Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Power outages are fun.

This is topic Power outages are fun. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=004773

Posted by Robert Burtcher (Member # 3227) on 08-19-2006, 06:00 AM:

Weee. Yay for power outages that happen just as the 7pm round is beginning. It's fun running around like mad, slamming all the breakers off as quickly as possible to make sure the equipment is protected. The power was only off for about an hour, though.

What's also fun is having all the 9pm shows threaded up before the round even starts, thanks to said power outage cancelling all 7pm shows.

Fun fact: Both times in recent history I've thought to myself, "God, I don't want to be at work today", and seriously thought and felt it, the power has failed. I think I either need to want to come to work more, or I need to make the power fail with my mind more often.

Anyone else have any fun power outage stories?

[ 08-19-2006, 09:35 AM: Message edited by: Robert Burtcher ]

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 08-19-2006, 11:50 AM:

The BEST is a partial power outage, such as when only 1 of the phases are lost.

I was working at a newly opened 20 screen theater at the time, during the re-release of the Empire Strikes back. At 6:00pm on the Sunday of opening weekend one of the phases was lost. This had happened during construction too, so we were familiar with what was going on, but it sill caused problems none the less.

Lets just say that unless the A/C units have the proper phase protection on them, you're looking at a LOT of repairs there. Pray you're not in an elevator the time, and stay away from the Neon.

After the power didn't come back on the fire department made us evacuate the entire building until power was restored. This was over 3000 people that weekend, if I remember correctly. Of course the computers were down, so refunds weren't possible at the time, and people in Plano are NOT very understanding.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to preemptively laugh at every D-Cinema owner that does not take the proper precautions and looses their investment when they have to replace major components of their systems.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 08-19-2006, 12:33 PM:

How about when you are going downstairs for what you think is the last time for the day as your shift is over and suddenly...bwoooommmmm. Then...Wommmmmmmmm, power is back up and I run back upstairs to start all the movies again only to hear...bwooommmm...the power going out again...and then...Wommmmmmm...
A few rounds of this, and the customers have had enough. Rainchecks get writ...a few customers want cash...the computers are rebooting, it will take a moment or two...
This occured when the sun was shining and there were no winds or anything weather wise that would cause an outage. The power company, when we called them, didn't know what was causing it either. Whatever it was, it stopped. Several businesses around us lost power, too.
Maybe it was Bubba in his Ford F-250 repeatedly backing into a utility pole in a parking lot nearby?

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 08-19-2006, 01:34 PM:

quote: James Westbrook
The power company, when we called them, didn't know what was causing it either. Whatever it was, it stopped. Several businesses around us lost power, too.

More likely, an electrical contractor... or maybe some janitor, playing with the switches in the electrical room.

We installed a generator at our place. After losing one leg to a squirrel a couple of times (with a full house), I figured a little insurance would be a good thing.

Naturally, we haven't lost power since (5 years, now)...

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 08-19-2006, 01:58 PM:

A rat in our outside transformer box decided to complete a connection during the height of the Narnia weekend. Blew one leg of the three phase. We had almost 1000 folks too. Most of them just went outside, and held on to their ticket stubs. A few wanted refunds. Most settled for a pass, though. I ran thru the booth shutting things off as fast as I could. Then, we went around resetting the platters. Most of them were still in the trailers, so, we just left them alone.

It took the power company almost an hour to get us up again. In the meantime, I had turned off everything in the electrical room, so we had no problems.

When the lights came on, there was a big cheer from the patrons in the parking lot. After everyone got back inside, we found that we had only lost about 50 customers, but it sure felt like more. We caught several folks sneaking in thru the exit doors, but they didnt get to stay. Tossed them out.

Did manual restarts as the halls cleared out. I sure didnt let the films start right in the middle of a trailer, so I kept the dowser shut, and the audio muted until I saw the next green band. Customers never knew anything had happened.

The next day, before showtime, and before we started up for the day, our electrical people came and found that there was a huge nest of rats under our transformer, not to mention several other exploded rats! Lots of bait was put under the unit, and we have had no other problems.

I love this JOB! PLUS, I'll be back to work soon!

Bruce

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 08-19-2006, 05:07 PM:

I have actually seen a fried bullfrog being removed from a tranformer before. Power was lost for a whole city block due to a frog jumping into a transformer.......

Worse power outage ever for me was opening day of Star Wars: Episode I. I was in Knoxville, Tennessee at the Farragut 10 Theatre (Regal). The power company started shutting off the power every 20 minutes or so, and then turning it back on. This went on the entire day up until the 7 o'clocks started. Considering I had sold about 3000 advanced tickets for that weekend - people were not happy. I still have nervous ticks to this day from that experience.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 08-19-2006, 06:12 PM:

I made a fairly lengthy post in this thread about dealing with power outages. That was a while ago, but generally I'd do the same things.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 08-19-2006, 06:39 PM:

Off topic, I know... but... [Big Grin]

I pulled a mouse nest out of the the rectifier cage of a '70s vintage 10kW transmitter last week. I can understand it from the mouse's point of view... nice and warm in there. But... 4,900 volts will ruin your day, as it did his... RIP, Fievel.

Posted by Henry O'Connell (Member # 2238) on 08-19-2006, 07:35 PM:

We lost 2 out of three legs twice last month. Both times were very local, we had to call it in.
The first was on a Sunday just before all three movies ended (anywhere from 10-40 min). I got called in around 5:30pm. Before power was restored we needed to reset the films. I moved the platter breakers to the working leg so i had power,unloaded the projectors, then forwarded the films to the ends, re-placed the breakers and we were good to go for our next shows which started about a half-hour late.

The second time was just after the start of the first slideshow (3:50). It was a slow afternoon (turned away 10 total!) and we lost all three 4pm shows, power back on around 4:45.

Posted by Patrick Dunn (Member # 3333) on 08-19-2006, 07:57 PM:

I had alot of fun with the power outage we had. We had one show running and i was standing in the lobby when the power surged, one light got bright and a bunch went out. The movie that was running shut down. I went in our projection booth to see if i could restart it and the lights were out and the bulbs in the projectors were out. But our sound systems still had power going to them since all the red lights on them were still on. So we had to cancel our 3 movies and hand out re-admits and run around and shut off every breaker in the building along with the two big switches that shut the power off to the entire building. Than we sat on the floor in the lobby and played cards until the person fixed the problems that caused the weird power outage.

Projection has always been an easy job to me, it's even easier when there is no power and you can't do it.