The Film Daily (1929)

12 DAILY Sunday, December 15, 1929 ■ Theater Equipment By WILLIAM ORNSTBIN , PAINTING WITH LIGHT NEW DECORATIVE IDEA "Colorama," a new achievement, described as "painting with light," which may bring about some revolutionary changes in methods of interior theater decorating, is announced as an accomplished fact by the engineers of the Atlantic Division of the National Lamp Works of General Electric Co. First installations of this new method of decorative lighting is being made in the ballroom of the St. George Hotel, Brooklyn, and will be given its first public exhibition there Jan. 9 under the auspices of the Illuminating Engineering Society. There are no windows and no visible ceiling or wall fixtures in the St. George ballroom. The entire room is painted with a flat white finish to provide the "canvas" upon which the lighting will be applied. Thousands of variations of colors and patterns are possible with the system, engineers say, and the designs and colors may remain fixed or move according to any predetermined plan. Thus the color scheme of a room may be changed to conform with different times of the day, different moods of the occasion, etc. A series of fine separate and parallel coves fitted with vertically-pleated flutes constitutes the lighting system for the walls. In both, the front and back of the flutes are placed clear lamps of various wattages equipped with color caps. For the ceiling there is a series of five inverted troughs, 10 feet wide and 60 feet long, placed symmetrically on 20-foot centers. The troughs have saw-tooth openings along the sides through which colored lights and shadows are projected onto the ceiling. In the bottom of the troughs are roundels through which may be projected red, blue, green and white light. Color effects are obtained by using inside-frosted and clear Mazda lamps with color caps and aluminum collars. Only clear red, green, blue and white Mazda lamps are used, but the color effects which can be obtained from them are unlimited in number. Frequency Control is Feature Of New Royal Amplitone Model Tone-0-G^orv^ Devices for 25 More Theaters Orders for 25 new installations of Tono-O Graph have been received by North American Sound and Talking Picture Equipment within the past few days, it is announced bv the company. Among theaters to install the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film apparatus are several inHenendent New York houses. Installations also will be made in Switzerland, with the signing of contracts by the Haefliger and Stuessy chain in Zurich. A frequency control whereby, it is claimed, the low frequencies of music can be reproduced so as to give the tones authentic timbre, warmth and naturalness, while some of the lows in speech can be removed in order that the talk may be clear and distinct, is announced as one of the chief features of the Royal Amplitone Corp. new model sound-on-film equipment. This is described as a variable control allowing the operator to remove the lows at will. During music reproduction, the dial is switched to "music," and when there is a stretch of dialogue the dial is turned to "speech." Another feature of the Royal Amplitone, its maker points out, is a tone filter supplied with a disc equipment to remove the needle scratch and surface noises only at the frequency at which they occur, leaving all other high frequencies intact. With a view to creating a machine that combines sturdiness with smooth operation, Royal Amplitone has made further development on several principles. The sound head, located directly beneath the projector head and above the lower magazine, is in three compartments. The middle one contains the sound gate, lens system and driving sprocket; in the front one is the photo electric cell which can be opened and swung out of the way for easy focusing, and the rear compartment contains the exciting lamp, anmeter and rheostats, as well as a spare pre-focused exciting lamp that can be changed in about 20 seconds by means of an ingenuous arrangement. The middle compartment is equipped with a glass door allowing the operator a clear view of the film passing through. Special attention has been given to the driving sprocket in the sound head. This is driven directly from the reduction gear housing of the di rect driving unit by means of a 25pound flywheel that is mechanically filtered, thus it is in no way dependent upon the perfect operation of the projecting machine itself and will give as good results with an old projector as with a new one, it is said. It also eliminates by means of the filtered flywheel, any possible flutter so noticeable in this method of reproduction. The lower magazine operates separately and is merely used to take up the film as it is passed on to it. The direct driving arrangement of Royal equipment is designed to replace the friction drive of the projector and the projector's motor. It is attached directly to the projector, of which it becomes an integral part, and consists of a special synchronous motor equipped with its own flywheel and a ball bearing reduction gear housing. The synchronous motor drives the reduction gear arrangement, which in turn drives the sprocket, the projector itself and the disc attachment. This driving attachment, once set, is part of the projector and moves with it. The fader is inserted between the outputs of the film amplifiers, magnetic pickups for disc and the main amplifier. It is so arranged that various volumes may be obtained and either machine may be faded into. There is a key mounted on the fader that switches from film to disc and vice versa. Two pairs of 14 wires' lead from the booth to the stage for the speakers. One pair supplies the 110 volt A.C. or D.C. power for the exciting winding of the speakers and the other pair carries the voice frequency currents. Contrary to the usual practice of splitting the speaker supply at the booth, Royal engineers are taking the speech back stage in one pair of wires and then are splitting it up by means of an auto transforming to match the impedance of the speakers. The different types of equipment have been segregated into various models so that exhibitors may purchase either the complete Dual equipment or any other combination desired. Each model is complete with all snare parts included. Cine Lifts Capacity to 143,000 Feet per Week Cine Lab has expanded its plant, which now has a capacity of 63,000 feet of 16 mm. and 80,000 feet of standard per week. It also has installed a complete set of Carl Zeiss lenses which will add brilliancy and detail in printing and developing. The lenses are the 10 cm. Tessar N. Levy Joins North American Jack Levy, formerly with Theater Acoustics Corp. has joined the staff of North American Sound and Talking Picture Equipment Co., manufacturers of Tone-O-Graph. Brazilian Circuit Buys Air Equipment Industrias Reunidas F. Matarazzo, of Sao Paulo, Brazil, controlling a circuit of more than 15 houses in that country, has contracted through Roy Chandler, representative of the Carrier Engineering Corp., for more than $100,000 worth of air conditioning equipment. Publix Banger House Redecorated Bangor, Me. — Work of redecorating the New Bijou has been completed. The house is one of the Publix Chain and has installed sound. DAYLIGHT FILM SHOWINGS POSSIBLE ON NEW SCREEN A screen which makes it possible to show pictures in daylight has been brought out by the Earl-Graf Industrial Motion Picture Corp., of New York. The inventor of the screen is Earle M. Wooden, who has a number of patents on motion picture projectors. After considerable experiment he accomplished his objective by so placing fins in a frame that, while allowing visibility in line with the eye, obstructed rays on any other angle. These fins, being just 1-2,000th of an inch, are practically invisible five feet from the screen. Earl-Graf Industrial Motion Picture Corp. specializes in industrial picture advertising. The company builds up stories around its customers' products, takes pictures of the story and runs them over a chain of projectors, which operate continuously and automatically in prominent thoroughfares. Greenblatt Gets New DeForest Appointment Pittsburgh — -Herbert H. Greenblatt, connected with Universal for. the past five years, and lately associated with General Talking Pictures in New York and New Jersey, has been made district manager for the same company and will supervise sale of the equipment in this territory. Offices of the company are located with Standard Film Service. W. D. Altei is district engineer for the company and will work out of this office. Schwarz to Handle Pfeil Control in Thilly' Philadelphia — Pfeil Automatic Safety Control will be distributed by C. Schwartz & Son here, it is announced by A. Sternberg. The company also handles Phototone in Eastern Pennsylvania. MOTION PICTURE APPARATUS of Every Type Consult Us and Save Money REPAIR SHOP with Experts on Professional Cameras Right on Premises U/ILMKJGHByS _▼▼ 110 West 32*St.N«w*5rK.Ny^ Phone Ptnna. 0330 Motion Picture Department U. S. and Canada Agent* for Debrie