|  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

So Michael Schaffer will be a unique position of telling us what he runs the most after he has been open a few months. If I had all Dolby digital, I wouldn't run anything else. Sony can sound just fine but there have been some reliability issues. I just hope there is not sound bleed between auditoriums.

When a film comes in all three sound formats, which one will you use? How will you choose?

The impression I got from the photos on the website is that there are a lot of stairs and escalators at this theatre.

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

I'll have pictures of my screening room setup on the site sometime in the near future. Look for them.

"As I wrote earlier, when a SDDS track drops out, it´s due to the printing quality (or rather, the lack of it). I have seen completely wasted prints on which the SDDS track still performed very well - if the print was done correctly in the first place."

I have also seen the same with SRD, and DTS simply can not be beat in this department. There is just no argument there. Anyway, I think a lot of the general population's dissatisfaction with SDDS is not in the printing, but that the SDDS data is most easily damaged than the other digital formats and as such has a greater tendency of dropping out. Personally, I do not like the sound from the digital EQ found in the SDDS units. It's just too harsh and metallic. That being said, I have found that the SDDS sound when EQ'd through a Dolby processor with good old fashioned cat64B cards simply can not be beat. As AMC says "there IS a difference!"

While print wear is not an issue with me and *most* films are printed properly at the lab, I do have two beefs with the format. First we have that annoying BUZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZ from the singing sprocket. On a DFP-2000 the reader can be threaded with one perf less tension, which stops this (and actually improves performance). Unfortunately, there is no way around the noise with a DFP-3000 and it is an unpleasant noise to deal with in the booth. Add to that many port windows are not fully sound proof, and in some auditoriums I can not hear the projector, but that buzz is there loud and clear.

My only other beef with SDDS is that the technicians refuse to add the one feature that I want...to have a user selectable disable control for that damned "digital concealment" mode. If the film was printed right at the lab and there is no wear on it, this of course does not matter. Unfortunately, I see lab printing where a brand new print DCMs. Many people claim this can not be heard, but I can hear it happening and it drives me nuts. It should just drop to SR instead of "covering it up" with highly compressed backup audio tracks. I also wish the "return to digital upon valid data" time frame was user selectable.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this to turn into an SDDS rant, for with the improvements that Sony has made, it is no longer on my hated list and I have been very pleased with it's results. However, until they can fix those problems, it will not stand out as being the clear winner, 8 channel prints excepted.

While at this stage you are rightfully concerned with the architecture
of your theatre (which reminds me of the Pompideau Museum in Paris)
and of the machinery within, I hope your theatre will excel in another
area as well.

For in the US many promising multiplexes have quickly deteriorated and failed because too little attention was paid to the human dimensions of theatre operation. Huge sums are routinely spent on construction, too little on maintenance, while salaries are so meager that major corporations are dependent on workers and managers paid
miserably small wages and salaries. It takes more than mechanical and electronic technology; what is needed is a happy work force of
supervisors and workers content with their working conditions, their remuneration, and their loyalty to their co-workers and employers.
This cannot be achieved unless workers feel that the welfare of the theatre and their personal welfare are interconnected.
Will your new theatre excel in the input your workers will have in determining their working conditions? Will this be achieved through collective bargaining, union contracts, realistic pension plans that
reward workers for their service? Promotion policies? Recognition
of workers' rights to form unions?
Or will your theatre be dependent on part time teenage labor at minimum wage, exploiting those too young to think of planning for the future, causing annual turnover of half the staff? Will there be opportunities for the ambitious to advance through proven competence as well as rewards for long service of those who prefer to remain where they are, perfecting their abilities and providing staff
solidity?

quote:

---

Hello there,
I am technical manager of a new 7-screen multiplex which is going to open in early May in Berlin. We might be one of the most modern cinemas in the world, at least I have never heard of one which is better equipped. My above question is not a taunt, I am merely wondering if anyone else has such an array of toys under their roof:
SDDS with 8 channels in ALL screens/Dolby Digital/dts
HPS-4000 speaker systems fired by Electro Voice amps
Kinoton FP30E projectors with EMK1 plus network-controlled automation
and multimedia-equipment such as an Apple Macintosh G4 dual-processor video-editing station/8-track digital recorder/video and audio bus connecting the cinemas and plasma displays around the house

Again, my qustion is not meant to be aggressive. It´s simply that in our team, we are all enthusiasts, and I am curious if there are other cinemas with this kind of equipment...
By the way, this is my first post on this forum, so hello everybody!
Mike

---

Well i have Dolby Stereo in my one screen

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

Ken, the main advantage of the CA21 automations is that you can custom design them for your particular needs. Joe Redifer had a custom chip made a couple of years ago when he was working at the Chinese in Colorado and got all of the major bugs worked out. I simply had them start with that chip and added other features that I needed, the most important one being automated changeovers that are more accurate than any human. (Well, maybe except for Steve Guttag.)

Originally, the CA-21 came to us with the Xenon tied to the Motor relay. We had that separated out so that "Auto Start" now strikes the Xenon. This was to avoid Xenon strikes every time the motor was activated (including "Run Down").

We also had the F1 and F2 keys programmed with "Interrupt" and "Resume" sequences.

------------------
And, hey! Let's be careful out there.