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Author Topic: Imax "laser aligned" sound Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-09-2010 09:02 PM                     Joe, Thats true but thats also not what we're discussng here...  |  IP: Logged Dave Callaghan Film Handler Posts: 60 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2003 posted 01-12-2010 01:35 AM                     This conversation is somewhat surprising. Listening of course but calibration surely also plays a role. Eyeball estimates are fine when you have nothing else to go by, but why not use available tools to improve and refine the result? I don't believe I'm the only person to hear differences in pink noise reproduction from the FOH channels. Would anyone work without the 35PA SMPTE loop for picture determination? Trusting your senses is well and good but why not use tools to assist us? What is amiss with using available technology - e.g. laser pointers - to accurately align the "on axis" response of speaker drivers of a multiple source array? Frankly, how else to do it when the floors aren't level and the walls aren't vertical in the real world I am familiar with? Just what reference is anyone expected to use in the case of a house without a balcony? I appreciate such techniques could work in such a circumstance as Louis has mentioned, but the original topic is concerned with an IMAX claim and I am not aware of any IMAX balcony houses. This is one case where the advertising does pay dividends - providing the lasers are actually used to assist with the alignment. We all just have to trust them to be honest and the lasers were actually used. As an IMAX projectionist, I can confirm the service from IMAX is genuine, the machines are serious and their attention should be the norm instead of the exception we often find in today's exhibition industry. And if there are any IMAX balcony houses, I do stand to be corrected on that point.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 01-12-2010 06:22 PM                     I'm not saying that aligning speakers by laser is wrong, just that maybe it's nothing so important to quote on imax.com - or at least not as the only and main feature of Imax Sound Systems  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-14-2010 03:15 PM                     I have laser sights on some of my guns but they don't mean shit if you can't shoot straight. Sure, a laser is a nice, convenient way to sight a gun but a poor marksman couldn't hit the broad side of a barn regardless of the sight he uses. A poor sound technician couldn't make a theater sound any better whether he uses a laser or just eyeballs the speakers into place. When I was installing speakers we simply had somebody sit in a seat at the proper location in the theater while holding a flashlight, pointing it at the speaker. The installer looked down the throat of the horn just like looking down a gunsight and aligned the speaker that way. Maybe next time I'll go get a laser pointer and a roll of gaff tape so I can have "laser aligned" speakers too!  |  IP: Logged Richard Hamilton Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1341 From: Evansville, Indiana Registered: Jan 2000 posted 01-14-2010 04:40 PM                     quote: Mark Gulbrandsen Louis.,.. you can't tell by ear where two feet above the rear center seat is at... What does it sound like at three feet and four feet above that same seat commpared to two feet ? And what about the seats on each side... What does that sound like? Mark, You use the laser to aim the speakers dead center where the main seat is. That is the best seat in the house "screw everyone else" . When I see a movie, I usually move around until I find that sweet spot , everything else is just muffled and you can't understand the dialogue. By the way, Imax sucks  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-14-2010 09:46 PM                     Richard, THX doesn't always do it that way... Exactly where you aim the horn is also dependent on speaker model, sloped or stadium, and the size of the room !!  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Althaus Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: Bedford, TX Registered: Dec 2008 posted 01-14-2010 09:59 PM                     quote: Richard Hamilton Imax sucks I agree. I really don't like the Imax theatre in Dallas, and their Avatar presentation was horrendous and just didnt't sound right.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 01-15-2010 12:46 AM                     That's not the fault of Imax, that's the fault of the operator.  |  IP: Logged Richard Hamilton Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1341 From: Evansville, Indiana Registered: Jan 2000 posted 01-15-2010 08:19 AM                     Mark, you know me, I was being a smartass Adam, I have yet to be in an Imax theater that has impressed me  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-15-2010 11:41 AM                        Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C. always looked good! Laser aligned speakers: Advertising hockum, razz ma tazz, hockum, etc. Louis  |  IP: Logged Julio Roberto Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 938 From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain Registered: Oct 2008 posted 01-15-2010 12:55 PM                    I just hanged a couple of laser-aligned pictures on the wall this Xmas.  |  IP: Logged Jake Spell Master Film Handler Posts: 294 From: Johns Island SC Registered: May 2009 posted 01-15-2010 10:22 PM                     IMAX done right, where the operators dont mess with the EQ's and actually care to give a good quality preference is amazing, however it seems that everyone thinks that volume knob needs to be all the way up. And those EQ's need some fiddling, and dont forget that the film needs grease from the fingers and dust off the floor to work right...  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 06-12-2011 12:12 AM                 It has been 512 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Fenix Huang Film Handler Posts: 3 From: Perth, WA, Australia Registered: May 2011 posted 06-12-2011 12:12 AM                     lol , just registerd into this forum IMAX ’s Proportional Point Source TM loudspeaker technology , developed by Sonics Associates Inc. of Alabama is a seductive engineering goal , currently a patented sound technology by IMAX for the unique purpose of supplying their 3D Cinemas with Crystal clear sound & Laser accuracy etc etc ... With this proprietary of IMAX sound technology, every sound is so clearly re-produced , you can hear a pin being dropped ; at the same time, it is so accurate , you can actually pinpoint where it was dropped. Tested this few times ourselves. We also did other testing i.e moving from 1 seat to the next, randomly and compare the audio experience. IMAX with their PPS have done it right. I believe their PPS is mentioned inside university Audio Engineering curriculum.  |  IP: Logged

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