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Topic: Maverick Large Format Projectors
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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster
Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-08-2001 09:50 PM
Does this thing really work? How is it on film? Is the booth at a slight positive pressure to keep dust out? Who made the screen surface and is it flat or curved? There are two 8perf LF systems near me and both are suffering from the matte white blues and they are WAY underlamped. Just way too dim. Gord, I don't think that CFS is manufacturing the Ultra 70 machine anymore. I doubt that they made that much of it anyway cept for the lamphouse. Someone else that had brains had to make the critical parts anyway. CFS could have never handled that without major problems. No one there ever had any brains. I guess they went off to see the Wizard.....
Mark gts
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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster
Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-15-2001 09:41 AM
Certain sections of the Maverik projector seem to me like it would be extremely wear prone unless it is running in an oil bath. Even using super hardened parts, say die hardness, for the guide track and rollers does not seem like it would have a very long life, or that it might need constant adjustment as the track and rollers wear. I can imagine that setting it up and adjusting it would be a real pain, not to mention what would happen if a nasty film pile up occured.
Since the original patent on the rolling loop has expired it seems like if it were more mass produced that cost might come down quite a bit. With Imax demanding such a large part of the action from the sales of tickets alone it seem like its time for something to give in this realm. To me it appears if they don't then more theatres might be following the Edwards route and go 8 perf 70 which IMHO is a total waste of time. I ahve yet to see one 8/70 system that is even half way impressive, or reliable. One exception to that though is the Kinoton DP-75E system with 10kw lamphouse. That is an impressive system but most seem to be going the with inferior equipment and systems.
Mark @ GTS
Its interesting that the 15/70 time lapse camera the Ron Fricke had built for Chronos also used a chain type pull down with pin registration. It also was not able to run up to 24 fps either but I think it did attain 18 fps which in itself is pretty amazing for a chain type pull down on this size format. Running it at say up to 10 fps seems easy though.
MArk @ GTS
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John Walsh
Film God
Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted 02-28-2002 08:15 PM
It's weird to say, but I think I might the only person posting on this forum that might be able to answer Ben Wales' question!We have two Maverick projectors, and I think that's all that have been made so far. The first one (installed in Hartford, CT) is about 1 1/2 years old, the other (in Florida) less. There were concerns with the first projector for about 4 months after installation; Quite simply, it broke down a lot. But, Advanced Image Systems did provide parts and service every time to keep it going. I guess they did have some personnel changes, but the same service guy still always showed up, at the regular planned service times. So, they seem to be handling everything well. We were satified enough to book and run the Beauty/Beast 15/70 feature. It hasn't missed any shows since we started running it. It should be noted that the projector design was new, and we were willing to work through any problems that came up. The price is significantly lower than an IMAX; we simply couldn't afford/justify the cost of an IMAX. It would have taked too long to get a payback. And, in hindsight, I think it was the right decision for us. So, I think if someone is looking into a 15/70 projector, the Maverick is worth looking into. While we had to deal with some problems, it has been refined over time, so the unit someone would get today would probably be very reliable. I'm sending a picture of it to Brad to post. It was taken during construction of our Hartford, CT theater.
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