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Author Topic: Projection room layout Gary Davidson Expert Film Handler Posts: 101 From: Santa Monica, CA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 09-20-2005 04:43 PM                     I was recently in the projection room of a 10-plex in the LA area. The projection room was one massive corridor with all the projectors lined up on either side. How common is this layout? Gary  |  IP: Logged Aaron Mehocic Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 804 From: New Castle, PA, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-20-2005 06:01 PM                     Its quite common to have back-to-back machines in the same room. Many of the booths I've seen are of the design you explain. One of my more favorite booths was the old Maxi-Saver Cinema in West Mifflin, PA. However, since Carmike bought them, I don't know if thats still their name. Both Cinemark theatres in the Youngstown, OH area also have the corridor, but I wouldn't call it "massive". Edit: Also, Waterworks Cinema in Fox Chapel, PA is of the same design as the Maxi-Savers. I forgot about them. Used to be a great place to see a film in the northern Pittsburgh market. Haven't heard from anybody in that neck of the woods recently so I'm not sure about current presentation quality as of this posting. Perhaps if Jarryd Beard is lurking out there he can catch us up to speed on things.  |  IP: Logged Edwin Schwing Expert Film Handler Posts: 116 From: Las Vegas NV Registered: May 2002 posted 09-20-2005 10:32 PM                     Mine are that way. (one massive corridor) 7 facing north, 9 facing south. It is a bitch to run from #3 to #12 (a block and a half apart from each other) to start a movie at the same start time! (of course I make sure that never happens....) E  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 09-20-2005 10:36 PM                        It's sure nice to be able to see and hear (if they're not too far away) every machine in the building though. It's my favourite booth layout -- as long as the projectionists workstation/desk is in the middle of the booth, not at one end in some other room.  |  IP: Logged Dick Vaughan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1032 From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: Jul 2000 posted 09-21-2005 01:03 AM                        One of the early Cineplex Odeon theatres,now UCI I think ,at Solihull in the UK had this layout back in the late 80's. There was enough room for a pool table in the centre.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 09-21-2005 01:46 AM                        quote: Dick Vaughan There was enough room for a pool table in the centre. Extremely funny that you should mention that.  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 09-21-2005 07:56 AM                     My theatre is a Litchfield design. "L" shaped, originally. Four projectors on the left side down one long hallway, and the 5th on a short hallway to the right. Two more theatres were added in the 1980's, and now I run down the short hallway, around machine #5, and up a ramp, go to the left, then the right, and access machines 6, and 7. No decent air conditioning in this wing. Designers didn't include it. We are trying to get air in there now. I run alot during the day. I could install a pool table where the two hallways converge. Hmmm...  |  IP: Logged Brandon Willis Expert Film Handler Posts: 216 From: Richmond, VA, USA Registered: Apr 2004 posted 09-22-2005 10:53 PM                     This is a dumb question, but is the booth shaped like an "L" for Litchfield? There's a couple of former Litchfields around here, one of which is closed, but I'm not that familiar with the layouts of the buildings. Our booth is shaped kind of like a lopsided "H". #1-5 and 13-20 is on one side with a corridor connecting this section to a hallway where 8,9, and 10 are. 6,7,11, and 12 are along this connecting corridor.  |  IP: Logged David Yauch Expert Film Handler Posts: 206 From: Mesa, AZ, USA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 09-23-2005 02:26 AM                     The theatre I am now at is designed like a square, but there are only projectors on 3 sides(or at least I think, I only spent a little while in the booth). The last theatre was a perfect H. There were 2 booths, each of which was one of the long arms of the H, the middle of the H was where the managers offices, supply closets, and the like were located. Each of booths were just a long corridor, and the projectionist's desk was towards the middle of the corridor, you could hear every projector from the desk.  |  IP: Logged Joshua Waaland Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: Cleveland, Ohio Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-29-2005 07:10 AM                     The first two I worked at, Carmike and Cinemark Tinseltown, were both in a long rectangular room configuration. The second Cinemark I worked at was in the shape of a U. Was hard to know what was going on at one end when you were at the other. We didn't have any of those nice status monitors either. That would have made it nicer.  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 09-29-2005 07:41 AM                     My own experience has been that the projection room layout is simply what's left over after several other conditions are satisfied. Things like the size of the property, (excluding parking, public areas) etc., how many auditoriums desired, and zoning requirements. The building design must have wide enough hallways, exits in certain locations (with passages out to the street) rooms of certain size and locations just for electrical, gas, water and/or sprinklers. Many owners want to 'impress' patrons by having a high ceiling in the lobby; that removes alot of projection room space.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 09-29-2005 09:37 AM                     One client, who owned all his buildings, would steal as much as possible from the booth so it would become space for second floor office rental for 400% more revenue One location he figured too tight, against my advisement....two projectionists where hired ( brothers )....who weighed 275 pounds and they could not clear the platters and the rear wall  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 09-29-2005 01:26 PM                        Code requirement is 36" around projection equipment and between it and the wall. Thank God for wide aisleways downstairs; this usually means at least some depth for the booth above. I have customers like that, too, Richard. Louis  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 09-29-2005 02:01 PM                        quote: Louis Bornwasser Code requirement is 36" around projection equipment and between it and the wall. Hmm, aside from IMAX I don't recall ever seeing someone place their projector 3' from the port window.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 09-29-2005 11:26 PM                     This is the layout when there are back to back cinemas on a common hallwy, the booth is directly above the hallway and the same size. usually the hall is pretty wide to allow some lineup area for the individual cinemas, sometimes it is pretty narrow. I've seen booths that were wide enough for a projection package on one side, but some design screwup put two directly opposite and left very little room to pass between the backs of the consoles. What I really can't understand is when there's a 15 foot wide booth about a hundred yards long with all the projectors on 24" risers that make working on them a terrific pain in the butt. Just raise the floor 2 feet! The hallway has a suspended tile ceiling anyway, it couldn't cost much (if any) more to put the booth floor where it belongs. Naturally the risers are just a few inches bigger than the console bases so "height challenged" operators get to stand on milk crates or ratty stepstools to work...  |  IP: Logged

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