Unusual Platter Design

[Marco Giustini]

I worked with Kinoton endless loop platters. In fact, I went to that very cinema and the video linked by Neal was stolen by one of the many channels which just seem to exist to steal other's content.

This is the original one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHVvf1FJo7g - which also happens to be higher resolution.

The Kinoton platter was a pretty ingenious machine but also a Royal PITA. Super static-sensitive and of course not very flexible when it came to changes to the film (commercials, trailers) or, God forbid, issues with how the film was put together! What the video doesn't show was the loud mechanical noise made by the platter when a bunch of film was being pushed to the inner section!

But watching that platter operate was completely captivating.

[Tj Hopland]

The resolution on that version is a lot better. Too bad there doesn't seem to be much about how all that mechanism in the deck worked. It sort of looks like there must be some cams and followers under the deck so maybe its metering the film electronically and when it needs to there is something fairly simple like a solenoid that activates down there in the arm that opens a gate and the mechanism then does its thing? Or is it continuously slowly advancing?

[Marco Giustini]

yes the underneath of the platter is a marvel of cogs and gears!

It's simple-ish: the film exits the platter at the same speed the projector runs - say 24fps. However the outer layer will require slightly less than 24fps when empty and slightly more than 24fps when it reaches a certain number of layers - this is simply because the circumference changes and gets progressively longer, require more film to cover it.

The little spring-loaded arm you see moving back and forth feeding the outer layer, will compensate for that circumference difference up to some point where the arm will get pulled enough to hit a switch which tells the logic "the outer bunch has reached the desired thickness" and the mechanism under the platter is engaged to pull in the existing bunch of film and start a new one.

At the point there is no print on those outer teeth, the circumference suddenly becomes shorter so the print required to cover it is less than 24fps and hence the spring-loaded arm will slowly move away from the switch because for each turn of the platter there is a little "extra print".

The arm will absorb that extra print until the outer bunch of film will get to a point where it requires a slightly faster speed than the projector can provide so the arm will start getting closer to the switch.... well it keeps doing that forever.

I'm not sure how clear that is!

[Lindsay Morris]

Yeah, THAT is the BEAST that I looked after for 6 weeks except that there were a few extra rollers added to the input and output of the platter.
The entire exhibition was air freighted from Germany to Perth West Australia and a techy came out after it arrived to supervise the installation and get it going and bring me up to speed with what to do with the 2 35mm machines.

The 16mm one used one of my own Eiki's but had a strange looping setup to take the film around and show an image on the wall.

The techy told me that the platter came from a cinema in Cannes which had some connection with their annual film festivals and some sites had enire movies being screened almost 24/7.

The platter IS quite noisy when it pulls the loop of film in once a certain amount is wound onto the platter... there is a BIG CLUNK and things suddenly move often startling the people viewing the exhibition.

Will talk to a mate who is more up to speed with putting stuff up for others to view....I do not have any access to Google One Drive as suggested.

Lindsay

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah, THAT is the BEAST that I looked after for 6 weeks except that there were a few extra rollers added to the input and output of the platter.
The entire exhibition was air freighted from Germany to Perth West Australia and a techy came out after it arrived to supervise the installation and get it going and bring me up to speed with what to do with the 2 35mm machines.

The 16mm one used one of my own Eiki's but had a strange looping setup to take the film around and show an image on the wall.

The techy told me that the platter came from a cinema in Cannes which had some connection with their annual film festivals and some sites had enire movies being screened almost 24/7.

The platter IS quite noisy when it pulls the loop of film in once a certain amount is wound onto the platter... there is a BIG CLUNK and things suddenly move often startling the people viewing the exhibition.

Will talk to a mate who is more up to speed with putting stuff up for others to view....I do not have any access to Google One Drive as suggested.

Lindsay

Who cares what it was showing... these days the method IS the exhibition. I'd buy a ticket.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Still not as cool as the Loop-Matic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Wm-VJxI0E

There was a Loop-Matic in the theater in Down Town Cedar City, Utah. Might still be there and may be called Cedar City Fun Center, as they run movies there. I'll look at that area when I slide back home and see if it is the place. It would be worth salvaging if it's still there.