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Topic: Stupid "features" of cinema equipment

Wolff King Morrow
Master Film Handler

Posts: 490
From: Denton, TX, USA
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 09-05-2004 08:54 PM

Here's mine:

The analog 'amp & hours' display board on Strong Highlight II consoles relies on the wiring to be connected in order for the lamp to shut off. I just learned this wonderful design concept when one of our projector lamps decided to remain on with no way to shut it off other than the breakers. I had to examine the wires hooked into the display board and found it was a tiny gray wire not fully 'pierced' by a shoddy jaw-clamp.

Just plain stupid (and dangerous) design.

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 09-06-2004 02:10 AM

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
I've got to wonder if LIT isn't just following on the heels of CFS.... anyone know?

LIT is building (with their name on it this time) the original CFS vertical console, the NSP and ESP Super Platters, the CFS automations, and an improved (in my opinion) version of the CFS dimmer systems.

They also are making an all-new horizontal lamphouse.

-Aaron

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

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

posted 09-06-2004 03:27 AM

My pet hate was the green plastic transit cases in which prints were shipped in Britain. I get the impression that they're gradually falling out of use now as they become knackered and are replaced with something more sensible, but they were still used for around 80% of print shipments when I left the business.

Reasons for hating them? Firstly, they are deliberately designed to be uncomfortable for one person to carry. This was apparently a health and safety measure to discourage people from injuring their backs lifting heavy loads; but these people really don't live in the real world and in reality these cases probably increased the possibility of workplace accidents rather than reducing them. Secondly, the recessed slots in these cases hold six reels in groups of two. So if your print has seven reels you need two of these massive boxes, and if there are an odd number of reels one of them is likely to be rattling around loose in the case. Those cases must have been responsible for thousands of shattered plastic film containers and dented steel cans. Thirdly, the clasps which held the lid shut got damaged very easily. And the list goes on.

Those f-----g green boxes must have caused a massive amount of print damage and strain/injury to be people who had to carry them over the years, I'd have thought. Whoever was responsible for designing them should be escorted to a cellar and introduced to The Gimp (or escorted up a hill and introduced to the wicker man; I'm not fussy).

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 09-06-2004 04:04 AM

quote: Aaron Sisemore
LIT is building (with their name on it this time) the original CFS vertical console, the NSP and ESP Super Platters, the CFS automations, and an improved (in my opinion) version of the CFS dimmer systems.

Oh for fuck's sake. Please tell me you are kidding Aaron. Say it isn't so! We have enough shitty equipment on the market right now as it is. <insert graemlin of face shooting himself in the head>

That's my "feature" for this post...anything and everything CFS ever did!

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Wolff King Morrow
Master Film Handler

Posts: 490
From: Denton, TX, USA
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 09-06-2004 07:10 AM

Just noticed:

quote: Brad Miller
Strong/Potts platters have that stupid "feature" of not having enough elevator travel distance on takeup. I see more rollers bent out of position in Strong platter booths than with any other make of platter.

Tell me about it! New employees in the booth I train end up going through a couple weeks of having to deal with the unforgiving nature on takeup, and I end up having to bend the rollers back into place.

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Matthew Jaro
Film Handler

Posts: 74
From: Gaithersburg, MD, USA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 09-06-2004 08:53 AM

I hate the fall-apart shipping reels (with the cores inside). The tabs are always breaking, leaving you with two half reels. I wonder how much film damage this causes? When the one piece plastic Plio-Magic type reels replaced the old aluminum shipping reels, I thought that was a big advance. The aluminum reels would always bend and crimp the film.

But of course ---- they had to change to cheap fall-apart reels, so things are worse than they were before. They now take the risk of damaging prints to save a few cents on each reel.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

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

posted 09-06-2004 09:51 AM

I find it off that the lamp wouldn't shut off with the amp/hour meter board disconnected ince the contactor in the rectifier isn't connected to it
I would be tempted to fig a bit deeper they may be an underlieing wireing error somewhere
And as for travel distance if operated properly that is a non issue
I don't consider it a design flaw to expect it to be operated in a professional manner

My design beef the dousers in the Xenex Lamphouse always self closing and burnuing up

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-06-2004 10:40 AM

"Oh for fuck's sake. Please tell me you are kidding Aaron. Say it isn't so! We have enough shitty equipment on the market right now as it is. <insert graemlin of face shooting himself in the head>
That's my "feature" for this post...anything and everything CFS ever did!"
_________________________________________________________________

Brad,

Now that this is actually known it deserves to be put in the "Tips" section under "Warnings!"

Mark

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 09-06-2004 01:48 PM

quote:
Oh for fuck's sake. Please tell me you are kidding Aaron. Say it isn't so!

Unfortunately, it is very true.

LIT's product line: Be afraid....VERY afraid. [Frown]

-Aaron

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 09-06-2004 01:54 PM

I got brave and clicked on that link. Oh the horror to think these machines would go back into production...complete with PEAVEY sound equipment!!!

Cinemark will undoubtedly be dancing for joy, as that equipment package was a standard purchase for them.

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Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 09-06-2004 01:59 PM

So is Cinema West equipping with all LIT equipment now???

Aaron, I enjoy how you now show such disdain for the equipment when you always seemed just fine with it until everybody started ragging on it. Honestly, until I heard Brad bitching about it, I never really knew there was anything wrong with the lamphouses or with Peavey.

Now the platters and the Monee projectors... I always knew were crap.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 09-06-2004 02:03 PM

Oh be honest Scott, it took you getting out of CFS world to see what better options there are out there. [Razz]

...and before anyone asks, I don't see Cinemark switching back to CFS products. They are currently yanking all of their CFS lamphouses out in favor of Christie. It's interesting (and as I always said)...pull a 7K CFS out for a 4.5K Christie. Likewise I think they are pulling 4K CFS units out for 2K Christies. In the end, they will probably have better light on screen too. [Cool]

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Frank Angel
Film God

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

posted 09-06-2004 02:49 PM

Well, this is not a "feature" as much as a lack of one. The Kelmar rewind motor and control box uses an articulated arm to stop the motor when the wind is completed. It basically is just a shutoff switch. Yet there is no reason why that arm could not be shafted to a control pot that would control the motor speed, hence control the film tension and keep a constant tension from the beginning of the wind to the end. How beneficial it would be not to have all that godawful tension at the end of the wind, which is what happens as the diameter of the motored reel increases. To eliminate it, you have to manually decrease the rewind speed as the reel fills. This can be done, but even when you do, you can't be as accurate as a servo-feedback system would. Anyway, in the real world, hardly anyone stands there controlling the motor speed. In fact, the auto-shutoff encourages operators to leave the bench during the rewind. A simple servo control using the existing arm could go a long way to make repetitive rewinding in change-over houses less damaging to prints.

So to make it on topic, the auto-shutoff "feature" on the Kelmar rewind motor is a stupid feature because it doesn't go far enuf.

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Per Hauberg
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 883
From: Malling, Denmark
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 09-06-2004 03:36 PM

Monee ? I thought, those were allowed only in those parts of the world, where cows are allowed to walk in and out the cinemas
too ??

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 09-06-2004 03:48 PM

quote: Scott D. Neff
So is Cinema West equipping with all LIT equipment now???

NO. Some LIT dimmers here and there, and I am afraid we will probably be using the LIT horizontal consoles in Petaluma. (A review on the horizontal consoles will be forthcoming once they get installed) Projectors there will be Simplex 1050s on 5-Stars and platters will be AW3s, and if I get my way automations will be TA-10s.

quote: Scott D. Neff
Aaron, I enjoy how you now show such disdain for the equipment when you always seemed just fine with it until everybody started ragging on it. Honestly, until I heard Brad bitching about it, I never really knew there was anything wrong with the lamphouses or with Peavey.

Scotty, when did I ever say that equipment was 'just fine', especially the consoles? I always have been a critic of the CFS vertical consoles, because they just don't put out the light of a Kneisley, Strong, or later Christie... The problem we always had was that there were no options for upgrading since all of the theatres (prior to 1999 when we began installing Strong lamphouses) were all-CFS packages (read: cheap) Granted, I did tolerate the SPP (Blue) Super Platter for its ease of repair, but always had issues (as did Norm) with its brain design and microswitch reliability. As for the NSP Supers, IMO they were a very poor design to begin with (as witnessed to the three major retrofits I had to do to them to get them even close to as reliable as an SPP Super).

quote: Scott D. Neff
Now the platters and the Monee projectors... I always knew were crap.

See above re: the platters...

Of the three Monees we had in service, only one of them was a really good machine (it is now in the company screening room- another went on Ebay and the third is the parts machine for the one in the screening room)

The Cinecitas, on the other hand were 100% CRAP, and were replaced as soon as they died with 'real' Centurys [Smile]

-Aaron

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