Indoor Screen Replacement

[Rick Cohen]

I'm assisting a 1926 single screen movie palace with replacing their screen and curtain. They have a curved silver screen that does not fly up into the ceiling, but has a stationary frame. There is a curtain that opens and closes to each side of the screen with a motor.

There is a stamp on the bottom left back of the screen which provides dimensions of 15x31, Manufactured by Silvaray, Made In USA, and the number 7588 which could be meaningless.

Since this theatre does not do any 3D presentations, the replacement screen does not need to be silverized. Matte white or pearlescent is probably best, but open to suggestions. They currently use a Barco DP2K-20C projector with a 2K xenon lamp.

The frame came from RCA Victor Division, Long Island, NY and says "#20 RCA Synchro Screen" on the label, which probably means nothing. I presume the frame dates from the mid 1950s, just before RCA exited the cinema business but after the emergence of cinemascope, since the screen is a bit over the 2:1 aspect ratio.

I have no personal experience with indoor screen replacement. I have heard that Harkness is a good product, but I'm sure there are others out there.

I am looking for suggestions for screen material type, manufacturer, and especially an experienced installation crew. The theatre is near Buffalo NY. Also, they will need to replace the curtain at the same time. Does anyone even make movable screen curtains any more? The masking should probably also be replaced. The curved frame should still be good to reuse, unless it makes sense financially to replace the curved screen with a flat screen. Ideas?

[Kyle Addy]

Does the venue plan to transition to laser? That will impact decision-making, as we typically adjust perforation sizing—digital perf for xenon and micro perf for laser. In either case, I’d recommend either Harkness Perlux 180 or Strong MDI Northview 1.8.

For front-end work, we use Major Theatre out of Quincy, MA. Strong now has FF&E teams that can handle installation and curtains, though I haven’t worked with them personally.

I generally prefer flat screens unless they’re over 50 feet wide.

Once you make your decision, be prepared for significant lead times—screen manufacturers are currently inundated with orders.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I've have had excellent luck using Severtson and MDI Screens in past years. They both make excellent long lasting products. I was involved with three Imax sized screens. One came from MDI, and the other two from Severtson. All were impeccable quality.

[Jim Cassedy]

The RCA SynchroScreen™ was an interesting screen and masking (or actually 'no masking' )
concept first developed by RCA Cinema Products division in the late 30''s or early 40's and heavily
marketed by them starting around 1951/52. Instead of the traditional black masking borders, the
screen was surrounded more or less by a white 'shadow box' type of thing. The idea was that light
from the screen would bounce onto the top/bottom/side panel surfaces, surrounding the image
with a soft light, whose intensity would change with whatever was on screen. I think the idea was
that this was supposed to be more 'artistic' and easy-on-the eyes, and it also gave somewhat
the illusion that the screen was larger than it actually was. I'm not sure how popular it was, and it
seems they aggressively promoted it mostly around 1951/52, based on advertisements I've seen
that RCA placed in numerous theater-tech magazines of that period, and there were also a few
articles and photos of SynchoScreen installations published in magazines like "BoxOffice" and
"Exhibitor's Herald" etc. . . . But then, in 1953 came both 3D and Cinemascope. 3D required
having a hard-edge masking around the image to be effective, and for Cinemascope most
venues would have probably had to remove the side panels, to make room for a wider screen,
making the original 'shadow box' concept useless, so the top panels were most likely removed
too. I can't recall seeing any SynchroScreen ads after the early 1950's.

These images are from the June, 1952 SMPTE Journal, Page 522.



s

[Leo Enticknap]

So this screen is possibly three quarters of a century old! It must have lost so much gain that, after the new one goes up, this theater could likely go down a lamp size.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Jim's images are not showing up here. I had never heard of this shadow box idea! Another interesting screen idea I read about (while researching screen luminance for a SMPTE group) was to vary the perforation size to dim down the center luminance to match the side luminance. Perforations were made larger in the center of the screen.

[Jim Cassedy]

Jim's images are not showing up here.

Thanks, Harold! - I think I've finally narrowed my occasionally missing pictures problem to a
particular computer and browser I use here. I'l try uploading them again from a different machine.

These images are from the June, 1952 SMPTE Journal, Page 522.
RCA_SyncScrn_1.jpg

RCA_SynScrn_2.jpg

Here's an additional photo not included in my 1st post. It shows a Synchro-Screen
installation at The Plaza Theater in New York. Unfortunately the contrast of the original
scan isn't that great but if you look carefully, you can see the actual screen in the
center, flanked by the panels.
RCA_SyncScrn_3.jpg

[Ryan Gallagher]

I think Jim just found the ORIGINAL concept/implementation of what everyone who follows gadget trends does with their slim LED TVs or fixed frame home screens now. The better of which are somehow smart and respond to what is on screen, as the synchro-screen did. LOL

TVLights.png

[Leo Enticknap]

Note the turntable to the right of the TV. Interesting that the ad agency that came up with this image believes that the cool consumer's home now consists of a combination of the state of the art (flat screen LED with fairy lights behind it) and what is essentially 127-year old, analog technology.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Note the turntable to the right of the TV. Interesting that the ad agency that came up with this image believes that the cool consumer's home now consists of a combination of the state of the art (flat screen LED with fairy lights behind it) and what is essentially 127-year old, analog technology.

Vinyl is outperforming a similar enthusiast nostalgia resurgence not unlike what 35/70mm is experiencing of late. You can get vinyl of most new release albums, though they aren't pressing a ton of them. It's a niche demographic of consumers, the real trick will be can the presses continue operating to sustain it, and for how long?

I'm right there with them, have the record player and 2ch system, but don't have a TV to bling out with fancy lighting.

Aside, the ad exec flipped the image, cause most turntables of that style will have the arm on the right side, unless they are really dedicated fans of those backward satanic verses ;-) hehe

[Carsten Kurz]

It's clearly a left handers turntable. Took a long way getting them to recognise that minority in the vinyl fanbase.Good for them.

[Jim Cassedy]

I think Jim just found the ORIGINAL concept/implementation of what everyone
who follows gadget trends does with their slim LED TVs or fixed frame home screens now.

After some deep digging online, I think the "original" concept for this dates back to the late 1930's.
An article in the May 1938 issue of the SME Journal shows a recently patented device, which the
inventor called a"Synchro-Field" screen, but the diagram and pix in the article show it is identical
to the "Synchro-Screen" that RCA marketed almost 20 years later. I'm guessing the inventor sold
or licensed the patent to RCA, as I can find no further mention of the concept between 1938 & 1952.
And, actually, I too thought of those border TV border lights that are available now shortly after my
original post on this topic. Eagle-eyed Ryan spotted the backwards turntable, which I was also going
to speculate on. (Don't records spin the opposite way south of the equator? .)

You can read the original 1938 article and see some pix here:
https://archive.org/details/journalo...e/503/mode/1up

Today's Fun Foto:
I had a 9ft strip of those TV backlight LED's that I bought on Amazon for a project that never
materialized. So, they've been re-purposed to provide some indirect lighting at floor level
in my booth. I ran them along the the bottom of the big box-conduit on the front wall. I can
change the colors and intensity to match whatever mood I'm in. They were really cheap too.
I think I paid around $10(us) for them.
BoothLites.jpg

[Ryan Gallagher]

Is that a lanyard with a towel around the hook (presumably to avoid banging it into things) for cleaning the outside of the port glass?

I like the underglow, works well for booths with such huge windows.

[Jim Cassedy]

(edited) Is that a lanyard with a towel around the hook

Our projectors have a 2° upward tilt, and it's just enough to make the doors on the JJ's want to close
when you're trying to thread the film. I've worked with some JJ's and Simplex projectors that have a
'catch' on the doorthingy that will keep them open. These do not. Whoever worked here before me
put these bungee-cords on the front wall to keep the doors open while threading. The towel really
serves no practical purpose except to cover the spot where two large hooks join the bungees.

" EXHIBIT 'A' "
JJ_Bungee.jpg
(You'll notice I've got the green floorlights on for this shot. Yes, with these big
windows, I need to work mostly in the dark, and the indirect lighting on the
floor really makes a difference- - especially if I drop an aperture plate or some
stupid screw or something. This picture was taken between shows, with the
'work lights' on.)

[Ryan Gallagher]

Our projectors have a 2° upward tilt, and it's just enough to make the doors on the JJ's want to close
when you're trying to thread the film. I've worked with some JJ's and Simplex projectors that have a
'catch' on the doorthingy that will keep them open. These do not. Whoever worked here before me
put these bungee-cords on the front wall to keep the doors open while threading. The towel really
serves no practical purpose except to cover the spot where two large hooks join the bungees.

Ahh, the yellow threw me off the trail. I didn’t even consider upward tilting JJs, I’m so used to staring down our mountain.

Ours do have the door catches, except for one. I don’t know if I’d rely on them to hold a door open, mostly just to protect the hinges from over/rotation, our one without the catch shows evidence of prior hinge damage.

With steep down tilts the doors like to slam open if you let them swing.

on closer inspection I see the same door stops on yours, you must mean some additional mechanism to hold them open, perhaps just replace the screw that rides the catch slot with a knurled knobby and maybe a spring washer?