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Kinoton multiplex refit is a first for Germany

The Cinedom multiplex in Cologne has equipped its Premiere Auditorium with Germany’s first 6P/4K laser projection system, as well as a Dolby Atmos audio system.

The Cinedom multiplex in Cologne has equipped its Premiere Auditorium with Germany’s first 6P/4K laser projection system, as well as a Dolby Atmos audio system. All components of the new projection and sound systems were planned, supplied and installed by Kinoton Digital Solutions.

The Barco 6P (six-primary) laser cinema projection system delivers 60,000 lumens onto a massive 22m-wide screen. This ensures a premium large-format experience screen with sharp, high-contrast, brilliant 3D images in 4K resolution. The laser technology features an extremely light-efficient 3D projection path, with no filters required in the projector and no additional equipment mounted in front of the lens. Its native 3D colour system, with six primary colours, casts an enormous picture with a brightness level that is said to outperform even conventional bi-xenon projectors.

Both 2D and 3D films can be projected with significantly more brightness across an entire giant screen. The audience’s eyes don’t have to work as hard to make out darker scenes, especially in 3D movies.

To ensure that the sound is on a par with the image quality for a genuinely immersive cinema experience, the Cinedom has also installed one of Germany’s first Dolby Atmos audio systems. This innovative audio solution treats every sound source in the film as an audio object that can be freely assigned to any position in the room. To enable this, the Premiere Auditorium has been equipped with a total of 44 high-performance surround speakers. Eighteen speakers, plus two powerful sub-bass surround speakers, are placed in the ceiling. The screen, with its enormous width, features five four-way stage speaker systems. All of the speakers are fed by digital power amplifiers with total output of about 65,000W. The entire system was custom-designed, built, and configured to suit this auditorium. Each surround loudspeaker is individually controlled to function as an indpendent source: the technology supports a maximum of 64 sources. The result is a sound environment that moviegoers describe as extremely lifelike and absolutely realistic.

According to Martin Ebert, managing director of Cinedom Kinobetriebe, “Dolby Atmos and the 6P premium large-format laser system are a great choice for the Cinedom, because they additionally enhance the overall viewer experience. Together they also give us an unrivalled USP and ‘quality mark’, since at the moment we’re the only ones in Germany with this setup.”

Lutz Schmidt, managing director of Kinoton Digital Solutions, which supplied and installed the equipment, is also thrilled with the results. He said: “The colours and details delivered by the 6P laser projector and the dynamic range of the Atmos system really make a difference. Spectators in the Cinedom now enjoy remarkably crystal-clear images and impactful immersive sound.”

The acoustics of the Premiere Auditorium, as a result of its size and structure, posed special challenges for the cinema equipper. The speakers also had to be installed in a way that avoids sound transmission leakage into the auditorium located directly above it. Despite these special requirements, however, Kinoton’s many years of experience enabled it to very quickly rise to the task and complete the modernisation project. Said Ebert: “Design, planning, and delivery went extremely smoothly, thanks to the support of the whole Kinoton team at the installation site.” The Premiere Auditorium in the Cinedom, which with a total of 14 auditoriums is Germany’s fifth-largest multiplex, reopened on 15 October 2015 after only a few weeks of remodelling work – ready for the start of two new blockbusters, the James Bond film Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Kinoton Digital Solutions