Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

October 25, 1930 Exhibitors Herald-World 117 BETTER PROJECTION A Department Conducted for the Projectionist and the Exhibitor By F. H. RICHARDSON Projection at the Pantages MY trip this summer having taken me to the shores of the Pacific, I could not very well fail to look in on Hollywood. And I took advantage of the opportunity thus offered to examine the projection facilities of the film capital's latest theatre, the Pantages. Let us visit this magnificent house together. Here we are in the projection room, which, incidentally, has over its door a good big sign reading exactly that — "Projection Room." I have, as you all know, seen a great many projection rooms. I have seen some which, I think, are perhaps just about as good, but certainly I have seen none better than the one I am now in. To begin with the length of the room is between 50 and 60 feet. The ceiling is about 11 feet high, and the depth, front to back is, perhaps 14 or 15 feet. The walls are painted a light gray and so is the ceiling. That's the only criticism I have of the entire plant. It would be more effective projectionally if the front wall were of a darker color. The effect of a darker color would be to make the screen more visible. This would be particularly true in this room, because the ports are all covered with high grade optical glass. (However, I am advised that the present color will be changed.) The floor is covered with an inlaid linoleum, dark red in color and of a sort of tile effect in design. The appearance of the room is indeed very pleasing. At the right end of the room — righthand as we face the screen — is the projection room control board, which is fully enclosed and is dull black in color. This board stands out about eight feet from the end of the room. Back of it is another room, closed by a door, from which we have access to the rear of this control board. The rear of the board also is entirely enclosed by metallic doors. In this small rear room is another switchboard. On the face of this board are five banks of switches. The top bank has ten switches, five of which control flood No. 1, and five control flood No. 2. Each switch is connected with a rheostat at the back, which possesses ten amperes of current. Hence, with all ten switches, 100 amperes of current would be available to each flood. The second bank of switches is ten in number and these control, similarly, spot No. 1 and spot No. 2. The third bank of switches, ten in number, operates similarly on Brenographs No. 1 and No. 2. The third bank of switches is much heavier. There are ten switches, five for projector No. 1, and five for projector No. 2. The five switches at the left hand in the lower bank control the current to projector No. 3, and the five on the right control a high intensity flood lamp. By closing the additional switches the current may be mounted up to a maximum of 50 amperes for each and every piece of apparatus in the room. But that isn't all of it. There is a lot more, because before you start to cut in current with these switches on, for example, floods No. 1 or No. 2, spots No. 1 or No. 2, or Brenographs No. 1 and No. 2, there is already a 50-ampere current flow cut-in. Therefore, instead of cutting in 50 amperes with the switches, you start with 50 and cut in up to a maximum of 100 for each piece of apparatus. With the three projectors and the high intensity flood, you start, however, with 100 amperes, instead of 50, and thus, when all switches are closed, you have a total of 150 amperes. However, that's not quite all either, because when wide film comes and a 250ampere maximum is required, it is possible to arrange the ballast resistance of COMMUNICATIONS to the editor of this department should be addressed (until further notice) as follows: F. H. Richardson Box 100 South Lyme, Conn. this board so that it will supply the required current. The rather remarkable thing about it is the fact that with this resistance running, the heat produced is so slight that the room, being well ventilated, is quite cool and comfortable. IjOING back to the rear of the main control board again, which is located in this same room, each lamp is controlled with a 300-ampere alternating current contact, with an additional 100ampere shunt contactor, which has the effect of shunting 50 additional amperes to each lamp after it has been warmed up. The projectors consist of three SuperSimplexes equipped with the new Ashcraft "600" super-high intensity lamps, a description of which I give later. All the motion picture projector lamphouses are connected by means of a six-inch ventilating pipe, which feeds directly into a 12xl2-inch exhaust duct, which runs along the ceiling and is painted black. In addition to the three projectors, there is a Brenograph to the left, and to the right are two Brenkert spot lamps. To the right of the motion picture projectors there is an Ashcraft high intensity flood using 120 amperes. To the right of this, facing the two windows, each about 30 inches square and covered with optical glass, are two Chicago Cinema PCE-CO spot lamps, equipped with five color effects each, On the left wall of the room is a wash basin with hot and cold water and a drinking faucet. In the rear wall are the film storage cabinets built in flush with the face of the wall. There are twenty 2,000-foot wide film reel compartments, surrounded by 16 metallic drawers of goodly size. I forgot to mention that on the control board at the right of the room is an ammeter, which registers the total amperage being consumed in the projection room. Just at this moment it is exactly 300 amperes with three spots going. To the right of the ammeter is a voltmeter, now registering 115 volts. There is also a stage ammeter to the right of these.