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Author Topic: Tips for Booth Operations Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-12-2007 11:40 PM                     That's what automation and alarms are for Ken. Should something go wrong, the automation should immediately alert the projectionist. Often times a complex will have 2 or 3 shows starting at the same time and the projectionist cannot be by each projector. This also assumes that the projectionist knows what he is doing and the tech is worth a flip in maintaining the equipment, so I can certainly see where it may be desired to "force" the projectionist to be there to start the movie...again the whole peanuts thing. However if you have high quality people operating and maintaining the equipment, it really is not a problem.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-13-2007 12:53 AM                     quote: Ken Lackner Or the platter may decide not to take up, or the lamp may not strike, or.... You see my point? ..can I add to this: Middle of a show, a small surge hits the building and a "switcher" goes...the dreaded RED LIGHT of doom shows up on top...and obviously no spare - all because the the owner of the building won't put in surge suppressors in the main panel and the town has "dirty power"... -Monte  |  IP: Logged David Graves Film Handler Posts: 38 From: Cocoa, FL Registered: Nov 2006 posted 05-13-2007 01:40 AM                     quote: Brad Miller Often times a complex will have 2 or 3 shows starting at the same time and the projectionist cannot be by each projector. That's why it's always good to come downstairs and get some face time with whoever writes the schedule at the megas. If you explain how no more than one show can start at a time per projectionist twice a week, it only takes two or three years before management learns. Add one year for AMC.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-13-2007 03:34 AM                     quote: Brad Miller a complex will have 2 or 3 shows starting at the same time and the projectionist cannot be by each projector. ..but, there is a system to all of this: When I was Booth MGR at a 21 plex, we would often have on the avg 3 to 5 shows that would start at the same time. Thus, the operator would start the first one, 4 min early, then run to the other one and start that one 3 min early, next one was 2 min early, one would be on time and to where the last one would be a minute or two late..esp if it was on the other side of the building...but he learned to hustle fast enough to do all of this. NOW, being in a company where floor staff does booth starts and are needed downstairs with show starts 5 min apart (horrible starting sequences...) they start a pair of shows together-one house would be 2 min late while the other house be 2 min early, this gives them 7 minutes to be downstairs to do whatever til the next pairs are started using the same system above. Hectic in the long run but it works..(until a snafu hits and then the system is all but messed up good..). - Monte  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-13-2007 04:02 AM                     The argument against using the timer and relying on the alarm is that if you are at the projector you can avoid there being an alarm to begin with. And with Monte's way of having a couple movies starting early, on time, and late at a lot of multiplexes you can't end up doing that because they have the whole digital advertisements and the advertising company keeps track of when you start things early. In fact, I believe when the digital slides end the thing beeps at you and you have 1 minute of time to start your trailers (what someone told me; we've got slide projectors at mine). edit: And even if you had a 21-plex why would you want 5 shows starting at the same time? That's crazy. With that many shows at once not only will your booth people be overwhelmed (if they have to do manned starts) but your lobby will be a mess with tons of people all going to the concessions at the same time. And with that many people coming at once, the average person sees your line and says "Screw this" and doesn't buy anything. When there's less people in line, people who would've avoided it before have a higher likelihood of buying. So with shows spread out you increase your concessions.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-13-2007 11:28 AM                     I think you guys are forgetting that booth monkeys are going to be booth monkeys whether a timer starts the movie for them or not. There will still be film damage, the movies will still run out of frame and the movies will still run out of focus. If banning start timers prevented that, then explain to me why I have seen half a dozen movies at a local Cinemark in the last 6 months now and EVERY one of them ran a bit out of frame (a couple were obnoxiously bad) and EVERY one of them was out of focus and EVERY one (except one on opening weekend) was scratched. A few of them were so bad I had to get a manager and beg them to fix it. I am not trying to pick on Cinemark, it's just the only corporate chain theater I have been to in awhile to use as an example for paying a decent wage to get projectonists upstairs who will care. Yeah, banning start timers really helps. Uh huh. If these corporate "start timers were evil" guys were serious about putting an end to problems, they would start by locking down the framers to FORCE these monkeys to thread in frame. (Booth monkeys are looking for the easiest possible way to do the minimum amount of work, and having to stop the projector multiple times to reframe would teach them within a day or two to just thread the thing in frame the first time.)  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-13-2007 02:51 PM                        I fell in love with X10 devices decades ago and use them all over the place in a number of theatres. Variants of them can be configured to control almost anything you can think of. We use them in our booths so that at the door, by replacing the single wall switch with an X10 module, we can shut off everything in the booth from one location, preventing people from leaving lights on in the storage room or winky lights in the work areas, or the Mr. Coffee machine (ESPECIALLY the Mr. Coffee) in the rewind room, etc. The units can be controlled by telephone, they can control contacts for switching, they can be controlled by sunrise/sunset, they can be controlled thru walls by a little transmitter on a key fob, and as in Brad's tip, they can controlled by a timer. The only caveat is, depending on the electrical environment, they can be irratic. In 90% of where we have used them, they have been reliable for years and years, never once being erroniously triggered. In one booth, however, they were not 100% reliable....most importantly, some receivers would go on randomly by noise on the AC lines. We have installed boosters, blockers, and amplifiers (at considerable added expense) and although in this one booth we have been able to reduce random triggers to a minimum, they do still happen. In one system where a telephone responder is used so that the house manager can call in and turn on a camera & related equipemtn in one of the control rooms so an image can be seen on monitors in the lobby, occassionally the camera would turn on for no reason and left on for days. After trying in vain to filter devices that might be putting noise on the AC line and adding filters, we eventually gave up and just installed a module that let us send OFF signals every hour between 1am and 10am (kind of a curfew safety). I was thinking, using an X10 timer on a projector could theoretically make the system susceptible to a random ON pulse of noise on the AC line -- not a good thing. In fact, I believe someplace in the X10 manuals I recall them saying NOT to use X10 modules on dangerous and unattended devices like motors or heaters, etc. This might be something to consider. Before I would get the timers and Universal Modules installed on the all the START switches, I would first get a single receiver module and hook it up to a light; leave it in the same circuit as the automation for a few weeks, just as test to see if it is ever erroniously triggered ON. You want to be are sure that your electrical environment is not going to cause X10 receivers to trigger. You don't want to find out after the fact that when you strike any arc, all the projectors turn on! BTW, switching the transmitters and receivers to different system codes or set to different unit codes (there are 16 available unit codes and 16 system codes) does NOT improve limiting random triggers.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-13-2007 03:01 PM                     While I have yet to find an X10 randomly trigger, I have on rare occasion found a situation where it wouldn't control things. In the booths I have used them in, I simple make sure they are all on the same phase and it has never given me any problems. BTW Frank, there is now Windows software now to control anything you so desire.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-13-2007 03:14 PM                        Yup -- a great module; total flexiblity. We use one to control a background music system, being able set multiple ON/OFF times (one every minute if you want), different depending on the days of the week, as well as the office lighting in various rooms in the suite and the campus carillon system. Most excellent invention. I have always been surprised that it didn't become more ubiquitous. If I ever built my own house, I would make every light switch and every outlet X10 modules. The cost isn't that much more than regular switches and recepticals.  |  IP: Logged David Graves Film Handler Posts: 38 From: Cocoa, FL Registered: Nov 2006 posted 05-13-2007 04:19 PM                     With the preshow being delivered digitally, and automatically, most places, the option of starting 3-5 minutes early isn't there anymore- you cut off the ads closest to the show, which are the most expensive ones. NCM actually delivers a report to theaters (usually home office) detailing ALL early starts over 20 seconds. So late's not an option- now if you've got 4 or 5 starting at once, you either have to use timers or face the possibility of a show starting 5-8 minutes late, which is noticeable. I'm dead set against timers, because all sorts of things can go wrong. Simply put, you've gotta check everything. Otherwise, inevitable something's out of frame, in the wrong sound format, or worse, getting damaged due to a misthread or bad equipment.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-13-2007 06:00 PM                     Umm David, if it is inevitable, I think you guys need some serious training over there. I don't have to deal with those retarded 2wenty preshows, but if I did I there is a little box that lights up a pretty little light at start time that can be tied off of. You boys getting your panties in a wad over the idea of a start timer better stop whining or I'll post a "how to" page on interfacing to that box just to annoy you!  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-13-2007 11:17 PM                     I really don't understand why people would thread and frame later, in a word of "having it be easy." I find having to stare at the screen and frame it to be more time consuming than just framing it right the first time. Especially since our leaders start out with with some black film that I'd have to wait through before the first ad starts. Framing it right I just need to make sure nothing catastrophic happened with my threading. The framing is one less thing I have to worry about since I know I am doing that part right.  |  IP: Logged David Graves Film Handler Posts: 38 From: Cocoa, FL Registered: Nov 2006 posted 05-13-2007 11:55 PM                     Trust me, I dream of a world where 18 year olds aren't tossed into the booth. We train, and we train well, but in the end they're 18 year olds. They'll make a mistake eventually. A misframe is bad, and will get you yelled at around here- but a misframe that lasts for about four frames is always better than one that lasts about four minutes.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-14-2007 12:15 AM                     BAH! Last year I trained a 16 year old FOOTBALL JOCK who thought we ran DVDs and a week later he was projecting on his own magnificently. (This was in one of those platter array booths, no less!) It's all in the training...and part of that is kicking anyone out on their ass who doesn't meet the standards within 3 training days. Most people are just too nice "oh he just needs another few months of training that's all".  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-14-2007 01:03 AM                     It doesn't remotely matter what age someone is being tossed into the booth. Someone who's new/untrained can make mistakes easily. Hell, the people who have film experience could make mistakes too (just those ones tend to be out of the idea that "old habits die hard"). If someone is properly trained and understands the limits of what they've been trained in then things tend to go pretty well.  |  IP: Logged

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