Christie debuts on the Finnish D-Cinema market

Finnkino Oy, the largest Nordic operator, adopts the CP2000-XB projectors by purchasing ten 2K DLP projectors in a first phase.

Finnkino Oy, one of the largest cinema chains in the Nordic region, has given new impetus to its theaters with the acquisition of ten 2K DLP Cinema Christie CP2000-XB, DCI-compliant projectors. The order was placed by the company's technical director, Ari 'Jaska' Saarinen, after several meetings and product evaluations with Christie's director of market development, Richard Nye.

Despite Christie's huge global market share in D Cinema projection, this order represents Christie's entry into the Finnish market. “It's great that we can now add Finland to the other Scandinavian markets we have already entered,” Nye said.

With 170 screens in Finland and the three Baltic countries, the exhibitor began seriously studying the digital market two years ago. “That was the beginning of our learning curve,” Saarinen admits. "At first, everyone thought that just having the TI chip in the digital environment was enough, and that all the projectors were of similar quality. But now there is more knowledge about it, and what we have seen from Christie has been very impressive," he adds.

Last year at Cinema Expo, Saarinen had the opportunity to compare Christie's full range of premium CP2000 2K products. “There were several reasons why we adopted the Christie brand. The first was that you could get 20-25% higher light output from the projectors than their competitors, and that is because of their superior light path,” says Saarinen.

With the company moving more actively into 3D through an XpanD solution, high performance requirements have become paramount. "You really need a high level of brightness if you want to satisfy the 3D experience; no matter what 3D system you use, it's going to consume most of the light, so you need all the available light output. Finally, the CP2000-XB allows 3D content to be projected in full 2K resolution, which is something no one else on the market can do," says Saarinen.

The revolutionary technology that allows this to happen in Texas Instruments 1.2″ DMD chip digital cinema projectors is Christie Brilliant3D technology. In an industry first, this feature is enabled on all Christie 2K DLP Cinema projectors, including the Christie CP2000-XB.

Other factors that attracted Saarinen's team were the ease of use and quick installation, and the fact that Finnkino only needed to modify the windows in two projection rooms to accommodate the projector's compact, split-body design. This ensured that the system could be installed by Finnkino's own technical team in a short time.

Finnkino currently has a portfolio of 16 cinemas in Finland, including four in Helsinki. The flagship is the 14-screen, 3,000-seat multiplex at Tennispalatsi, developed in 1999 on a site that had initially been built for the 1940 Olympic Games that were ultimately cancelled. The theaters in this multiplex range in size from 92 to 703 seats, the largest of which has a screen measuring 184.8 m2, making it the largest screen in northern Europe (and now converted for 3D use). It was also the first multiplex in the world to adopt the THX and SDDS tri-amplified sound system in its 14 digital theaters.

Additionally, Finnkino is a major player in the Baltics as the owner of Forum Cinemas AS (Estonia), Forum Cinemas SIA (Latvia) and Forum Cinemas UAB (Lithuania). It intends to invest more than 30 million euros in the next two to three years to expand its chain of cinemas. With many screens already deployed throughout the Baltic countries, the company has recently expanded further into Lithuania with openings in Siauliai, Klaipeda, Kaunas and a new unit in Vilnius, as well as the Latvian capital of Riga. Ongoing expansion has met experimentation, and Finnkino is currently running a pilot project using digital projection for alternative content.