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Author Topic: Drive-In Wifi Sound? Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 03-01-2019 11:53 PM                        At the outset, I'm not sure an effects adapter is something I'd be interested in putting in here. It's enough that we butcher the director's intent by mixing everything down to 2 channels, reducing the dynamic range by about half by using a mixture of AGC, multiband compression and FM "distortion-canceled" clipping , adding some stereo enhancement to widen the field, then sending the result out to a few hundred cars, each of which has different acoustic characteristics... none of which was properly equalized to standards. Wait! Most of them have equalization controls on the front panel. Gad! We don't even have a volume control here. Where else do you give every customer the ability to decide for themselves where "7" is? The kids want to hear the sound on their Beats, and Dad is sitting on a lawn chair with a DeWalt speaker in front of him. It's not the "Voice of the Theatre", but if it falls out of his truck on the way home, it'll probably still work. For us, I'm pretty sure THX certification is out of the question. The point is that every customer is bringing his own auditorium and infinitely-variable, customized sound system with him... none of which we can exert any kind of individual influence over. Technically, it's a hot mess... but everyone seems thrilled to have it.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 03-02-2019 12:15 AM                     quote: Jack Ondracek ... our customers have a nagging habit of messing up our extraordinarily well-engineered stereo transmission by merely turning their cars around and viewing the movie from the back end. Just by doing that, right becomes left and left becomes right. Well Jack, you could always setup 2 transmitters! Forward facing cars please tune to 102.9 Reverse facing cars please tune to 104.5  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 03-02-2019 12:21 AM                        That's true, Brad. We've also considered putting in a general information channel that people could listen to on their way up the line to the boxoffice. Unfortunately, we live in the shadow of Seattle, where just about every available channel has some kind of full-power, LPFM, non-com or translator on it. We were lucky to find 3 quiet places to put our main channels on. Finding 3 more for reverse-polarity and maybe another 3 for descriptive audio would be unlikely.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-02-2019 06:18 AM                     So, Wifi streaming audio could be your friend ;-) 'For those placing their cars in reverse, please download our reverse audio app'. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Rick Cohen Expert Film Handler Posts: 102 From: Amherst, New York Registered: Feb 2011 posted 03-03-2019 03:23 PM                        My opinion on the WiFi Sound option is, why bother? Other than the "cool" factor, I see more liabilities than benefits. FM sound is widely available, and simple. Just park, turn on the accessory, and tune in the frequency. Fast, simple, mostly pain free. Asking people to download an app, set up their bluetooth speaker, and then hope their phone battery or bloutooth battery doesn't die over the course of two movies, that's asking a lot. Factor in the latency issue, some cars using FM Radio parking next to other cars using WiFi Radio, blasting their systems at all different rates of delays, it would be a nightmare. If people don't want to use their car radio for some reason, they can always bring a portable, or borrow one of our 24 loaner radios for a $3 fee.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 03-04-2019 03:43 AM                     Instead of using precious FM space for your reverse-parkers, maybe you could offer headsets with FM tuners. quote: Carsten Kurz I remember me biasing the stereo balance towards my driver seat, at least on my personal car. Car stereo systems should have a button called EGO mode for this. But shifting balance usually only manipulates the amplitude, but not the phase.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-04-2019 07:29 AM                     Nana, germany here, of course there is a seat sensor for deactivating the passenger airbag that controls ego mode automatically... Then of course for those gentlemen drivers, there must be an 'ego mode override' button. I think it is called 'Auto Ego Mode Enable/Disable' - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Dave Bird Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 777 From: Perth, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2000 posted 03-04-2019 09:04 AM                        I find it kind of fun explaining to younger folk that their phone actually doesn't "do everything" and that the "radio stations" on their apps aren't really radio......then again, we don't provide wifi either. Brad's idea is simple enough, though most people don't seem to care, I'm not sure what you'd call it, but when I walk around the theatre at night, there's a sort of "surround sound" that seems to hang in the air, with the ground serving as your "sub". I've often wondered why one of our neighbors over in French-speaking Quebec run one screen in English and the other French. It would seem to me fairly simple to broadcast both on each screen. We actually get a fair number of their French patrons who come to us because they prefer the non-dubbed English version. The other solution to "backwards" patrons would be to fire up the old AM transmitters!  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 03-04-2019 10:41 AM                        quote: The other solution to "backwards" patrons would be to fire up the old AM transmitters! Ick! No! Been there. Window speakers would be better. It's bad enough you can't get decent sound through severely bandwidth-limited technology. Add to that the skywave that comes in from distant stations about half-way through your show. Customers blame you... nothing you can do about it. It would be easier just to feed a mono sum to both channels of your FM, leaving the stereo running for the sake of the idiot light. I think it would be as likely that nobody would notice as getting questioned about why the stereo doesn't sound like it anymore. Better to just leave it alone, I suppose.  |  IP: Logged Dave Bird Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 777 From: Perth, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2000 posted 03-04-2019 11:45 AM                        We had a couple cars in the mid-80's equipped for AM Stereo back when quite a few Canadian stations broadcasted in it. It worked, more or less, but was still kind of "tinny" and now when your signal drifted you could lose L or R or an unholy mix of both. Me? Once in a while I kind of like to find an AM station that still plays music, turn the treble all the way up and send it to the front-left speaker only. (As God intended!)  |  IP: Logged

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