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Author Topic: Article on small town Digital conversion Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 05-13-2011 03:40 PM                     HEPA filters are too expensive and probably provide more filtration than is required for this application. Our booth is fairly dusty for reasons we can't control, so far the metal mesh filters on our DP100 have provided excellent protection, fan blades and machine interiors are dust free, with occasional cleaning of filters, actually a dirty filter filters better than a clean filter until the dirt works its way to the back of the filter. Air flow might suffer though.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-13-2011 07:24 PM                     I don't feel a set of 60.00 filters once a year is too high a price to protect the insides of a 65,000+ projector. It also saves on labor down the road from not having to dismantle the entire lamphouse and rectifier for a through cleaning. This is 2011, not 1963!! Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-15-2011 11:17 AM                     I find that the HEPA style filters need to be changed more than once/year and that they are typically more than $60/change once all are added up. As to dirt in machines...I've seen a fair amount of dirt get past a mesh type over time...particularly the drywall dust of a new construction. You may not see it at first until you shine a flashlight at the mirror or other glass part...you'll see it then...I've impoved light output by over 10% by just cleaning dust off of things that otherwise looked pretty clean. -Steve  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-15-2011 01:45 PM                     NEC specs are 2K hours on the electronics filters (4 filters) and with every lamp change on the lamphouse air intake filters (2 filters). NEC now sells them seperately to facilitate keeping the costs down... in other words you don't need an entire filter kit just to change the lamphouse. Quantity orders GREATLY reduce the cost per filter change. My experience so far has shown this to hold true even in the dusty desert conditions we have here. In new construction thats not true and it will see more filter changes until the construction dist settles down. At least it isn't ending up inside the projector or rectifier!! With Christie we go about 3 months to a year depending on the location and the time of year. I'd say 6 months is average. In spring the desert is full of fluff and pollen and dust from things blooming. Below is a ZX filter after just three months operation, about 60% plugged.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-21-2011 10:10 AM                     Add the Upshur Cinema 6 in Buckhannon, WV to the list of small town theatres that have gone all DCinema (Barco projectors, Dolby players, Cindigm TMS/LMS). -Steve  |  IP: Logged Mike Frese Master Film Handler Posts: 465 From: Holts Summit, MO Registered: Jun 2007 posted 05-21-2011 03:22 PM                        Steve, I certainly agree that this town is a small town. It does look like based on what they are playing that they should have qualified for VPFs; are they using VPFs?  |  IP: Logged Aaron Mehocic Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 804 From: New Castle, PA, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-21-2011 07:23 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley I'm hoping that the studios will eventually wake up to the fact that we and they could make more money if they would address these issues. As most of who have been in this business for a long time will already note, it seems the last adults to run studios retired in the early 1990's.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-21-2011 10:11 PM                     Mike, If you see a Cinedigm TMS/LMS system, odds are they are on the VPF plan...I don't know why anyone would use theirs otherwise. While it does have some nifty features, it is a bit restrictive (they are not burger king, you will have it their way!) and commissioning the TCC has proven to be a bit of a challenge. But to answer your question more directly...yes they are receiving VPFs. I can just about guarantee you that had there not been a VPF deal out there, they would still be running film. -Steve  |  IP: Logged Mike Frese Master Film Handler Posts: 465 From: Holts Summit, MO Registered: Jun 2007 posted 05-21-2011 10:47 PM                        Thanks Steve, I was thinking the same thing too when I saw the Cinedigm as the lms. Maybe we need to re-define the definition of small town to a theater not being full time 1st run.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-21-2011 11:01 PM                     Mike...the size of the town and sub-run are not necessarily connected...as my examples have shown. I would say that if you want to explore what sub-run theatres are doing that you start a thread on Sub-Run theatres and DCinema. Certainly, Elkins and Buckhannon WV are "small towns." The biggest town near them that people may have heard is Clarksburg, WV. The next nearest town that folks have a higher chance of knowing is Morgantown, WV but one is driving a bit to get there. -Steve  |  IP: Logged Mike Frese Master Film Handler Posts: 465 From: Holts Summit, MO Registered: Jun 2007 posted 05-22-2011 12:36 AM                        Steve, Two things make the conversion much easier if not a slam dunk: 1) Getting the VPF as a 1st run, & 2) having 4 or more screens to achieve some booth labor savings after going 100% digital. Yes it is a challenge getting the financing lined up in the first place, but those two factors should get pretty close to paying for the conversion. The theater in the article that this thread is based on has neither of those factors. They are seasonal 1st run on the low side. So no need to start a new thread. There is probably a thousand or more theaters like this with little hope. I guess their only hope would be was if they had joined NATO/CBG before their deadline (which I hear now was extended by a couple of years with very little notice).  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-22-2011 12:44 PM                        Being in CBG does not help a single screen get VPFs (yet) because it's impossible to meet the 85% quota for first run movies, unless you want to miss a ton of playable films by opening marginal crap on the break and playing said titles for 2 or 3 weeks.  |  IP: Logged Mike Frese Master Film Handler Posts: 465 From: Holts Summit, MO Registered: Jun 2007 posted 05-22-2011 01:08 PM                        Mike, What about getting the VPFs when playing movies 3-4 weeks old? I know a exhibitor who is on that plan and is happy with it. The only negative that I am aware of with that plan is having to spend extra money upfront for a LMS.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-23-2011 03:23 AM                        Can those filters be washed? Also, my understanding is that to be a HEPA filter, it must conform to specific specs. Would it be possible to install a HEPA filter from a 3rd party that was the size of the plastic form that NEC uses? Surely NEC doesn't manufacture the HEPAs. I've seen some sizedable HEPAs for other air cleaning systems like vacuum cleaners that could be cut down and made to fit and they don't cost $60.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-23-2011 06:01 AM                     No, you can't wash the HEPA style filters. Note, it isn't that they cost $60 each...the whole SET of them (something like 6 filters, in all) cost a little more than that. Strong is having them made to size to keep the cost down. Note, Barco is now making a retrofit kit for the DP1200-DP2000 to switch them from HEPA style to wire-mesh. -Steve  |  IP: Logged

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