Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1956)

''Air-conditioning had been the biggest hurdle of the Crown theatre management because it seemed like a topheavy addition to a serious capital investment, but they took it in stride and now agree it was their best decision. It has proved to be the most effective implement in restoring and increasing neighborhood patronage. This is true not only during the summer but throughout the whole year." the facts of the theatre air-conditioning stor)', however. There was a problem, the solution of which should be of real interest ro those who plan to protect and improve their theatre investment by installing airconditioning. This has to do with how owners can save money in capital investment and in operating cost by knowing how and where to buy. The Crown theatre will serve well as an example. In the March 5, 1955 issue of Motion Picture Her.ald, Better Theatres Section, there was an article entitled “Putting Theatre Cooling on a Practical Basis.” This reviewed the common methods of buying theatre air-conditioning and projected a new approach to the old problems. This new approach was made possible by research of The Carrier Corporation through its Application Engineering Department during 1950 and 1951 in the field of motion picture theatre air-conditioning. In review, the article acknowledged the perplexing problem a buyer faces in trying to reach a sound decision in selecting the right proposal from the many widely varying systems and prices which are usually presented by local contractors and dealers. It submitted that for any given theatre the recommended tonnage, or cooling capacity, commonly recommended in terms of installed horsepower, could differ by as much as 100%, with the installation costs similarly at variance, and it explained why. It also explained how this unhealthy condition may be corrected. It told that specialists in the field of theatre airconditioning, working to reduce the installed cost, and to improve the techniques of applying standard equipment to this specialized use, had developed new methods of cooling load caluculations to speed up and reduce the cost of engineering service and had defined better design standards. Some manufacturers who are interested in good application of their products as well as in the manufacture and sales, employ engineers who are specialists in various fields of application. Many of them are familiar with the fact that common data on theatre air-conditioning available is highly packed and overloaded with accumulated safety factors and parasitic practices which have in many instances raised the cost of air-conditioning to an absurdity. Certain manufacturers have well qualified data which are available to their own application engineers. We know of no organization other than Carrier, however, which has spent so much time and money to test and prove and put into documentary form a realistic and practical approach to theatre air conditioning. Let it be clearly understood that we are not here discussing any manufacturer’s products. We are concerned only with a method, a technique for applying products. Any suitable standard air-conditioning equipment produced by reputable manufacturers can be effective if properly applied. A MATTER OF TECHNIQUE Coincidently, that article in Better Theatres for March 1955 was in the hands of the Crown theatre owners before they made their investment in air-conditioning. Also there was a local air-conditioning contracting company whose management and engineers were thoroughly familiar with the engineering data Carrier Corporation had developed. But unfortunately, to the tune of several hundred dollars, the Crown management did not know of this soon enough to prevent becoming committed to a preliminary bout with the usual problems. In their case they attempted to solve them by asking for quotations on engineered plans and specifications. The plans and specifications, by commonly used standards, were acceptable as prepared. When the bids came in they were reasonably close and among them was a bid from the Carrier dealer. By this time the buyers were familiar with the opportunity for saving money that Better Theatres had suggested and accepted the dealer’s offer to re-engineer their proposed installation. The new proposal fully guaranteed temperature and humidity and in every essential way proved to be equal to or better than the plan and specification job. They bought this installation at a price which was 20% under the original bid. Because of their commitment to the consultant for the use of his plans and specifications, he was paid his fee; in this case about 7% of the low bid originally submitted. They still saved about 12% ! Hartford, along with most of the coun try, sweltered through a wave of excessive heat and humidity last summer. Did this bother the Crown? Not a bit. With outside dry bulb temperatures hovering around 100° during the daytime (7° above normal design), and with wet bulb temperatures pushing 85° (10° above normal design), the Crown theatre packed them in. At no time did the inside temperature exceed 77°, or the humidity go beyond 60% (and when your engineer tells you that is not good inside design, that it should be 75° with 50% relative humidity, you just have him explain psychrometrically how that can be accomplished without reheat, and does he want you to keep the boiler operating all summer?). FALSE IDEAS OF COST More and more, manufacturers of airconditioning equipment are concerned about widening the markets for the sale of such equipment. The motion picture theatre market for air-conditioning equipment, in spite of great promise a few years ago, has been a slow one to expand. It seems to be largely so because of the inability of the smaller houses to justify what they believe will be the cost of good airconditioning, and their justifiable reluctance to spend money on cheap and ineffective compromises. Air-conditioning is something that cannot be successfully compromised. It is either good or it is worthless. When one buys air-conditioning he buys a very intangible commodity. The color, the shape, the beauty or lack of beauty of the machinery is of no concern, primarily. It is the very intangible element of “good condition” that is paid for. If that element, “good condition,” is not satisfactorily produced, then the installation was not bought wisely. If it is too easily produced (and by that is meant that the compressor cycles “off” too frequently under capacity theatre load), then it was oversized and similarly was not wisely bought. There is little satisfaction in knowing about a cure for a disease unless the medicine is available and one knows where and how to get it. The kind of information which helped the Crown theatre improve its capital investment and still keep a good part of its budgeted money in the bank is available to theatre owners seriously contemplating air-conditioning. Being the result of an intensive engineering study, the data are of course highly technical, but with competent engineering consultation the facts of this study may well demonstrate to many a theatre operator that his negative thinking about the practicability of airconditioning has been without foundation. \Theatre operators wshing data developed by this study may obtain them by viriting, on their letterhead, to the Editor of Better Theatres, 1270 Sixth .4 venue, Nev: York 20, N. Y.] BETTER THEATRES SECTION 9