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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: LED aisle lights are annoying
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 11-22-2011 12:30 AM
Here's a funny related story. At Notre Dame, when they put up new buildings (they are the most building-est place you will ever encounter -- seems like they've been putting up a new building every year for decades), they would have the landscaping subcontractor design nice looking pathways and sidewalks to all the doors to/from the new building.
Much to their dismay, seems the students would hardly ever use those paths; they would wind up walking anywhere they wanted, disregarding the little fences and chains they put up to keep the students ON THE PATHS. So it would come to pass (sorry, tis the season) that the recalcitrant students would wearing ruts in the lawns around the university's spanking new building creating one ugly mess.
Finally the good padres wised up and when they built the new library -- a massive building with more doors than you can count -- they decided, let the students decide and they just put sod completely around the entire building and just let the students walk to and from the place any way they wanted.
Within a month it was clear where they needed to put all the sidewalks!
The Japanese architect who designed one of the theatres where I work happened to be back in the states about two years after the theatre had opened; he came to visit us.
He was unusually curious, asking lots of questions about how we liked the space, the booth, what we didn't like, etc. This guy it seems is a farely famous architect (which is why the museum paid a very huge fee for him to "CREATE" a cinema. I guess it bought them bragging rights to have a theatre designed by this big shot Japanese architect, and THAT’S what tax payers were paying for because it was, by all accounts a pretty unimpressive space.
Anyway, I told him things I didn’t like and was surprised how resceptive he was of my criticism. Then he enlightened me -- critisism was expected -- in Japan, he explained, architects don’t consider their work complete until people have been living in their building and they are able to ask what the pluses and minuses are...what they like and don't like about the place. THEN THEY FIX IT; you know, like REPAINT the WHITE WALLS. That’s why he was asking so many questions. Of course in the USA, once the building is declared “finished” and it is opened and occupied, no owner is prepared to start fixing, and redoing stuff two years later.
It’s a good idea, though, although one would think with the kind of money they paid this guy, he would know enough not to make costly mistakes in the first place. Then again, he admitted this was the first cinema he ever designed and he seemed genuinely horrified when I told him white walls were a huge no-no in a cinema, almost, in fact, as horrified as I was the first time I threw a picture up on the screen and saw the entire room light up like a Christmas tree and wash out all the blacks in the image.
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Tom Sauter
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 163
From: Buffalo, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 11-22-2011 06:11 AM
quote: Elise Brandt
Can you yell out The most annoying design flaws imaginable in a cinema so I might be forewarned and maybe able to actually contribute something useful to this building?
We've all probably seen too many! Here's a "Top Ten" list I've accumulated over the years.
10. Double-paned soundproof porthole glass. Light robbing, image distorting, and could only be cleaned on both sides with an extension ladder.
9. Auditorium seating so steep that seats had to be reserved near the entrance for patrons who were unable or afraid to climb to a good seat. Handrails would have been nice, too.
8. Soundproof booth with no fire annunicators in it, and halon fire suppression systems to kill the projectionist who didn't know there was a fire in the building in the first place.
7. HVAC systems that are under/oversized. To small and the room cooks when fully occupied. To big and wild swings in temperature occur. Don't be a cheapskate here, and double check the engineering firm's math. They've probably built too many office parks.
6. Amazingly loud whooshing sounds from improperly sized air handling ducts and/or heat pumps. See #5
5. "Cleaning" light switches in the auditorium, adjacent to the exits, at normal switch height. The kids love this one!
4. "Multipurpose" room. 'Nuf said.
3. Aspect ratio,aspect ratio, aspect ratio. Even the big chains didn't get this one right during the big building boom in the 90s. Seating distance varies with screen height, not width, Mr. Architect.
2. I would like to personally thank Mr. I.M. Pei for not one, but TWO triangular screening rooms in one building with impossible projection angles and seating positions. If the room is going to be triangular, try to put a right angle in one of the corners. It looks really cool, though.
And at NUMBER ONE we have
1. Overenthusiastic aisle AND exit lights that shine light onto the projection screen!!!!
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 11-22-2011 07:07 AM
What Tom said.
I have worked in too many of these multi-use facilities; here is my hit list:
- screen size too big or too small for seating area
- screen mounted too high or too low with respect to audience
- screen mounted too far back on a stage
- screens which roll up like windowshades (these never work right and eventually sag; the only proper way to fly a screen is as a single piece unit that flies vertically)
- room wider than it is deep (I _hate_ this configuration; it usually leads to extra-short throws and mega-keystoned images; it also just feels wrong to have an extra-wide theatre)
- loudspeakers mounted anywhere other than behind the screen in the usual position
- video projector mounted between two 35mm projectors (increasingly common)
- giant port window spanning width of the booth, rather than individual portholes in booth
- tiered seating (in general...properly sloped floors are much better)
- white or light-colored walls
- reflective flooring in front of screen (hardwood floors are the worst)
- any type of seating other than standard theatre seats (preferably _not_ high-back seats)
- seats lined up into perfect rows (seats should be staggered)
- light-colored seat material
- screens in any native aspect ratio other than 2.35:1 (or 2.39:1)
- pipes for mounting lighting equipment mounted right above projection ports
- video projectors installed anywhere other than in the projection booth
- Crestron or AMX touch panels (I have never personally seen a situation where these improve presentation quality; if they _must_ be used, there need to be adequate and well-placed manual controls for everything in the booth)
- no way for projectionist to control spotlight on lectern and/or microphone for film introductions (this results in either sloppy presentation or the need for two operators for every show)
- film sound routed through main mixing board (have this as a backup, but not as the primary way of reproducing film sound; always have a completely separate system for film sound...maybe share the amps if you must)
- film sound not routed through hearing-impared system
- not equipped for any of the following formats, all of which _will_ show up at some point at nearly every multi-use venue: full-aperture silent (with variable speed), Academy, 1.66:1, 16mm
- projection booths that do not meet code (usually by lacking a bathroom and/or proper lamp exhaust; also, many lack emergency lighting)
- and, to repeat what was said earlier, obnoxiously bright exit signs (and poorly placed exits) and aisle lights
I have seen all of the above. Don't do them.
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Tony Bandiera Jr
Film God
Posts: 3067
From: Moreland Idaho
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 11-23-2011 01:27 PM
Scott would hate my big room at UC Irvine (see the pic warehouse) as it has a lot of the flaws he mentioned. I wasn't in on the design stage of that one. However, the smaller room I built in 2009 for them corrects many of those issues.
RE touchscreens: The reasons most projectionists hate them are two-fold:
Most of them have poorly thought out button locations/functions. Programmers design them to be pretty, but the individual projectionist(s) MUST be involved in the design and layout. (It took me three tries to get HIB 100's touchpanel to where I wanted it..and I am the operator/programmer!)
The second thing is that touchpanels are not "tactile", i.e. there is no physical travel to the buttons. This is an issue, especially when doing changeovers as you have to be careful not to touch the button too early.
The flip side is that you can integrate all kinds of functions to a touchpanel, changes are very easy to do (no drilling/cutting/wiring of panels/wallplates), and you can do "macro" buttons easily. (I have auto show start buttons which with one touch precisely time lights, curtains, motor starts and dowsers, sound formats, etc.)
As for the LED problem he experienced, one very common cause of lack of dimming with LED's is using the wrong dimmer! LED drivers are very picky about dimming, the wrong dimmer will cause all kinds of issues like flickering, limited dim range, driver or dimmer burnout, etc. I have blue LED's in the new room at UCI on a Lutron Grafik Eye system, and we have no issues with them dimming or flickering. The dimmer system has a specific profile for LED's programmed into it.
Sounds like that theatre didn't have a dimmer or bypassed it.
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![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
not to mention the restrooms. I have no idea about those isle lights yet. 
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