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Question to Historian: How did Klipsch become so involved in commercial theaters?


RoboKlipsch

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I'm very curious about how Klipsch became involved in commercial theater audio.  Did he start with a local theater and work with them to enhance their sound with his products as a first "demo" case, or were the products already appreciated and sought after by the industry?  It is surprising to me to learn that high end audio in theaters is a relatively new thing, as someone who grew up in the 70s and 80s to me it always was "there."  Can you share some on how Paul and his team got themselves into this industry and became such big players?   When audio expanded into surround sound, was Paul and his team on the forefront or did it take a while to appreciate the concepts of surround sound?

 

Thank you in advance!

Roboklipsch

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Klipsch really started to rock'n'roll in the move theater deal when the MCM 1900 system (which was originally a three-way system: MWM, MSM, MTM units) came into being, although Klipsch had a previous involvement in movie theaters with the K-horn to some extent...which ended up evolving into TSCM in the industrial line.  The so-called industrial line which was being developed in mid to late 1970's, and evolved throughout the 1980's, really began to make serious inroads into movie theaters....and into older theater restoration sound reinforcement installations.  Numerous models in the old "industrial line" were made primarily for theater applications.

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On 7/5/2017 at 9:33 AM, RoboKlipsch said:

 It is surprising to me to learn that high end audio in theaters is a relatively new thing, as someone who grew up in the 70s and 80s to me it always was "there."

 

Actually, fairly high end audio has been in some theaters for a fairly long time.  The first run, road-show 70mm theaters in big cities had great sound from 1955, on.  The 70mm format of the 1950s and 1960s used 6 channel sound, either 6 magnetic stripes on the film (2 inside the sprocket holes, and 4 outside), or, in some very good theaters, all 6 channels on a 35mm full coated magnetic film synced with the picture.  The soundtracks themselves were very high fidelity, and had great dynamic range.  The Todd-AO company (sometimes with Magna theater corp.) made the first installations.  They hired Ampex to do the sound, and JBL provided the speakers, which were huge two-way fully horn loaded affairs with an additional bass reflex port, and 4 15" woofers for each channel.  The one Achilles heal was that the midrange/high horn took a nose dive just above 10K Hz.  Even so, my friends and I, audiophiles all, preferred most 70mm film sound to the sound at the annual Hi Fi fairs. The lesser 35 mm theaters had 4 channel sound (when receiving a mag stripe version of the film), with speakers by either JBL or Altec.  Cinerama generally had Altec.

 

There was great showmanship in the exhibiting of road-show films then.  The screens were deeply curved to be more engulfing and immersive.  There almost always would be a 6 channel overture or prelude before the film started, then the lights would fade down, and the curtains would sweep open dramatically. 

 

The first surround sound film was Walt Disney's Fantasia in 1940.  The Scientific American article (Peck, 1941) described the process -- "Fantasound" -- as having 94 sound locations in the theater (Google it!).  The sound was optical, however, because that was all they had in 1940, but it was very carefully recorded, and really surprisingly good, except for noise.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was hoping that "Bonehead" would pick up the  ball, but he moves on his own time scale.  PWK from as early as the 1940's wanted K-horns in theaters.  However, the corner requirement (or even false corners) was an impediment, particularly with the "closed club" mentality that still exists in this business.  Theater owners were used to one-stop shopping for screens, speakers, popcorn machines, etc.  About 1980 or so John Allen http://www.klipsch.com/bicentennial, a friend of PWK's, convinced Klipsch to let him become the worldwide distributor of Klipsch speakers to the cinema market.  This introduced the MCM, LaScala, Heresy, and TSCM to the market.  The first digital presentation was with a John Allen/Klipsch system.  With management changes at Klipsch in the early 80's the relationship faltered.  In the late 90's a relationship developed with Regal Cinemas that continues today, and has been added to with many other chains.   Essentially Klipsch's calling card is the demo.  Massive "shoot-outs" with virtually all of the competition are what convinces theater execs that Klipsch sounds best and is generally less expensive.  Hearing is believing.

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2 hours ago, JRH said:

I was hoping that "Bonehead" would pick up the  ball, but he moves on his own time scale.  PWK from as early as the 1940's wanted K-horns in theaters.  However, the corner requirement (or even false corners) was an impediment, particularly with the "closed club" mentality that still exists in this business.  Theater owners were used to one-stop shopping for screens, speakers, popcorn machines, etc.  About 1980 or so John Allen http://www.klipsch.com/bicentennial, a friend of PWK's, convinced Klipsch to let him become the worldwide distributor of Klipsch speakers to the cinema market.  This introduced the MCM, LaScala, Heresy, and TSCM to the market.  The first digital presentation was with a John Allen/Klipsch system.  With management changes at Klipsch in the early 80's the relationship faltered.  In the late 90's a relationship developed with Regal Cinemas that continues today, and has been added to with many other chains.   Essentially Klipsch's calling card is the demo.  Massive "shoot-outs" with virtually all of the competition are what convinces theater execs that Klipsch sounds best and is generally less expensive.  Hearing is believing.

Which can now be attributed to @Chief bonehead who has been instrumental in developing the pro line and subsequently introducing it worldwide. 

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