Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Projection Room tours are kind of boring now...

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Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 04-02-2015, 05:29 PM:

Generally speaking, I am a big fan of digital for reasons that don't need to be rehashed again. But the other day I had a parent from a home school group ask about a projection room tour. Talking to her I realized that such a tour would be pretty boring for most kids. Because everything is just a bunch of computers, there is nothing particularly interesting to look at. No moving parts or action. Plus, we don't have any garbage trailers where we could give the kids a small strip of film.

I have to admit that's one small aspect of the digital conversion that I do miss. That, and the silent booth at the end of the night.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 04-02-2015, 06:12 PM:

What? No motorized 3D or Anamorphic attachments to "dazzle" them?

Yes...a projection booth today with a typical multiplex is definitely a "ho-hum" place for someone that has grown up with computers.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 04-02-2015, 06:19 PM:

Agreed.

I can't begin to tell you how much I miss a silent booth at the end of a long day.

Posted by Donald Brown (Member # 5427) on 04-02-2015, 06:28 PM:

Since digital formats have become so common place, over the past several summers at the Skowhegan Drive-In Theatre, I have found folks looking in the booth door absolutely amazed that film is still in use.
A couple from California traveling through Quebec stopped at the drive-in late one afternoon to photograph the facility. What made their visit memorable was when the gentleman asked if the 35mm equipment was being maintained for historic integrity. The concept that the medium was still commercially viable wasn't even considered.
In the digital age, even a brief glimpse in an unaltered projection booth takes on added significance!
Don Brown

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 04-02-2015, 06:45 PM:

quote: Buck Wilson
I can't begin to tell you how much I miss a silent booth at the end of a long day.

I've posted about this before, but I completely agree with you. At the end of a long and hectic day, it was almost a zen moment to just stand in the dark and silent booth for a few minutes before heading home.

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 04-02-2015, 07:59 PM:

Some places like the Grand Lake power down all the equipment at night. The booth is silent at night still. I know the Castro Theatre in San Francisco does as well. To the topic digital projectors just make a lot of noise and have light coming out the front. When we had Interstellar in 5/70 running, there is a good size window that one can see the platters spinning with the 70 mm on it. A lot of folks stop and pointed and looked on the way out.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 04-02-2015, 08:29 PM:

quote: Justin Hamaker
I've posted about this before, but I completely agree with you. At the end of a long and hectic day, it was almost a zen moment to just stand in the dark and silent booth for a few minutes before heading home.

Oh absolutely. I would quite literally sit on the floor for 10 or 15 minutes in the pitch black silence and just 'wind down' before leaving.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-03-2015, 06:44 PM:

And, I can't give tours anymore since I don't have booths to show off what we use to put a feature on the screen.

Units are located in cubby holes between walls, platform that takes an extension ladder to get to, enclosed boxes, elevated platforms and two closets.

-Monte

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 04-03-2015, 06:57 PM:

Boothless cinemas are stupid. Where is the staff supposed to make out?

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 04-07-2015, 06:25 AM:

Duh... Behind the screen, where else?

Or do modern multiplex cinemas have screenless screens?

Posted by Jason McMillan (Member # 5542) on 04-07-2015, 10:51 AM:

In the newer multiplexes, the engineers are hanging the projectors at the rear of the auditorium and setting up an open "Digital Command Center" (basically, the racks with the GDCs, sound gear, screenvision, etc) in a glass enclosed room. People hardly take notice to them anymore.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 04-07-2015, 11:43 AM:

That's some seriously ugly carpet

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 04-07-2015, 12:14 PM:

Worse than a 'Vegas casino. [Big Grin]

The pic reminds me of the Premiere Cinemas 16 here in Rio Rancho.

Posted by Jason McMillan (Member # 5542) on 04-07-2015, 02:46 PM:

Funny story, that is a Premiere Cinema, and that carpet was originally destined for Rio Rancho.

Posted by Manny Montes (Member # 5639) on 04-07-2015, 05:15 PM:

You all are brave, with all the spooky things happening in the booths I worked at, I shut down booth and was out of there. No way I'm sitting in a pitch black booth after hours alone.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-07-2015, 05:30 PM:

Funny how when there was really something interesting in the booth, it was usually hidden behind closed doors but a bunch of boring computer equipment nobody cares about is put on display for all to see.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 04-07-2015, 05:38 PM:

Yea- - projection rooms have become pretty boring.

It reminds me of when I when I was working as a broadcast services
engineer for "the phone company" and one of my friends kept asking me
to give him a tour of a telco central office.

The old electro-mechanical switching offices were really something
to see, (and hear) with hundreds, if not thousands of relays clacking,
the motors of mechanical ringing generators humming, teletype printers
and tape-punches banging away and the reels of the 1/2inch computer
tape drives, used to record billing data, whirring in their cabinets.

But by the time he was asking me to give him a "tour", central offices
had become completely digital. And, just like digital projection rooms,
- - completely soul-less.

I told him he might as well take the back off of his TV set and look at
that, and that would be about as interesting to watch as a "modern"
telco central office. Yes, digital has killed the joy out of a lot of things.

Posted by Jason McMillan (Member # 5542) on 04-07-2015, 06:54 PM:

When I was a kid, my parents would take me to the Bel Air theatre here in town that had been turned into a 5-plex from a single screen. One of the auditoriums had a giant window in the back of the projection booth where you could see all the booth equipment walking by. I remember looking at it with fascination, but was much too young to remember what any of it was. Sadly, it closed down in 1993 or 1994.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 04-07-2015, 08:07 PM:

Putting servers in a display case? WTF?!

Remember when projection equipment came in colors??

Our booth now is 50 shades of grey.

Posted by Rex Oliver (Member # 7593) on 04-08-2015, 01:54 AM:

We have had folks see the transmitter plant I work in.Older tranmsitters have windows so you can see the tubes and such.2 of the new transmitters don't have the windows-so they are kind of boring to see.I remember during college days me and my brother would watch movies at the drive in near Vermillion,S Dak.Remember peaking in one of the projection port windows and seeing a cabinet full of mercury vapor tubes-kinda like a rectifier cabinet in a transmitter!Guess that would power the projector arc lamps?And in commercial stations transmitters and other gear-esp the computer gear is boring to see.I liked the "Chrome&Glass" eras!I used to be excited going on a station tour-now its boring-nothing but touchscreen computers!

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-08-2015, 01:05 PM:

quote:
Putting servers in a display case? WTF?!

Carmike Cinemas started doing that a couple or so years ago when they launched their "Big D" premium big screen concept. They would put the sound racks for every screen and as much server gear on the ground floor near the lobby as they could manage. It would all be contained in a room with floor to ceiling glass windows.

It must be a real pain in the ass to run all that wiring from one spot in the movie theater across the rest of the multiplex and keep it organized. Maybe this is why Carmike Cinemas has only one screen equipped for Dolby Atmos and only one equipped for Auro 11.1 in the entire theater chain.

I'll get to see what kind of approach they take with the new theater they're building in Lawton. It's still a few months away from opening; there's no word yet whether the premium big screen will be a Big D or IMAX branded house.

Posted by Donnacha Kenny (Member # 6371) on 04-27-2015, 09:16 PM:

I'm glad we still have two 35mm projectors. They're rarely used for exhibition now, but it's much more interesting when giving a tour to fire them up for a minute. Kids love moving things that make lots of noise, after all.

Posted by Rex Oliver (Member # 7593) on 04-28-2015, 02:57 AM:

Tours--yes,theaters still having 35MM projectors would make it interesting-after all as we say folks like to see things move,turn,make noises,or light up.At transmitter plants with older transmitters-would fire up the older transmitter for them to see-esp if it has mercury vapor tubes in it-they love to see them light up and flash to the modulation-run the Tx into a dummy load.And running the spare projectors or transmitters for interested guests serves another function-they are exercised and tested so they will work when the situatiuon calls!!

Posted by William Kucharski (Member # 7246) on 04-28-2015, 03:00 AM:

Personally I'd love to see that array of servers, but I'm a computer geek personally and professionally. [Big Grin]