Entries in "Projection Techie Stuff"

Strosacker Progress Report #2

Oops, I blinked and a month slipped by already. And it's been a busy one...

First, the University's grand plans have had to be scaled back a bit--the bids for the Strosacker project came back a wee bit higher than expected, so the electrical/lighting overhaul, fire alarm, sprinkler system, and associated small bits of carpentry have all been deferred until next (?) year. But the work on the screen, chalkboard, and related front-wall stuff is all going full steam ahead.

Second, we've finished the initial mechanical and wiring work for the Dolby Digital and upgraded analog sound. Now we can get started on the fiendishly difficult parts: getting the optics lined up exactly right (requires an oscilloscope, a PC, a fistful of test films, assorted wrenches, and an extensive vocabulary of 4-letter words), and hacking the CP-200 to Do The Right Thing when the digital processor tries to revert to analog in a format that the CP-200 is too old to grok.

More details, with pictures, below.

Continue reading "Strosacker Progress Report #2"

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The CWRU Film Society's summer "vacation"

This summer, the University is starting on the 2nd phase of rennovating Strosacker Auditorium for classroom use. The big changes are a long-overdue replacement of the eletrical and lighting systems (no more lights flickering spastically in the middle of movies--woo-hoo!), and the resurrection of the built-in movable chalkboard (a double-decker similar to the ones in Schmitt). The chalkboard part will be pretty messy--it will involve rebuilding most of the front wall:

  • remove the existing screen frame & tilt mechanism (tempermental and long-unused); replace with fixed-position frame about 11" from the wall
  • remove the portion of the wall below the screen door; attach it to the door itself so that the entire wall moves up, not jus the part in front of the screen & chalkboards.
    This is needed since the door (and part of wall below it) is about 2 feet thick, thus leaving most normal-sized people standing too far away from the challkboard to comfortably write on more than a very narrow section.
  • replace the rather large subwoofer current built into the lower wall section. Fortunately the same company that made the excellent main-channel speakers (left/center/right) also makes low-profile subwoofers.

We've already removed the old screen to take measurements for a new frame, and allow the contractors to see what exactly will be involved in the work they are bidding on:

Meanwhile, back in the projection booth, we're finally installing various bits and pieces that will alllow us to use the Dolby Digital sound tracks on most modern film prints instead of the old analog Dolby tracks. At the same time, the sound head retrofit will allow us to run prints made with the new cyan dye track analog format.

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Speaker Wars: Return of the Surround Sound

So Charley Knox and I spent the university's bonus holiday today in Strosacker, finishing up the process of hooking up the new surround speakers that were installed in August/September as part of the University's upgrades in Stro. We're now back to full Dolby Stereo w/ Surround; all that's left is to hook up the new Left Extra/Right Extra speakers (over the doors at the sides of the stage) and modify the Dolby processor to route non-sync sound (tape/CD/iPod/etc.) through those speakers instead of the main screen L/R channels (that way, we can play non-movie audio with the screen door closed).

We also disassembled and rebuilt a large part of the #1 projector, replacing some damaged parts that we found while replacing a busted gear back in August. Of course, we had to dig deeper into the machine this time, and found yet more bogosity :-(. Turns out that all 3 bearings on the sound head horizontal shaft were toast (we installed replacements for the two on the drive side of the machine, but didn't realize when we ordered parts that the one on the operator's side is toast as well). If we'd looked closer before, we could have seen the dented spot where some bozo at Cineplex Odeon whacked it with a screwdriver. Idjits.

BUT...now that things are back together, the machine is humming quietly, doesn't make the nasty sticky-bearing-caused gear-grinding noise every time we shut it off, and has zero play in the main vertical shaft. We should be in good shape for Sci-Fi Marathon 30 and the Spring 2005 semester.

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