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Author Topic: Digital Cinema Requirements Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-27-2014 02:03 PM                     I had a number of really tiny operations that I converted to digital. Several of them couldn't even afford to do it on their own and had fund raisers or the funds were donated in three cases. All but one of those customers had really minimal film systems none of which were very good, one was still only center-surround (mono basically). That center surround site is in a town with a population of 1640 people and it is 100 miles from the next major city. Converting to digital and upgrading to 5.1 sound has caused his business to quadruple and he even gets a few first run titles now where with film that was unthinkable. Most recently he has kicked the rental tenant out next door and is going to add a second screen. So it is possible that even the most marginal of operations can improve itself and it becomes known pretty quickly. Mark  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-27-2014 03:28 PM                        quote: Richard May The kids are not there for the sound. I'm not so sure about that. I think good sound can mean the difference between a little kid coming out of a movie going "That was SO AWESOME!!!" or feeling like he'd just seen a TV show. A lot of times, people (including little kids) don't know exactly why something was awesome, they just know that it was. I love it when kids say a movie was awesome, because they always say exactly what is on their mind.  |  IP: Logged Terry Lynn-Stevens Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1081 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Dec 2012 posted 09-27-2014 03:49 PM                     What impact did 5.1 have at the Roxy?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-27-2014 04:54 PM                        I don't know if it resulted in a lot of business that we weren't already getting, because (like the theater in this discussion) we are the only theater in a small town, plus our mono sound was already pretty good. But I do think it has helped maintain the audience over the years especially for those "event" movies that are best on a big screen.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-28-2014 01:15 PM                        I remember an ad in the late 70s that Dolby used to place in the trades in the early days of optical stereo conversion. It was a cartoon that showed two theatres and their marquees. One said i]Now Playing in DOLBY STEREO,[/i] the other just said Now Playing. In front of that theatre were a few patrons at the box office. In front of the theatre that said, Now Playing in DOLBY STEREO the line went around the block. Possibly a bit of wishful thinking by the Dolby marketing team, but certainly history is on Dolby's side. Good sound is definitely a sale-able part of the presentation equation. One can argue whether or not each of the increasing add-ons to Dolby's original 4.1 optical -- digital 5.1, "circle surround," now Dolby Atmos -- have had a linear, matching increase in customer draw/demand, i.e, a direct cause-and-effect in up-tick, asses-in-seats sales. But certainly the public does appreciate and patronizes theatres that have the very basic ability to present at least full spectrum 5.1 stereo sound, especially a via a system that can deliver clean, gonad-rattling bottom-end and delicate highs and do it effortlessly without distortion; less than that will go noticed.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 09-28-2014 03:20 PM                        Up to the point that I did the digital conversion, I had mono sound here. I had 5.1 installed when the digital projector was installed and I then had a lot of people remarking on how wonderful the sound was for the next several weeks. I still get occasional people saying things like, "The sound in here is so great! What kind of speakers do you have?" and things like that. I have the impression that people notice the sound quality more than they notice the picture quality.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-28-2014 03:57 PM                        Prior to us going stereo about 2002, people would occasionally compliment us on our sound. Sometimes they would ask us when we had installed digital stereo. I really attribute that to how bad things at the Carmike theatres sounded more than anything else. Now we only get comments on the sound when it is having problems. As we've got new amps on the way, the problems should go away, and thus, any comments about the sound (unless it is too loud). We don't do much as far as gonad rattling bass or high pitched death wails. Our audience just wants to hear people speak clearly.  |  IP: Logged Jarod Reddig Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 513 From: Hays, Ks Registered: Jun 2011 posted 10-02-2014 12:25 AM                     quote: Mike Blakesley I'm not so sure about that. I think good sound can mean the difference between a little kid coming out of a movie going "That was SO AWESOME!!!" or feeling like he'd just seen a TV show. A lot of times, people (including little kids) don't know exactly why something was awesome, they just know that it was. I love it when kids say a movie was awesome, because they always say exactly what is on their mind. Well said Mike I completely agree.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 10-04-2014 02:26 PM                        I don't know how a theatre survives just being open a few months a year, but I think I'd rather close the place then invest in digital without having multichannel sound. Even if we only count since the Dolby era, we've had multichannel sound in movies for 37 years. I'm amazed that there are any theaters still operating a mono sound system. If I walked into that theatre, even just to see some animated feature with my grandkids and I discovered that the sound was mono (unless it was a revival of a mono movie), I'd walk out and get my money back. If that's a well-off area as claimed, then many of the potential customers have 5.1 or more in their homes and probably fairly large screens. Why would they come to the theatre? Summer of 2013, I went to a single-screen theatre on Cape Cod. It had digital projection and a quite good 5.1 sound system. Although it was a residential area with probably a fair number of full-time residents, Cape Cod is primarily a summer resort area with a large population only in the summer. If they could do it, I think anyone could do it. If I couldn't put in multichannel sound, I think I'd try to make it a revival theatre and only show very old movies. My movie experiences as a kid, seeing such movies as West Side Story and How the West Was Won in first run multichannel sound is one of the factors that caused me to pursue a career as a recording engineer. Don't think kids are so unsophisticated about sound. They might not know the details, but they know good sound and they still have the hearing capability to appreciate it. I'd at least try to put multichannel sound into the larger screen.  |  IP: Logged

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