What is IMAX?

Yesterday I had the honor of touring Premiere Cinemas new 16 Screen Multiplex currently in construction at South Plains Mall in Lubbock. It’s an amazing place with some astounding features. The nice people at IMAX also invited me to come to Toronto and tour their facilities and really take a hard look at what makes IMAX so special. Premiere Cinemas will have 1 IMAX screen and it’s going to be incredible. The nice people of IMAX also sent along this cool break down how and why IMAX is unique to the film going experience. Enjoy!

As of September 30, 2011, there were 583 IMAX theatres (441 commercial multiplex, 23 commercial destination and 119 institutional) in 48 countries.

IMAX’s digital projection technology:  What Makes it IMAX?

 An IMAX theatre equipped with IMAX’s digital projection system delivers the key elements that make up The IMAX Experience^®.

These elements include:

• IMAX’s revolutionary projection technology, which delivers crystal-clear images
• IMAX’s powerful audio system, which delivers laser-aligned digital sound
• IMAX’s customized theatre geometry, which maximizes your field of view

The IMAX Experience is created through a comprehensive suite of intellectual property and technology, and it is the unique combination of these features that impacts what moviegoers see, hear and feel at the movies.

Virtually everything is customized for the IMAX theatre to maximize the experience for each guest – regardless of where they are sitting.

 How it works

IMAX’s digital theatre system uses a comprehensive suite of proprietary IMAX technologies, that, when integrated together, creates an experience that consistently puts the audience IN the movie.

These technologies include:

IMAX Image Enhancer

• IMAX’s proprietary image enhancer brightens the on-screen image, and, through the use of a camera that provides real-time, on-screen feedback, it makes automated adjustments to ensure maximum image fidelity is maintained 100% of the time.

Customized Theatre Geometry

• IMAX’s customized theatre geometry maximizes your field of view, putting you IN the movie – and is a key reason why IMAX^® 3D is the most immersive cinematic 3D ever created.

IMAX Audio System

• IMAX’s powerful audio system delivers laser-aligned digital sound.
• IMAX’s Proportional Point Source loudspeaker technology enables listeners to pinpoint the specific location of a sound – with five discrete audio channels (conventional 5.1 disperses sound through many speakers making it nearly impossible to locate the origin of the sound).
• Each IMAX theatre is acoustically treated to present accurate and realistic sound images with the largest dynamic range. This enables the sound to be crisp enough to hear a pin drop and precise enough to know exactly where it dropped.
• Each film’s soundtrack is specially mastered for IMAX’s unique sound system.

IMAX Screen

• IMAX’s proprietary high-gain screen results in exceptionally bright images and unparalleled 3D
• The IMAX screen is slightly curved and sits closer to the audience.

Dual Digital Projectors

• IMAX’s revolutionary digital projection technology is “projector agnostic,” meaning that it can utilize commercially available digital technology that best meets IMAX requirements – the projectors are merely a vehicle for IMAX’s proprietary image enhancer, which turbo charges the basic functionality of the light engine.
• One of the key benefits of being projector agnostic is that IMAX can adapt and even improve as suppliers develop new technologies.
• The current system uses two 2k projectors and has a 1.9:1 aspect ratio – in keeping with the best-tested chip sets –  and we continue to work with dual 4k projectors.

IMAX DMR^®

• All film content that is played through IMAX’s digital projection system is digitally re-mastered with IMAX DMR technology.
• IMAX DMR employs a suite of proprietary image enhancement tools that optimize each image for IMAX presentation. Some of the techniques used to enhance the digital image include sharpening, color correction, contrast and digital artifact removal.

We manipulate the theatre geometry and the source material (the images and sound of the movie), enhance the server, use multiple projectors and incorporate automated diagnostic tools that tweak sound and picture to maintain consistency of presentation. We have customized lens suites to maximize image fidelity in our theatre geometry, and the IMAX image enhancer precisely layers image on image with sub- pixel accuracy. 

We believe that IMAX Digital is the world’s most advanced digital theatre system and is superior to all conventional digital systems, just as IMAX’s film-based system is superior to conventional film-based systems. 

• Digital IMAX 3D is brighter than conventional single projection digital 3D
• Twice as many addressable pixels (compared to other DLP Cinema-based systems), which dramatically sharpens images.

• IMAX’s proprietary image enhancer increases brightness, contrast and image fidelity. As the images originate in the form of data, it is essential that they are re-produced into vivid on-screen images that meet IMAX’s high standards.
  • More than double the amount of light for 3D when compared to other 3D systems
  • Up to double the amount of light for 2D presentations when compared to other systems
  • IMAX maintains constant brightness through the entire life of the lamp
• The image enhancer uses more than 1 teraflop of graphics processing power, equivalent to more than 100 desktop computers. No other digital projection system in the world employs this much processing power.
• IMAX’s image enhancer is designed to be upgraded as new technologies evolve.
• The proprietary dual projection system projects left- and right-eye images simultaneously – conventional single projector systems alternate between eyes, causing depth distortion during fast-moving scenes.
• We extend the bandwidth (data flow) up to 60% to further reduce compression-related visual flaws.
• IMAX’s powerful audio system delivers laser-aligned digital sound – conventional theatres use standard non-discrete 5.1 surround. IMAX’s system features five “discrete” channels and sub loudspeaker technology. Discrete sound technology enables sounds to be accurately placed in specific areas of the theatre to create a more realistic and immersive environment.
• IMAX’s DSP-based audio enhancer will perform customized calibrations for every show starting next year.
• IMAX’s customized theatre geometry maximizes your field of view