Cost Effective and Financially Accessible Solutions and Services to Deliver Premium Movie Experiences to All Types of Exhibitors are Showcased by Christie
Christie today unveiled its fall lineup of reliable and economical cinema solutions at the annual ShowEast conference held at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, Florida. Leading the way and already shipping is the Christie Solaria One, aimed at emerging markets and community theaters whose screen sizes are less than 10.6 meters (35 feet) wide. This DCI-compliant solution is the first based on Texas Instruments’ (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) recently developed S2K DLP Cinema chipset to begin shipping in quantity.
“Christie is proud to offer solutions that generate positive, long-term revenues by providing customers with superior projection technologies and the very best in customer service and after-sale support,” said Craig Sholder, vice president, Christie Entertainment Solutions. “From small screens to ultra-large, premium-experience screens, Christie’s presence at ShowEast is defining the industry for 2013, with solutions like Christie Solaria One and Christie Duo, as befits a thought-and technology leader in the cinema industry.”
In addition to comprehensive solutions on display in Christie booth #915, Christie is a co-sponsor of the International Day activities, including its Awards Luncheon on November 5, which Jack Kline, president and chief operating officer, Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc., will address.
The Seven Zones in Christie’s Booth Showcase Choices for Exhibitors
Visitors to the Christie booth will have the opportunity to experience the firm’s cornerstone digital cinema offerings, whose scope encompasses new formats and technologies, backed by turnkey service and support for all of an exhibitor’s operations. Seven zones will amply demonstrate Christie’s commitment to be a trusted, one-stop shop for all exhibitor needs.
Zone 1: Christie Solaria One:
“The announcement of the high-value Christie Solaria One projector is indicative of Christie’s continuing digital cinema technology leadership, as the company advances the ‘democratization of digital’ trend that will end in all audiences across the globe having access to the finest in digital cinema and alternative content,” said Kathryn Cress, vice president, Global and Corporate Marketing, Christie.
A complete projection solution for screens up to 35 feet, it comes with a zoom lens, custom-designed Xenon lamp, and a Christie Integrated Media Block (IMB) with its own easy-to-operate Screen Management Software (SMS). The Solaria One is brightest in its class, since it projects 8000 lumens in the DCI color space, 9000 for alternative content and in its Solaria One+ variation, projects 9000 lumens in the DCI color space and10,000 for alternative content. Shipping DCI compliant in November, this affordable solution confirms that now all cinemas can make the move to digital projection. It is 3D ready, HFR upgradeable and has washable/reusable filters. Combined with the premium audio and visual playback capabilities of Christie SKA-3D, exhibitors can release the full playback potential of their digital cinema investments.
Zone 2: Christie Duo:
Christie Duo generates twice the brightness for super large 2D or 3D screens, allowing cinema exhibitors to offer a differentiated, premium movie-going experience to their patrons. Christie Duo is a dual-projection system using patented mirror system configurations, projecting simultaneous left-eye and right-eye images, which reduces 3D switching artifacts for better and more comfortable viewing of 3D presentations. The Christie Duo integration kit can be purchased with either a 2K or 4K Christie Solaria Series digital cinema projector or as a standalone integration kit if the exhibitor already has Christie projectors. Included in the solution is Christie DuoAlign, an auto-calibrating image alignment software and camera kit that easily aligns the images from both projectors, within seconds, to deliver a completely seamless movie experience. Low upfront costs and no ongoing revenue sharing requirements deliver a high performance and financially accessible premium large screen movie experience that exhibitors can brand.
Zone 3: Christie Avias-TMS:
The Christie Avias-TMS Theater Management System (TMS) provides simple and efficient centralized management of a multiplex’s entire projection operation. An interactive TMS will be showcased at the booth.
Zone 4: Lamp Lounge:
Christie Xenon lamps deliver a superior cinema experience, achieving longer life and lower operating costs than alternatives. Their brightness provides the brightest illumination possible, creating great 3D content projection. Xenon technology also affords the best image quality, producing light that is closest to natural sunlight, which in turn delivers the most life-like and natural colors. No other illumination source can produce light like that. Reliability is a given, with its natural gas element and ease of use aiding Xenon lamps to perform dependably, for a long time.
Christie Managed Services Exhibits Complement Cinema Offerings
Christie Managed Services offer a wide range of capabilities for managing all cinema equipment including projection systems and lobby digital signage. Exhibitors partner with Christie at every stage – from the design and selection, pre-staging and testing, to deployment, maintenance support, online training, remote monitoring and reporting. Customers such as ArcLight Cinemas, Coming Attractions and Southern Theatres trust Christie’s Network Operations Center (NOC) to keep their equipment running, 24/7/364.
“Southern Theatres chose to partner with Christie's Managed Services team because they offer a comprehensive solution that includes NOC monitoring, preventative maintenance, and emergency services, giving us a cost effective one-stop shop for our digital projection support,” said Jack Wagner, director of facilities, Southern Theatres, LLC.
Visit Christie Managed Services at Zones 5, 6 and 7 at the Christie booth to experience the full solution and support offerings available to exhibitors.
Zone 5: In-lobby digital signage: Design, build, deploy and support
Experience what a theater lobby could be with eye-catching digital signage such as digital box office, digital posters and digital menu boards. Displayed on Christie FHD551-X tiled LCD flat panels, view how Christie Managed Services will design, build, deploy and support a digital signage network that's right for exhibitors. Allure Global Solutions, a valued enterprise software solutions partner, will be on hand to demonstrate how together it and Christie support every digital signage project stage, from strategy and content requirements to equipment selection and POS software integration to synchronized deployment and post deployment support strategy.
Zone 6: Network Operations Center: 24/7 remote monitoring
Christie’s state-of-the-art NOC, featuring remote monitoring and reporting, technical phone support, preventative servicing, on-site emergency response and critical spares replenishment programs, safeguards customers’ visual technology displays, keeping them running 24/7/365. Christie’s Managed Services team of customer service and technical field experts seek to understand the support customers need for their digital projectors or in-lobby displays and, regardless of system’s manufacturer, take a technology agnostic approach to finding solutions to issues. That’s what sets Christie apart.
Visitors can experience a video demonstration of Christie’s state-of-the-art Network Operations Center on display on award-winning Christie MicroTiles.
Zone 7: Online cinema training: Empowering theater operational staff
Preview Managed Services’ new online cinema training, which provides access to not only online training, but technical resources and courseware that will increase the productivity and core knowledge of a cinema’s operational staff. Christie’s up-to-date training modules help technicians stay current on system enhancements and advancements in operational and service techniques. Find out how Christie Managed Services’ online cinema training website can empower an exhibitors technical and projection personnel to fix basic system issues, saving time, effort and money. Additionally, the Managed Services team will showcase their customized boothless projection system as part of a complete customized solution. This turnkey boothless solution provides a special lift system that enables projectors to be positioned out of the way during normal operation and lowered for maintenance, freeing up space for seating that would normally have been taken up by the projection booths.
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.