I have resisted nearly 2 weeks but my heart keeps going on, and oooonnnn. So a trip down to Tower Park Poole on red buses only took around 15mins.




The box-office used to be where the doors are least in the middle part so all that is gone now!

I was more curious of the colour/picture itself not interested in the 3-D and I hardly ever wore the RealD 3-D glasses as I found them distraction. They don’t cover the eye very well they’re pretty flawed in design as the outer edges left to right, you can still see non-3-D image when sat front and centre row, so they need to rethink the design.

Like I said I was only going for the colour and picture quality which stood up nicely some parts looked blurred due to way the 3-D conversion is looking at the image foreground images looked 2-D but looking closer if had the time and tiny variables of the face might look blurred. It’s like when looking at something in real world and crossing your vision cross-eyed and you see double images. I even tried that when looking at Titanic, besides I’ve now seen it 15 times projected and projected it once around late 1998 at Warner Bros 12 screen Bristol plus endless lost count of how many times on THX Laserdisc THX DVD R2 THX DVD R1 THX SE DVD R2.

Asking one of the duty managers if I could see one of the projectionists to see if he had time to show me around as its been some 23 years since I been in the booths when I started out as trainee in late of 1989 to mid 1990.

Young lad I’ll keep his, name shhh for privacy had been with the site some 9 years and seen the new conversation to the site that cost around £2.5 million a few years ago when smaller Studio screens were added to the topside of the building of the already existing 10 original screens that have had slight modifications themselves.

Side walls added to auditorium at least screens 5 and 6 I can tell even thou I never went into screen 5 I could guess it would be the same with false wall erected along the entrance which used to be open that allowed you to walk behind the back row seating. The seating itself had been raised so it slopes upwards towards the back row to allow good sight-line to the screen.

The floor felt wooden as I could feel some mild flex in it and hear it when tapping my shoe on the floor that used to be a firm concrete if I’m not too mistake? Last time I was actually in screen 6 was back around 2004 when I saw I, Robot in Dolby SR-D.

The seating is all new as I heard all seats where rockers but I doubted a lot of people who have been there including friends but had to see for myself. Yep red plumb deep cushion seat with firm seat back really comfy, in fact almost better than my rocker seats and Empire Leicester Square’s screen 1 rockers.


The seat back as you can see from the set of pictures I took some not good as the camera flash was being returned due to flood-lighting fitted in the corners of rear of the cinema.

Some few pictures of the booth upstairs for Studio screens A, B, C, D, E and F all digital Barco projection fitted in the screens in tiny box mounted to the ceiling. Didn’t have time to have look at one so maybe on second visit I might ask the projectionist for quick gander around the smaller digital screens that are all fitted with rockers as well.

The serves in the racks mid way down and all programs can be programmed on touch screen panel quite easily in matter of minutes (which takes away the fun of making a film print up). Crown power amps in lower part of rack audio booth monitor and above Dolby CP750 which is fitted larger screens from what I can remember and some smaller screens while the rest of the smaller screens have Dolby CP500 and some of the original CP55 with SRA5 I was very surprised to see and some of original 35mm CINEMECCANICA Victoria 5 still looking if not in pristine condition for 23 years.

1.5KW xenon fitted in the 35mm while Barco has minimum 3KW from what I can remember, yesterday.


One of many few Digital screens with 2K Bacro this was one of the smaller screens forgot which one.



Some of the rectifiers had been removed from the other projectors as they’re no longer need and stored in one of the smaller booths and there not easy to move around you’ll need a trolley truck to cart it around they’ll bust your back in moving it around by yourself. I lifted one a mere few ½ inch and it winded me. Trolley Truck!


This one shows I should check my pictures first! The camera flash totally over exposed this, shot and that pisses me off. What I can see is Dolby CP750 above with vintage Dolby CP55 below and SRA5 behind the panel that is dropped down which is only 1 U rack frame size, below that booth monitor.


One of the original remote house faders still fitted to the wall by Sound Associates.

35mm print of BATTLESHIP in screen 7 thou I was certain it was playing in screen 5 yesterday, not that I I went into main large screens 5/6 films get moved around on the site all the time. That could have been The Avengers I heard filtering into screen 6 on the lows between 20Hz and 60Hz at guess of around over 60dbc!

Holographic Terminator 3 in one of the smaller booths. I talked to the projectionist about it whether he's into collecting memorabilia and what it might fetch on eBay.




This is one of the mirrors that is fitted to back of the lamp house with xenon lamp fitting in the centre of the hole. Safety gear must be worn at all-times when changing lamps as that can explode in you're face! A Dolby CP55 and SRA5 spare too bad I'm looking for cheap SRA5 for my CP55/65


Screen 6 I like the red led lights fitted to masking panel on the inside so when set at W/S or scope its giving a nice all even around red outline the one fitted to horizontal I'm guessing is continues and only hidden by the black masking cloth. Aspect ratio set to W/S.



CINEMECCANICA Victoria 5


CINEMECCANICA Victoria 5

It was nice to see a scope change over and its just press down on the lens turret flip the lens over focus check it looks good and let show run.

Stairway leading to the upstairs Studio Screens.


main booth for the digital Studio Screens A, B, C, D, E and F. I didn't ask about the arrangement of the Crown amps I'm guessing the amps could be running passive two way in the screens LCR and stereo surrounds with one channel running the LFE.1.

Behind the screen, screen 6. It was hard to get a near decent picture to document this, as the camera flash was rebounding off the metal frames.

When looking at the pictures I sussed out it was three-way sound system bass/mid midrange and high range horns. The QSC can only be one of many possible as I couldn't see the model number clearly one of these.
SC-323 or SC-423 or SC-423-8 as they almost look alike.

http://www.qscaudio.com/products/speake ... _3-way.php


Sub bass looks like a duel 18" and can only be one of two possible QSC subs ether a SB-5218 or SB-7218 (more on how they sounded/felt in next post).

http://www.qscaudio.com/products/speake ... sb7218.php



Did get a picture of the x12 QSC surrounds but it could only be one of SR-18 or SR-110B (my guess would be the SR-110B) with 10" bass/mid driver and HF horn.
http://www.qscaudio.com/products/speake ... rounds.php

Also you get a sense for those who haven't looked behind the screen there's not enough room to swing a cat around. Its very tight even with horn throat nearing the front wall within a couple of inches. The screen lacing tightens up the screen and it looked to me like a super micro perforated screen as the perforations where smaller than regular screens.

The sub is only slightly positioned a few feet away from the centreline noranlly placed right below the centre channel but the metal frame seems to be in the way.

The damping material appears to be the original when fitted in 23 years ago as its a little worn but still good enough.

The screen size has been increased it used to start at around 1 meter as the masking was below it and it never neared the top of the ceiling and width is also wider so a BIG difference at filling the space in the auditorium.

Sweet pics laserbite34 !
Epic equipment room !
Thanks for posting this experience !

Why thank you.

Watching region 1 Titanic now only 11mins in. (now jumped chapters to chapter 16)

Yesterday’s presentation sounded fantastic at least across the stage channels the surrounds was a bit distant then again I was some 16 feet from the centre channel and nearest sidewall surrounds was at least 20 feet behind me.

The further you move back the stereo fronts gets narrower and I like wide wild stereo LCR guess I can’t have it both ways unless the film was played on repeat for a few scenes so I can listen for myself since I’m paying to watch it.

At least I was listening and the Dolby mix is virtually intact with same mix of 1997 as I have listened to it 14 times in SR-D at the ABC in 1998 and listened to a few reels in preview rehearsal in one of the largest screens at Warner Village12screen a night before it was shown to the public.
The stage channels at screen 6 over left/right seems to be lacking a low bass note maybe below 40Hz with possible low-pass filter maybe? I can remember the bass tapping on my ears as Jack and Fabrizio are running though dock to board the ship. The music is playing low beat on stage left/right that I rather like as well as feeling some parts of it ABC screen 1 over JBL 4675-A five screen thou only three-screen was used.
Dialogue panning is the same when in an earlier scene one of porters voices heard on stage right “Sir, Sir you have to check you baggage”. Then voice pans into centre channel.

Sound effects are all in the same place some with half pans panned to left and right some tend to float or centre phantom hover between stage left and centre stage centre and right.

Scene leading up to “Hard to starboard”! Has half panned sound effect between stage left and centre when 2nd Officer Lightoller answers the phone and pulls the lever down (What I heard yesterday was more of the half pan in the centre channel maybe I should have sat 3 rows back (I was thinking about it). I have no snags hearing that effect in living room, sat 7 feet back) it was heard more clearly to left at the ABC screen 1 due to the distance away from the screen at least 24 feet to first front row, sat on the centreline. The rest of the scene with HARD TO STARBOARD was loud and clear as 1st Officer Murdoch yells out to Quartermaster Hichens followed with “hard to starboard” panning away to stage right as the camera pulls way from right to centre on helmsman. Voice panned to left “Turn, turn steady”!

Bell sounding on stage left HF still pulls my attention to left side of the screen “FULL ASTERN”! Also the deep LFE.1 of the engine sound rumbles.
The sub bass when it kicked in on LFE.1 track was easily reaching 115dbc but I forgot to take my SPL db metre it was louder more felt that startled me, rocked me, back in the rocker seat many times, during the grand ladies back breaking in half with an abrupt explosion like effect, must have been one of many boilers, That lacked a little at ABC screen 1 as it was only single JBL 4645 in auditorium larger than Empire screen 6. Yet the stage channels had better low end (but not as near as what they sounded like at the Empire Leicester Square on some 70mm films).

The water breaking though the door washing a father and his, son away, “NO, NOT THAT WAY”! WHAM the LFE.1 was nuts on that single duel 18” QSC only thing I was missing was surf board as lows coming off the LFE.1 was deep crunchy peaky raw and solid.
End credits audience always leaves well that sounded neat and the THX call this number has been removed from the 1997 print and replaced with 3D logo and some small credits to 3D conversion.

Colour appeared to be the same unlike the lousy transfer on Laserdisc and DVD VHS tape with green around the white lights on some of the underwater scenes with blueness around the rest of the image wasn't visible on this digital transfer so I hope the DVD to Bluray gets the same transfer as the special edition DVD also suffered the same issue and its annoying to watch.

I checked out Titanic in IMAX 3D. Wow it looked great. It also sound really good too.