The Emagine Screening Room offers a perfect blend of a big-screen experience paired with the intimacy of your living room.

Cinema Background

As the 9th largest domestic cinema circuit, Emagine Entertainment led the way in bringing luxury theatres to the metropolitan Detroit market. Emagine enjoys the honor and distinction of being named “Best Movie Theatre” for several years running by the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit News, and WDIV television. Emagine is a recognized innovator in the theatrical exhibition industry. According to the company, Emagine is the first theatre chain in the world to convert to 100% digital cinema projection with DLP Cinema® projectors. Emagine’s luxury experience incorporates not only reclining chairs but also gourmet snacks, reserved seating, in-seat service, and other upscale amenities. In addition, all Emagine theatres offer adult patrons the option of enjoying their favorite cocktail, beer or wine while concurrently maintaining a genteel and welcoming environment for families.

The Emagine Palladium located in Birmingham, Michigan offers all these amenities including the Emagine Screening Room which is a mini-theatre offering moviegoers the perfect blend of a large format premium screen experience in an intimate luxury environment similar to your living room. In addition to showing first-run movies, the Screening Room is available for private screenings where their guests can choose their own movie title.

Challenges

Originally, the Emagine Palladium Screening Room was converted from an existing game and café space, which presented an installation challenge due to the limited ceiling height on the ground level. In addition, they needed to build a booth for the digital cinema projector. “Initially our Screening Room had a good experience, but the noise generated from the digital cinema projector was our weak link as our guests could hear the hum from the projector fans,” said Tom Ruhling, Senior Director, Entertainment Technology & Design, Emagine Entertainment. “To expand our Screening Room concept to other existing locations, we have to control our retrofit costs. Building a modified booth for the cinema projector limited our seating capacity in an already tight area. We quickly learned an expensive bulky, noisy, laser cinema projection designed for a large screen did not work for our mini-theatre screening room model.”

Solutions

One of the many benefits of GDC’s Espedeo Supra-5000 RGB Plus laser phosphor cinema projector is the low noise level of less than 35dB(A), basically as low as a whisper. This specification was most interesting to Emagine Entertainment and asked for proof of the claim. “We requested a demonstration to confirm the noise level for ourselves,” said Mr. Ruhling.

The average screen width for the Screening Room is approximately 20 feet (6 meters) while the average ceiling height is approximately (10) feet (3 meters). GDC and their dealer representative, Integrity Entertainment Systems, conducted the site analysis to confirm lens calculations and projector placement. The flexibility of the Supra-5000 installation allows system integrators the option to place the projector inside the booth, in the auditorium on a platform on the rear wall, or mount it in the auditorium on the ceiling. This installation flexibility is due to its small form factor, quietness, and Risk Group 2 laser rating which does not require Nominal Ocular Hazard Distance (NOHD) clearance from the projector and moviegoing audience. To put the Supra-5000 to the ultimate noise test, the projector was mounted inside the auditorium on the ceiling above the moviegoer guests. With Supra-5000 power options for either 110V or 220V, Emagine chooses the 110V option to bring power to the ceiling installation location. “The results exceeded our expectations. The red was red. The picture that the small projector delivered was impressive, plus the Supra-5000 was so quiet, you only knew it was powered-on because there was light on the screen,” commented Mr. Ruhling. “We see the Supra-5000 as part of our product portfolio in future Screening Room locations.”

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, speckle mitigation, and vibrant color for a screen 20 feet (6 meters) or less to create a premium motion picture experience. With its unique patented laser technology, Supra-5000 is eco-friendly and energy-efficient using 75% less electricity compared to the xenon lamp equivalent. The laser lifetime is up to 40,000 hours depending on the mode of operation.