Platter

Technologies for continuous film screening from a large roll of film were developed in the second half of the 20th century ^[2] . The first horizontal platter "ST-200" was created in 1968 by the German company Kinoton. When creating rewindless devices with a film length of more than 1800 meters, the most rational was the horizontal arrangement of the roll, which does not require tight winding of the film and prevents its “scattering”. A horizontal roll can have considerable length and weight without the risk of damaging the film and the need to complicate the mechanisms of the rewinder and rewinder. Thanks to these and other advantages, platters began to be used in film installations using both the standard 35 mm film and wide-format ones . This was also facilitated by the proliferation of film projectors with xenon lamps , which replaced the traditional carbon arc with a limited continuous operation time. In the USSR, the rewind device BU-600 was produced, designed for continuous display of two parts glued into a common roll 600 meters long ^[3] . In the early 2000s, the NIKFI pilot production started the production of a three-disk non-rewinding device “UBK” with a capacity of up to 7400 meters ^[4] . Abroad, platters are manufactured by Kinoton, Christie, Cinemeccanica , Ernemann and Neumade.

When charging a film copy, its beginning is pulled from the middle of the roll and through a special module that controls the unwinding speed, and a group of rollers enters the tape drive path of the film projector. After the path passes through another group of rollers, the film enters the adjacent platter disk and is wound into a roll with the beginning inward. At the end of the show, the film is again ready for demonstration - a core is taken out of the roll, onto which the film is wound and transferred to a free disk, and instead of the core, a film supply module is installed in the middle of the roll. Thus, each new film demonstration moves a copy from one platter disk to another, and vice versa, excluding the rewind operation.

Depending on the number of disks, one platter can serve up to two film projectors, providing an automated display of two different films from the same hardware ^[5] . In addition, it is possible to work on the technology of the “endless loop” when the film is glued into a ring. Most platters allow you to charge rolls up to 8000 meters long, which makes it possible to show full-length movies in one piece ^[6] . The winding of the receiving roll is carried out using an electronically controlled electric motor , which, unlike the friction winder of most film projectors, allows to obtain high-quality uniform winding with adjustable effort, increasing the life of the film copy ^[7] . The platter kit usually includes a gluing press for gluing film, since film copies come to cinemas in the form of standard parts of 300 or 600 meters, convenient for transportation. Gluing the entire film into one roll is done directly on the platter disk, where a copy remains for the entire period of demonstration of the picture. At the end of the rental, the film copy is again cut into standard parts and put back into the boxes for sending to the rental organization. The initial and final grooves of each part cut off during assembly are stored separately and glued back before transportation ^[8] .

Modern film theaters using film technology equip each hall with one movie projection post with a platter ^[9] . If you have two movie projectors and a multi-disk platter in one hardware room, you can simultaneously charge two different films to different projectors. In combination with a centralized computerized control of the start and stop of movie projectors in each room, this allows to achieve a high level of automation of film screening and serve multi-screen multiplexes by one projectionist. The disadvantages of film screening from platters are the difficulty of moistening a film copy stored for a long time outside the filmstat , as well as the increased reliability requirements for a film projector that were not required when there were two posts ^[10] . In addition, the installation of platters is not possible in movie cameras, not specially adapted for this. In this case, vertical cassettes with large rolls with a capacity of up to 5000 meters and automatic rewind are more convenient.

• Part of the film
• Post projection

• V.D. Gribov, N.N. Usachev. Rewindless devices / N. N. Kalinina. - SPb.,: Editorial and Publishing Department of SPbSUKiT , 2005. - 42 p.

• Boris Sorokoumov. Modern Russian cinema (Russian) // "Technique and technology of cinema": magazine. - 2010. - No. 6 . - S. 22-29 . Archived on October 16, 2012.

• Sim. R. Barbanel, Sol. R. Barbanel, I.K. Kachurin, N.M. Korolev, A.V. Solomonik, M.V. Tsivkin. Film-projection technique / S. M. Provornov. - 2nd ed .. - M.,: “Art”, 1966. - 636 p.

• Pletters (rewindless devices) (Russian) . Equipment for cinemas . Cinema complex. Date of treatment March 10, 2015.