[Philip Lelyveld comment: it includes a High Frame Rate Commitment at the bottom.]
Christie® today announced Christie Duo™, a new dual–projection integration kit as a solution intended to give exhibitors the ability to create and deliver their own, branded premium theater experience.
“Exhibitors have invested heavily in building their own brand in their respective markets. With Christie Duo, we’re providing an opportunity for our exhibitors and our business partners to enhance their offerings with a premium experience,” said Don Shaw, director, Product Management, Christie Entertainment Solutions. “Now any exhibitor can deliver the brightest 2K or 4K movie experience in 2D or 3D on the largest screens. We’re excited to give exhibitors a solution to help them further leverage and market their own premium brand to today’s sophisticated movie-going audiences.”
The Christie Duo™ integration kit can be purchased with either 2K or 4K Christie Solaria™ Series digital cinema projectors or as a standalone integration kit for Christie customers who already have Christie projectors — the world’s best-selling DCI-compliant digital cinema projectors with more than 28,000 shipped and installed to date.
The integration kit features the choice of two configurations: a compact and convenient stacking system for 3D installations, or a new, innovative physical configuration that perfectly aligns every pixel on the screen for optimal 2D and 3D presentations. Coupled with automated features that easily calibrate, align and optimize the images from both Christie Solaria™ Series 2K or 4K digital cinema projectors, Christie Duo delivers a completely seamless, premium movie experience for the world’s largest screens. When combined with world-leading 3D systems, exhibitors can achieve 3D image brightness levels up to twice as high as what can be achieved using the current large-format market leader — at a significant overall cost saving.
One-time Investment Puts Customers First
Building on its history of delivering industry-first solutions for exhibitors, Christie has responded to the global market demand for a solution that delivers a cost effective and financially accessible premium movie experience, one that is affordable today and tomorrow.
“We pride ourselves on responding to customer needs and our customers approached us for a flexible and economical solution to deliver a premium cinema experience. They wanted a low initial investment in equipment and not to be constrained by business models that may require them to share ongoing box office revenues with the equipment supplier. With Christie Duo, we’re delivering high value at a price point that provides immersive cinema experiences to all,” Shaw added.
Early Demonstrations and Installations Confirm Market Acceptance
In December 2011 Christie successfully demonstrated a dual-stacked 4K digital cinema projection solution, displaying true DLP Cinema® 4K resolution in 3D with incomparable brightness levels of 68,000 ANSI lumens, using two Christie CP4230 digital cinema projectors. Using Christie Duo technology, the demonstration was conducted in a theater in Shanghai to leading cinema owners and exhibitors in China (http://www.christiedigital.com/stacked-4k-demo). Attendees experienced a presentation featuring unmatched brightness, sharpness and superior 3D images — generating an enthusiastic and welcoming response from industry attendees.
Early adopters of Christie Duo include Grupo Araújo de Cinemas in Brazil and ArcLight Cinemas in the United States, which recently installed the solution at several ArcLight Cinemas, including the historic Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.
“We’ve put our trust in a Christie Duo system to dazzle audiences in our world-famous ArcLight Hollywood theater,” commented Joe Miraglia, director of design, construction and facilities at ArcLight. “We look forward to receiving and installing the next components in this system – an automated alignment and calibration solution – to ensure optimal image quality and brightness, at 4K resolutions for our most discerning audiences.”
Marcos Araújo, director, Grupo Araújo de Cinemas, Brazil, concurred. “Affordability, without sacrificing quality, is paramount for us and we are pleased to be partnering with Christie to bring the premium theater experience to our customers throughout Brazil.”
Christie dealer Kelonik Transisom installed Christie Duo at Grupo Araújo de Cinemas. Noted Isaac Besso, director, Kelonik Transisom, “We pride ourselves on introducing the newest and most innovative products to our clientele, reflecting our desire to provide maximum customer service to them, and certainly the Christie Duo solution fits perfectly with this strategy.”
Product Availability
Demonstrations of Christie Duo are scheduled for CinemaCon 2012, with wide product availability in the summer of 2012. The combination of two Christie Solaria projectors and the Christie Duo Integration Kit is expected to deliver significant cost savings compared to other branded ‘big screen’ solutions. The solution will be fully compatible with recently announced Christie® Previsto™ High Frame Rate (HFR) technology.
Christie’s Commitment to HFR
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.
