Costa Rica. Christie announced that its Duo projection system has been installed on costa Rica's largest cinema screen. This is the Sala Nova ONE of the Nova Cinemas located in the new Plaza Real Alajuela shopping center in the capital of the country, San José. It is the first room in Costa Rica with Dolby Atmos sound format and dual projection (two simultaneous 4K projectors).
Recently opened, the Plaza Real Alajuela shopping center has nine cinemas, all equipped with projectors of the Christie Solaria Series, with a capacity for 1450 people. They belong to the Nova Cinemas chain, owned by the communication company Repretel. The installation was in charge of Vidicom, a Costa Rican company specialized in the rental, sale and integration of sophisticated audiovisual systems.
The star room of this new complex was baptized with the name of Nova ONE. It is a PLF (Premium Large Format) room that has a screen 20 meters wide, the largest in the country, and capacity for 273 people. The Christie Duo system installed here consists of two 4K DLP Cinema® Christie CP4220 projectors (22,000 lumens, 4K resolution) that double the light production, generating images of greater sharpness and quality for both 2D and 3D. The room was equipped with a Dolby ShowVault/IMB server, while for the 3D the MasterImage Dual solution was installed.
Precisely for 3D projections, the Christie Duo acts as a fully integrated dual projection system that allows one projector to be dedicated to the right eye and the other to the left. The result is twice the brightness on screen, providing a brighter, more attractive and more comfortable 3D viewing experience.
"The Christie Duo is the closest option in Xenon to 6P laser projection technology," says Juan Carlos Cotúa Fiorentini, general manager of Vidicom. "It's really amazing the image quality and efficiency of the system. The definition, color saturation, luminosity and contrast ratio stand out by far what one is used to seeing in traditional cinemas," he adds.
In the other eight rooms of the new complex, Vidicom installed different models of the Christie Solaria Series, including the CP2215, CP2208 and CP2220 projectors. All cinemas were equipped with Dolby IMS2000 or Dolby ShowVault servers. In addition to the Nova ONE room, four other screens of the complex are prepared for 3D, in this case with the X-Mirror 3D system.
As for the sound, seven of the rooms have Dolby CP750 processors and two others, including the Nova ONE room, Dolby Atmos. All nine cinemas have bi-amp sound and 10,000 to 12,000 watts of power.
In addition, in three of the rooms, including the Nova ONE room, the Christie ACT automated control solution was installed. It is a powerful and flexible web-based system designed to provide full control of all the functions of a cinema (light attenuators, masking motors, audio levels, projectors, servers ...) from any device with access to the web on the same network.
Nova Cinemas Plaza Real Alajuela also installed the Christie Avias-TMS (Theatre Management System), which provides simple and centralized control for all projections of a room complex. The system monitors the status of all screens, what is being projected and the progress of projections. Operators can start, stop, pause or change any show, on any screen, from a single location, as well as create and schedule playlists, and automate the ingestion of new content.
Another important aspect is the optimization of energy and consumables systems. "The Christie DUO 4K projector in the Nova ONE room uses two 3.0KW bulbs with a service life of 1500 hours and with very compact single-phase UPSs," says Juan Carlos Cotúa Fiorentini. "On the contrary, other similar screens in the country that are equipped with the current market-leading large format system use two projectors with 6.0KW bulbs that last no more than 800 hours and that come with three-phase UPS, which consumes much more power," he adds.
Juan Carlos Chávez, director of Christie in Latin America, states: "We are delighted by the trust that Nova Cinemas has placed in our film equipment. And we are particularly proud of their commitment to the Christie Duo solution, which empowers the exhibitor to create and put on their own, a special, high-level cinematic experience under their own brand, with considerable overall cost savings."
