Nuremberg's cinecittà complex: the largest Christie Live Audio in the world installation

With a total of 64 speakers, the impressive installation lives audio of cinemagnum displays the entire range of christie la5 speakers for stage, surround and roof (La5, La5S, La5C), and the subwoofer s215 and S218 models.

The first of Star Wars: The Force Awakens It was the ideal occasion to release at Cinemagnum, the old Cinecittà IMAX cinema in Nuremberg (Germany), the Vive Audio System of Christie. The room today enjoys the largest installation of Vive Audio in the world.

Imposing in terms of its dimensions, Cinemagnum is located under the old Nuremberg historic center. It is the largest of the 22 cinemas that make up the Multicines Cinecittà complex. The Cinemagnum room measures 31 meters high, 25 wide and 35 in length, houses a 30-ton dome-dome and, to finish it, it has a screen that, with its 600 m², is the largest in Germany.

In December 2015, an update process was completed in the Dolby Atmos installation in combination with a wide range of Christie speakers and amplifiers lives audio. The planning, supplies and installation of the new audio system were the work of Christie Ecco Cine Supply and Services (ECCO), a company based in Hilden, Düsseldorf.

In front of the usual standard speakers until today in the movie theaters, those of the Vive Audio system use the Ribbon Driver (tape transducer) technology, which guarantees a homogeneous and harmonious audio coverage throughout the room. The system is designed to quadruple the optimal listening zone achieved by conventional audio systems based on compression drivers. Everything that is said or sounds on the screen (conversations, effects, music or alternative content) arrives at the viewer with greater naturalness and realism, thereby reinforcing its sound experience.

With a total of 64 speakers, the impressive installation lives audio of cinemagnum displays the entire range of christie la5 speakers for stage, surround and roof (La5, La5S, La5C), and the subwoofer s215 and S218 models.

Chris Connett, EMEA Market Development Director for Christie Live Audio, explains that "our 6" armchair better than another ”.

In addition to the 5 LA5 speakers, eleven amplifiers CDA5 were used, each of 5,000 watts, which, in the case of CDA7.5 amplifiers reach 7,500 watts. Wolfgang Burkhardt, ECCO project director and responsible for planning and installation, exclaims: "Adding the eleven amplifiers CDA5 and twenty -one CDA7.5 A total of 227,500 watts are reached!"

Specifying the design, a frontal system has been created composed of all the 5 subwoofers S215 speakers. The combination is repeated five times: in the channels of the left, central-left, center, center-right and right. To each Surround Speey the 5 suspended corresponds to a second Surround La5S speaker, also suspended. The Six Speakers 5C were installed to take the sound to the dome dome of the ceiling. The other the 5S speakers are the five that are used for surround on the left side, five other employees for surround on the right, and five others for surround in the rear. The remaining eight subwoofers S215 are used as a low management system in the back zone of the auditorium, which translates into four subzones, with two S215 subwoofers each. Finally, the 16 S218 series subwoofers serve the LFE channel.

Overcoming obstacles

“During the design process, the dimensions and volume of the auditorium forced us Cine, ”explains Connet.

For installation technicians who worked on the ground, the task was not easy either: the surround speakers had to be installed in the ceiling dome, which reaches, at its maximum point, 25 meters, something that, as Burkhardt argues, "it was only possible to resort to alpine climbing methods." The front speakers were mounted 15 meters high, and the sixteen S218 subwoofers had to be installed that would serve the LFE channel on a 5.20 meters high platform located behind the screen.

All these difficulties were aggravated by the need to dismantle the old sound system and mount the new on a built -in screen. "Given the gigantic size of the screen, with its 29 x 18 meters, the narrowest point behind the same era of only 1.20 meters," says Burkhardt.

Thomas Rüttgers, executive director of Ecco Cine Supply and Services, acknowledges that they are very satisfied with “participating in a reference project like this. The system lives Audio de Christie enhances the atmosphere of this unique film room and reinforces, again and again, the individual experience of each spectator”.

With the new team standing for the awakening of the force, Wolfram Weber, owner and director of Cinecittà, is excited: "Our goal is to offer the viewer always something special, and that implies showing first class content with the highest technological level."

The premiere of the audio installation, which coincided with Star Wars's blockbuster, was a total success, something confirmed by Benjamin Dauhrer, Chief of Cinecittà technician: "The renewal was a huge benefit to the cinemagnum, which was placed at the head of the screens that at that time project Star Wars. The tickets were exhausted even in the matiners."

Wolfram Weber concludes by stating that “the cinema has had to reinvent itself again and again to compete with the numerous entertainment alternatives existing today. With the combination of Vive Audio and Dolby Atmos and the novel luminosity of the Dual 3D projection, which will soon be updated to Quad projection, the public enjoys the film as they could never enjoy it in their homes, something that only the room is in their homes offer".

Other articles about Christie, Dolby