David Letterman May Be the Hottest Ticket in Town…
But…He Works in a Cool Theater
At 57th and Broadway in Midtown New York City stands the Ed Sullivan Theater, where David Letterman televises
his nightly LATE SHOW. Obtaining tickets for this performance is a bit of a feat…it sometimes requires standing
in line for hours. While waiting outside in summer heat, the wanna-be audience participants are unaware of the
cool treat in store for them if they are lucky enough to get inside the theater. It is always COOL inside;
60° F, or cooler!
Why So Cold?
Some folks say David Letterman doesn’t want to break into a sweat during intense interviews under hot studio lights.
But, according to George Clarke, Theater and Building Engineer for CBS, the cool air makes the sound crisper and keeps
the audience more alert. “Crowd reaction is very important in this business, and the comedy stays fresh in the cold,
too” says Clarke.
Two 120-ton MULTISTACK Modular Chillers, each comprised of four 30-ton modules made in West Salem, Wisconsin, were
installed in the Ed Sullivan Theater. They met the customer’s requirement and continue to perform flawlessly.
When asked how he liked his new MULTISTACK chillers, George Clarke responded, “Frankly, I had never seen a system like
this before, and I have been in this business since 1977. Everybody I talked to thought that the MULTISTACK was a
complicated system, but really, it is not. The multiple components in the MULTISTACK chiller make it more simple to
operate and maintain.”
Don’t be Fooled by the Size
Obviously, Clarke was skeptical from the start. “The plates in the heat exchangers are so small, and all the old stuff
is large and bulky; I wondered how they were going to do it,” Clarke said.
Fortunately, George Clarke was pleasantly surprised. He said, “I have more than enough tonnage to cool this place. It
works, and it’s not complicated. I don’t have to worry about unloaders or hot gas by-pass. Everything is sensibly and
conveniently located in the modules…like the strainers on both the chilled water and the cooling water headers. And if
one or two circuits go down, I don’t have to worry because I still have 14 more to back them up.”
MULTISTACK Modular Design
In the Ed Sullivan Theater, the modular design consists of two banks of four chiller modules each. The arrangement fits
neatly into the space available without crowding.
The cooling load profile required a wide range of operation at high efficiency. At night, with no audience, no hot lights,
and no equipment operating, the cooling load is small. A few hours before the show and during taping of the LATE SHOW with
David Letterman, the load hits its peak. The MULTISTACK system must respond quickly and reliably to meet the large increase
in demand.
The double redundant two-bank system assures that the chiller has the capacity to cool the theater to the exceptional
requirements of the performer, and it is available on demand. There is one Master Control for each bank of chillers and a
key-operated switch for each compressor in case of control failure. MULTISTACK engineers thought of everything!
Maximum Cooling in Minimum Time
At about 5 o’clock each week night, Clarke and his boss, Joe Soldano, Building Manager, must make sure that the temperature
of the Ed Sullivan Theater is pulled down to 50° F before the audience arrives. The MULTISTACK chiller has never failed to
cool things down. “The stagehands call this place ‘the refrigerator’.” In the filming rooms everyone sits around in winter
coats, hats and gloves. They, too, are kept crisp and alert by the cool temperature.
When CBS purchased the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1993 as a home for the LATE SHOW with David Letterman, the building needed a
complete renovation to bring it up to acceptable standards, and it had to be done in the shortest possible time. According
to Clarke and Soldano, CBS did a great job re-doing the theater.
“The place was the pits. Now it’s all state of the art stuff,” they said. Jay Katowitz, Senior Project Manager-Facilities
Engineer, had only seven weeks to get the building ready for the LATE SHOW with David Letterman. He contacted Michael Heit,
an HVAC sales representative in New York City. According to Heit, the best system for this job was a MULTISTACK; “I could
get it immediately and bring it into the basement without tearing up the building. That’s what really counted.”