my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Digital Cinema Forum   » Digital Cinema...Knee pads not included. (Page 1)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: Digital Cinema...Knee pads not included. Randy Bowden Expert Film Handler Posts: 146 From: Portland, OR, USA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 09-08-2010 10:09 PM                     I can think of at least 2 theatres that we service, both installed in the past 2-3 years and both lacking the typical projection booth. It's just a D cinema projector up there, all by itself in a small cubby space. In order to access it you crawl in through the port window or through an access panel. The projector sits on the floor and you get to crawl around on your hands and knees to service it. The control panel and servers are in another completely seperate room. I realize that might not be anything new to a lot of you, but that was my day today. Oh goody.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-08-2010 10:18 PM                        I remember reading one of those "prediction" articles a while back which said that "the balcony" would make a comeback, since that space wouldn't be needed for a booth anymore, and the projector would just hang from the ceiling.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-08-2010 11:15 PM                        Changing bulbs sounds like loads of fun.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-08-2010 11:27 PM                     I have 4 machines installed in tiny rooms like that. Less than half a year later 2 of them have had catastrophic light engine failures. The real failure is the bonehead that thought it was a good idea to throw a heat generating piece of electronic equipment into a tiny room that can't allow the machine to breathe. Stupid, stupid, stupid.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 09-09-2010 12:42 AM                     ..as long as you got three feet from the rear end of the machine to the back wall, doing a bulb change is still easy. Brad, when you told them on the poor cooling that caused these failures, what was their response, or did they just ignored it .... -Monte  |  IP: Logged Randy Bowden Expert Film Handler Posts: 146 From: Portland, OR, USA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 09-09-2010 12:59 AM                     In my case I could barely fit between the wall and the lamp door to the Christie ZX I was working on. There was just enough room to completely open the lamp door, remove it, then get in there and replace the igniter. As long as you have proper ventilation both into and out of the space, it's not really a problem.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 09-09-2010 01:39 AM                     Randy - to counteract your comment, no HVAC system is perfect, and few seem to be properly designed for the room and the load. Sooner or later the system WILL die. Its like a hard drive. Its not if it will die, but when. At that point the booth heats up like a son-of-a-bitch and failures start to happen. That is exactly what happened to us. (And no, the HVAC design was not mine.)  |  IP: Logged Randy Bowden Expert Film Handler Posts: 146 From: Portland, OR, USA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 09-09-2010 02:22 AM                     I completely agree with you Brad.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-09-2010 06:22 AM                     Speaking of which...how many of you all change your filters as often as you should (once per lamp change)? I've seen projectors (not serviced by us) CHOKED with crud...I'm amazed the projector didn't go out on thermal protection. Same goes for the servers...there are no filters on those things and they have fans blowing air every which way. Why do these idiots (all rack mount devices, except QSC) blow air INTO the rack rather than blow it out? And why do these same idiots not filter ALL air that is moving. Without a filter, a fan is a "dirt pump." -Steve  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-09-2010 06:56 AM                        Don't these projectors and servers have internal temperature monitors? If so, it should be pretty trivial to set up a monitoring system that will tell the manager (or service technician) when something is wrong before things start breaking. Alternatively, lots of companies make thermostats that could be installed in these "booths" and set off alarms (through contact closures, SNMP, or some other means) when a predefined limit is exceeded. This stuff is standard in a data-center environment. It should be standard in the "booth of the future" as well.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 09-09-2010 11:56 AM                     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw0zZttfUaw  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 09-09-2010 01:20 PM                     And the joys of D-Crapema continue....  |  IP: Logged Randy Bowden Expert Film Handler Posts: 146 From: Portland, OR, USA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 09-09-2010 02:27 PM                     and they may never end  |  IP: Logged Jason Burroughs Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 654 From: Allen, TX Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-09-2010 03:38 PM                     The problem is that most roof-top-units are not really designed for cooling an electronic environment. There are very little, if any, humidity controls. Additionally, the coils are designed for a higher proportion of latent cooling, instead of a higher proportion of sensible cooling. If the environment is critical, then a precision cooling approach should be designed. There are several options that would work for the mini-booth designs that could work, such as Liebert's Mini Mate 2 which would use up no floor space in the enclosure. Additionally these can be remotely manged and monitored.  |  IP: Logged Randy Bowden Expert Film Handler Posts: 146 From: Portland, OR, USA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 09-22-2010 02:27 AM                     Yesterday I had the good fortune to visit our other "cubby hole" theatre. I was called out due to a dmd over temp error. As it turns out, the coolant block on one of the dmd's had developed a leak. This is a Christie M machine that we installed about 3 months ago. We will be pulling the machine out in order to work on it. What a pain. I have not had a single film related call all week, but 3 separate D-Cinema issues.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.