Samsung Electronics is introducing the world’s first Onyx multiplex theater at Shanghai ARCH Wanda Cinema, located in Shanghai, China. On September 7th the first theater of its kind officially opened, offering six Samsung Onyx screens in one location, and creating the ultimate entertainment venue. These state-of-the-art screens will astonish audiences with an impressive visual experience, with a more powerful, compelling and memorable movie experience.
“The entire Samsung team is thrilled to be part of history with the first ever Onyx multi-theater from Wanda Cinemas in Shanghai, China,” said Seog-gi Kim, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “Onyx technology was designed to bring the visual power of LED picture quality to the big screen and began the uprising of ultra-modern movie theaters for the future.”
Samsung’s new cinema led brand Onyx delivers the most brilliant and invigorating video and graphics with true black colors and vivid, dynamic images. With crisp LED picture quality, movie-goers will have a cinematic experience like nothing before.
Shanghai ARCH Wanda Cinema will feature six of Samsung’s Onyx Cinema LED screens, creating the most modern theater in existence. All of the 3D Cinema LED screens provide extreme reality features with high brightness and industry leading 3D dimensional depth. With the high dynamic range (HDR) picture refinement technology, the Onyx screens intensify content to the brightest levels with sharper and more detail-rich presentation.
To complete the audio and visual experience at the Shanghai ARCH Wanda Cinema, Harman’s JBL Sculpted Surround sound audio will complement any movie or show on the Onyx screens. Sounds will be harmonized with the content flawlessly with front to back speakers producing exceptional coverage throughout the theater.
Wanda Film Group is a Fortune 500 company and owns AMC, Odeon – UCI, Wanda and other cinema chains which total 1,551 cinemas globally and a total of 16,000 screens, accounting for 12 percent of the global box office earnings. Samsung and Wanda Cinemas worked together previously when Samsung installed its first Cinema LED screen in China at Wanda’s Wujiaochang Theater, located in Shanghai’s Yangpu District earlier this year.
For over 120 years, beginning with the earliest models invented in the late 19th century, the film projector has been the steadfast medium of cinema display. Last year marked a new chapter in cinema history, as Samsung’s world-first Cinema LED screen was unveiled, ushering in the next generation of movie theater technology. The sensation of watching a movie on the backlit Cinema LED screen – with its High Dynamic Range (HDR) picture quality and infinite contrast ratio – is unlike anything experienced before and the screen has been installed in different cinemas around the world.
Now, with increasing interest in the technology from movie experts and enthusiasts, Samsung has announced the launch of Samsung Onyx Cinema LED, a comprehensive cinema screen and sound solution for movie theaters.
Inspired by the gemstone of the same name, the Samsung Onyx brand is an allusion to the Cinema LED screen’s true black colors, offering the audience a detail-rich and vivid cinema experience. Samsung Onyx invites movie-goers to experience a next-level viewing environment with the comprehensive solutions, Onyx VIEW, Onyx 3D and Onyx SOUND. As Samsung Onyx is unaffected by ambient light, Onyx VIEW upholds consistent and distortion-free picture quality that keeps audiences engaged and furthers realism. Featuring high brightness and picture quality, Onyx 3D takes realism to the screen and offers an immersive 3D experience. With support from JBL by Harman Professional’s sculpted surround sound system, Onyx SOUND expands the audio sweet spot within a given theater. When combined with Samsung’s proprietary technology, the result is sound optimized and perfectly-tuned to fit LED screen.
Check out the infographic below for more details on the industry-first cinematic experience.
A 3D version of the Cinema LED Screen has been unveiled to the world. Samsung Electronics formally debuted its latest product at ISE (Integrated Systems Europe) 2018, the largest commercial display exhibition in Europe, which began on February 6 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This is the second time that Samsung showcased a ‘first of its kind’ screen after its first-ever Cinema LED that made its first appearance last March.
Samsung Cinema LED Screen has been acclaimed for overcoming the limitations of existing film projectors in theaters. Viewers have praised the screen for making them feel as if they are watching a 3D film, with its crystal-clear 4K (4,096 x 2,160) resolution picture quality, infinite ‘true black’ HDR, and non-distorted visual imagery.
In less than a year, Samsung turned the viewers’ ‘feeling’ of watching a 3D film into a reality. The true 3D technology was incorporated into the Cinema LED Screen, which gives the ultimate 3- dimensional experience by utilizing the brightness and quality of Cinema LED as it is. Samsung Newsroom met with Dongsoo Koo, from Samsung Visual Display Division’s Enterprise Product Planning Group, who participated in the whole process of bringing the 3D Cinema LED into the world.
Dongsoo Koo, from Samsung’s Enterprise Product Planning Group
Long History of 3D Films that Began from the ‘Binocular Disparity’
“It is the movie ‘Avatar,’ the box office hit of 2009, that usually comes into people’s minds when thinking of 3D movies. However, 3D technology already existed in the 1890s. In fact, it was in 1832 when the physicist Charles Wheatstone first discovered the principle of 3D, which makes it a more than 180-year-old technology. During the 1950s, about 40 3D films were produced in Hollywood.”
The principle of a 3D video is quite simple. There’s a gap between our two eyes, the 65mm disparity between the right and left eye. This ‘binocular disparity’ adds three-dimensional sense to the visual information that our eyes receive. The mechanism of a 3D video is essentially the same. 3D cameras are mounted with two different lenses. For the visual information taken with the two lenses of a 3D camera to be delivered to our two eyes, there should be two screens, too. But since only one screen can be installed, we need a technology to realize 3D video on that screen. Halving the scanline1 to deliver the video to our two eyes respectively can be one way or making the two videos intersect with each other at an extremely high speed can be another.
To get a three-dimensional sense, you need separate visuals for each of the left and right eyes and realize the two scenes on a single screen.
Catching Both Birds: Brightness and Resolution
Likewise, there are various ways of realizing 3D on a screen. However, the number one priority in 3D Cinema LED development was that no matter which method is adopted, the best level resolution of Cinema LED Screen should be maintained. This was what kept Samsung up at night.
“The existing 3D cinemas had to compromise between brightness and resolution. The screen is dark as if the viewers are wearing sunglasses in the theater. The brightness is already halved, and with the 3D glasses that audience must wear, it becomes a one-third level compared to other 2D films. The resolution is halved too. It is inevitable as the videos for the left and right eye are overlapped and reflected.”
The evident limitation for existing 3D theater clearly revealed the path for 3D Cinema LED. “The brighter the visual information is, the more our eyes receive the three-dimensional impression. Therefore, we had to develop a new product that delivers the same brightness of Cinema LED, even while wearing the 3D glasses. We also could not sacrifice the resolution. It’s clear that lower resolution equals a lower sense of reality.”
It was not an easy goal. But Samsung’s know-how on 3D TV and the knowledge of Cinema LED created the synergy for the company to overcome the limitation on brightness and resolution of the existing 3D movie theaters’. 3D Cinema LED’s full and precise color refuses comparison any premium movie theaters.
Less Dizziness in 3D Film Experience
3D technology makes movies to be more immersive, but it can also cause inconveniences such as dizziness and headaches. The 3D Cinema LED screen has significantly improved dizziness that specifically involves 3D.
There are two reasons for the dizziness. The dizziness from the content itself occurs due to the mismatch between the reality and what our brain recognizes. That is, our body is sitting still but our brain thinks the body is moving. In addition, when we stare at a certain screen for more than two hours in a dark room, it is natural to develop a headache.
However, Koo proudly told that 3D Cinema LED has no degrading of brightness and improves the display-related dizziness by eliminating many of the triggering factors except those coming from the content itself. Therefore, the viewers experience less dizziness. “The left video should be seen only by the left eye and the right video only by the right eye. But there are moments when our eyes receive overlapped imagery. This is called ‘crosstalk,’ and the repetition of crosswalk causes the dizziness and headache. Fortunately, our developers came up with an algorithm for 3D Cinema LED to completely get rid of any crosstalk from happening, therefore dealing with the dizziness and headache issues.”
Mr. Koo (right) from Enterprise Product Planning Group and Sandy Kim (left) of Enterprise Marketing Group are introducing the advantages of 3D Cinema LED, which can be enjoyed with the highest picture quality without dizziness.
Less Distortion, No Matter Where You Sit in the Theater
The 3D Cinema LED has the same viewing angle as the Cinema LED. The 3D Cinema LED provides the opportunity to enjoy the film with less distortion no matter where the viewer is seated, just like the Cinema LED did. “When watching in the conventional 3D theater, the image becomes darker or distorted as people go to the edge of the theater, but 3D Cinema LED has significantly improved the problem.”
For theaters to be a space that continuously delivers new experiences, the 3D Cinema LED is expected to play a bigger role. “People say ‘Seeing is Believing.’ One might not believe until seeing something, but once seeing it, there’s no denial. I think this applies to 3D Cinema LED, too. Before experiencing it, some might doubt whether there is an actual difference. But once they experience the new technology of ours, people will believe and understand that it is totally different. This year’s ISE will be the first moment of that unique experience,” said Koo, adding that soon people will be able to enjoy the ultimate 3-dimensional experience through 3D Cinema LED Screen.
While nothing can compare to actually being there, this video captured the 3D cinema LED screen over 3D glasses. The film is a trailer for “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”.
1 a line or a row of pixels from a television screen
Samsung Electronics is expanding its vision for the “Theater of the Future” by bringing its Cinema LED Screen to the Paragon Cineplex theater in Bangkok, Thailand. Samsung’s Cinema LED Screen, the world’s first DCI-compliant High Dynamic Range (HDR) LED theater display, is being introduced in Southeast Asia for the first time, following installations in Seoul and Busan, Korea, earlier this year.
On October 5 in Bangkok, Samsung Electronics held a signing ceremony for new partnership with Major Cineplex Group, the largest cinema company in Thailand with more than 110 theaters and 668 movie screens, to convert a 200-seat cinema at the Paragon Cineplex in Siam Paragon into its Cinema LED venue. Several additional premium theater renovations are also expected throughout the region during the coming year.
“The continued growth of the local entertainment industry and the openness to embracing new technologies made Thailand the perfect location for Southeast Asia’s first Cinema LED Screen,” said Yong Chul Jo, President of Samsung Electronics Thailand. “By delivering the most immersive theater environment possible, the Cinema LED Screen creates an unparalleled viewing experience guaranteed to make the Cinema LED theater a destination for movie enthusiasts.”
An upgrade on the screen-and-projector operation the industry has relied on for more than a century, the Samsung Cinema LED Screen reinvigorates cinema presentation through superior visual quality, technical performance and reliability. Although it extends nearly 10.3m (33.8ft) wide, the Cinema LED Screen is easy to install and configure within nearly any existing theater dimensions. The display also amplifies on-screen content through HDR picture quality, powered by ultra-sharp 4K resolution (4,096 x 2,160) and peak brightness levels (146fL/500nit) nearly 10 times greater than that offered by traditional projectors. As a result, movie-goers can enjoy content free of distortion and brought to life through lifelike colors, pristine whites and deep blacks.
Samsung Cinema LED Screen at Lotte Cinema in Busan, Korea
Beyond its visual enhancements, the Cinema LED Screen also offers theater managers the reliability of long-term performance. The display’s shelf life of more than 100,000 service hours far exceeds that of traditional projectors and minimizes the need for costly maintenance. Additionally, the Cinema LED Screen employs a strict anti-copy encryption protocol to prevent unlawful streaming or content redistribution.
As the demands for cinema space evolve, Samsung’s Cinema LED Screen will offer theater managers in Thailand and across the world added flexibility to expand service offerings and generate new revenue. The display maintains a consistent presentation across a range of dark and ambient lighting conditions regardless of the featured content. This versatility will empower cinemas to use theater spaces for concert and sports event viewing, gaming competitions, corporate events and other non-traditional content sources.
“We are excited to partner with Samsung to shift the paradigm of entertainment content screening, and we look forward to inviting our customers and partners into a cinema more capable of bringing stories to life,” said Vicha Poolvaraluck, Chairman of Major Cineplex Group Plc.
In May 2017, the Cinema LED Screen became the first product of its kind to achieve full compliance with the esteemed Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) theater technology standard. Based on next-generation picture quality to foster a more captivating and vibrant viewing arena, the Samsung Cinema LED Screen is expected to expand to movie theaters around the world including the USA and Europe in coming years.
