Christie® used the occasion of the “IBC Big Screen” theater screenings at RAI Amsterdam last week to deliver the world’s first mass-audience demonstration of a 3D High Frame Rate (HFR) D-Cinema system using a single projector – the Christie Solaria™ Series CP2230 projector – in combination with other currently-available components.

“The RealD XL Cinema System and International Datacasting’s SuperFlex® Pro Cinema™ Event Player (PCEP) are available today, along with Christie’s DLP® projectors, providing cinema owners and content owners with the foundation they need to realize new revenue streams from the projection of ‘alternative content’ sporting and theatrical events in 3D HFR,” said Dr. Don Shaw, director, Product Management, Christie Entertainment Solutions.

Content showing the world-famous Cavalia equestrian production company in action was flawlessly projected in 3D at 60 frames per second (FPS) during Dr. Shaw’s “Exhibitor Considerations for High Frame Rate 3D Technology” seminar, using the aforementioned suppliers and formatted by the SENSIO® Hi-Fi 3D compression codec.

3D HFR Cinema Content Next Up for Technology Leaders

“This demonstration sets the scene for single-projector 3D HFR cinema content delivery, following on James Cameron’s ground-breaking ‘proof of concept’ of HFR cinema content at CinemaCon 2011, which Christie assisted with,” noted Shaw. 

The delivery setup used at CinemaCon was a customized solution that used two Christie projectors, broadcast (rather than cinema) servers and unencrypted, chroma sub-sampled color data, and as such, was not intended to be duplicated in cinemas globally when the latest digital 3D content in such widely-anticipated movies as “Avatar 2” and “Avatar 3” and “The Hobbit” are released beginning at the end of 2012.

“Exhibitors are looking for complete systems that can be readily installed in cinema projection rooms to facilitate the rollout of these and other 3D HFR cinema productions, but to do so, technology manufacturers need to step up with cost-effective solutions that seamlessly integrate projectors, servers and 3D cinema equipment,” added Dr. Shaw. “The next step in the 3D HFR solution is for vendors to develop and market new, more powerful and more versatile Integrated Media Block (IMB) server technology to provide the performance and security that exhibitors demand.” 

In a related move designed to accelerate the development and adoption of next-generation 3D digital cinema, Christie and James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, Inc. announced the signing of a milestone, five-year agreement that will see these two industry leaders exchange research, testing, development and technical support on the industry’s most exciting new technology.