Film & Cinematography News South Africa

Africa's first laser projection cinema opens in Cape Town

Nu Metro Cinemas has announced the opening of Africa's first laser projection cinema in Cape Town at Nu Metro Canal Walk. It opens at 8pm on 14 December with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

The new cinema, the first Scene Xtreme outside Gauteng, has the biggest cinema screen in the Western Cape. It will also be the first cinema in the city to feature the Dolby Atmos sound system – making it the third Dolby Atmos cinema in South Africa. Dolby Atmos is all-around 360 degrees-sound, including overhead speakers – a complete improvement on the limitations of current cinema sound.

Scene Extreme cinema
Scene Extreme cinema

Laser projection at Scene Xtreme Canal Walk represents the most advanced form of digital projection technology available for the global cinema market. Its next generation-precision is a significant step up on standard projection technologies, which use electric lamps to project images onscreen. Laser projection ensures crisp, bright and finely detailed images on the big screen at all times and is clearly distinguishable.

Scene Xtreme cinemas are able to display films in full 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) on a giant screen. 4K UHD is the highest resolution-quality, but is further enhanced by the precision and quality of the laser projector at Xtreme Canal Walk, which also significantly increases the onscreen quality of standard 2K films. Standard movie shows are in 2K HD – 4K therefore means double the digital perfection, bringing viewers as close as possible to experiencing what they see onscreen in virtual reality.

Atmos-soundtracks condense multiple levels of audio objects and moves away from the concept of ‘channels’ for ‘stereo’ or ‘surround’. The audio objects are processed with precision through an increased amount of speakers all around the cinema, including overhead speakers, combined with clear digital reproduction – enabling sound objects to literally be moved around in 3D space.

Dolby Atmos is considered the best cinema audio system currently available on the market and is the preferred choice of sound for Hollywood film directors who rely on Atmos to convey their movie to audiences as intended. The above-spec speaker-systems installed in all Scene Xtreme-cinemas guarantee an experience of movie sound without comparison.

This ultra-realistic audiovisual Scene Xtreme-experience is further enhanced through RealD’s Precision White Screen-technology (PWS) - delivering a much sharper, brighter and more realistic image compared to other standard cinema screens.

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