Originally Posted by Exoskeletal

Both.

We have a digital house and two 35mm theaters. Reel to Reel really is an old term now. I don't know anybody that actually uses a reel to reel projectors anymore. We use platter systems which makes it a lot more convenient. Basically, with reel to reel systems you would have to have two of them. One would be running reel 1 and the other would be holding reel 2. When reel 1 would be almost don't you would cue up reel two and "switch" over. Then you take reel 1 off and replace with reel 3.

Platter systems allow you to splice together all the reels into one giant 35mm film. This way you can just run the entire movie through at once without having to switch at all. It isn't a piece of cake but it certainly beats out having to switch 5 times a showing.

The digital house works like an ipod playlist. I upload trailers and movies from a hard drive and arrange them in a playlist. Then I click play. Easy. It's also sadly going to be the end of my job when all theaters are running digital projectors. Maybe I'll go into repair after that. Things always break.