Rice University, Media Center - for general info see www.ruf.rice.edu/~cinema/

Booth: well it's a patchwork. I gather you pros think it's tough to get chain-owners to put up equipment bucks...well private university funding makes the chain owners look like cash cows. This despite Rice University's reputation for high standards and excellence in arts and sciences. The arts don't seem to have as many deep-pocket benefactors. But that's another tirade. Somehow this facility is maintaining its rep as an art-house cinema despite lagging/fickle audiences, no concessions and practically no advertising budget.

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John, while you're right RE: the price, there is a little apples & oranges situation here. While a PK-60-D is just slightly more than a Simplex (and even that depends on what "deal" one can get from Strong), the Simplex has a single phase sync motor and a belt drive, and the 60-D has a directly-coupled-to-the-movement-without-belts 3-phase sync motor with a slow start frequency inverter.

Kinoton's engineeing people have found that (1) the 3-phase motors create much less vibration, and vibration is of course is detrimental to the screen image; and (2) the slow start-up and slow-down greatly enhance gear train life; and (3) the direct drive not only eliminates the various belt problems we all face periodically, but also contributes significantly to vibration reduction. Years ago Kinoton completely stopped using single phase and/or belt drive motors for these image quality enhancing reasons. Some customers whined about this because they wanted to "save a buck", but they had no luck changing Kinoton's mind.

I'm pretty sure that when Glenn Berggren was with ORC/Century he comissioned a study at a university on improving various Century "A" problems, and the results of that were not dissimilar.

Anyway, if you take the Simplex price and add the optional 3-phase motor and variable speed / slow start stuff you're way, way over the PK-60-D price, and you still have belts. Plus the 60 has twice the warranty of the Simplex. So which is the better price is open to a bit of interpretation.

Christos, the FP-38-D is no longer available, it has been replaced by the FP-38E. One advantage is that the -E uses one lamphouse for both 16 and 35mm. Also, one can use 70.6mm dia lenses, and there is no flicker, even at slow speeds.

BTW, throughout the product line "-D" signifies mechanical drive, and "-E" electronic

-Larry

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The one thing I would stay away from is the Lense Turret option on the PK. The theater that I worked at with the lense turret had lenses that were back quite a ways and when you opened the film gate it hit the lenses. This seems un-avoidable because of how far the film gate opens. Also there is very little clearance between your lenses in the turret and the pad roller for the upper feed sprocket. The theater I was at was only able to spin the turret one direction and not all the way around because one lense always hit the pad (actually I shouldn't say roller since there isn't any).

Finally, the FP-75E that I have been running at the Cinerama in Seattle has had a few problems with the electronics. I don't know about the PK-60E, but the FP-75E needs to be water cooled by a refrigerated water circulator. The electronics, intermittent motor, and the film gate are all cooled. Plus, if your theater is one that does not want to deal with extra maintanence costs then an electronic is probably not the machine for you. The electronics are harder to troubleshoot because when the projector smokes components on one of the boards you have to find the bad board and then wait for a replacement from Germany, you can't just replace a belt or a gear or go out and buy a new relay or something like that. There are the typical mechanical things but you add all of the electronics which can add a whole new realm of problems. I have just finish replacing the Main Control Board and the MDE (intermittent control and interface board) because the projector smoked a few components on each. Also the water flow sensor went out a couple of months ago. Before we found the problem it would just randomly shut the machine down in the middle of shows and you could not even get the machine to turn over. Now I am not sure if the electronics on the PK-60E are anything like the FP-75E, but if they are I would stay away from the eletronic option. The eletronics are great machines and I have enjoyed working with the FP and enjoyed the rock solid picture, but for some venues they just are not the right thing.

Hopefully this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions.

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The original reel magazines on JJ's will only hold a 40min reel (which would normally be a drawback, but for your situation might be moot.) 70mm only uses the 1/2" spindle, so be sure you get them (if using the original reel magazines) or with replacement arms. Before installing, have a service tech install the Cinefocus option (a fan to help control focus flutter.) If you don't want to pay for the option now, have someone just bore the required hole in the casting; then you can just screw it on later. Don't leave the combo 35/70 intermittent sprocket in place; the removable intermittent pad roller can be replaced wrong, destroying the sprocket. Use a 35mm only; it cheaper to replace. There's a vertical shaft in the back of the (picture) head, at the bottom is a larger fiber gear. Keep that gear oiled pretty well; that gear drives every thing, so there's a lot of pressure there.

The PK 60 E (and actually all the standard 35mm and 16mm electronic machines) are much simpler than the FP 75 E. Right off the bat, there is no water cooled motor, so no water flow switch.

I'm really sorry you've had some problems with the Cinerama machine, this is not the typical situation with Kinoton stuff. We have had many discussions with the engineering guys to eliminate these issues.

Not as an excuse, but you have a relatively early version of the 70mm system, as opposed to the 35mm version, of which thousands are in service, some for over a decade.

Regarding the lens turret, there have been a few design changes, and also a design change to the sprocket/pad ass'y, perhaps the machine you referred to predates those changes.

And thanks for your comments on the soundhead

-Larry