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Author Topic: "selling" theatre owners on upgrades Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 06-18-2007 10:53 AM                        I feel your pain. It is possible that the boss was just using you to get labor concessions by demonstrating how fast & good this is. Of course the real savings more than make up for the cost of your product. It is always hard to sell quality, especially if the location has a closing date: lease expiration. This is a shame, since MOST theatre systems can be easily moved to another deserving site when needed. Louis  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2007 11:14 AM                        quote: Louis Bornwasser especially if the location has a closing date: lease expiration. Anyone have an idea of the average life-span of a theatre these days? I'm thinking 15 years, but that is just a wild guess. My theatre is 66 years old, new theatres certainly aren't built to last that long, much less operate. I suspect the business model is to get a good ten years out of a multiplex and then let it decay for another 5-10 years. If that is the case, I can see the business reason for not upgrading. At least that seems to be the way things work around here.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 06-18-2007 12:41 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Our 27-year-old Simplex doesn't run as many shows as a city machine would Gee Mike, that XL is still in diapers then only being that old and being run prob 1/5th the length as those mainstream cinemas that crank out the many shows that you said. Just too bad that a filmwind in the machine did a number on the INT assembly. I had that happen last month and had to rebuild one due to a uncaught bad splice during a buildup found that area to break in. I know of a 4plex that has two of the old black wrinklecased units with early serial numbers, the oil fill tube in the front,(but has to sit on 5 star soundheads, which I had to do a bearing overhaul on this one unit, instead of the classic 4star units) and purring away as an XL should. XL's are hardy unit and runs forever. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2007 01:21 PM                        quote: Monte L Fullmer Gee Mike, that XL is still in diapers Yeah, the only thing we've had to replace in the booth since our initial foray into automation has been sound equipment. (Electronics...go figure.)  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 06-18-2007 01:50 PM                        I serviced 2 theatres in different locations with a pair of XL (old) and MI-9030 soundheads. The total cost in each case for 30 years for 2 machines was less than $1000. Works out to $2.77 per month. Each theatre had (1) bad intermittent caused by not oiling....yes, they leaked. If you remove the cost of those intermittents it works out to be $0.75 per month.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2007 03:07 PM                     We sold one G-87 to a theater that I don't normally even service... one of our other employees does that part of the country. So one G-87 in the last two years out of about 24 Supers? Whats that calculate to Louis? I've never put any parts in the E-7 at Big Timber.... Its been running for over 17 years now with a schedult about the same as Mikes. Also Mike.... Whats a film Clog? Never heard of that one..... Mark  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2007 05:04 PM                        Mark - we had a print of Forrest Gump on a reissue that had a splice with a gap in it. It was one of those overnight circuit deals so I had no time to inspect. The bad splice ran thru just fine until the very last show, when it caught on the failsafe and stopped the takeup. Film filled the projector. At first the picture was fine and so was the sound, since the film was still running thru the DTS reader on top. Making matters worse - it was the last showing, so I was out changing the marquee and missed all the fun. I came in to find the film jammed so tight in the projector that it stopped the intermittent from moving. CLACO overnighted me a loaner and rebuilt the unit.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2007 07:27 PM                     Dam, even the rooter rooter man wouldn't be able to free that clog . I see what you mean! I've never had that happen but I'm sure I've repaired projectors that have had it happen... folks are too embarrased to tell the truth. Mark  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 06-18-2007 07:57 PM                     Well, have to admit, I had a clog as well with an XL with "Star Wars" back in 1977 at my home town theatre only this one is where the takeup belt clip came undone and for about 10 minutes film piled up inside the machine of the 2nd reel. Luckilly, the film broke after being so jammed up tight in there (no wrap around the INT assembly, thank goodness..) and had white screen for a while. Some of the film was still repairable and showable, but a good 65 ft was way beyond that plateau. Told the mgr on this and got a replacement print instead of a replacement reel and he just reported the need for replacement due to excessive print wear..and nothing was said about it. BUT, where was I at the time? Downstairs fixing a C02 tank fitting in the conc room....they didn't know that a new gasket needs to go into the fitting and when they changed the tank, thus no gasket was there inside the fitting since it stuck on the face of the old tank fitting. Thus, when they did the change and turned on the gas...talk about a frosted tank and fitting from CO2 escaping and didn't know what to do ... I still have that crumpled up section of "StarWars" to this day - the section of Ben Kanobi introducing the light sabre to Luke Skywalker...about 65 ft of what got crumpled. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 06-18-2007 08:53 PM                     quote: Monte L Fullmer I still have that crumpled up section of "StarWars" to this day - the section of Ben Kanobi introducing the light sabre to Luke Skywalker...about 65 ft of what got crumpled. OK... time to give it a proper Stars Wars burial on top of a heeping pile of firewood. It ought to burn up reel nice! Anyway, when I came to work for the new owners I told them up front that they would need to invest monies in upgrades to the sound systems and replace a couple of screens at a minimum. There were still 4 Kintek KT-2010 mono/surround and 1 KT-700 systems still in use. I informed them that Kintek had gone out of business so when these systems crapped out there wouldn't be parts readily available. For the screens, we had one that was a silver screen that had severe surface blemishes and another screen that had an 8" cut that someone had repaired with duct tape on the front side instead of the back; not that it still wouldn't have needed replacing, it just would've looked better. The screens were replaced immediately with regular matte white screens, but the sound systems were kept in use until they eventually either died or I accumulated all the necessary pieces of equipment to do a full upgrade. I have averaged 1 screen a year on these upgrades. Most of the equipment I was able to track down used either on eBay or various dealers. I still have the KT-700 in use and am waiting till it crokes, but I have no big rush on this. My last KT-2010 system took a power surge back in October and fried the processor so I was able to improvise by using a cheap home surround sound receiver to limp by for a couple of weeks until I tracked down probably one of the last DTS-6ADs and a set of used JBL's (screen and subs). Now I'm more focused on getting the maskings replaced due to dry rot.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-19-2007 08:49 AM                     quote: Jeremy Weigel until I tracked down probably one of the last DTS-6ADs You should have kept the stereo receiver! Mark  |  IP: Logged

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