DIGITAL PROJECTION SYSTEMS
ROLLED OUT

Sound Associates has installed Christie systems in cinemas with UKFC grant support.

An extensive programme of cinema installations, designed around Christie projection systems, has been undertaken by specialist integrator Sound Associates in the wake of the new Disability Discrimination Act’s directives.

It is now some 18 months since the UK Film Council (UKFC) announced that it would provide £350,000 of grant money to enhance the cinema experience for both the hard of hearing and visually impaired. Awarded on a demographic basis, this would represent 50% of the cost of providing captioning and audio description equipment. In all 78 cinemas received awards in March 2004.

Surrey-based Sound Associates consulted with its existing cinema clients — such as Odeon, UGC, Apollo, Ster Century, UCI and a number of independents — to gauge the best way forward. This prompted it to set up a road show which toured around England to demonstrate how closed captioning and audio description would work in practice.

Following the announcement of the UKFC grants, Sound Associates made contact with most of the 78 awardees, and this has provided the basis of the firm’s work this autumn. Around 60 Christie projectors have been commissioned for the primary purpose of captioning.

But Sound Associates’ managing director Graham Lodge explains that the implementation of the projectors offered far greater potential. “The choice of Christie as our preferred projector was not only based on the wide range of lens options, which made them suitable for vastly different auditorium capacities. These projectors also allow cinemas to show other media. The high contrast ratio and good light output of the Christie projectors make them ideal for screening alternative content, as well as allowing cinemas to stage conferences, DVD presentations and live events.”

Both the LX37 and LW25 projectors were featured on the four-location road show, which also included a subtitling and audio description system. Both Dolby and DTS processors were demonstrated. ”The reason we like these projectors is because they share the same chassis, so the electronic dowser is consistent between the two,” Lodge continues. “We suggested the LW25, with its 16 x 9 aspect ratio, if the cinema wants to show alternative content, while for 35mm slide replacement and captioning we recommended the LX37 route.”

He adds that the projectors also offer consistency with the Carlton and Pearl & Dean advertising sites, which are already heavily serviced by Christie projection, as well as foyer CAN (Captive Audience Network) installations that Sound Associates have undertaken.

“The new cinema package consists of a projector with appropriate lens, fixed to a mounting plate on a height-adjustable Unicol trolley. In front of the video projector sits the electronic dowser, which masks the video image when no subtitles are running to preserve the 35mm image,” says Lodge. “Finally, a small flight case houses the Dolby or DTS sound processor and a two-channel infra-red system.

Sound Associates supplied and installed all the cabling via a military style EDAC connector which connects to the sound rack. “This gives the cinema full portability,” explains Lodge. “Where only a fixed installation is required everything goes into the existing sound rack.”

However, interfacing with existing kit, he says, posed a challenge. “We were often confronted with a difficult angle of set-up, and it was the ability of the Christie projectors to keystone correct that made our lives easier. In some instances we came up against a lack of porthole facilities and power availability, and with Carlton sites we had to interface with the existing Christie LX25’s and LX33 projectors.”

Sound Associates expects to carry out at least as many installations during 2005 as they have this Autumn, which will keep which will keep the team at the www.yourlocalcinema.com website and information service busy. Derek Brandon, editor of the service believes that a quiet revolution is taking place thanks to the work of cinema industry, the film distribution industry, technology companies, organisations representing disabled people and the sensory deprived people themselves. “Thousands of whom bombarded the UK Film Council with letters when they heard about the UK Film Council's proposal to fund 50% of the cost of cinema equipment.”

The yourlocalcinema service publicise the new 'accessible' cinemas nationally. “Before this scheme came about the vast majority of deaf or hard of hearing people simply didn't go to the cinema, as they could not hear the film properly. It was the norm to await the video or DVD release, which are normally subtitled. That's all changed now, with over 100 UK cinemas having regular subtitled shows.”

Blind and partially sighted people did not visit the cinema much either, says Brandon. “If they did, a friend or partner would usually explain what was taking place on the screen, often to the annoyance of other members of the audience. That's all changed now with ‘digital access' cinema equipment,” he says. “A separate soundtrack is broadcast through wireless headphones, describing the on-screen action, and only the wearer can hear it. There are hundreds of audio-described shows every week, in over a 100 cinemas.”

Links:
www.soundassociates.com
www.christiedigital.com
www.yourlocalcinema.com
www.cinemabusiness.co.uk

Article reproduced with kind permission
from Cinema Business magazine.
Issue 11, February 2005.

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