what do they use in theaters? (1 Viewer)

[felix_suwarno]

how big are the drivers?

how many subwoofers?

what brand do they usually use?

what would be the key difference between the speakers for big theater compared to ht speakers? are they as simple as "bigger" size?

what about the placement? john garcia told me that the tweeter should be on the ear level. is it possible in movie theater?

where is the center speaker located? if it is located behind the white screen, how did they make the soundwave go through the screen?

thanks

 

[matthew_rm]

The drivers are up to 18' Some on the Klipsch BB baught JBL pro Dule 18's used in big theaters.
They are mostly horn loaded JBL -and some Klipsch. (A few use bose)
Yes, they are big. The center is behind the screen. The speakers are spread out to make sure everybody can here well. It's better to have 1 speaker per channal at home, but thats a smaller space.
The screen is built so that sound can go through well. You can get those at home to. I don't know how it's done. Someone else will come, and show us the light.

 

[Lewis Besze]

The left and right speakers are behind the screen as well.
Only the surrounds are visible.

 

[David Ison]

The screen is perforated with pin-dot size holes, some places still have Altec-Lansing.

 

[jeff lam]

Pro audio gear. When I looked behind the cirtain of one theater, there were subs lined all the way accross the front stage just under the screen. Probably about 10-15 cabinets each with dual 15's or 18's.

 

[Dustin B]

But theater spaces are still too large for really low bass. Those pro 15 and 18 inch drivers can really belt out down to around 30hz, but I don't think any theater can match the last octave performance of a good hometheater sub in a much smaller room.

 

[felix_suwarno]

bose? did i hear bose?

 

[Chris PC]

I have not heard low bass extention in a theater like what I have heard in my house. I have heard similar loudness levels in terms of >40hz bass and of course, many theaters are louder and cleaner than my setup in the upper frequencies like midrange and treble.

 

[KyleS]

The theater near my house also uses Pro Audio Gear (at least the 1 theater I looked at. Bose speakers have been used in theaters epecially the base tubes they sell that are approx 15-20ft long. If you have ever been to a Fry's electronics store they often have a couple of them dangling for looks.
The screens have the center, left/right channels behind them and are acoustically trasparent screens (as stated above they look like little pin hold all over. You can get these same screens at home but a standard screen vs an acoustically trasparent is about half the cost, then if you get a powered acoustically trasparent screen the price goes up again.
KyleS

 

[Alexis]

The good ones use JBL's.
You can get yourself a similar set here.
http://www.jbl.com/home/synthesis/SY...oduct_page.htm
The synthesis products include amps, decoders, eq's, plus installation.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

There's no such thing as a 100% acoustically transparent screen so in a home environment it's not advisable. Also, even if it were (100% transparent) if you were using a digital projector (LCD, DLP, LCOS etc) you might have aliasing problems where the pixel structure of the digital image starts to "resonate" with the perforation of the screen.

All things being equal, it's best to go with a standard screen and just have you speakers mounted below or to the side in a home environment for these reasons.

-dave

 

[John Brunnick]

As far as placement goes the high frequency driver in movie theaters is generally positioned between 3/5 to 2/3 the screen height from the bottom of the screen (slightly above center).

 

[Jeff Kohn]

Personally, the only reason I would care to know what brand of speakers are used in movie theaters would be so that I could avoid purchasing from that line for my home. Movie theaters never sound as good as even a well-tuned mid-fi home theater IMHO; movie-theater sound is about compromise, not quality.

 

[Dan Hine]

Jeff,

It's not so much the brand of the speakers as it is the design and application. With the amount of space commercials theaters need to fill it would be impossible to do with just 6-7 speakers designed for home use. Just as you wouldn't use a pair of 6x9 car speakers in your living room.


Dan Hine

 

[rodneyH]

Jeff, very very well said@!!!

 

[Lewis Besze]

Dan is right,it isn't the brand but mostly the design[mandated by the industry],and of course the large room's accoustics.
This is why I don't know why some people push for the "unaltered" theatrical mix on DVD's,but that's another subject.

 

[Jeff Kohn]

It's not so much the brand of the speakers as it is the design and application. With the amount of space commercials theaters need to fill it would be impossible to do with just 6-7 speakers designed for home use. Just as you wouldn't use a pair of 6x9 car speakers in your living room.

I don't really disagree with you, my point was basically who cares what they use in theaters, it's not optimal for home-theater because the performance goals for a movie theater are very different (ie, reference level volume in a very large area, and decent sound from a variety of non-optimal seating positions). That's why I mentioned avoiding that 'line' of speakers, ie similarly designed (sorry if that wasn't clear).

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

JBL stated that their equiptment is found in 80% of THX commercial theaters. Not to mention the thousands of other applications like Malls, stores, clubs, and concerts.

I've seen some theaters use multiple center channels behind the screen, and most use multiple subs. The horns make the speakers a lot more effective at producing sound. Remember that horns arn't necessarily a bad thing, check out the horn speakers Avantgarde makes.

I like the movies screens. Without an acoustically transparent screen the center channel would probably be way too high or low. My only concern about commerical theaters is the smell of bad breath and food. I also don't care for crying babies, cell phones, big heads, and candy wrappers. Those things alone can make the DVD worth the wait.

 

[Ken Garrison]

I saw that the surrounds were JBLs at the theater I went to.

 

[felix_suwarno]

i thought my ht was better than the most expensive movie theater in my home country. guess i am right! woohooo! i have never heard sound of music that is as beautiful as my my current ht. most of the time, the theaters sound powerful, loud, but unsmooth. sometimes i heard clipping here and there.