[SML] Retracting Booth Window

[Jen Raynak]

To add some more detail on Jeff's post, the window in that booth (Newmark Theater in Portland) is in a very heavy steel frame (I-beams top and bottom, and possibly the sides) that is lifted and lowered by a high-capacity garage door opener which runs across the booth ceiling, above the dropped acoustic panels. There must be some serious structure up there to hold the weight.

The steel at the top is painted to match the trim on the ledge, and it pretty much fades away when it's in the down position. The window is trimmed out to match the rest of the booth windows when closed (up).

What you lose with this solution is the ability to have anything else inside that wall, which of course is right behind the sound desk. So any power, data, signal, etc., will need to come from a little farther away.

The building is nearly 30 years old, and in my time here (20 years), there have only been a few times when it had an "issue". Once it got jammed - due to something left on the ledge, IIRC - and a couple of motor/control things which were much more easily fixed. They may also have replaced the lifting cables at some point...

HTH,
Jen