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We are shutting down the theatre for the winter at our Drive-in. We have a christie cp2230 with GDC Sr-1000 server. We have the heat set at 50 degrees and the projector is currently in standby. Is this the right thing to do or should I just turn it off for the winter?
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I don't know what the humidity is like in your neck of the woods, but it might be worth firing up the projector, with the lamp on, for an hour or two each week, to prevent any condensation or corrosion from forming inside the chassis.
The other issue is the SR-1000's certificate batteries. Per GDC's recommendation, they should be replaced every four years in a typical movie theater usage scenario (SR-1000 is powered up roughly 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week). If yours is going to be powered down for months at a time, I would suggest reducing that replacement interval significantly, maybe to every three years. Doing it just before your system goes into winter "hibernation" would provide peace of mind. -
At our drive-ins, we power the equipment weekly for an hour. The owner builds an insulated room within the booth for the projector so they only have to keep that smaller space warm (I've never been there when that is up but I suppose it is foam blocks, of some sort. The projector and server come through the winter just fine. They are using an IMS3000 so there is no battery to drain...just its capacitors...hence the weekly power up.
I have found that the SR-1000 isn't all that thirsty on the batteries. The SX-3000 guzzled them. That said, batteries are cheap compared to a server being down. We consider 5-years to be on the outside for such batteries and try to get them in 4-years on most servers and 2-3 years on the SX-3000.Comment
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Thank you!Comment
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We too are a seasonal drive-in. We're running Barco DP2K-23Bs with GDC SR-1000 servers. I typically keep the heat on in the building, set at 60 degrees in the winter months. During the 12 weeks we are closed for the winter, I'll go down and turn on the projectors once every 2 weeks and let them run idle for 48 hours. No lamp on, just the chasis. Been doing that for 11 years, and never had an issue.
We keep our entire building heated during the winter because we have a "demand" 3 phase electric meter with a monthly minimum bill. I figured, if we're going to pay a minimum bill each month, I'm gonna use the power for heat, since we're already paying for it.Comment
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Just be very careful about rodents. Chewed wires can get super expensive. They love to get into somewhere warm and nice can get through incredibly small openings.Comment
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I also have Barcos... a 32 and a couple of 23's.
Those of you who bought these things new might recall a big red label on the crate(s), warning that the projector should not be powered down for more than 6 months.
We are off-season from November until March. Based on that, my habit has been to run the booth for a full day on New Years, which means the machines aren't powered down more than about 2 1/2 months.
I keep the booth at around 50 - 55... same as downstairs.
American Cinema installed my systems with Tripp-Lite UPS's. They've worked well and I've standardized on them at the radio stations I care for, which makes for planning battery changes as a periodic event. The 12-volt batteries those things take run fairly reliably beyond 6 years, so I buy a boat-load and rotate them in in at the 5-year mark.Comment
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