Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Cinema sound processor by Rank ?

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Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 11-15-2007, 12:58 PM:

About fifteen years ago I spoke to the projectionist of a local multiplex and he was telling me that, a few years earlier, before the THX Dolby installation, the largest auditorium had Dolby by Rank. I vaguely remembered the old surround speakers on the side walls.

Today I wondered exactly what that was. Was it just a processor made by Rank, that would allow to decode and playback the Dolby Stereo SVA soundtracks ? I searched Google but found nothing...

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-15-2007, 01:08 PM:

Rank had two processors that I know of
One was made by a projectionist in the UK I believe and had vertical cards
The other was made in Spain and had 2 horizontal cards and no controls on the front panel but a remote much like the CP200 style
The noise reduction was a patented downward expansion system that used a non linear compressor into a linear expander to produce a low level slope
It was also a 2 band system
Also the surround channel had a digital delay but did not have any phase shifting or gain riding logic and was just a left -right and the center was just a sum
The chassis was a 2 rack unit high with a hinge down front
Rumour was that it became the basis of the Smart Mod3
To my knowledge there are no schematics for either version and I would like to find any if they exist as several did get exported to Canada