Historic Grand Theater in Du Quoin makes the digital leap of faith Friday
To invest $70,000 in an aging theater but with landmark quality architecture is not only a leap of faith for the Rich Baker family, but it requires an unspoken contract with the community that says "we will support this."
Great movies, soft-serve ice cream and theater popcorn will pay part of the freight, but when the new NEC Electronics digital projection computers boot up for the first time Friday on two of the three screens we're talking about the start of a serious financial journey.
The good news: Your ticket prices will not go up.
Tri-State Theater Supply, Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., has been in Du Quoin for three days installing he equipment in the main theater and the Cinema II upstairs.
The lower theater seats 230 and the upstairs theater 148.
The smaller third theater to the rear of the Grand will continue to project the 35mm reels on which many of the classics and some first-run movies still use.
The $70,000 investment is a combination of $50,000 in private capital and $20,000 from Du Quoin's revolving loan fund.
In recent weeks, the Bakers have accomplished painting and a general makeover of the theater's beautiful art deco exterior which borrows from an era of great theaters like the Fox Theater in St. Louis. Over time, 2 x 4's and plywood and sheet rock have covered some of it.
Technically, the audio was upgraded to 5.1 Digital Sound using an Ultra Stereo JSD60 Processor. The projector is a NEC900 Projector with 2048 lines of resolution using a .69 DLP chip. The scratchy sound and the scratches in the film are gone. The experience is cleaner and crisper. Six new surround sound speakers enhance the experience.
The dual lamp system ensures no black screen. Lamp changes can be made from the back of the projector.
Projectors can be controlled from a touch screen.
Auto lamp brightness control maintains constant brightness by adjusting the lamp power as it ages.
Baker Sr. says the Grand will receive copies of the movies on a hard drive that takes about 30 minutes to load into the projection system. Once that's done, well, you're done. It's good for however long the Grand Theater plans to show the movie.
Part of the reason for all of this is the fact that the movie houses no longer want to go to the expense of copying movies over onto expensive 35 mm film Some companies still over 35mm, but they are few and far between.
When the new projectors come on tonight the kids can look forward to the "Ninja Turtles" in the main theater, "Let's Be Cops" in the upstairs theater and "Guardians of the Galaxy" in the third theater using the traditional 35mm system.