No Platter No Problem! (Crazy Video)

[Ryan Gallagher]

I'm wondering what size & length of carbons those guys in the video were using.
I can't think of any that were large enough to last a whole feature. I don't know
of any way to hot-swap carbons without burning yourself and/or going blind in
the process.

I'm not versed in the various runtime options and carbons choices. But my understanding is that in these parts of the world intermissions are a norm (even when not planned), perhaps for this very reason, so I would expect they have at least one intermission for rod change. So in reality he probably only has to do this live splicing on a few of the reel changes.

Sounds like Nantawat Kittiwarakul could maybe answer that question with more 1st hand knowledge for Thailand.

[Tim Reed]

I'm wondering what size & length of carbons those guys in the video were using.
I can't think of any that were large enough to last a whole feature. I don't know
of any way to hot-swap carbons without burning yourself and/or going blind in
the process.

I was going to mention this earlier. There are videos showing them retrimming while the lamp is running. They open the lamphouse door, clamp a 3rd electrode to the frame and draw an arc to it. Then they break the arc to whichever electrode they want to change, retrim it, and re-establish the normal arc before removing the 3rd electrode.

Since this pulls the arc off of the crater (where most of the light is collected), this would have to look like hell on the screen. Not to mention flooding the area with light from the open lamphouse door.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Regarding the carbon rod change, I can only confirm what Tim just posted above. So yes - the image would look like during that. With the advent of xenon that would at least take that one problem away.

[Randy Stankey]

Wouldn't it be better just to go down for a few seconds than to have half a minute of shitty picture?
Even if you got all your stuff in order then... 3...2...1...GO!... descended like a NASCAR pit crew and did it in twenty seconds flat, I think it would still be better to put the lamp out, do the deed and restrike. Even if it wasn't any faster, I think it would look more professional. Beside, there's less chance of being electrocuted or burned or both.