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Author
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Topic: Non Cinema Integrators
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Steve Moore
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 211
From: Leeds, West Yorks, UK
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 05-20-2019 10:01 AM
Not quite on the same level; in the days when we still had both our 35mm machines and no digital, we had a festival which was going to be using DVDs, so we hired in an AV company to provide a large "data' projector etc. A man came and looked around and took measurements and said we would be fine with data projector sat on a stand pointing through one of the observation portholes.
Came the day of the festival, and the installer/operator arrives and first of all said "you need to move that out of here," pointing at the Victoria 9. I eventually persuaded him to point it through the observation porthole. Then he didn't have anything to stand the projector on, so home I went for an old slide projector stand. Then his dvd player didn't work, so home I went for my dvd player, then he didn't know how to connect into our sound, so I also did that too.
The show started and the image spilt onto the ceiling and stage; they had the wrong lens. I ended up having to mask the porthole with cardboard to make it look a little less bad around the screen.
Needless to say, we didn't use them the following year and we hired our own kit and did the festival ourselves.
When we finally tired to go digital, we had people out from some UK large companies to give us quotes, but most of the companies never got back with prices. In the end we went out and bought an ex-multiplex machine and installed it and the sound upgrade ourselves.
You can't always trust the "experts"!
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 05-20-2019 10:59 AM
We're in this situation all the time, especially with Bel-Air installs.
The problem we face most often is if we have to replace a component of the installation (e.g. pull out a failed server and replace it with an IMS) some years down the line. These systems inevitably have either Crestron or AMX touch panel systems, so all the Hollywood millionaire has to do is to press one button and the movie starts. However, none of us are Crestron or AMX certified (in my case, the only integration system I am certified and truly comfortable designing and modifying is Q-Sys), and sometimes the original AV contractor won't even release the passwords, source code, and other information needed to make the necessary modifications to the third party contractors we work with.
For initial installs, as long as the scope of work is clear at the outset, they usually go without problems. Occasionally there are slight issues. For example, last fall I went to install a projector in a mixed use arts center theater in northern Michigan. Thanks to a miscommunication when the job was set up, they were under the impression that we were tuning the room, but I had been told that I wasn't. So we had to overnight a tuning kit.
The only other issue is timing. It's important to get in and do our part of the job after the other things are complete, if possible. For example, if we install a projector before the speaker wires have been pulled and the audio rack installed, we can do all the picture-related stuff, and leave the AV contractor with pinout info and say "there you go." But because they're not familiar with DCI equipment, the chances are high that they'll want us back again when they run into difficulties (which often means wondering why they can hear the HI and VI tracks coming out of the back surrounds), which runs the risk of cost disagreements.
But all in all, most of these jobs go smoothly without any serious problems. There are three or four AV contractors we work with quite a bit, and they now know enough about what we do at the digital cinema end of things to be able to work with us effectively.
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