Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: UK Cinemas- "Davidoff Cool Water" advert issues

This is topic UK Cinemas- "Davidoff Cool Water" advert issues in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Steve R Pike (Member # 6238) on 01-21-2012, 08:51 AM:

Hello

Has anyone had issues with the recent Davidoff Coolwater advert (either with Pearl and Dean or DCM)?

The issue we have had is that it appears that the ad's sound levels have been mixed way too high and, thus, has damaged some of our sound equipment.

Has anyone else found this and has it caused any issues to your equipment?

Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 01-21-2012, 10:01 AM:

it's fine here. digital though.

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 01-21-2012, 11:55 AM:

quote: Steve R Pike
.....The issue we have had is that it appears that the ad's sound levels have been mixed way too high and, thus, has damaged some of our sound equipment.....

Steve, welcome to the forum. You'll learn a lot here. [Smile]

Now some questions to try to help you out a bit...

What damage to the equipment did you experience? Blown amplifiers, blown woofers, blown high frequency drivers, etc.

I can tell you from over 30 years of tech experience that a properly designed sound system can safely reach "ear-splitting" levels without damage.

There is always of course random failures, and drivers that rot out or were pushed really hard in the past and then one peak spike send them bye-bye.

Try to give us more details, including all brands and models of amps and speakers, cinema processor and so forth..the more info, the better odds we can help you better. [Smile]

Posted by Adam Ladds (Member # 6757) on 02-17-2012, 03:21 AM:

We had this on 35mm from Pearl & Dean and it didn't cause us any issues.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-17-2012, 11:54 AM:

Was the track SR or digital? If it was analogue (or the print has both on it, but the digital won't play and it drops out to SR), then it could be a printing and/or processing fault on that one print, or on just one reel of prints (adverts are usually printed from a continuous loop cabinet holding the interneg, feeding a panel printer)?

In other words, it could just be that you have a bad print of that particular ad.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 02-18-2012, 03:33 PM:

Wow - When I was growing up in The Bahamas in the 70's and 80's the theatre there would show ads from Pearl & Dean - Had no idea they were all the way over in the UK.

Posted by Adam Ladds (Member # 6757) on 02-20-2012, 07:25 AM:

When I was growing up we had Pearl & Dean everywhere in the UK. Nowadays it's all DCM, but we're still with Pearl & Dean [Smile]

Posted by Steve R Pike (Member # 6238) on 04-06-2012, 07:41 AM:

Hi All

Thanks for your responses - why it's taken me this long to login and respond, I don't know!

My Technical Manager found a part of the speaker inside literally blown to bits (!!!) it could have been wear and tear however - but it was an expensive fix.

Nether the less, we have now converted to Digital P&D ads!! Which is an end of an era (but a godsend in another ... editing those green/black reels each week... nightmare!)

I believe we sent the ad back to P&D to investigate - however I've not heard much since [Frown]

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 04-06-2012, 07:16 PM:

Hope the ad revenue was enough to pay for the blown speaker.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 04-06-2012, 08:46 PM:

Pearl and Dean were here too.

Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 04-08-2012, 04:46 AM:

Another example of Mother Britain looking after the colonies ! [Big Grin]

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 04-08-2012, 05:52 AM:

As tony said, a properly designed sound system should be able to withstand a 0dB recording with some headroom. Even though the adv could be in fact very high, it won't be higher than 0dBFS - that's digital fact - and your system should be able to cope with it at 7.0 fader setting. If your system fails under such levels, it's your system's fault unfortunately. Also, I hope you have a way to show your commercials at a lower volume, say 4.5/5.

A blown cone/diaphragm should not be a very expensive damage, I would say a few hundreds including labour but - as Tony pointed out - that should not happen. If it happens, it's worth investigating.

Posted by Chuck McGregor (Member # 6826) on 04-08-2012, 11:17 AM:

quote:
part of the speaker inside literally blown to bits (!!!)

It wasn't said what those "bits" were. That would tell a lot about, if not pinpoint, the problem. The usual culprits for "bits" are either a fractured compression driver diaphragm or a cone driver surround failure (read old, rotting foam surround).

quote: Marco Giustini
A properly designed sound system should be able to withstand a 0dB recording with some headroom.

"Should" is the operative word [evil]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-08-2012, 11:38 AM:

There was only one time when I saw a theater sound system actually blow speakers that weren't due to an amplifier malfunction.

It was at the Cinemark theater at Military Circle in Norfolk, VA.
At that time their two big auditoriums had these three-way electronic crossovers from JBL. You enter the model of the speaker into the front panel and the device sends the correct signal to each speaker. All very spiffy.

However, some of the kids got to tinkering with the things and ended up routing all the signals to the wrong speakers. If that's not bad enough, they decided to have a midnight movie party and they played "The Fast and the Furious" with the volume turned up to "11."

Well, the speakers didn't make it through the first race scene. [Roll Eyes]

Guess who had to hike his fat ass up a ladder and onto a three foot wide platform, 25 feet in the air, behind the screen to change all six of those blown drivers? Moi! That's who!

If I ever get my hands on the little cocksuckers that did that, their asses are grass!

Now, like others have said, speakers with old cones and surrounds can sometimes shred but, technically, that's not a "blown" speaker.

Shredded cones are repairable, by the way...

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 04-08-2012, 01:16 PM:

quote: Chuck McGregor
"Should" is the operative word

sadly.

But from Pearl and Dean point of view, it's not their problem.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-12-2012, 01:47 PM:

quote: Steve R. Pike
I believe we sent the ad back to P&D to investigate - however I've not heard much since

Well, they're hardly going to say, "Sorry, the print's NFG, we admit, we (or our lab) screwed the pooch on that one, why don't you send us the bill for the speakers?", are they?

I know - I'm getting cynical in my old age... [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 04-13-2012, 11:48 AM:

They're not likely to say it because it's unlikely that they caused any damage at all. As said, if your sound system cannot cope with a 0dBFS signal at 7.0, it's a sound system issue.

Posted by Luke Capitani (Member # 6018) on 07-15-2012, 01:56 PM:

We had this ad on one of our Pearl & Dean ad reels a short while ago.

I didn't experience any problems with our sound setup after playing this ad (though I was more concerned about deafening our audience with it [Roll Eyes]

)