In some cases a lamp can take a few seconds to settle down, and is not at its best whin the picture hits the screen. I think there is usually a manual strike button which gets round this problem, but even worse is the problem of not being able to stop the motor, without putting the lamp out. This may not be such a problem with platters, but is a real pain if running changeovers with short reels, sometimes several films of just a few minutes each, or if running a sngle machine with adverts and trailers on a spool on the porjector, then main feature on a tower, something quite common at independents here in the uk. (you can run the adverts and trailers while the tower is rewinding the feature). Even if you are running on a platter, it means puting the lamp out for just a few minutes, while you rethread, and then re-striking.

The only possible advantage I can see to this is that it might slightly simplify an automation system, I don't know anything about them and have never run one, but I suppose that the lamp strike would be one less event to have to programme into the system, but this hardly seems like a major advantage.

With decent automations you could program it to strike say a minute before show start, some systems however, won't let you do that.

You may, or may not have a lamphouse douser too...to Kinoton, they are extras...after all if the lamp is turning off with the motor, who needs em?

Another "feature" of the Kinoton system is that the lamphouse fans turn off when the lamp turns off, unless the thermal switch wants to keep em running until it cools sufficiently.

That being said, there is NOTHING to keep you or your technician from changing the hook up method to your suiting. All of our systems have the lamp turn on the "American" way. If you or the automation want it on, it comes on. If you or the automation want it off, it goes off. All of the ones we sell also have dousers in them too.

Steve

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I don't like the idea of the bulb striking proir to motor start, unless the hand douser is closed. In remote-start houses, early lamp ignition proir to motor start could be a problem. Nobody is there to close the hand douser.

Pete, I never saw a system that had an automatic hand douser, but that could be an answer to frying shutters.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

In a manual booth with xenon lamps, I usually strike both of them several minutes before the show start (with hand dousers closed, of course) and leave them on until the end of the show. I'm probably just paranoid, but I like the idea of having a few minutes to fix the problem should a lamp fail to strike.

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Our screening room has three EASTMAN Model 30 16mm projectors equipped with those lamphouses and rotary solonoid dowsers too.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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I have installed electric douser systems. Basically have the douser only open when the motor is running (pretty much what one would do anyway). When running automated or remote control shows, the electric douser has it's advantages. For the manual show, a manual douser is best.

Steve