Samsung: the LED screen could replace the screen in the cinema – Digital

Cinema is a movie on the big screen – and has been for generations. A better image is to convince visitors of the break with tradition.

It would be a goodbye to the heart of cinema – and at the same time it should be its future. Cinema without screens and projectors could give operators new ways to use their rooms. At least when it comes to the manufacturer Samsung, who has developed the technology and has now introduced for the first time in Germany. In the "Dream Palace" in Esslingen near Stuttgart, the films will no longer be projected on a white background, but at least in one of the rooms on a self-luminous LED screen of 56 sqm. The manufacturer calls the wall of 26 million electroluminescent diodes very imprudently the "cinema of the future".

Operators of "Traumpalast" Heinz Lochmann and his son Marius have invested "a lot more than a million euros" in redesigning their cinema. About three weeks ago Entkenung and the complete reconstruction lasted, the planning and installation of the LED wall were also involved, according to the company and the engineers of the Samsung home in South Korea. Until now, there are only one in Germany and some in Asia, the United States and Switzerland. But others are going on, says Martin Gross, director of Samsung.

As expected, the technology group publishes a much better picture than current projection technology. The movie operator wants to win Samsung but especially with economic aspects for themselves. "Because that's what matters to cinema operators," says Groß. No projector means: no projection room – and therefore more space for more cinema seats, more freedom in the room design and no tracking costs, for example, for spare parts for the projector.

What costs such a wall LED, Samsung does not reveal. It depends heavily on the individual case, they say. But whoever has had it once, can theoretically handle it day and night for eleven years – at no extra cost, out of power, of course.

Movie theaters are looking for new sources of revenue

Nobody is likely to aim for operations 24 hours a day. Basically, Groß already badumes that an LED wall can work more often and thus help better use a movie theater than before – with corporate events, presentations, lectures, but also computer game competitions with professional players and the public. Noisy things, where a big screen is needed, but where the light also burns on the side and people stand in front of the picture or walk around the lobby. It is at least difficult if, as before, everything must be dark and the light beam of the projector must be free.

The fact that the alternative use for many operators is a pretty subject, but by far not a serious revenue generator, the leading German theater theater badociation had already stated in his "film study" 2015 After all, every second interviewed operator said at the time that he wanted to expand the offer to open up additional revenue sources.

At least some of the investment should also bring normal visitors back into the "dream party". Two more euros cost the ticket for all the films that turn in the LED room. "I think it's justified and fair," says Lochmann.

Jan Fröhlich is convinced that sooner or later LED technology will even change the film industry as a whole. The much stronger contrast, for example, allows recording techniques that would not be used today, because you could not play them in the cinema, says the expert of the film camera supplier. Arri from Munich. The result: Up to now, LED technology could not fully exploit their benefits. "There is not a single film made for this," explains Fröhlich.

Seriously at risk, dream boss Lochmann does not see the future of cinema as a whole – as long as operators stay on the ball and over time: "If you do that well, then you have a luck."

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