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Topic: Lamp house On and Off every 20 minutes is bad?

John Hawkinson
Film God

Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 10-31-2002 11:07 AM

I always assumed those Kinotons were designed for platter use only, and Kinoton, in keeping with a lot of their other features, decided to "idiot-proof" the xenon arc. Hasn't Steve G. said that he modifies them not to work that way on installation?

Do the "Studio" versions of the kinotons (the ones that play backwards and funky speeds, etc.) come this way as well?

--jhawk

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

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

posted 10-31-2002 01:24 PM

I agree with Steve that under normal circumstances, striking the lamp so late and so often is a bad idea, and I never did it in any situation other than running nitrate. But a nitrate fire is an even worse idea, hence the precaution.

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Christos Mitsakis
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 242
From: Ag.Paraskevi, ATHENS, GREECE
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 10-31-2002 01:28 PM

Well so far the notion was to leave the lamps on, but this has faded in the past couple years. I am runing "The Pianist" with change over every twenty minutes and certainly the lamps are on. But this is an exception because of the lack of enough prints (two cinemas play the same movie with the same print - in terrible condition, Dolby digital error rate never falls below 6 on all the reels).
The practice is to shut off the lamps and strike them on before each show. On some ocasions the ignition pulse can be heard from all speakers, inspite the filtering.
Even in the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (begining next week) the practice is the same now. Turn off the lamps even between the change of the film (a 30 minute pause). I have seen last year the chief projectionist to strike the lamp the time the leader passes through the projector. On my asking why I didn't get a satisfying answer.

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Bill Gabel
Film God

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

posted 10-31-2002 03:46 PM

The answer to John's question.

Do the "Studio" versions of the Kinotons come this way as well?

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Frank Angel
Film God

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

posted 10-31-2002 07:32 PM

I second Scott's doubting the wisdom of the Kinotons' igniter/motor switch arrangement, but then I thought, OK, so you thread your Kinoton and then you want to run the leader down to your sync number....the igniter starts and stops the lamp as you inch your leader down to number 9 or 8 or whatever you number you use? That's worse than a bad idea. I would only have to see that happen once and I'd have the screwdriver and soldering gun out so fast you'd just see a blur as I disconnect that configuration.

And Scott, in the one booth where I am burning 4500w in ORC lamphouses (not the best for heat disipation....come to think of it, not the best for much of anything), leaving them on for two entire shows didn't seem to cause any overheating. The Century gates didn't get much hotter than normal. And I imagine that it really doesn't matter how long you leave them on, after about 10-15 minutes they are going to reach a steady-state temperature after which you could leave them on indefiniatly and it wouldn't get any hotter.

Frank

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 11-01-2002 09:34 AM

As to the Kinoton Studio machines doing that...depends on the model..the FP 30E-S will have that logic...I can't speak to the FP-30EC (a real studio projector).

As to running the projector down...using the "POS" button to walk the film down to the start point will not strike the lamp.

As to Kinotons being designed for platter...nope...if that was the case than their regular projector..the FP-30 wouldn't have spindles on each and every one.

It is just the Kinoton way and it is STUPID. Then again, to Kinoton, lamphouse dousers are also an OPTION. Thus, with no douser, the lamp needs to be off when the machine isn't running.

Whereas we always sell the units with a douser...we always wire the lamphouses the American way...you turn the lamp on when you want to and the projector has no say in the matter! In Kinoton/Norelco speak, they are terminals 60A and 60B (to and from the projector). You don't HAVE to do it the factory way.

Kinoton also has the blowers shut off when the lamp is turned off...another bad idea, in my opinion.

Another Kinoton silliness is the soundhead LEDs...they have them turn on when the douser opens (like the exciter lamp days). The problem is, for analog it "thumps" and for digital it guarantees that you will drop to analog on changeover...Rather than the lamphouse, I have the LEDs turn on when the projector runs.

Steve

------------------
"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

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