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Author Topic: Keeping riff raff out of the projection room Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-12-2017 03:47 PM                     I suppose Carsten's High Voltage idea works better than explosion warnings. Mechanical keypad door-locks are available for sub $100. I'm not a fan of anything battery-driven, even if the battery lasts for quite a while. Batteries have the nice tendency to fail whenever you need them the most. They must be sentient and sadistic.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-12-2017 05:39 PM                        I sent Brad a copy of 520 CMR 3.00, which specifies that projection booth doors may not be locked in Massachusetts when the auditorium is occupied by the public. I hope that he posts it here.  |  IP: Logged Stephan Shelley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 854 From: castro valley, CA, usa Registered: Nov 2014 posted 04-12-2017 05:48 PM                     Massachusetts has always had stricter laws. Look at an old super simplex price list there is a section of parts requited in Massachusetts but not other states.  |  IP: Logged Donald Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 131 From: Lincoln, DE Registered: Sep 2009 posted 04-12-2017 08:10 PM                     When I first entered the booth, I had the privilege of being the last operator trained by Joe Cook, the senior projectionist with Interstate Theatres' circuit on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Joe's experience with projection equipment dated back to Holmes hand cranked machines! When I applied for a Massachusetts Motion Picture Machine Operators license, Joe explained that many of the seemingly obsolete safety statutes that were still on the books in Massachusetts dated back to the aftermath of the notorious Coconut Grove Fire. Manuals from a number of equipment manufacturers list magazine fire trap rollers as "Massachusetts Only" requirements.  |  IP: Logged Bill Brandenstein Master Film Handler Posts: 413 From: Santa Clarita, CA Registered: Jul 2013 posted 04-12-2017 10:09 PM                     Just get a door sticker that says "Radioactive." And another for "Toxic Projector Waste."  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 04-13-2017 12:07 AM                        Interesting that a lot of these MA laws dated from the Cocoanut Grove fire. I read an article in the aftermath of the fire in Oakland last December, in a warehouse that was being illegally used as an artists' studio, residence and nightclub. It noted that some of the many CA laws that were being violated in that building were passed in response to the Cocoanut Grove fire, which led to a tightening of safety regulation of public entertainment buildings nationwide. I can't quote the chapter and verse of either the CA laws and/or City of LA ordinances around projection booth doors: all I know is that the architect who supervised the refurbishment of the Egyptian's booth for nitrate told us that it was OK for a door to need a key or combo to enter the booth, but not to exit it.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-13-2017 05:43 AM                        Massachusetts laws on projection booths See section 3.08, item 10.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 04-13-2017 07:18 AM                        I'm a little surprised to see how many theatres leave the center of their presentations basically open to anyone. When I was in the Seattle local, I don't recall that any theatre I worked in had an unlocked booth. Having paid for my digital upgrades out of the company checkbook, I'm especially cautious (OK, paranoid) about unknowns wandering up there. Even back when we had film, there was always the concern a youngster would wander up and, perhaps innocently enough, lean against a turning platter and shut down the show. As a result, my booth is not only locked, but set so it doesn't unlock when the door is keyed open. As for tours, we frequently conducted them on request... always supervised. Don't get much of that these days though. By what you can see through the windows, the machines just look like big toasters. Guess I don't quite get this one. Seems about as reasonable as leaving your safe open.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-13-2017 07:32 AM                     I think you'll find that it all dates back to nitrate and the potential of fires in general. In the event of an emergency, where the projectionist was knocked unconscious (or dead), you don't want to hamper the firemen from getting access to the center of the fire by any amount of time. Whereas most Nitrate booths were steel and concrete bunkers with some hefty doors, breaking in would have added significant time.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 04-13-2017 10:59 AM                        Because, in the movie business, we're still to some extent fixated on nitrate and its legacy, perhaps we underestimate the "potential of fires in general" aspect to all of this. Any public building that is dark, containing lots of people in close proximity, high voltage and/or high current electricity, and lots of combustible material is a heightened risk, both of fires starting, and of causing a disproportionately high number of casualties if they do start. I'd be interested to know if the CA law prohibiting doors from needing a key to open from the inside is movie theater-specific or if, as I suspect, it applies to many other types of public building as well. Of course nitrate is a uniquely dangerous fuel (especially given that using it for its intended purpose involves heating it almost to the point of ignition), but it's by no means the only one; and cinema fires did not end when it disappeared from mainstream use. I'd speculate that the number of deaths and injuries per year worldwide sustained in cinema fires probably didn't diminish significantly, either. The most recent one causing mass fatalities that I know of killed and injured as many as it did for the same reasons as every other mass casualty fire in a place of entertainment: poor leadership and management, which enabled the violation of multiple codes, regulations, and common sense safety precautions.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-13-2017 05:01 PM                        quote: Jack Ondracek I'm a little surprised to see how many theatres leave the center of their presentations basically open to anyone. I guess here, it falls under the heading of "that's the way it's always been." In the past, the only 'trouble' we've ever had from upstairs is if people had sneaked booze in and got "noisy." Even that problem is very rare, maybe once in 3 years if that. Our place is small enough (and my ears are "tuned in" enough) that if somebody opened the booth door, I'd hear it instantly and be up the stairs pretty fast. If we were a larger complex I'd definitely want a lock of some kind on the door.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-13-2017 09:49 PM                     "Smile!" Security camera in use.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 04-14-2017 06:44 AM                     If it wouldn't be so horrendously expensive, it would be a great idea to install a gaseous fire suppression system into your booth, like many datacenters use. It's not like the equipment in there nowadays is anywhere close to cheap and affordable. At least you'd have a very good reason to stick another big warning label to your door.  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 04-14-2017 12:41 PM                     From 520 CMR 3.00 "Booths shall be constructed of asbestos lumber ..." Another reason your theater may not be code compliant. All kidding aside, just put up an authorized personnel only sign.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 04-14-2017 12:58 PM                     quote: Scott Norwood 520 CMR 3.00, which specifies that projection booth doors may not be locked in Massachusetts when the auditorium is occupied by the public. Easy solution. It is not a projection room, it is your computer server room, which certainly can be kept locked. Those big video projectors are actually computer monitors (they really are). So if anyone asks, your theatre no longer has a projection room since the day all the 35mm equipment was removed.  |  IP: Logged

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