HOLLYWOOD BACK LOT

[CONVERGENCE]

Hi Garyrc,

As for literature very lilte is available. These speakers were Lansing produced.

Ampex bought the equipment to manufactured them .

Please read the following quote from Steve Schell.

Steve Schell

09-18-2005 10:47 AM

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I can add a little to what Don said. Ampex made a major effort to penetrate the theatre sound business in the 1950s, and chose JBL to provide the speaker systems. Westrex (export arm of Western Electric) was also looking for a supplier of theatre sound gear, since Western Electric had recently ceased making this equipment due to a consent decree with the U.S. Government. They also chose JBL to make much of their equipment.

The 375 driver was developed to meet the need for a stout high frequency driver for these systems. We have heard conflicting stories as to who actually initiated the design effort, but it is evident that they were being supplied to the two companies by 1953 if not earlier. Actually AMPEX was ordering more product than JBL, still a small company at te time, could supply. To meet their need, they opened their own factory in North Hollywood and built their own versions of the JBL products, paying JBL a royalty on each unit produced.

I think that the Westrex 375s were built by JBL, as they look very similar to the early bubble back units used in the Hartsfield. Note that the 375 had been developed for theatre, not hi fi use. The Ampex products for certain, and likely the Westrex products as well, were in production well before the 375 was applied for hi fi use with the introduction of the Hartsfield in 1954.

"Jim Lansing Theatre Sound System" of 1954
(Also Manufactured as Westrex T550 and Ampex 6000C)
© Harman International, Courtesy Mark Gander and John Eargle

[CONVERGENCE]

I'm still waiting for the Ampex litt. to be scanned. In the meanwhile I stumbled on a new site.

It's an old theatre restored with 3 Altec Lansing A-5 as main speakers.

http://www.thelyric.com/tour/start.php

[djk]

Speaking from experience, those fiberglass horns sound better with something on the back side for damping. I have used both 3/8" felt, and 2" expanding foam.

[garyrc]

CONVERGENCE.

Thanks for the new photo --

What, no "wings" on the A-5s?

When they light up the rear of the IMAX screens, the speakers seem to have either no wings, or very small ones, and they put all their trust in subwoofers that don't seem to be keyed into any bass - reinforcing surface. Thus the lack of big bass and power in IMAX that the old Todd-AO / Magna theatres had!??!

Still quite interested in the Ampex litt. to be scanned!

Thanks again!

[cscmc1]

This thread us killing me. I had three 210 cabinets, loaded, complete with the multi-cell horns (1005's ???) and 288 drivers. They all came from Purdue's inventory, and I am embarrassed by what I paid for it all. Hell, I evenj had the huge crossovers that were original to the set. I had to rent a UHaul trailer to pick it all up -- it was too much for my brother's pickup. Damn, I wish I'd had the wisdom to keep at least some of that stuff. Damn...

[CONVERGENCE]

CONVERGENCE.

Thanks for the new photo --

What, no "wings" on the A-5s?

When they light up the rear of the IMAX screens, the speakers seem to have either no wings, or very small ones, and they put all their trust in subwoofers that don't seem to be keyed into any bass - reinforcing surface. Thus the lack of big bass and power in IMAX that the old Todd-AO / Magna theatres had!??!

Still quite interested in the Ampex litt. to be scanned!

Thanks again!

The unequalized frequency response of the ALTEC A-5 is the same as the A-4 with Wings.

The reason is simple The A-5 is a front loaded Bass Reflex Horn

The new 515- 8G are more efficient than the older ones. And with brand new processor Dolby CP 65.there was no need for Subs . The back stage was also acoustic treated .

Booth Equipment

35mm Projector

Simplex XL 35mm Film Head, Serial #4761 Simplex XL Sound Head with LED reader Strong Ultra 80 Lamp House 3000 Watt Xenon Bulb Speco LP 280 Platter System

16mm Projector

Kodak Eastman Model 25B 16mm Film Head, Serial #1832 Oracon Lamp House 1400 Watt Xenon Bulb

Sound System

CP 65 Dolby Processor CM 35 Booth Monitor 3 QSC MX 1500 Amplifiers Phillips 5 Disc CD Changer 3 Altec A-5 Main Speakers

They got themselves the most efficient sound system for that size of auditorium.

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[CONVERGENCE]

I've got new photos of an Altec theater set up with A-4 by Tom Loizeaux.

Quote from Tom Loizeaux.

For the past week I've been setting up a theatre space by rolling three full-sized speakers into position. It's a pleasure to push 3 Altec 4A, dual 15 cabinets (w Altec 515s), with wings, into a line. On top there are JBL 2446H drivers attached to JBL 2360B horns. They are on wheels, but at almost 10 feet tall and about 800 lbs. each, it's a push for sure.
Then I roll in a pair of JBL 4642A dual subs into position.
When they power up you're really covered in a BIG sound.
I used to think my 4343s were big, but these Altec monsters make my 4343s look like bookshelf speakers.

Tom passed away last year .He was a true professional .

The Giant Folded horn type theater speaker is making a come back

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The Klipsch commercial series is doing well. In almost evry major city in the US we can count at least 10 to 20

theaters equiped with this make.

Here ia a resize picture in a soffit mount .

j

[IndyKlipschFan]

that HPS 4000 looks a lot like the Klipsch system colterphoto1 has

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Yes the HPS 4000 looks like the K Grand . The interior might be different. It's SMPTE aproved thefore the quality must be

quite good.

Here is a photo of your conventional JBL University auditorium theater.

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Theres one theater in Washington Dc . Washington Post

Editorial Review
"The" place to see a movie in Washington is unquestionably the Uptown. In this day of generic multiplexes, the Uptown theater carries you back to the era of the movie palaces. It has only one screen. But, wow, what a screen. It's curved, 40-feet high and about 70-feet long. Installed in 1966, this eye-popper helps sell more than 200,000 tickets each year. Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, says the screen "is probably the best we have in this town." The second great attraction is a balcony with stadium seating. It almost feels like being at a drive-in without having to look over a dashboard. A $500,000 renovation project in 1996 brought high-back velour seats with drink holders along with new wallpaper, flooring, carpet, drapes and a second concession stand. While the refurbishing didn't take away that old-time feeling, it did take away seats; capacity dropped from 1,120 to 850. More than 300 seats are in the balcony.

The sound System
Altec A-4 Main 5 of them.
JBL subs
Altec A-7 Surround 12 of them.

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[garyrc]

The Uptown looks a lot like the late lamented Coronet in San Francisco.

I hope the Uptown is equipped for 70 mm (for revivals and the one new 70 mm film every 10 years or so). Even though film has improved (and therefore the resolution of 35mm has increased), and I saw one case of theatrical digital that seemed to have the same high resolution as 70mm, I have never seen projection of any kind that is as BRIGHT as 70 mm -- without being washed out at all. That big gate/aperature lets so much light through, every thing else being equal!

The Coronet had an image that fairly sparkled for Around the World in 80 Days (1956 .. not the new travesty!) and Ben-Hur, and the big, curved screen was well utilized, because, as in the case with the Uptown, there was not a stage taking up too much space between the screen and the front row of the audience.

Do you know if the Uptown was equipped by either Magna (Mike Todd's old company) or United Artists Theatres? I think they teamed up to do the Coronet.

[CONVERGENCE]

Read this first.

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You can't improve on the Uptown.

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The Projectionist point of view.

Quote:

Well it has now been over a year since I worked the Uptown...I was one of the projectionists at the Uptown from 1988 until 2005. After college, I only worked Saturdays though. I can honestly say, we had the best show in town. What some projectionists think as a clean/sharp print woudn't cut it at the Uptown. The screen is so big and curved, any damage just shows up more and scractches take on a curved appearance.

Focus was another issue. 35mm is too small a gauge for the Uptown's screen. The relatively poorly made prints of today really don't have a great focus to begin with..combine that with the small gauge and the deep curve screen, which taxes the depth of focus of the lens, and you have a very tricky arrangement. While I was there, focus was checked at least every 5-minutes to ensure it is at its best. Some films were just a demonstration of futility. CinemaScope films being the worst for the Uptown due to lenses adding the most to the image challenges.

70mm is the only format the Uptown should run. It is the only format that has the resolution, light throughput and the projection lens at the Uptown is designed for the curved screen. Yes, even 35mm blow-ups to 70mm would make (and have made) HUGE differences.

As for DLP...it is definately is not up to the task at the moment. The depth of focus is not up to the task, the resolution is not good enough either. While I know that Jodar posted above about the Crown (I was part of that installation team...at least on the original system), but you are comparing apples to oranges. Technicolor limited us to 40-foot wide screens for those installations so they WOULD look good and bright. While they are in many ways quite good, they are not really at the level that cinemas should be striving for. 35mm film has the capability to exceed even 2K DCinema. DCinema needs to try and meet/exceed 70mm capability and offer an improvement.

As for the Uptown's sound...it suffers from lack of attention combined with being played with by the latest special show that comes to town. The equipment within the place is quite good and you won't do much better just by replacing it (in fact you will most likely do worse). The Uptown's sound systems is quite similar to the Senator's in Baltimore, MD. Altec A-4 stage speakers, JBL subwoofers, Altec A-7 surrounds (12 of them), QSC amps, and the Dolby CP200 (upgraded). Probably the best the Uptown sounded was back when three of us tuned the room for a Paramount film with Al Matano...we had three analyzers going for the various zones throughout the room...one could really balance it out better than even with just a multiplexed mic system...and then critical listening was done by several people rather than taking just one person's opinion. As some have discovered...the sound in a room that large can vary quite a bit...a bit tinny downstairs towards the screen (in the middle, particularly), and notably subdued in the balcony. Then again, many techs don't realize there are two HF horn systems for each speaker to properly cover the Balcony and main section separately. The potential to have good sound there is indeed doable...just not every tech is up to the task nor has the time available (nor prior experience) to do it.

[garyrc]

I agree, any new projection process should atttempt to equal or exceed the best of the past! I wonder why the people in charge don't insist on this?

The original 70 mm setup at the Coronet in San Francisco included a deeply curved image 52 feet across the chord of the arc (nearly the whole expanse of the curtains, with only a sliver of black mask showing around the sides). Even at 52 feet in chord width, the picture was incredibly bright (the brightest I have seen anywhere, with the possible exception of 3 projector Cinerama). This was true for the first few 70 mm Todd-AO films, including The Miracle of Todd-AO, Oklahoma!, and Around the World in 80 Days (1956), all of which had credits which stated "Eastman Color, Print by Technicolor."

The screen seemed bigger than it was, because the seats came right down to within a few feet of the chord of the arc.

Unfortunately, when competing processes became widely used (e.g., Technirama 70, Panavision 70, and their "Super" and "Ultra" successors) , the corporations couldn't agree on a correction for the screen curve, and shot themselves in their collective feet (shades of HD DVD & BlueRay, or Beta and VHS) by encouraging many 70 mm theaters, including the Coronet, put in screens with much less curve, that required no correction, which were also smaller, inside their big curtains. From then on, the Coronet used larger black masks, and the film buffs started sitting many rows closer in an effort to recapture the effect of the former huge screens. 70 mm theaters that kept their huge, deeply curved screens included The New Pacific in Hollywood (for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Greatest Story Ever Told), and, gloriously, Century 21 in San Jose, CA (for 2001 a Space Odyssey). The Century 21 had a screen approx. 85 feet across the chord of the arc, but had too many rows of seats, so the rear part of the audience was too far away. Space Odyssey was sharp, with fine grain, even in the front row!

[CONVERGENCE]

Tere is a curved screen for cineplex. The corners are bit fuzzy if not installed properly. The curved screen needs a long throw

panavision anamorphic lens and preferably a 70mm print.

Here is a new theater called Marcus Majestic

The new Marcus Majestic Cinema in the Town of Brookfield is like no other movie theater in the Milwaukee area

It has a 72 feet screen . This one is slightly curved . Being curved gives a visual throw back efect at the viewer,

The speakers

UltraScreen.

Curtain

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[Islander]

That's a beautiful theater, but with the tables in front of all the seats, it looks sort of like it's made for conventions or large meetings or something like that.

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This theater is 2 theaters of 1000 seats .What appears like tables in the second picture are actually cardboard boxes.

That gives you an idea of the leg room between the seats. In one picture there seem to be a ledge between the seats.

The speaker system seems to be only 5.1 with 3 speakers behind a 72 foot screen seems to be under the required

size for 1000 seats. An 8.1 system would have been preferable. A lot of money went into decoration.

Theres always room to convert to 8.1 in the future.

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[IndyKlipschFan]

So why not just build all that in your house? He did!

http://www.scottajones.com/index.php?q=digitalpalace

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So why not just build all that in your house? He did!

http://www.scottajones.com/index.php?q=digitalpalace

Yes go for it if you can afford it. But there will always be that Block Buster movie like the upcoming Indiana Jones

that people will not wait for the HD DVD . The 72 foot screen will give you an experience that a top notch home movie

cannot reproduce.

There are private screening theaters in LA for movie makers. These are equipped like a real theater.

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[garyrc]

It looks like this 6 channel stereo system may have used 5 Altec A2s behind the screen (see CONVERGENCE, above) plus surrounds on either side of the screen ..... much more convincing, and higher SPL, I'll bet.

I found out later that most of the orignial 70 mm Todd-AO theaters used a JBL system assembled by AMPEX for Todd-AO. One variety of this system can be found somewhere on the Lansing Heritage website