FEELARAMA = SENSURROUND?

[Walther]

Im Jahre 1975 kam der Katastrophenfilm EAST OF KRAKATO (mit Maximillian Schell) unter dem Titel "VOLCANO" zur Wiederaufführung in ausgesuchte Kinos in Amerika.

 

Der Film lief (wie ursprünglich) in Cinerama (70mm) und in FEELRAMA. Das Plakat hatte die Schlagzeilen:

"The first rumble starts in the distance ... the sense tighten with anticipation ... the volcano exploses and FEELARAMA surrounds you with the sensation of a lifetime in Cinerama."

 

Klingt ganz nach einen SENSURROUND-Verfahren.

Wer kennt FEELARAMA?

 

Walther

[preston sturges]

m.w. nach wurden wie bei Dolby Baby Boom halblinks und halbrechts die tiefen frequenzen des vulkans aufgemischt. aber ohne gewähr - mein gedächtnis kann mich auch täuschen, selbst ein brainscan hat nichts 100%iges gebracht.

[GloriaKC]

Da fällt mir ein das ich als Jugendlicher mal in Kapfstern Galactika gewesen bin . Der Film lief damals in SENSURROUND . Was hat es mit diesem System auf sich ? Ich kann mich halt nur an eine übermäßig starke Baßwiedergabe erinnern . War das schon alles ? Gibt es irgendwo Infos über SENSURROUND ??

 

cu

[Kai]

>Gibt es irgendwo Infos über SENSURROUND ??<

 

Hallo GloriaKC,

 

probiers mal hier: http://members.aol.com/earthquakemovie/index.html

 

Unter Trivia and more...

 

Einen Aufkleber habe ich hier in einem älteren Beitrag: http://forum.filmvorfuehrer.de/viewtopi...ensurround

 

Ach ja, beim Einbau der SENSURROUND Anlage im Kino für "Kampfstern Galactica" hatte ich gerade Mittagspause in der Berufsschule. Bin zu dem Theaterleiter und habe gefragt wie man denn Filmvorführer wird. Wurde dann ausgebildet von einem "Alten Hasen mit Vorführschein" und als Aushilfe beschäftigt. So begann meine "Karriere" im Kino mit viel Baßrumpeln, die am 31.12.03 endet - habe gekündigt. 25 Jahre sind jetzt genug.

 

Gruß

 

Kai

[cinerama]

Über Feelarama folgender Link:

 

http://www.film-tech.com/tips/wsmc.html

Dabei die "page 247" bitte lesen.

 

Sensurround war sowohl bei "Kampfstern Galactica" wie auch der Fortsetzung, "Mission Galactica - Angriff der Cylonen", zu erleben. Der Tiefbaß konnte in seiner Effektfülle den heutigen Subbasss bei weitem überflügeln.

 

Feelarama leider nie erlebt, gerne aber würde ich so einmal "Karaktoa" sehen und hören, natürlich in 70mm-Kopie.

[Kai]

Quelle: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Sensu...com&rnum=1

 

I found my post of the explanation of Sensurround... If anyone has any

questions about it, please let me know.

 

SENSURROUND (later called SENSURROUND-Special Effects System) was an Academy

Award winning process in which bass rumble sounds were fed to Cerwin-Vega sub-

woofer horns in select theaters. Actually, that's a very simplified

explanation. There were two versions of SENSURROUND (three really, but I can't

find much info about MOD III) The first version of SENSURROUND was used on the

1974 film EARTHQUAKE. SENSURROUND was developed by Waldon O. Watson of MCA

Systems and RCA did the installations in theaters. Cerwin-Vega helped

manufacture the sub-horn drivers, but MCA designed and built the units.

On the film print itself were two low-frequency pilot tones at 25Hz and 35Hz.

These were recorded on the normally redundant optical track with 35mm

Magnetic sound prints or as a "composite" track on optical only prints. (on

70m 6-track prints, the pilot tones were placed on the two baby-boom L-extra

and R-extra tracks) The pilot tones were fed to the SENSURROUND control unit

which also had connected to it a special low-frequency psudorandom noise

generator. This low- frequency generator produced a "rumble" sound which was

programmed to duplicate the waveform of the 1972 Sylmar earthquake in CA.

From there, the control box was directed to the theater amps and speakers and

to the high-powered SENSURROUND amp's and SENSURROUND sub's that had been

placed around the theater, usually in the back of the theater where seats had

been removed and in the front under the screen. When the control unit

detected the pilot tones, it would turn on the noise generator and feed that

signal to the sub's while at the same time controling thier volume and the

volume of the theater speakers. It could also direct some of the main program

signal into the SENSURROUND horns to create a surround-sound effect. The

rumble itself was from 16Hz to 120Hz and played at a level of AT LEAST 120db.

This created an acoustic shock-wave in the audience the made them feel as if

they were actually experiencing an earthquake. In some theaters, special nets

had to be installed on the ceiling to catch parts of molding, etc, that were

shaken loose during the effects sequences...many theaters suffered structural

damage.

After EARTHQUAKE, MIDWAY and ROLLERCOASTER were released in SENSURROUND, but

at this time (for MIDWAY) the process was modified somewhat. In order to

better explain it, I'll quote directly from an article about SENSURROUND:

"The first feature to utilize Sensurround was "EARTHQUAKE" and the second was

"MIDWAY". At that time we did a fairly extensive modification of the

Sensurround system in that we changed our control system so that we could

have the transducers that are up in front of the screen operating, and/or the

ones at the rear of the theater - but separately from each other. This made

possible a front-only Sensurround. This was quite important to us, because

there were times, during dialogue sequences, when we wanted to have the

Sensurround running, but did not want to have dialogue coming from the rear

of the theater, because that is quite distracting. So we modified the

equipment to maintain the perspective of sound at the front of the theater.

At the same time, we incorporated a noise reduction system as part of the

Sensurround equipment. All of the prints of "MIDWAY" and "ROLLERCOASTER"

include the noise reduction system, which gives us a much larger dynamic

range on the print. For "EARTHQUAKE" we had a noise generator which was part

of our control electronics in the theater, and that noise generator produced

the large rumbling sound of the earthquake. At the time, that was the only

way we could get a much louder sound that we required, but now we are able,

on the optical track itself, to combine the normal sound track, the control

frequencies (to control the frequent turning on and off of the Sensurround)

and also have a dynamic range that allows us to put additional signals on

which comprise the sound track that you hear, but expanded signals when

played back, and many times louder than the normal sound track. We've

increased our headroom (or our added loudness) by about 20 db and, at the

same time, we've picked up about 15 to 20 db margin to our noise floor, so

that our track is much quieter. In both "MIDWAY" and "ROLLERCOASTER" there

are some portions where, for an optical track, it's very, very quiet. Another

good aspect of using this noise reduction system is that we are less bothered

by scratches and film abrasions that occur on release prints. We don't hear

as many of the scratches and ticks of the kind you usually hear on an optical

sound track. As a result of that, we have been able to remove the traditional

Academy Roll-off Filter (dating from the Research Council days), which is

used as a standard roll-off on all optical reproduction systems. As a result,

we've increased the frequency range of these optical tracks, producing an

optical track that sounds more like a magnetic recording. We have a much

better high-frequency response... ...It (dbx) gave us nearly a doubling

effect of our dynamic range, so that instead of having the typical 45 to 50

db dynamic range (which you have on an optical track, if it is really a good

one), we wind up with about 65 to 80 db - a considerable improvement."

The MOD II Sensurround system produced a frequency response, from an optical

print, of 16Hz to 16kHz and a dynamic range of 80db. This was outstanding for

the time and unmatched by anything else except magnetic.

For the film ZOOT SUIT, SENSURROUND+PLUS was introduced which was simply

Sensurround with the noise reduction, but WITHOUT the rumble or special

Sensurround horns in the theater. The idea of SENSURROUND+PLUS was simply an

extremely high-fidelity soundtrack. MCA wanted SENSURROUND+PLUS to be adopted

by the industry as a new "standard" for making optical release prints, but by

that time, Dolby Stereo had gained a foothold. ZOOT SUIT also incorporated

something called LightSurround which was an in-auditorium synched-light cueing

system, much like DTS did with the LOST WORLD trailer and strobe lights a year

or so ago. Unfortunately, as far as I can determine, LightSurround was never

implemented... the premere at the Cinerama Dome did not utilize it and the

Sensurround control boxes were never modified for the new system. Why they

didn't use it is a mystery.

MOD III SENSURROUND was used for the film BATTLESTAR GALATICA, but I have no

idea what it incorporated... I saw the film theatrically, and it "seemed" to

be the same type of effect I had heard in the other films...I have a

SENSURROUND control box that says MOD III on it, but I can't figure out how

it differs from MOD II boxes.

The SENSURROUND Horns that produced the rumble were specially designed...they

incorporated 18-inch Cerwin-Vega drivers in a special horn loaded enclosure

that measured 4-feet high...they could be stacked in corners in multiples or

placed side-by side on the floor or against a wall...for floor or wall

installations, a special "Mouth extender" was produced to help increase the

coupling with the theater space. The horns could produce flat bass down to

16Hz at 120db. The driver used was the model 189E and is still available from

Cerwin- Vega as the Junior-Earthquake sub for pro-use...it dosen't have the

same spec's as the theatrical units, but is a killer sub!

Anyway, I realise this post is very long, but descriptions of SENSURROUND tend

to be over-simplified and the system is not given due justice that it

deserves...SENSURROUND was truly unique and todays audiences have never heard

bass as powerful as SENSURROUND produced...believe me, even todays best sub-

equipped theaters with DTS, Dolby and SDDS PALE in their bass performance

compared to SENSURROUND!

 

Cheers!

Ty C. :-)

 

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