Top Soho post facility backs Christie e-cinema experience

When Carole Humphrey and Ivor Taylor expanded their Soho-based Grand Central Sound Studio operation, and committed £5m to converting the premises at 50-51 Great Marlborough Street to a luxury post facility, they took the opportunity to ‘upspec’ the screening facilities inline with the audio mixing capabilities.
This was designed to create a true end-to-end digital solution, while retaining compatibility with their other facility in Marshall Street.
Plans for high-grade DLP projectors for all the main studios — including a Dolby Premier Room — were already in place by the time the new studios opened nearly two years ago.
These have now been commissioned in the shape of a range of premium Christie e-cinema projectors — including two Roadster S6 three chip devices — supplied and installed by the company’s consultant, Clive Haydon at Altered Images.
Approved for Dolby Digital 5.1, EX for Cinema and Dolby Premier for Film, Grand Central are one of the few post-production houses in Soho offering end-to-end digital audio, with email website delivery and real-time audio streaming.
With Grand Central’s client base comprising largely of top-end advertising agencies, the correct choice of projector was critical to their operation.
Having favoured the DLP light engine from Texas Instruments they opted for Christie’s e-cinema (6000 ANSI) Roadster after carrying out market evaluations.
“We liked the film-like image and high intensity produced by the S6 as well as the compactness and configurability,” explained Taylor. “Our clients favour a high ambient light working environment. This factor, coupled with the large room sizes, meant we needed a projector that could run constantly at a high light output.
“We looked at the competitors but Christie offered the best featureset — and of course there is the strength of the Christie name behind it. Full motorisation of all of the optical features of the projector — lens position, horizontal, vertical, zoom and focus — gives us great flexibility to accommodate multiple varying picture formats that can make daily work so much fun!”
The 8 x 3.5m projection surface is an optically- and acoustically-optimised special open-weave fibre cloth screen, supplied by acoustic specialists David Bell’s White Mark Ltd, The S6 is fed with a multi-picture and data image.
The sourcing of this image is provided by a Miranda Kaleido image processor, which functions both as a scaler and multi image compositor. “The total result,” said Taylor, “is a very hi-tech projected monitor picturewall. The power and flexibility of the Christie DLP allowing us to deliver a new visual experience for our clientele — a highly-flexible environment with the screen as the focal point of the operation of the studio.”
The second S6 is located in Grand Central’s Studio 5 — but it will relocate to another newly completing studio — Studio 9.
The Dolby Premier Studio (Studio 5) will then undergo a projector upgrade to a full D-Cinema environment.
Elsewhere in the new facility Altered Images recommended the Christie single chip DS30 DLP projector in Studios 6 and 7, fitted with wide angle short-throw lens.
(GB)