Prism contamination

[Marco Giustini]

Good customer service is always appreciated. It can only pay off.
Your customers will return knowing that you're going to look after them. Well done.

[Mike Blakesley]

Update: We've had quite a number of people who came out saying the NEVER NOTICED the blue tint on the screen even after we told them it was going to be there. I suppose when you get into the movie and get used to it, it doesn't matter as much. We've also had a lot of nice compliments from people thanking us for letting them know. It's always best to get out in front of a problem if you can.

[Mike Blakesley]

I don't feel like there's much point to re-upping with xenon, considering the industry at large is going to laser. I've already had a few people ask me "do you guys use a laser projector?" I thought very hard about going the "replace the prism" route, but who knows how long the rest of the machine will last? Certainly not more than another couple or three years at best, I suppose.

Anyway now that Little Mermaid is gone, we felt like we needed to get out in front of the blue screen issue and just tell people about it when they come in, before selling them their tickets. So I made up a sign that explains what's going on, and also photoshopped a picture that approximates what's happening. (I couldn't get a phone picture of the actual movie that looked decent.) Tonight my wife was selling tickets and she explained the situation to every single person coming in -- she asked them to read the sign and then showed them the picture and said "We just want to make you aware that this is going on until we get our new projector."

The results? Not one person turned around and left; nobody seemed to think it was much of a big deal at all. Nobody has left in the middle of the movie either. So far so good.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I would probably stay with NEC as they have be uber reliable and they are good at getting parts quickly to you something Christie is not good at

NEC currently offers only one Xenon model, their NC3240S. It's a clear sign they're also leaving the xenon market. Besides their flagship NC3540LS RGB laser, all other models are phosphor lasers. While Barco's SP4K series isn't a pure 3P or 6P RGB setup, it is an RGB laser configuration at a currently unbeatable price point, for it to be both 4K and RGB laser.

I'd say that if you want to stay on xenon, then Christie sure is your safest bet, like Mark indicated, they're a daughter of the larger Ushio conglomerate, which still has a big foothold in producing high-end xenon bulbs for several industries. No guarantees there either, obviously, but at least there is a strong connection to xenon there.

[Gordon McLeod]

I would probably stay with NEC as they have be uber reliable and they are good at getting parts quickly to you something Christie is not good at

[Mike Blakesley]

I'd say 10 years is your target for a full write-off anyway, unfortunately...

In 10 years I'll be going on 77 years old, so I'm kinda figuring this will be the last projector I'll be buying. Although, who knows, I still may be kicking around the industry in 10 years, but I've kind of targeted late 2030 as a possible "exit year" for me since September 6 of that year will be the 100 year anniversary of my theater. But who knows?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

It's not all black and white. While Christie is tied to Ushio, there is no guarantee they'll keep producing xenon machines for the next 10 years. Although, there will be sufficient xenon machines around in the foreseable future, so I'm not really worried about the availability of xenon lamps, but the costs may increase if suppliers decide to leave the market.

I'm not sure if Cinionic is offering the same, but over here, Barco still offers SmartCare with 10 year guaranteed output warranty on the light engine. If you're running five screens or less, I'd really factor in the cost of those support contracts into the price of the projector. So, even if the original diodes go extinct, Barco has to come up with some kind of replacement if the light engine fails prematurely. Their "laser plate" design also should allow for some leeway to change underlying components over the years.

And in this age of digital components, I'd say 10 years is your target for a full write-off anyway, unfortunately...

Marcel, I wasn't worrying about them supplying entire xenon projectors for the next ten years, just the lamp and underlying parts. They likely kept the one for those fussy colorists that hate Laser. There are so many other xenon based pieces of gear out there that pretty much guarantees lamp availability... Eventually all xenon will be phased out, but it will take a decade of more... As far as write offs go, over here, the theaters that got VPF's didn't really have to since they got ~80% back. No idea if they wrote off the other 20%. Single screen customers did write them off.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Manufacturers may be able to supply an updated laser kit, but that might involve replacing them all at great expense.

It's not all black and white. While Christie is tied to Ushio, there is no guarantee they'll keep producing xenon machines for the next 10 years. Although, there will be sufficient xenon machines around in the foreseable future, so I'm not really worried about the availability of xenon lamps, but the costs may increase if suppliers decide to leave the market.

I'm not sure if Cinionic is offering the same, but over here, Barco still offers SmartCare with 10 year guaranteed output warranty on the light engine. If you're running five screens or less, I'd really factor in the cost of those support contracts into the price of the projector. So, even if the original diodes go extinct, Barco has to come up with some kind of replacement if the light engine fails prematurely. Their "laser plate" design also should allow for some leeway to change underlying components over the years.

And in this age of digital components, I'd say 10 years is your target for a full write-off anyway, unfortunately...

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

That's progressed enough since the original post that in another three weeks, it's going to be all blue. If you replace it, I agree with Sam. Get the Christie xenon machine, Christie's are made in Canada. Since Ushio and Christie are more or less one and the same company, getting lamps should not be a problem. With solid state laser diodes you risk the semiconductors (lasers) going obsolete. Much the same as critical parts in everyone's server have gone obsolete. Manufacturers may be able to supply an updated laser kit, but that might involve replacing them all at great expense.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's almost a pity the rest of the image isn't colored orange, because you could have marketed it as BayVision™ for the new Transformers movie.

trans_two5.jpg

[Mike Blakesley]

I did take the lens out and got a good look inside the front and back.... everything looks clean as a whistle. We haven't had a 3-D movie since Avatar 2 at Christmastime and everything's been fine until about 2 weeks ago, so I hesitate to blame the 3-D unit.

Here's a pic of how it looks today.

Screenshot 2023-06-07 170946.jpg

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Before you spend the big bucks I would certainly check the rest of the optical system. I once had a S-1 Christie with similar discoloring, and it turned out that a tiny fragment of glass had let go from the face of the Integrator. You also have Dolby 3-D, so is the spinning wheel fully retracting when in 2-D mode? It's hidden under a cover. Are the 90 degree mirrors clean? You can see the first one when you open the lamphouse. Other mirrors below the light engine...

[Sam Chavez]

If you can't fix it, feature it! Movies are an event, people will show up and get absorbed in the film. On the other hand, a scraping speaker is hard to ignore.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I'm thinking about whether we should charge ahead with the movie schedule as planned, or save a couple of the summer biggies like Mission Impossible until after the new machine is in. (I know what'll happen to those grosses though.) Whatever we do, as soon as Little Mermaid is done we're going to start telling people about our issue. I think we will just issue passes if they choose not to stay for the whole movie, rather than just giving a free one to everyone.

Personally, I probably wouldn't give them a free pass if they're warned beforehand. I would highly consider to give them some form of reduction, anything between 25% to 50% off for a show once the new projector is in.

As for the upcoming summer hits... It's a hard thing to judge as always, but you're the only theater in town, so I guess that should reduce the damage somewhat of opening a movie like one or maybe even two weeks later. Are people really flocking to out-of-town destinations those days to see that one movie?

So far the only person who has commented to us about the discoloration has been one of our concession workers -- not one civilian has said a word yet, which surprises me since the blue tint is now on about 1/3 to 1/2 of the screen. But, as mentioned, Little Mermaid is mostly blue anyway (even in the "above water" scenes, often the blue tint looks like the sky).

Like Steve hinted... promote it as something special. I'd call it AquaVision™
Mario also has a good point... people often don't complain. Sure, a lot of people will not notice anything (although you have to be a special kind of color blind not to notice those pink and green images...), but many also make a habit of simply not returning, at least not for a while. Sometimes you may read a bad review on-line.

I thought about promoting the laser arrival but I'm going to wait and see how much better the picture is before I start crowing about it. I'd hate to make a big "thing" about it and then have people coming out going "eh." After all, there are probably still some folks around who don't know we aren't still using film.

I personally think you're way too humble. People will be paying $20 to $24 for a PLF experience and not even all of them feature laser projectors, heck, if they're watching Xenon IMAX for that same price, they'll be looking at an oversized 2K picture.

We here all know that the picture will not suddenly look 20 times better than before AquaVision™ struck, but it doesn't look 20 times better in any odd PLF presentation either. Still, there will be subtle improvements and while many people will not see it and will not care about it, I'm pretty sure that there will be people that do. Also, people often tend to be more proud of what they have in their own little town than you might think. Next time someone gets around in a big city and sees an advertisement for "Laser 4K" on a marquee or poster, they may just say... ha, we have that at home too, no need to go see it here.

Again... just my personal 2ct, you do what you think is best for your business, but since you're asking those questions here, it seems you're looking for some shared opinions...

[Darin Steffl]

Just keep your schedule and tell people you're getting the latest 4K Laser projector to replace your 13 year old one that is failing. They'll be excited you're investing in your theater. If anyone complains, offer a free pass.