Shout Factory Press Release: Earthquake Collector’s Edition (1974) (1 Viewer)

[RobertSiegel]

Here's hoping that the film will include, finally, the original opening with the audience sensurround warning, that is just a must and has been left off of every Universal release. "ATTENTION, THIS FILM WILL BE SHOWN IN THE STARTLING NEW DIMENSION OF SENSURROUND". Also, maybe for the first time we will get the sensurround trailer instead of the regular trailer. Universal could have been very nostalgic with this film on home video (with the sensurround process) and never chose to.

 

[Tino]

Here's hoping that the film will include, finally, the original opening with the audience sensurround warning, that is just a must and has been left off of every Universal release. "ATTENTION, THIS FILM WILL BE SHOWN IN THE STARTLING NEW DIMENSION OF SENSURROUND". Also, maybe for the first time we will get the sensurround trailer instead of the regular trailer. Universal could have been very nostalgic with this film on home video (with the sensurround process) and never chose to.

It was released with a sensurround track.

 

[Gary Seven]

I remember when this came out but I never saw it. Is the sensurround track just heightened bass?

 

[JQuintana]

Yeah just more bass.

I remember going to see it as a young kid and being in awe of the gigantic speakers the local theater installed in the back of the theater to create the "sensurround sound"

 

[Tino]

Yeah just more bass.

I remember going to see it as a young kid and being in awe of the gigantic speakers the local theater installed in the back of the theater to create the "sensurround sound"

It’s not just more bass.

I believe it was specially designed low frequency speakers.

Wikipedia.

Sensurround is the brand name for a process developed by Cerwin-Vega in conjunction with Universal Studios to enhance the audio experience during film screenings, specifically for the 1974 film Earthquake. The process was intended for subsequent use and was adopted for four more films, Midway (1976), Rollercoaster (1977), the theatrical version of Saga of a Star World (1978), the Battlestar Galactica pilot, as well as the compilation film Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (1979). Sensurround worked by adding extended-range bass for sound effects. The low-frequency sounds were more felt than heard, providing a vivid complement to onscreen depictions of earth tremors, bomber formations, and amusement park rides. The overall trend toward "multiplex" cinema structures presented challenges that made Sensurround impractical as a permanent feature of cinema.[1]

Sensurround helped bring wider recognition to established loudspeaker manufacturer Cerwin-Vega,[2] and aided in establishing a strong reputation for new audio amplifier company BGW Systems. The increased awareness of extended low-frequency sound reproduction that Sensurround brought to film audiences was a factor in the increase in subwoofer sales and in the rise in the number of subwoofer designs in the late 1970s and 1980s.

And it won a special Oscar.

 

[JQuintana]

So more bass.

 

[B-ROLL]

It’s not just more bass.

I believe it was specially designed low frequency speakers.

Wikipedia.

Sensurround is the brand name for a process developed by Cerwin-Vega in conjunction with Universal Studios to enhance the audio experience during film screenings, specifically for the 1974 film Earthquake. The process was intended for subsequent use and was adopted for four more films, Midway (1976), Rollercoaster (1977), the theatrical version of Saga of a Star World (1978), the Battlestar Galactica pilot, as well as the compilation film Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (1979). Sensurround worked by adding extended-range bass for sound effects. The low-frequency sounds were more felt than heard, providing a vivid complement to onscreen depictions of earth tremors, bomber formations, and amusement park rides. The overall trend toward "multiplex" cinema structures presented challenges that made Sensurround impractical as a permanent feature of cinema.[1]

Sensurround helped bring wider recognition to established loudspeaker manufacturer Cerwin-Vega,[2] and aided in establishing a strong reputation for new audio amplifier company BGW Systems. The increased awareness of extended low-frequency sound reproduction that Sensurround brought to film audiences was a factor in the increase in subwoofer sales and in the rise in the number of subwoofer designs in the late 1970s and 1980s.

And it won a special Oscar.

They were basically stadium style loudspeakers placed in the back of the theater - Cerwin-Vega!s were very Bass efficient ...

CAPTION "Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood. California. Waldon O. Watson and Model W Sensurround Horn at the house left rear corner of the auditorium, 1974. From American Cinematographer, November 1974, "Sensurround." The speakers were installed on wooden platforms covering two rows of elevated seating which had been created during the Cinemiracle remodelling in 1958. Note the Altec Lansing 629 "auditorium" speaker as well as the cable for the sensurround speaker punching through a hole in the ceiling."
Website: http://graumanschinese.org/projection-3.html

CAPTION: "Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood. California. Waldon O. Watson and Model M Sensurround Horns at the front of the auditorium, 1974. From American Cinematographer, November 1974, "Sensurround." American Cinematographer states that the horn configuration seen in this picture was deemed "too loud" for the front row of seats, and was changed for horns on either side of the screen, but accoring to eyewitness accounts, this is the configuration used during the run of Earthquake at the Chinese."

 

[Gary Seven]

Then including the "sensurround track" on the blu ray may do nothing for your system unless you have sufficient low end hardware to support it... or so it would seem.

 

[GregK]

Here's hoping that the film will include, finally, the original opening with the audience sensurround warning, that is just a must and has been left off of every Universal release. "ATTENTION, THIS FILM WILL BE SHOWN IN THE STARTLING NEW DIMENSION OF SENSURROUND". Also, maybe for the first time we will get the sensurround trailer instead of the regular trailer. Universal could have been very nostalgic with this film on home video (with the sensurround process) and never chose to.

Agreed. And Sensurround often gets a quick shrug off as a gimmick, when it actually had many innovations and directly helped secure the idea of a dedicated LFE channel in both the theatrical and consumer multi-channel formats, starting with Star Wars.

Sensurround from the start had separate front / back steering that was very effective. And as shown in B-rolls pics, had the installed fire power to be quite visceral. After the various iterations used for Earthquake, DBX was used on following titles ,and with Battlestar Galactica, Sensurround added further refinements of its steering capabilities.

To date, none of the Sensurround titles on home video have offered a choice of utilizing the original front back directional steering for those with full range speakers. If someone didn't have this full range capability, bass management could always still dump it all to one's mono sub if needed.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Then including the "sensurround track" on the blu ray may do nothing for your system unless you have sufficient low end hardware to support it... or so it would seem.

Yeah from what I've read the "sensurround" tracks on the previous blu-ray and dvd releases of Earthquake have the tones to actuvate the bass speakers...but they don't actually work.

 

[Tino]

Agreed. And Sensurround often gets a quick shrug off as a gimmick, when it actually had many innovations and directly helped secure the idea of a dedicated LFE channel in both the theatrical and consumer multi-channel formats, starting with Star Wars.

Sensurround from the start had separate front / back steering that was very effective. And as shown in B-rolls pics, had the installed fire power to be quite visceral. After the various iterations used for Earthquake, DBX was used on following titles ,and with Battlestar Galactica, Sensurround added further refinements of its steering capabilities.

To date, none of the Sensurround titles on home video have offered a choice of utilizing the original front back directional steering for those with full range speakers. If someone didn't have this full range capability, bass management could always still dump it all to one's mono sub if needed.

Yeah. Like I said. Not just more bass.

 

[bugsy-pal]

I saw this movie in the Cinema as a teenager, with Sensurround. My friend had to rush out of the theatre to have a puke in the toilet - he couldn't handle all that bass!

 

[bujaki]

My wife and I saw it at the Ziegfeld in NY. I turned to her and said: This is no different than standing on the lower platform of the West 96th St. subway station while the "A" express roars overhead". I experienced the same rumbling in my inner organs. For free!

 

[darkrock17]

I saw this movie in the Cinema as a teenager, with Sensurround. My friend had to rush out of the theatre to have a puke in the toilet - he couldn't handle all that bass!

Some theaters had some structural damage during this film's run so they had nets hung above the seats to catch pieces that fell from the ceiling. Also I remembering reading somewhere online that the surrounding buildings next to the movie theaters that were playing Earthquake, shook from the intensity the vibrations the speakers were making and that it caused some panic for people in those buildings and to anyone who passing by at the time thought an actual earthquake was really happening.

 

[t1g3r5fan]

So more bass.

Apparently, Universal was all about that bass if you know what I mean.

 

[RolandL]

They were basically stadium style loudspeakers placed in the back of the theater - Cerwin-Vega!s were very Bass efficient ...
View attachment 54921
CAPTION "Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood. California. Waldon O. Watson and Model W Sensurround Horn at the house left rear corner of the auditorium, 1974. From American Cinematographer, November 1974, "Sensurround." The speakers were installed on wooden platforms covering two rows of elevated seating which had been created during the Cinemiracle remodelling in 1958. Note the Altec Lansing 629 "auditorium" speaker as well as the cable for the sensurround speaker punching through a hole in the ceiling."
Website: http://graumanschinese.org/projection-3.html
View attachment 54922
CAPTION: "Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood. California. Waldon O. Watson and Model M Sensurround Horns at the front of the auditorium, 1974. From American Cinematographer, November 1974, "Sensurround." American Cinematographer states that the horn configuration seen in this picture was deemed "too loud" for the front row of seats, and was changed for horns on either side of the screen, but accoring to eyewitness accounts, this is the configuration used during the run of Earthquake at the Chinese."

When I saw it they also had the speakers on the side of the auditorium - you had to walk around them to get to your seat.

 

[DP 70]

This sounded great in 70mm Sensurround at the Empire in London.

 

[B-ROLL]

When I saw it they also had the speakers on the side of the auditorium - you had to walk around them to get to your seat.

The theater I saw it at 2 1/2 times ... (First Saturday it was out I came to an early matinee and stayed for the second. I went and saw it again the next Saturday) ...
Was built for Cinerama(R) but they did not have the two sets of rear speakers as high up as the ones pictured the ______'s Chinese ...
I'm pretty sure the fronts shown were there for the first Saturday shows and NOT there or in the same location at 2nd Saturday show ...
The theatre had center aisle so no one had to climb over the rear speakers to get to their seats...

Allegedly there was structural damage to the theatre and it stopped showing films sometime in the early eighties I believe ... This what was left of it in 1984

 

[darkrock17]

Allegedly there was structural damage to the theatre and it stopped showing films sometime in the early eighties I believe ... This what was left of it in 1984
View attachment 54962

Was the damage caused by the film or something else?

 

[RolandL]

The theater I saw it at 2 1/2 times ... (First Saturday it was out I came to an early matinee and stayed for the second. I went and saw it again the next Saturday) ...
Was built for Cinerama(R) but they did not have the two sets of rear speakers as high up as the ones pictured the ______'s Chinese ...
I'm pretty sure the fronts shown were there for the first Saturday shows and NOT there or in the same location at 2nd Saturday show ...
The theatre had center aisle so no one had to climb over the rear speakers to get to their seats...

Allegedly there was structural damage to the theatre and it stopped showing films sometime in the early eighties I believe ... This what was left of it in 1984
View attachment 54962

What's the name of the theatre?