As CinemaCon got underway this week in Las Vegas, Cinema United president and CEO Michael O’Leary called on exhibitors and distributors to “come together” to transform the industry. “The world is different today than it was yesterday, and we must not just adapt, but evolve if we want to realize our future potential.”
Some of that, he said in his remarks, includes investment by exhibitors. “We must continue to invest in all aspects of the moviegoing experience, from projection, sound and lighting to concessions, food and beverage, lobby and parking areas. All the pieces matter,” he said.
Underscoring that part of his message, the CinemaCon exhibition space was buzzing this week with new projection and sound developments, including moves in the direction of high dynamic range (HDR) imagery, which brings a greater range of colors from the brightest whites to the deepest blacks.
Barco announced roughly a dozen supported 2025 titles for the rollout of its HDR by Barco projectors, including Universal’s “How to Train Your Dragon” and Sony’s “Karate Kid: Legends.”
HDR by Barco is one of the offerings at B&B Theatres Red Oak 12, which opened in 2024 and accepted the International Cinema Technology Association’s best new build award at CinemaCon. The new cinema was created with the belief that theater owners need to do more than show movies, rather, they must become entertainment centers. The B&B Theater includes a restaurant, bar, pickleball, bowling and event space, as well as theater options including 4DX, with motion seats and 4D effects such as wind; ScreenX, a multi-screen 270-degree viewing experience; and HDR by Barco .
B&B was one of the test sites for Barco’s pre-launch pilot program. Calling the images “beautiful,” CEO Bob Bagby told Variety that “like any new tech, it’s very expensive. .. [but] I think it will be the standard in the future. They have to get more theaters to try it, as they sell [more systems] the price will go down.”
At CinemaCon, Christie and Dolby unveiled a new Dolby Vision HDR-capable projector. According to Dolby, the new projectors will be available to all Dolby Cinema and all Dolby Vision + Dolby Atmos partners, globally. Dolby’s Pascal Sijen suggested that this projector “making it dramatically more efficient and easier to adopt.”
Christie also threw its hat into the HDR arena by unwrapping its Variable Dynamic Range (VDR) technology, an upgrade aimed at energy efficiency and reducing total cost of ownership, while providing an path to high dynamic range.
The Christie VDR software upgrade includes a standard mode, expected to be available before the end of the year; and the HDR-capable performance mode. Both are created for the Christie CineLife+ series of Real|Laser projectors. Christie reported that the performance mode upgrade supports 300 nits (a measure of brightness) to produce DCI-compliant HDR.
According to Christie, the performance mode would play the delivery version of a movie made for HDR-capable emissive displays such as Samsung’s Onyx Cinema LED display.
Samsung introduced a new version of its Onyx screen, which supports 300-nit HDR in four sizes ranging from a 16-foot screen for boutique-size auditoriums to a 66-foot screen for large-format premium auditoriums.
LVL 11 Entertainment’s Cannon Beach in Mesa, Ariz., which opens this Fall, will be the first theater to introduce this new generation of Onyx stateside. Opening in the Fall, LVL 11 Entertainment is also building an expanded cinema, which will include go-kart racing, bowling, arcade games and karaoke.
To date, one of the key concerns surrounding LED cinema displays has been how to reproduce sound, as in traditional cinema, the speakers are placed behind the screen, which isn’t doable with LED panels. (Today’s LED installations instead place speakers above, below or to the sides of the LED panels.) But this year, cinema tech developer GDC came to CinemaCon with a proposed DCI-certified option that it developed with tech company Tricorne.
It previewed the unique Tricorne perforated LED screen, with perforations that make it possible to install the speakers behind the LED display. “The panel itself has empty spaces in the middle” allowing sound configurations to be “exactly the same” as in projector-based theaters, a GDC representative explained.
Also at CinemaCon, Meyer Sound launched its new Astrya cinema loudspeakers at Las Vegas’s Beverly Theater, the first commercial installation, following a one-year pilot program that involved some leading Hollywood sound pros.
Sound editors and mixers who worked in an Astrya environment during that time provided testimonials that were shared during the presentation. Five-time Oscar winner Richard King (“Dune: Part 2”) called the new loudspeakers a “giant leap forward” and Academy Award winner Lora Hirschberg (“Inception”) cited the tech’s “coverage and clarity.” “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Captain America: Brave New World” were among the productions mixed in Astrya during the pilot program.
The loudspeakers are now available, and the first few installations include Warner Bros. Sound.
Meyer Sound’s director of cinema marketing Mark Mayfield related that the goal is to deliver the sound as it was mixed, supporting the filmmakers’ creative intent. “You want to do nothing to the sound except make it louder,” without distortion or delays, he said. Premium sound can put “more ears in chairs,” he told exhibitors at the event.
