William Hook
Birmingham IMAX Tour - IMAX GT Projector
The IMAX GT projector. The pipes going into the roof are to cool the overall projector and bulb. The thick one is air, the smaller ones are water. The room next to the projection room has a full pump system including a dedicated feed of water, separate to the normal city water system.
The Xenon bulb inside costs £3,500 (yes, three and a half thousand pounds), and comes from Belgium. It lasts 900* hours, so it does need to be replaced fairly often. They used to source the bulbs from the US but their ones have a shorter lifespan (though they were a bit cheaper).
To the left a bit, you can see the 35mm (standard cinema film) projector, which is used mostly for advertising and trailers before the movie. On top of that is another generic office projector, which is used for displaying the "welcome to the IMAX" PowerPoint show that shows upcoming films, and so on.
*I think it was 900 hours. It might be 600 hours. I can't really remember what Sally (our "tour guide" of sorts) said, but I'm fairly sure it was 900.
Birmingham IMAX Tour - IMAX GT Projector
The IMAX GT projector. The pipes going into the roof are to cool the overall projector and bulb. The thick one is air, the smaller ones are water. The room next to the projection room has a full pump system including a dedicated feed of water, separate to the normal city water system.
The Xenon bulb inside costs £3,500 (yes, three and a half thousand pounds), and comes from Belgium. It lasts 900* hours, so it does need to be replaced fairly often. They used to source the bulbs from the US but their ones have a shorter lifespan (though they were a bit cheaper).
To the left a bit, you can see the 35mm (standard cinema film) projector, which is used mostly for advertising and trailers before the movie. On top of that is another generic office projector, which is used for displaying the "welcome to the IMAX" PowerPoint show that shows upcoming films, and so on.
*I think it was 900 hours. It might be 600 hours. I can't really remember what Sally (our "tour guide" of sorts) said, but I'm fairly sure it was 900.