Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Aisle lighting

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-06-2001, 08:26 PM:

Can anyone recommend a good quality aisle lighting that is DIM? I specify "dim" because most aisle lighting I see is too bright for my tastes (probably for safety reasons).

I wonder, I know there are EXIT signs that glow in the dark...has anyone come out with glow in the dark aisle lighting?

Thanks.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-06-2001, 08:51 PM:

AFAIK, both incandescent and LED aisle lighting can both be dimmed by reducing the current. How that would be done depends upon the type of power supply used. Of course, you would still need to meet all building code and safety regulations.

How do the regulations specify the brightness of aisle lighting and exit signs? Is it an objective measurement (e.g., footlamberts)? Or is it a subjective judgement made by the inspector?

Unpowered "glow in the dark" materials are either energized by being exposed to bright light, or contain radioactive materials. Neither is probably practical for widescale use in a theatre. There ARE electroluminescent "cold light strips" that are powered, and give off a softer glow than LEDs or tungsten lamps.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
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Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 11-06-2001, 08:54 PM:

Hey Brad,

After you left my theatre Saturday I figured out what the Big Riostats in the booth for each auditorium were. They are for controlling the brightness of the Aisle lighting in the auditorium. a regular house light dimmer will do the same. I had those at the Padre Staples 6 on the Ailse transformer in each auditorium.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 11-06-2001, 09:02 PM:

Brad-

Century Theaters has an excellent standard Tivoli isle lighting set up for their theaters. They designed them to be controlled by a dimmer switch at the projectionist's window. The lights do burn out and have to be replaced--but I am not sure how often/how much $$. Yes, those lights are wired in parallel. They do a good job of meeting the objective--even if som burn out. Thanks to that dimmer switch, the light intensity can be adjusted. Remember folks, those isle lights are very, very important for insurance reasons-CYA!

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 11-06-2001, 09:34 PM:

We also use the Tivoli isle lighting, but ours have LED's in them and rarely burn out. At first we would have them dim during the show, but found it was not worth it. Now, we just leave them at the dim setting all the time (we just put a transformer in that gave us the level we liked.) We have pretty good ceiling lighting in our auditoriums during intermission, and those get reduced by half during trailers and ads. So the Tivoli lighting is really not needed until the actual feature is on.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 11-06-2001, 11:46 PM:

I use those rope lights from Costco. I use a step down transformer that I had laying around so that I'm only feeding 50-60 vac out. It's just the right brightness and cheap too

------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 11-07-2001, 12:18 AM:

Tempo Lighting makes a good aisle lighting product. The bulbs are individually replaceable by simply popping a lens cover off of it (rather than ripping up part of the strip). The name of this particular system is "Tempo Solution." They have a standard dimmer switch in the booth for brightness control.

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 11-07-2001, 01:56 AM:

Over here aisle, exit and maintained lighting if usually fed via one fo those rotary domestic dimmers, you set the level and leave it alone. It is common practice to wire in a contactor that drops out on mains fail or fire alarm, and shorts out the dimmer, raising the lights to full brightness. (These lights are on a battery backed up supply)

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 11-07-2001, 11:46 AM:

Stay away from Permalite. We've had a lot of burnouts (particularly on the long runs from the transformer) and the service after the sale is non-existant. Although I have repeatedly requested replacement bulbs, the answer is that they couldn't have possibly burned out.

Posted by Ron Fleming (Member # 990) on 11-07-2001, 04:31 PM:

We just remodeled our theatre and installed red LED step lighting with a rotary dimmer. You can set the brightness as you please.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 11-07-2001, 05:55 PM:

Thank you Ron Fleming for mentioning color. Anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong, I come to think of it red or amber lights should be used--old night vision trick....

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-07-2001, 06:07 PM:

Will said: "I come to think of it red or amber lights should be used--old night vision trick...."

Yes, since red light does not excite (and fatigue) the rods of the eyes, your dark-accomodated night vision is not lost. Red light would be a good choice to illuminate entrance hallways to an auditorium.
Sounds like you've stood night watch a few times, or are a stargazer.

On the other hand, the eyes are most sensitive in the green portion of the spectrum, so green LEDs can be really dim and still be seen in the dark.

Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 11-08-2001, 03:56 AM:

Hey Brad, Here in Japan they use a solid lighting strip that is a blue/green color, that is bad ass !! it is made by Tivoil, no dim control, but never a complaint...

Posted by Andy Bergstrom (Member # 360) on 11-09-2001, 02:56 PM:

LED Inc. out of Henderson, NV makes great aisle lighting products and are very easy to work with. They are excellant at standing behind their product. We use red led with smoked cover. That combo is about the right intensity.

Posted by Gordon Bachlund (Member # 124) on 11-16-2001, 09:33 AM:

While perusing this thread, I recalled a wonderful house that I patronized in my early teens, the Fox Academy Theater, located at Crenshaw Blvd. and Manchester Blvd. in Inglewood, CA, and I thought some of you might enjoy this reminiscence.

The Academy was designed built in the early 50s as a first run movie theater. Apparently Fox spared no expense to ensure that it represented the latest state of the art, and that the customers knew it!

To begin with, a poster case in the lobby was devoted to technical information for the amazement of patrons, featuring brands and details of projection and sound equipment including photos, and house mechanical details.

While the aisle lighting was the usual code-required style of incandescent fixtures on alternating seat ends, the aisle carpeting had fluorescent dyes in the floral pattern, and recessed UV downlights in the ceiling caused the carpet to glow beautifully when the house lights were dimmed. This made navigating the aisles in the darkened house much easier. The title curtain, when closed, was bathed with slowly moving clouds from an effect projector in the booth.

The architecture featured a tall pylon with a spiral ramp from top to bottom that served both as an architectural feature and for sign maintenance. Vertical neon letters broadcast the name ACADEMY on two sides, and special neon letters that were separately switched spelled the word PREVIEW on nights when new releases were previewed.

This house still stands, albeit serving as a church. The original curved marquee’s ACADEMY lettering remains, though the marquee letters now spell out service times and other pertinent information.

Truly this was a theater where the spirit of showmanship reigned supreme!

“Those WERE the days.”

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-16-2001, 10:42 AM:

The use of ultraviolet "black lights" and fluorescent materials is a

idea, and wouldn't be that hard to implement today! Of course some of the audience's clothing may glow too. Just need to be sure the "blue" glow of the UV blacklight isn't too visible.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 11-16-2001, 03:01 PM:

I just visited Dave Huskinson who was doing the install of the
Brenden 14 at the new Palms casino here (hotel opened last night,
the theaters open next week). These theaters use red rope lights
imbedded in the stadium steps. Don't know if these are lamps or LEDs
but they are very visible without being too bright.

And just in passing, this multiplex uses all Strong heads (a mix of
Pros and Milleniums), Big Sky consoles and platters, THX processing
in all houses except the IMAX, and SRD in all houses. No DTS, no SDDS.

Later,

Paul

Posted by Karl Wulf (Member # 1051) on 12-15-2001, 07:35 PM:

As far as aisle lighting goes there are a number of different products to go with in the industry. To choose the one that is best for you takes a certain amount of thought. First you will want an led (light emitting diode) product not an incadescent. All manufacturers have a good warranty on their led product(varying from 2 to 7 years), as far as I know none warranty their incadescents. Second are you looking for lighting that will just mark the walkway or are you looking for lighting that illuminate the walkway. Third are you looking to install the product or have an installer do it. Certain lighting manufacturers have products that are easier to install then others. I would always recommend to use an installer that is familiar with the product. Warranties can be found null and void if the installation was not done according to the specifications of the manufacturer. The aisle lighting companies that are the biggest in the U.S. I would say are these: L.E.D., Tempo Industries, Tivoli, Celestial Lighting and Permlight.

For more information on aisle lighting please feel free to visist my website at http://wulfinstallations.com/ Thank you and have a nice day.

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 12-19-2017, 07:23 PM:

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