Cinemagoers in France will soon be
able to enjoy movies in the best colours and highest brightness and contrast,
thanks to CGR Cinemas, a nationwide chain which is upgrading projection in
selected outlets with the Solaria CP42LH RGB laser projector from Christie®.
Installed and supported by Cine Digital Service,
the projectors will be part of CGR’s new Premium Room concept, which is to be
unveiled at selected cinemas across France. Openings begin in December and this
latest initiative further cements the close working relationship that Christiehas enjoyed
with CGR since a huge digital cinema roll out began in 2007.
The
movie experience itself is the main attraction,” says Jocelyn
Bouyssy, the group’s CEO who has championed Premium Concept. The
audience-friendly experience starts from easy booking, no queues, and welcoming
refreshments to a walk down subtly-lit corridors taking the customer to an
architect-designed auditorium where special lighting behind fabric walls will
start to create an atmosphere as the audience sits to see the film. “The lighting will be tailored to get people
in the mood for each specific film,” explains Bouyssy. “It could be bright
lights for a rock concert or blue for a film themed around a story on the open
sea.”
What
is perhaps most impressive about CGR’s initiative is their intention to bring
the best cinema experiences to everyone. “Our Premium Concept will not be in our
larger screens but auditoria of about 200, so people can really relax in
spacious seating with a good view. I don’t want people to be excluded from the
best cinema experiences, which can be the case; anyone should also be able to
afford to see and hear cinema at its best so we intend to charge no more than
€3 extra even on discounted tickets such as student rates. Christie was the
natural choice for CGR to support us in our new deployment, as the company’s
projection technology has been at the heart of the digital cinema revolution
for the last decade,” confirms Bouyssy.
Christie has continued to spearhead technical advancements globally, and
in the process clocked up fifteen laser cinema firsts. Pascal Gervais, Regional
Sales Director, Christie Benelux, comments: “It’s gratifying that CGR has once
again shown how important Christie projection is to their offering. We’ve
worked together for many years to deliver the best Cinema experience possible
and this latest development, which sees the deployment of our latest RGB laser
projection, raises the bar significantly in terms of viewing experience and
sets a new blueprint for the sector.”
CGR is the first
cinema chain in EMEA to deploy Christie CP42LH and laser modules that generate
white light from multiple combinations of RGB primary colour wavelengths to
counteract speckle and offer a spectacular viewing experience on silver
screens. “We
were impressed by the stunning clarity of images and amazing brightness of the
Christie system. It’s a 57,200-lumen laser projector which gives incredible
brightness and the technology using 9 primary colours gives beautiful image
quality. We will be using a new format, which manages and increases both light
and contrast and we knew this projector head was perfect to give our Premium
Concept the difference we were looking for in order to bring the best in 2D or
in 3D, without compromise”, said Sébastien Bruel, Technical Director CGR Cinema.
CGR Cinema will source the CP42LH RGB laser projectors from Christie
France, and the units will be installed and supported by Cine Digital Service’s
nationwide network of specialist installers. The Christie CP42LH delivers higher
brightness, a wider colour gamut, higher contrast, improved dynamic range and
longer operational life, compared to the existing lamp-based systems. Christie CP42LH
benefits from Enhanced Wavelength Diversification (EWD), which,
by using Christie’s diverse combination of modular laser systems, significantly
reduces the impact of speckle on silver screens. In this way, EWD ensures
exhibitors can continue to use their existing silver screens and passive 3D
systems. This reduces the time and cost associated with a projection system
retrofit and allows operators to use low-cost 3D polarization glasses, which translates into further cost
savings.
During the relationship with CGR,
Christie has led the digital cinema revolution and spearheaded technical advancements
globally with at least 15 laser cinema firsts. The company’s DCI-compliant
video and audio cinema technologies are installed in over 40 percent of the
world’s cinema theatres. In fact, Christie is the only DCI-compliant
manufacturer whose heritage in cinema stretches back to 35mm film and the birth
of the international movie industry.
Today Christie offers a broad
range of price and performance solutions for cinema applications; from boutique
cinemas to premium large format venues, bolstered by the development of its
modular RGB laser illumination system -
Christie Freedom - which is, the world’s brightest at up to 120,000 lumens on
the 6P system. Christie has been recognized by the Academy of Motions Picture
Arts & Sciences and working today with directors like James Cameron, Peter Jackson
and Ang Lee to advance story-telling and the cinema experience.
Alongside advances in 2K, 4K, HFR
and now HDR, Christie champions rising performance standards in cinema; in
particular high-brightness and 3D cinema. Working with both studios and
partners Ushio & Necsel (cinema illumination specialists) the company is an
advocate for >14ft lamberts brightness standard for 3D cinema. Christie has
supported this position and invested in the development of increasingly bright
projection systems using xenon, laser phosphor and RGB laser (3P, 6P and EWD
systems).
