Emerging cinema design offers the largest selection of movie titles in Taiwan with 16 VIP-class multiplex cinema

Cinema Background

The Century Asia’s newest all VIP-class 16-plex cinema is conveniently situated on the 4th floor of the Global Mall in Taoyuan in Taiwan; moviegoers can easily access it from the A19 station of Taoyuan Airport MRT. The Global Mall is located in a large metropolitan area Zhongli District of Taoyuan City with the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium nearby. Opened on 30 September 2021, the Century Asia Taoyuan branch is Century Asia’s fourth and newest high-end 16-plex cinema. It is unique in that the cinema features all VIP-class auditoriums offering moviegoers the largest selection of movie titles in Taiwan. The 16-plex cinema can seat from 31 to 53 guests making the entire cinema cater to a total of 656 guests. The screen width is approximately 6 meters (20 feet) while the average ceiling height is approximately 3 meters (10 feet).

The Century Asia Taoyuan branch aims to be the most luxurious, innovative, top-notch, and creative cinema by offering an immersive and picture-perfect moviegoing experience in all the 16 VIP-class auditoriums which are equipped with XD Technologies for surround sound, floor-to-ceiling cinema screens, and luxurious recliners made of the same fine quality leather as used by Ferrari N.V. car manufacturer. The VIP-class auditoriums are available for private screenings and for making marriage proposals, graduation parties, or enterprise events. The cinema is also known for its Michelin recommended snacks.

Challenges

Mr. Jack Cheng, general manager of Greater China Region, Century Asia has a unique vision of seeing a movie in a cinema as the best choice for consumers but companies must meet their demands caused in part by the influence of the pandemic. He believes moviegoers will prefer watching a movie in a luxurious, intimate auditorium with the same sight and sound presented in a large auditorium. Also, the declining birth rate would lead to smaller family sizes. Hence, he predicts the VIP-class boutique cinema concept will be an emerging trend, and a multiplex with luxurious VIP-class auditorium offering a wider choice of film titles will become mainstream in the future. “We want our customers spoiled with choice of movie content. With 16 VIP-class halls, they allow movie-lovers to select their favourite movies in one place easily. Moreover, movie watching requires planning in the past; however, the 16-plex boutique cinema allow impulse movie watching and increase revenue by seeing another movie on the same day.” Jack added, “The more recessionary it is, the more essential to demonstrate our brand’s core values and culture.”

Jack furthered, “To make the business model sustainable for the long run, we have to control the operation cost by adopting a suitable projection and sound system. An expensive bulky laser cinema projection and sound system designed for a large screen would not work for our model. We were looking for a high-end laser projection system, professional cinema audio processor, and highly reliable sight and sound system designed for our VIP-class 16-plex.”

Solutions

Century Asia heard about GDC’s Espedeo Supra-5000 RGB Plus laser phosphor cinema projector and was willing to wait for the technology until it is available in the market. Jack furthered, “The reason we chose the Espedeo Supra-5000 cinema projector because it is designed for VIP-class boutique cinema; also it can achieve low operating cost with its laser technology and built-in features.”

Energy-saving ALPD^® 4.0 laser technology
The Supra-5000 cinema projector features ALPD 4.0 RGB Plus laser phosphor technology that delivers bright picture quality and vibrant color for a screen less than 6 meters (20 feet) to create an immersive moviegoing experience. With its unique laser technology, Supra-5000 is eco-friendly and energy-efficient. It uses 75% less electricity compared to the xenon lamp equivalent; making it eco-friendly with no lamp wastage. The laser lifetime is up to 40,000 hours depending on the mode of operation. Furthermore, the Supra-5000 projector is classified as Risk Group 2, safe for installations inside the room, which was necessary for Century Asia since the average ceiling height is 3 meters (10 feet).

Built-in features help lower the total cost of ownership and significantly improve reliability
The Supra-5000 is engineered with GDC’s All-in-One board providing various built-in options. When compared to using external equipment, the built-in functions offer better price-performance by improving reliability and simplifying installation, and less equipment maintenance with fewer boxes of electronics. Also, the All-in-One-Board is designed with near-zero maintenance electronics and 100,000 hours Mean Time Between Failures(MTBF).

Century Asia selected Supra-5000 with a built-in professional 5.1/7.1 cinema audio processor for the uncompressed surround sound reproducing an incredibly warm, deep, and rich listening experience. As the 16-plex halls are available for private rental for a variety of events with various configurations that might need a microphone and other audio-visual devices. Century Asia installed GDC’s AIB-2000 Audio IO (Input-Output) Box in all the 16-plex auditoriums to interface with external audio equipment.

All 16 Supra-5000 laser projection systems feature built-in diskless CineCache a.k.a. cache memory that has the benefits of high-speed concurrent ingest of DCP content during playback unlike an HDD storage system. One average movie can be ingested within 30 minutes without interrupting playback. The DCP content can also transfer (via gigabit network) among the 16 projection systems with incredibly high-speed during playback.

Ready for future business expansion with cinema automation CA2.0
Lastly, the Supra-5000 cinema projector is future-proof. It prepares Century Asia for GDC Cinema Automation CA2.0 with a DCP live-streaming central library server simplifying the content playback and management, and show scheduling. CA2.0 enables the playback of thousands of DCP movies and auto power-on/off audio-visual equipment including the laser projection systems according to a pre-set schedule.

Results

The Century Asia newest 16-plex cinema has successfully become one of the most popular multiplex cinemas by offering the largest number of movie titles in Taiwan. With its strategic promotion, the cinema has drawn much media attention, support from moviegoers and the municipal government. Jack continued, “We are conscious of choosing the right and reliable cinema technology for our 16 best-in-class VIP cinema halls because they not only cater to the emerging luxurious boutique cinema trend but also can help maintain low operating costs for the long run.”