Hey, I'm just curious as to who you guys use to service your projection equipment. Do you "do it yourself", have an in-house tech, or do you contract with a particular person or company?

I do what I can myself but there are times when I have to call a technician.

We do what we can ourselves. We have a good friend who is a tech that works all over the midwest who we call for stuff we can't. the red sound led's would be one of those things he is coming in to do.

I do it all myself.
If I get stuck, the Theatre supply company I buy from will talk me through most anything over the phone.

The owner has been in the business for quite a while and loves the equipment side. Can do most repairs himself. We have one person who is pretty handy and worked at one of the theatres that we purchased and he does some repairs. When job is too big or boss is too busy we call technician who has business out of Omaha area.

Hey Dave,

If you don't mind, can you send me the contact info. for the tech you use? Our e-mail addy is: kbirdcinema@sbcglobal.net. I too do most of the P&M and major mechanical repairs, but when it comes to doing the A & B chains, that where I have to draw the line. The test films and equipment are just too expensive for me to convince the owner's to purchase.

-Jeremy

I started in the booth at age 12... trained by a crabby old career union projectionist. He didn't leave me alone in the booth for 3 years! That was a good thing though, because my "test" at the union hall was putting a projector head together, timing it & wiring a set of changeover dowsers.

That, and 25 years as a broadcast engineer & announcer...

I do everything myself. It makes for a lot of running around, but the money saved has put my kids through school.... I think!

Here's one of the latest additions to our drive-in sound system.

I've heard of the projection union, but I have never actually met or talked to anyone that was a member. In fact, I thought the union was no longer around. I've been doing projection for about 12 years now. I started with a company that was bought a year later by that certain theatre chain that's now at the top of the heap. You know; the one that sounds like royalty. I worked for them for about 9 years. During that time I put myself through college and earned a bachelor's degree in accounting while at the same time I took I liking to projection and all of its technical aspects. Anytime a company tech came into town I was like a little kid eager to learn new things; watching and learning. Then 3 years ago I left that company to come to work for these people and I now get to put all that projection knowledge to use as the "Chief Technical Officer" at least that is what I call myself.

-Jeremy

while on the subject of technical I received a letter from a service company earlier today
How long is the Dolby Digital lasting?

I have had a few problems with regard to prints from exchanges not able to
run in Dolby Digital after very short runs, like three or four days.

The problem is the Dolby Digital Sound Track is coming off between the
sprocket holes when pulled through the Projector gate.

Now if the Cinemas are installing expense Digital Sound Equipment and not
being able to use it after the first week because of substandard film stock
where do we stand?

Do the Cinema owners ask for a reduction in rental?

I would like to know how many cinemas are having trouble with Dolby Digital
and how many have had film shedding in the last two months.

Regards,

Barry J Parsons.

ASSOCIATED SOUND NEWCASTLE PTY LTD

70 DAWSON STREET,
NEWCASTLE NSW 2300
AUSTRALIA.
Ph 0249291932 Fax. 0249261919
Email: sales@associatedsound.com.au
www.associatedsound.com.au
sales@associatedsound.com.au
SPECIALIZING IN THE DESIGN. MANUFACTURE & INSTALLATION OF CINEMA SOUND AND
PROJECTION EQUIPMENT
ESTABLISHED 55 YEARS

Is anybody else having these problems.

Barry,

The problem you're seeing is probably caused by dirty gate shoes scuffing the film before you got it.

There's a product we use here in the states, called "Film Guard". It is a cleaner/lubricant that is applied using a Kelmar film cleaner. This process practically eliminates the scuffing, and frequently restores a print to reliable use.

If you get a NEW print, keep your gate shoes clean and don't apply more pressure than is necessary for a stable image, you should get good life out of a print even without the Film Guard. However, I've been using it here for a couple of years now, and pretty much swear by it. I've run a print for 8 weeks, using this product, and the error readout on my DA20 hasn't gone over 3 throughout the run. The product also eliminates shedding, which drastically reduces cleanup time within the projector interior.

If you haven't seen it already, here's the link to the site. Go Here , then click the "Products" icon on the left side of the screen.


Looking at the site, I see they have a distributor for Australia:

Panalogic Corporation Pty Ltd
Ground floor
44 Carrington Road
Castle Hill NSW 2154
Australia
Phone: +61 (2) 9894 6655
Fax: +61 (2) 9894 6935
www.panalogic.com
sales@panalogic.com

Boy I'm glad to see that someone else figured out that the film shedding problem is primarily caused by intermittent shoes adjusted to apply too much pressure on the film. I had techs have me to do pretty weird stuff to the film over the years since the introduction of polyester stock (everything from threading soundtrack down on the platter to actually rubbing wax on the surface of a wound print).

As for SRD track problems, I've generally not had any problems. I usually get an average error rate of 4 or 5, but this is probably due more to the LED's aging. I usually have a higher failure rate with the SDDS tracks than anything, since they are on the edge of the film and come into full contact with everything on the film path. By the way, I've heard that Sony is going to phase-out SDDS. Has anyone else heard this rumor? I hope its not true, because I have 4 SDDS equipped auditoriums. I have e-mail Sony's customer service, but I haven't had a reply.

-Jeremy

some exhibitors have just received a email saying that next year Oz is going digital projectioning, and wait for it the email says that the distributors are paying for the change over out of the money saved from the cost of the printing of the prints. Apparently the big announcement is supposed to be middle of August. Anyone else heard of the c/o to digital?