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The company has changed hands a Portland - Star Mt Gambier - Oatmill Cinema
number of times, with Ballantyne of Centre
Omaha Inc. the present manufacturer
and Strong International, the marketers.
The former stalls area has been
divided into two small cinemas, each
with a very short projection throw
(distance from projector to screen) of
approximately ten metres.
This arrangement has problems.
Such a short throw requires the use of a Image: James Barrand
Image: James Barrand
very short focal length lens - 25mm-
50mm - to get a sufficiently large Now reduced to a balcony-only
image. Very short focal length lenses do cinema, the bio-box has American
not deliver an even field of focus - that Ballantyne of Omaha Inc. projectors
is, the image may be sharp in the fitted with Universal Xenon lamps.
middle but soft towards the edges. To The original Star projectors
address this problem the projection lens machines were Benbow, with
is stopped down to increase depth of Peerless arc lamps. William ‘Bill’
field and improve overall focus, but this Benbow was a South Australian
reduces the amount of light reaching engineer and film exhibitor who
the screen. To compensate, the wattage began designing and manufacturing
(light output) of the Xenon lamp has projection equipment in the silent
been increased. This is far from ideal days. This was the most up-to-date and
projection practice, but it does resolve a In 1979, when the theatre was well equipped operating cinema visited.
difficult problem. downsized, the projectors were replaced The modern Simplex equipment with
by a single Ballantyne and Eprad
Port Fairy - Reardon Theatre platter feeds (above) is a neat and tidy
Platter system (below).
The theatre has a temporary installation and a credit to the
installation of RCA-Super Standard proprietors and staff.
projectors (below) fitted with Universal, The basic Simplex appeared in
Xenon lamp houses. 1909 and the Precision Machine
Company was formed to
manufacture the famed projector.
The company president was Edwin
S. Porter, who in 1903 had made
The Great Train Robbery.
In 1925 the International
Projector Corporation was formed,
merging the Precision Machine Co,
In about 1981, the platter system
Nicholas Power Co., and Acme Motion
was replaced by a second Ballantyne
Picture Co., to one base at 90 Gold
machine (below), a more practical
Street, New York.
arrangement for a theatre running
limited sessions.

Standard projectors were
manufactured at Edwardstown, South
Australia by R.C. Fitton Engineering.
This equipment gained popularity with
the advent of the drive-in, as their
water-cooled gates were a great feature
when used with high output carbon arc
lamps. When coupled with an RCA
sound head this configuration was
generally described as an RCA
installation.
Standard machines were installed at
the re-modelled Barclay (former
Kings) Melbourne in the mid-1950s
before the 70mm days.

CINEMARECORD 2008 13