PROJECTION EQUIPMENT

The DP70 Todd-AO

The Rex is equipped with two Philips DP70 [35/70mm] Todd-AO projectors, a Bauer 16mm projector with xenon lamp and a National Carbon-arc 3 ’’ glass-slide projector. Philips, considered the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of projectors, were built especially for Todd-AO [70mm] presentations in 1955.

A full history of the Philips and Todd-AO itself can be found at www.dp70.com. However the Rex’s Philips were originally imported by Hoyts to present Mike Todd’s ‘Around The World in 80 Days’ in Melbourne at the Esquire Theatre in 1958. Hoyts Esquire was chosen as Australia’s second Todd-AO House, the first being Hoyts Mayfair Theatre Sydney, with Hoyts Plaza Adelaide, Hoyts St. James Brisbane and Hoyts Plaza Perth following after Melbourne.

The next Todd-AO presentation in Australia was ‘South Pacific’ which broke all house records at the Esquire when it commenced its third year in 1961. Philips gave their projectors a serial number with the first commencing at 600. The Rex’s projectors being numbered 893 and 895 puts them with-in the first three hundred made and the fact that they are still giving rock steady presentation over forty-five years later is a testimony to the precision and artisanship that went into their manufacture. With the pending closure [finally in 1976] of the Esquire due to its replacement by Hoyts Mid-City complex, the Philips were installed in 1971 at Hoyts brand new Altona Drive-in Theatre, a Melbourne suburb. See www.drive-insdownunder.com.au Upon the demise of Altona during the drive-in rationalization period, they were moved to the relatively close Maribyrnong Drive-in when it was twinned.

However eventually Hoyts decided to standardize their equipment to Cinemaccanica Victoria 8s and thus the Philips were available in 1984 for purchase by the Rex’s previous owners. The Philips came to the Rex complete with all 70mm accessories and including their Ashcraft Super Cinex carbon-arc Lamp houses, although now substituted with President carbon-arc Lamps for economical reasons and which also incidentally give an excellent and ‘traditional’ light. It is doubtful whether the Rex will host any future Todd-AO seasons of re-released features, but then again, who knows?

The current sound system was installed in August 2001 and is a four channel or five counting sub-bass state-of-the-art spectral recording optical stereo sound system. The processor is a Raidek PANASTEREO CINEMA SOUND PROCESSOR CPS4200 unit with THX approved Krix speakers and Horns back stage and a dual 18” sub-woofer bass unit. More recently, the Philips optical sound heads have been up-graded to rear-scan laser readers capable of decoding the latest cyan-dye optical sound tracks.

The installation of a cinemascope in 1958 necessitated the ‘flattening’ of the two stepped sides and removal of concealed lighting troughs of the proscenium to provide the extra width for a new 25ft wide screen. The ideal recommended width for cinemascope screens at the time was just over half the width of a theatre auditorium and the Rex’s is 48ft. wide internally. Recently it was necessary to replace the old screen and so it was decided to hang the new screen on the stage where it was rather than bring a larger screen forward into ‘the room’.

Apart from keeping the building historically intact, the original concept of viewing pictures through a proscenium arch was to subconsciously create the illusion of the third dimension and give the appearance of viewing a scene through a window or doorway, which it does. The fact that the Rex has a 90ft or ‘long throw’ [distance between the projector lens and screen] by to-days standards and the screen itself is tilted back so it is at right angles to the projection beam is responsible for the sharp and grain-less picture you see at the Rex. It is also worth noting that what you are watching in the cinema is photography shot usually on 35mm film. The projection equipment is reproducing on 35mm film in the ‘reverse process’ exactly what was photographed and as it was photographed, first hand and not electronically copied on a screen made up of dots. This process now over 100 years old has been proven the best way to view movies. What ‘they’ shot is what ‘you’ see, that is, visual image at its best!