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

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Movie Theatre Screens Fiesta Bowl (Page 1)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Author Topic: Movie Theatre Screens Fiesta Bowl Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-03-2003 09:21 PM                     When one lives in Columbus, OH, one MUST deal with the almost endless hype about Ohio State Football. And, with OSU in the Fiesta Bowl, it has been non-stop coverage here for weeks. With the interest in football, most of the theatres in this area are expecting a slow night. BUT, an independent 8-screen theatre downtown has a solution...why not just show the Fiesta Bowl? So, they set up a special "FIESTA BOWL" party on the two biggest (60' screens, THX approved sound systems). I was down there today, and they were setting up their video feeds (satellite, over-the-air and possibly cable) in case of failure. I have heard they sold out most (if not all) of the tickets. They are asking a $10 admission donation, with proceeds benefiting 2 local charities.  |  IP: Logged Kara J. McVay Film Handler Posts: 95 From: Delaware, OH Registered: May 2002 posted 01-03-2003 09:53 PM                        I am 20 min. north of Columbus, OH in Delaware, and wanted to do the same thing, however, I don't have the $$$ for a good connection. I had a projector available, but no way of getting reception unless I used rabbit ears:(. We have LOTR, Gangs, Wild Thorn & Drumline and had 38 people for the 7:00 & 8:45. We were expceting low attendance..............but damn.  |  IP: Logged James R. Hammonds, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 931 From: Houston, TX, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 01-03-2003 10:01 PM                     If they were setting up all those video feeds in case of failure, what was their primary source?  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-04-2003 10:41 AM                     From the home of the NATIONAL CHAMPION Ohio State Buckeyes...(I live about 3 miles from Campus and my son is a Freshman there.) James, I believe they were using Direct TV as the primary source. They were just protecting themselves...700 buckeye fans can get VERY upset of the game goes off in the middle. I wouldn't want to be the engineer working to fix that mess...I'd rather have lots of backups available, hoping I'd never need them. About 10 years ago, there was a major cable outage during the Super Bowl...the cable company gave everyone free HBO for a couple of months to make up for it...lots of very angry people that day. Kara...This was the Arena Grand downtown that has the attached parking garage. They ran a Direct TV dish and an over-the-air antenna out the upstairs door on level 3 of the garage to the west wall of the garage. The Direct TV dish was attached to a wooden base for temporary installation.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 01-05-2003 01:11 PM                        I'm working on a similar project for the upcoming Super Bowl. Last year one of the casinos here had to turn away many people from their Super Bowl party, so this year they are using two screens of the on-site multiplex for overflow. We're going with a pair of Sanyo PLC-XF20's on each screen. These are 3-LCD machines with 4-lamp lamphouses putting out 5000 lumens. With these guys double-stacked and overlaid, we'll have plenty of light for the planned 22' tall image. The signal will be plain old off-the-air SD from the local ABC affiliate; sound will be Pro-Logic Format 74 through the processor's non-sync inputs. Wanted to do 720p HD with decoded 5.1 to the analog inputs, but that's another story. Maybe next year.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-05-2003 01:22 PM                        When I lived in Knoxville, Tennessee the Cinema Grill projected the Volunteer Games pretty often. I am sure there is plenty of extra money to be made in showing sports games in theatre auditoriums. Paul - which Casino is showing the Superbowl in one of their theatre's auditoriums? I'd like to be there.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 01-06-2003 08:54 AM                        Be careful about the copyright restrictions on public presentations: http://www.copyright.gov/docs/study.pdf http://140.192.57.122/lawslj/articles/impact_major_baseball.asp http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/1994/orcb4014.wp5  |  IP: Logged Charles Everett Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: New Jersey Registered: May 2001 posted 08-29-2003 04:05 PM                     Bumping this up top as there's something similar going on in New England. Today's Boston Herald gives you a hint: quote: The Boston Red Sox are calling it ``big hits on the big screen.'' About 360 Sox fans will watch at a movie theater in Randolph as the Olde Towne Team takes on the dreaded New York Yankees next Friday night in the Bronx. Don't these people have TVs? Most likely. And the game will be aired on WSBK-TV (Ch. 38) in Boston, as is usually the case on Friday nights. But that didn't stop more than 20,000 area fans from entering their names in a drawing to win one of 360 tickets for the simulcast at National Amusement's Showcase Cinemas in Randolph. Adding a ballpark atmosphere, hawkers will stroll the aisles selling peanuts, pretzels, Fenway Franks and beer. As Ohioans live and die with the Buckeyes, New Englanders live and die with the Red Sox. National Amusements is doing this as a "corporate synergy" tie-in; the company owns Viacom, whose Boston TV stations carry a number of Red Sox games. NA's website even had a link to the Red Sox website for a few weeks. A lot of Yankee fans must have been unnerved since NA has a major presence in the New York area.  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-29-2003 06:31 PM                     A local independent will be showing the OSU games this year. They are not charging admission, but rather a cover charge with a free buffet. It is impossible for us common folk to get tickets to OSU Stadium (be a student or give LOTS of money to good old OSU are about the only ways to get in), and it will be interesting to see how they do. Local restaurants hate night games. People usually go to the stadium early, eat "tailgate" food, then go home about midnight. Very few people will eat out here on a game day. Restaurants do much better when there is an afternoon game, where people stop to eat on their way home. Most everyone knows around here that the best time to shop or go to a movie is during a football game. A large AMC theatre is within sight of the stadium. They patrol the lot continually to be sure there are enough spots for movie patrons. They will tow your car out of their FAST if they see you walking toward the stadium.  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 09-23-2003 10:23 PM                     Second local independent is adding Ohio State University football games to their programming. Admission is free, so I guess they are planning on making money with concessions.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 01-15-2004 03:07 PM                        Here we go again for another Super Bowl party. This year the Palms Hotel and Casino is buying out the four biggest screens at the Brenden 14 for the day. I'll be in there again riding engineering shotgun. Will try to take postable pictures this time (took pics last year too, but none of them came out good enough for posting here). At least this year we will not have to double-stack and overlay machines. The new machines are 10,000 lumen output each, more than enough for these screens.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 01-15-2004 03:20 PM                        Are "clearances" for theatre screening of televised sporting events easy to negotiate with the NFL, NCAA, networks, etc.? Do theatres pay a percentage or a fixed amount? Who does the negotiating for the theatres -- film bookers, upper management, agents, etc.? Are the TV commercials shown as well? (It's half the fun of watching the Super Bowl).  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 01-15-2004 05:49 PM                        I'm not on the business side of this so I really don't know the details. The owners of the Palms are also owners of an NBA franchise, so maybe rights issues are less of a problem for them. But every hotel/casino in Las Vegas does a Super Bowl party, so the rights must not be that hard to obtain. It's the busiest weekend of the year here for video projection rentals (and video projectionists ). The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is again running TV ads nationwide promoting Las Vegas as a better place to watch the game (even better than being in Houston! ). The NFL doesn't like the gambling inference and therefore won't allow those ads to run during the game itself, but the ads will run prior to game time. Super Bowl is by far the biggest betting day of the year for all of the sports books here. This year we will use four of the biggest screens at the Brenden Palms 14, up from the two we used last year. This year the hotel is just renting the screens from Brenden (buying out the day, so to speak). This location is Brenden's corporate HQ, so the logistics of the negotiations are easy. Last year sold out, and was done simply to accomdate the overflow (about 900 people) from the hotel's party which takes up all of the convention and meeting room space they have (10 more big screens set up over there). Looks like this year they expect to do even better business. Yes we show the commericals! We just take a straight OTA feed from our ultra-sophisticated hi-tech bought-it-at-Fry's rooftop antenna pointed at KLAS Channel 8, the local CBS affiliate. The hotel also provides us with a Cox Cable feed as a backup. We amplify the RF and send it down RG-11 (last year was RG-8) to each theater for demodulation and S-Video feed to each projector. Yes, it's just SD--we can't convince them to spring for HD. The 22x29' SD picture (top mask set for 'scope height) doesn't look bad from the back of these approx. 450 seat houses. Hopefully next year we'll be able to show them what HD can look like. The Dolby Stereo audio is fed to the non-sync inputs on each CP-650 using Format 74 (I think) for decoding. We pot down the audio during the halftime break so the live MCs can do their contests and giveaways. Then we pot it back up for the halftime show. Oh, the food and drinks! Each hotel does it a little differently--here it's all you can eat pizza, sub sandwiches, beer and wine, all catered by the casino and included in the price (and comped for the casino's high-rollers). Plus there's the regular snack bar stuff too. People sure do seem to enjoy it. I don't envy the floor staff at the end of the night though. They literally have to shovel those theaters out while we're wrapping the video projection stuff, even with all the extra trash cans provided. Not much damage to the houses from what I've seen either, which surprises me given the amount of alcohol flowing. The people are rowdy but don't seem to get too out of line--the casino does provide lots of extra security. All in all it's a lot of fun, and a profitable couple of days for me too.  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 01-15-2004 09:18 PM                     I am curious about this also. I was considering setting up something for the Final Four here at my theater. I haven't even started looking into it yet but I more or less had the assumption that since the games are on broadcast television that it would be ok as long as A) all the commercials are shown and B) we cannot profit from the actual feed (meaning we can't keep any admission charges but donating to charity is ok). If someone has any real insight I'd appreciate any help.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-16-2004 01:37 AM                        Sugar Bash, LSU vs. OU at the Sugar Bowl viewing party weekend before last at the State Palace theatre in New Orleans. How often do you get a show that will fill the house, the audience won't mind being photographed, AND the house lights are up? The State Palace did not charge admission, but charged for concessions & with 3 stations & at least 6 strolling vendors could not move them fast enough to take all the money. There was a VIP area with cabaret tables in the orchestra. This photo was taken during the pre-game show (on the big TV projection); they filled the house, 2500+, the 2nd balcony was filling when I left during the 2nd quarter. The pre-game show had segments of other viewing parties around the US; they showed one at the New Orleans House of Blues which looked like a retirement home gathering in comparison. I don't know how it was arranged, but it was the network feed sent to affiliates with play-by-play, interest cut-ins, talking heads, etc. The thing I found interesting was the security issue. The State Palace handled it like they do their concerts & club nights, robot lights all in the house & a security staff of 78. The security & ticket folks were saying "give me the rock & roll crowd anytime". A few belligerents, drunks, some just stupid as stones, etc., male & female, who did not know they were dealing with staff that did these large crowds often. The people with personal & social development problems were just vanished instantly into the outside air by security, but the security folks were mighty grumpy with the miscreants. Overall, though, it was 99.3% a great crowd in a good humor. I like these guys, came all the way from Ohio, having a great time, clamored to have their picture took, stood still 6 seconds for the picture. Beer, liquor, soft drinks, nachos! & theatre munchies, burgers & hotdogs cooked on the grill outside. The folks at the State Palace want to fill their seats, but are different from some MPV's & PAC's in that they LOVE their audiences, & they throw the best parties in the country at their little 3000 seat house. Was a ball, everyone happy.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

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.