‘Avatar 2’ Gets Optimal Digital Display at Australian Cinema Palace: ‘The Quality of the Visuals Is Absolutely Mind-Blowing’
Just as “Avatar: The Way of Water” closes in on the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office, the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Sydney, a leading heritage cinema in Australia, is showcasing the film via a newly installed laser projection system from Christie Digital Systems.
Powered by the Christie CP4440-RGB, the advanced-format cinema projector featuring Christie Real|Laser technology sits inside the theater’s 700-seat Orpheum auditorium, which boasts a 13 meter (42.6 foot)-wide screen that is now capable of displaying high-frame-rate titles in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second.
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The installation offers a study in contrasts between the old and the new. The auditorium itself, which dates to 1935, impresses with its unique art deco design, while the projection system’s architecture and processing technology suppress the motion blur typical of giant-screen theaters.
The new projector was commissioned by the team from HOYTS Cinema Technology Group, led by general manager Adam Wrightson and technical manager Bruce Ker. Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace’s operations manager Sam Hanson and his deputy Oliver Halicki also participated in the planning and installation. The 45,000-lumen projector is designed to deliver artifact-free images
“We’re delighted to equip The Orpheum—the largest auditorium in our cinema complex—with the Christie CP4440-RGB, which redefines the premium moviegoing experience with incredibly colorful and detailed, lifelike 4K images,” said Alex Temesvari, general manager, Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace. “The quality of the visuals presented during screenings of “Avatar: The Way of Water” is absolutely mind-blowing. We’re proud to be the only cinema in Sydney to exclusively screen this blockbuster film in high-frame-rate 3D.”
Han Kim, executive director of Christie’s Asia-Pacific region, added, “Christie’s CineLife+ Series cinema projectors featuring the most advanced electronics are at the forefront of modern cinema technologies. We are very pleased that the CP4440-RGB fitted in Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace has proven itself as a high-performance projection system that offers a new world of color and contrast, as well as provides high-efficiency and a long operational life.”
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