (mine has a 1979 conversion date on it, from Mod II) and Mod. IIIA .
The Mod. II versions was converted to Mod. III's & Mod. IIIA's.
The Mod. I version is the rarest of the units, because of how Sensurround changed the system for later films. I know of only three Mod. I units in the U.S. (Dolby has two and I have Mod. I unit #24).

I have one Mod. I unit and two Mod. III units.

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Thomas Hauerslev
Master Film Handler

Posts: 451
From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Registered: Aug 2000

- posted 12-17-2011 11:26 PM      Profile for Thomas Hauerslev   Author's Homepage   Email Thomas Hauerslev   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
More about Sensurround - my units are now stored in Karlsruhe, Germany.

http://www.in70mm.com/library/process/sensurround/index.htm

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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi

Posts: 215

Registered: Apr 2004

- posted 02-09-2018 02:10 AM      Profile for System Notices         Edit/Delete Post 

It has been 2245 days since the last post.

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Allan Barnes
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 108
From: GRAND BEND, ONTARIO, CANADA
Registered: Mar 2009

- posted 02-09-2018 02:10 AM      Profile for Allan Barnes   Author's Homepage   Email Allan Barnes   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Does anyone have the BLUEPRINTS to build these Sensurround speaker cabinets ?

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 02-09-2018 06:50 PM      Profile for Frank Angel   Author's Homepage   Email Frank Angel   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Funny that the Mod I is so hard to come by, given how the film played pretty extensively all over the country and overseas. What happens to all that hardware...theatres just chucked it in the dumpsters?

They released an LP of the soundtrack -- I have it -- and the first track which only last a minute or two takes up what normally would contain 4 or 5 minutes of "normal" audio. The grooves had to be spaced very widely apart to prevent the modulation from cutting into the adjacent grooves. Many a home speaker system was damaged by playing that cut at normal levels.

Thing is, even if you didn't have the processor, today you could use that recording (which was recorded directly from the output of the processor) to recreate it. If memory serves, I believe there were only 4 volume levels so it would just be a matter of knowing where in the film the rumble needed to come on and at what levels, pretty easily done using a multitrack recording program and adding the rumble audio to additional tracks at appropriate levels, then author a DCP with an additional channel assigned to the rumble audio. Of course you will need a really hefty sub-bass system, I mean, those Cerwin Vegas literally vibrated the organs inside your damn body! But with today's available low end systems, while you might need to add a bunch more equipment, but it could probably be done pretty effectively and easily.

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