Smart MOD V User Manual

Copyright 1995 by SMART Devices Inc.

5945 Peachtree Corners East

Norcross, GA 30071-1337

Table of Contents

SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION..............................................................2

SECTION 2 CARD DESCRIPTION......................................................3

SECTION 3 INSTALLATION.................................................................7

-

WIRING HOOKUP INSTRUCTIONS.................................7

SECTION 4 CALIBRATION..................................................................10

- B CHAIN CALIBRATION.................................................10

- A CHAIN CALIBRATION.................................................12

SECTION 5 OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS.........................................13

SECTION 6 SERVICE..........................................................................13

SECTION 7 SCHEMATICS ..................................................................16

LIMITED WARRANTY: SMART products and accessories are warranted against malfunction or failure due to defects in workmanship or
materials for a period of one year from the date of shipment. If a problem occurs during the warranty period, the unit will be repaired, or
replaced at our option, without charge for materials or labor. If air freight is requested by the dealer, the difference between air and surface
charges will be billed to the dealer. This limited warranty does not cover products that have been abused, altered, modified, or operated in
other than specified conditions. Prior factory approval is required on all returns. Returned equipment or defective parts must be shipped
freight prepaid to us by the dealer or customer.

Our limited warranty does not cover damages resulting from accident, misuse or abuse, lack of responsible care, or failures not attributable to
manufacturing defects, except as provided herein. SMART Devices, Inc. makes no warranties, express or implied, including warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

RETURN POLICY: Factory authorization MUST be obtained before returning any product. A 15% restocking charge will be issued on unused
equipment (in original box) that is returned for credit. Credit is issued to the dealers account. The credit may be used against future purchases
and no cash transactions are offered. All returns must be shipped freight prepaid by the dealer. Equipment returned without a factory RA
(Return Authorization) will be refused.

SMART products are designed to deliver unsurpassed quality in workmanship and perfor­mance. The following information gives detailed instructions on the installation and opera­tion of the SMART MOD V processor. We strongly encourage new owners of the MOD V to
thoroughly read this entire manual before placing their new SMART product into service.
This will ensure that the MOD V will be operated properly to give the superior performance
that it was designed to deliver.

For service or installation assistance, please call our
Technical Support Department between the hours of

8 a.m-5 p.m. E.S.T., Mon.-Fri.

1-800-45-SMART

2

INTRODUCTION

The MOD V Stereo cinema processor is a full 8 channel
system delivering superior audio quality for any theatre.
This advanced processor comes standard with many fea­tures, yet is easy to operate, making the unit the best buy on
the market. The MOD V is fully compatible with all digital
formats, and was designed to easily process 70mm and
35mm magnetic soundtracks.

To achieve optimum results from your new MOD V cinema
processor, the theatre engineer installing the system should
be totally familiar with all features and adjustments. Careful
attention to detail and familiarity with the installation
instructions will allow you to offer a system that has a
sound quality second to none.

FEATURES

In addition to the standard features you find on other
processors, the MOD V offers many extras that makes oper­ation easier and more flexible.

FADER CONTROL:
To begin, the MOD V has one MASTER FADER that con­trols the overall playback level for all 8 channels. This mas­ter fader is used as the volume control for all formats except
music mode. Seven trim controls on the front panel inde­pendently fine tune adjust (± 3 dB) the volume level of each
format. The music control on the front panel is the master
music level control. The trim faders allow matched levels
when the MOD V transitions between various formats. This
unique feature allows the MOD V to operate without con­stant attendance by a projectionist.

STATUS INDICATORS:
The operator control panel features a STATUS DISPLAY
readout that shows the mode the system is in at any time.
Red LED’s show which format is selected. The indicator
lights can be seen from a distance so it is not necessary to
be near the processor to verify the status. LED arrays on the
front panel indicate relative volume level for the five prima­ry channels: Left, Center, Right, Left Surround and Right
Surround.

UPDATING FOR THE FUTURE:
Since the MOD V processor is totally modular, any new cir­cuit developments or additional options may be added easi­ly. This can be achieved by simply plugging in a new card
into the existing card cage when a factory exchange or
update promotion is offered. The system can stay up with
current and future technology at minimum expense.

MOD V COMPONENTS:
There are two main components included in the MOD V
system: the power supply and the card cage. There are also
several optional plug-in cards to give the system more fea­tures and greater flexibility. The system cannot operate
without the two main components, but can operate without
the options.

— POWER SUPPLY:
A heavy duty fully-regulated power supply is furnished with
the MOD V processor. This bipolar supply is heavily fil­tered and supplies ample current for both the positive and
negative 20 VDC supplies. This external power supply min­imizes the chances of hum pickup when high gain electronic
circuits are placed in the same chassis as a power supply.
Also, the large power capacity of the supply provides a very
“stiff” voltage to all cards in the MOD V to prevent power
sag (momentary drop of the supply output due to heavy
loads). This gives excellent transient peak response and
superior stability.

— CARD CAGE:
The “working” part of the MOD V system is housed in a
card cage rack mount assembly that contains plug-in com­ponent cards for easy servicing and future expansion of the
system. A theatre may elect to start with a basic OPTICAL
STEREO sound system, update to a digital stereo system,
and eventually an eight channel system with sub-woofer.
The SMART MOD V is fully equipped to handle your
expansion needs. The MOD V will easily handle magnetic
soundtracks with the addition of external magnetic preamps
and two more noise reduction cards that easily plug into the
main card cage.

Installation and Service Manual

MOD V Digital/Optical Stereo Cinema Processor

3

INSTALLATION & OPERATION

CARD DESCRIPTION

Each circuit card in the MOD V has its own on-board voltage regulators that stabilizes the circuits locally as well as filter
unwanted signals that may be present on the main power busses.

Test points are included on some cards for the sound engineer to access vital circuit points with his scope or meter. These
terminals will accept a meter probe or “alligator” clip.

FRONT DISPLAY CARD:
MOD5X380
The front panel is where the Master Film Fader and individual Format Trim Level controls are located. This important card
has three switches (located on the inside of the unit) which are used for selecting various modes. To access these switches,
just pull the front panel forward from the top. The hinged front panel allows easy access to these switches.

The NULL switch is used during setup to change the LEFT SURROUND LED ARRAY circuit to indicate when a proper
surround null has been achieved. It should normally be left in the OFF position. The VOLUME switch selects either local
volume control or remote volume control. The third switch (only on the “C” version or later of the circuit board) is the
MAGNETIC NR switch which is used to select Type A or Type SR noise reduction for MAG prints. This switch is normally
set to MAG A.

Test points 1-3, located on the front right hand side of the board, is where you will find a convenient location for probing the
left and right outputs of the preamp card. The four red LED’s next to the preamp test points are used for setting preamp lev­els during setup.

NOISE REDUCTION CARDS:
MD2BX374
The SMART noise reduction cards provide noise reduction
for decoding Dolby type A stereo prints and Spectral
Recording (SR) encoded prints. The noise reduction circuitry
is automatically switched to the proper mode when selected
by the format switches on the front of the processor. There
are four trimpots and two test points on each NR card. These
are for factory use only. Do not attempt to adjust these
trimpots or use the test points. Two of the NR cards (slots 1
and 2) are dual purpose. They are used for both optical
stereo and for mag soundtracks, left and right channels. The
other two cards (slots 3 and 4) are strictly for mag use only,
center and surround channels. These two are optional and are
not shipped with every MOD V, since they are only used for
sound systems equipped for magnetic prints.

4

EXTERNAL INPUT/NR SWITCHING CARD:
MOD5X349
This card handles several functions related to external mag­netic and digital signal sources, NR switching, and magnet­ic modes. Source selection of digital or magnetic signals is
provided by electronic switching I.C’s. These determine
which signals appear on the main signal busses of the MOD
V. This is dependent on which format is selected. The Left
and Right NR cards are switched between optical and mag
sources, again dependent on the selected format.

This card also has 2 toggle switches to select various mag­netic sound modes. The bottom switch selects MAG NR
ON or OFF. Since most mag prints use NR encoding
(Dolby 70), this switch is normally ON (up position). The
top switch selects mag mono surrounds or split surrounds.
Because most mag prints do not have split surrounds, this
switch should normally be left in MONO (down position).

DUAL PROJECTOR PREAMP CARD:
MOD4X300
There are 2 stereo solar cell preamplifiers in the MOD V:
each preamplifier channel is equipped with slit-loss correc­tion. The Stereo-optical preamplifiers on this card increase
the incoming level from the stereo solar cells. Electronic
changeover circuitry between stereo pairs is built on the
card to allow use in dual projector booths. If the MOD V is
installed in a single projector booth, leave the second pro­jector inputs unconnected.

The Dual Projector Preamp Card has two solar cell pream­plifier gain controls and two slit-loss correction circuits for
each projector. There is sufficient gain built into the pre­amps for narrow slit optical sound lenses when the exciter
lamp is run at 80% of its rated value. The card is silk
screened to make it easier to see the location of each pre­amplifier gain and slit-loss correction control pot.

MONO/BACKUP CARD:
MOD2X305
The MONO card provides the necessary frequency response
shaping and level shifting to provide a quality mono signal
from mono prints. In addition, a special open ended noise
reduction circuit called Dynamic Noise Reduction is used to
eliminate much of the “hiss” and film scratch noise often
present on film. This card also provides the necessary drive
signal for the optional stereo synthesizer portions of the
MOD V.

The MONO card contains the necessary circuitry for the
emergency backup system in the event of loss of sound
within the MOD V processor. The multi-turn pot on this
card is for setting the emergency backup level.

5

INSTALLATION & OPERATION

MATRIX CARD:
MOD4X317
This is the heart of the stereo conversion process. The Wide
Trac Deluxe Matrix card takes the signal from the preamp
and noise reduction circuits and converts the two channel
soundtrack into the four channels required for normal stereo
mode. There is a surround null adjustment trimpot on the
matrix card which the installer can adjust to minimize sur­round channel crosstalk without disturbing the input signal
calibration settings of the preamplifier and noise reduction
circuits.

1/3 OCTAVE EQUALIZER CARDS:
MOD4X320
Three one third octave room tuning equalizers are used for the
front stage speakers. Each adjustable frequency band in the
front stage EQs may be cut or boost ± 10 dB. A +6 dB gain
adjustment is also on each card. For overall unity gain, leave the
gain pot in the CCW position. For unity gain on each of the fre­quency band adjustments, leave the pot in the mid position. All
pots are the single turn type.

DUAL CHANNEL ONE OCTAVE EQUALIZER CARD:
MOD4X324
This card is for the Left and Right Surround Channels. Circuitry
and operation is similar to the stage channel EQs except that it
uses one octave EQs and there is no gain adjustment pot. The
top eight trimpots are for Left Surround, and the bottom eight
are for Right Surround.

DIGITAL TIME DELAY/SURROUND GENERATOR
CARD:
MOD5X325
The digital time delay portion of the MOD V system is con­tained on this card, along with the optional Stereo
Generator Surround Module. The surround channel passes
through the time delay whenever any Stereo-Optical format
or Stereo Generator format is selected by the operator.
35mm magnetic, 70mm magnetic, Music or digital inputs
are NOT time delayed. There is a rotary switch on this card
that is used to set the time delay setting. The rotary switch
has 16 positions: 0-9 & A-F. Position 0 is 10 milliseconds
of delay, which is the minimum delay setting. Each position
clockwise adds 10 milliseconds of delay for a maximum
setting of 160 milliseconds (position F).
Note: Earlier units used an analog time delay card. This
card had dip switches that set the time delay. All switches
down (on position) produced a minimum delay of 35 mil­liseconds. Each dip switch flipped up (off position) added
10 milliseconds of additional delay.

1/3 Octave EQ One Octave EQ