AFI SILVER THEATRE AND CULTURAL CENTER
Silver Spring, Maryland

Since these projectors have automations built in, there are more than the normal amount of wires inside. However, they are pretty easy to integrate into most any system. On the left is the “interface” board that provides a means to control or monitor the projector. Towards the bottom is an additional board Cardinal added to deal with shrunken or deformed film. The film break sensors are optical (no film contact) however some prints will have more curl or even try to twist back and forth. These boards allow for an adjustable delay before declaring a film break (from 1-8 seconds, independently set for the upper and lower sensor as well as the option that both sensors must declare break before issuing a break to the projector. The operator can even defeat the film-break sensors entirely, if need be (handy on automated shows when one is changing the features and one doesn’t want the automation to notice the absence of film in either projector. One can also see the flywheel accelerator motor just below the flywheel.

December 2009 photo from the Steve Guttag collection.