Christie Awes Exhibitors in Beijing with World's First 72,000 Lumen Laser Projection Demonstration

Christie, a manufacturer of cinema projection, fascinated leading exhibitors from Asia Pacific with a demonstration of its prototype laser projector in Beijing last week. Short movie clips of 3D content projected on a 20m wide (65.5') by 12m (39') high screen were screened at typical 3D brightness levels of 3-4'-L and then using the laser projector at 14'-L at the theater of Wanda Shi Jin Shan Cinema, leaving the audiences in awe.

"Today's laser projection demo was fabulous! I'm impressed with the ultra brightness and life-like colors delivered onto the screen," said Ning Ye, general manager of Wanda Group.

"Christie is committed to creating new technology and maintaining our products at a high quality. We are continuously developing solutions to help exhibitors to project compelling, immersive images to their screens. Today we are pleased to demonstrate our first prototype laser projector to the exhibitors," said Lin Yu, vice president, Christie Asia Pacific.

Presenting at the laser demo event, Dr. Don Shaw, senior director, product management, Christie Entertainment Solutions, noted, "Audiences deserve to see the brightest 3D with 14'-L on cinema screens. Our demonstration today showed just how truly spectacular a movie maker's vision can be realized when shown at the highest light levels, making the shared experience more immersive, and, ultimately, driving more cinema ticket sales."

Dr. Shaw continued, "Some attendees leave 3D movies complaining of headaches, fatigue, and sore eyes. Just like reading a book in low light levels, low brightness on the movie screen is one of the reasons for these complaints. Delivering more lumens to the screen will help address these effects, as will the advent of 'eye-easy' high frame rate (HFR) movies."

Commenting on the laser projector, Dr. Shaw said, "There's half-a-dozen different 'forks in the road' decisions that have to be made when designing a laser-projection system and most manufacturers will take different paths." He noted that Christie customers have come to expect the best in technology and service from the world's largest supplier of DLP Cinema projectors, operating for more than 80 years.

Dr. Shaw also shared with the exhibitors information on Christie IMB, an integrated media block solution that seamlessly converts and delivers feature-film and alternative content within a secure environment to all of Christie's 2K and 4K, DCI-compliant Solaria Series 2 projectors. Following his presentation, the audiences were treated to a demo of Christie IMB showcasing MPEG2 contents.

Christie hosted its first laser projector demo for cinema industry luminaries such as Douglas Trumbull, recent Gordon E. Sawyer Academy Award winner, at its High Frame Rate Summit in April 2012.

At IBC 2012 in Amsterdam in September, Christie gained recognition for the world's first laser projection of Hugo 3D, a feature-length 3D movie projected at 2D brightness levels. Hugo 3D is the first CPG (Cameron Pace Group) certified movie.

The company says the two main goals of Christie's HFR activities are to help the industry develop the best HFR content and the best delivery system for HFR content. The first goal involves assisting leading-edge filmmakers and post-production companies in perfecting HFR movie creation, so the industry has the most engaging, entertaining content possible. The second goal is to assist exhibitors in showing these 3D HFR movies in all their glory. To these ends, Christie is helping create the standards for 3D HFR movies through formal and informal technology-development alliances with major producers and directors, post-production facilities, studios, and technology partners. On the exhibitor's front, Christie provides one-stop shopping for all the hardware, software, and services that enable exhibitors to deliver a filmmaker's vision in stunning 3D HFR quality, the company stated.