The 11 weeks figure cited is presumably for fit-out only; it seems like a pretty straightforward job, with ample internal space, excellent access, and away from neighbouring properties.
(By “straightforward,” of course, I mean relatively speaking! As I mentioned on its CT page, according to an article in Cinema Technology Magazine, as many 80 workers were on site in a single day for the Vue West End refurbishment.)
Thinking about it, having pleated fabric to floor level makes no sense, being too exposed to potential wear or outright damage. I expect it will be an acoustic wood product.
LARGE_screen_format: The early figures given for the projected cost were ~£10-15m, the actual cost of works has not been disclosed AFAIK. However, without knocking the building down and starting again, there are physical constraints.
As mentioned, the screen is marked as the same size as previous on the submitted licensing application plans, with horizontal viewing angles marked also. Revisiting the plans, given the positioning of the stalls' front row, I can’t see how a new screen could be placed ahead of the proscenium.
The screen is shown, however, as being moved to the front of the stage house compared to the existing. (c.f. 2015 licensing plans.)
The emphasis of these works, besides presumably essential to work to keep the OLS intact for the forseeable future, seems to me to be the creation of a luxury facility, including a “Royal Box” and other features (VIP rooms, keeping the stage, etc.) to cater to special events and premieres?
Perhaps you could think of it as being a “preview” of Dolby Cinema pending installation in a site that more readily allows for a larger screen and better optimised auditorium geometry, whilst keeping those who would like to hear the old “Dutchess” Compton organ happy? :–)
The Cineworld (Empire) Leicester Square IMAX is, as previously discussed, as near a “no compromise” PLF giant screen as it could be, both in size and auditorium geometry—(strikingly so) given the building’s history and physical constraints. I imagine it, and the Superscreen, will remain the only auditoria equipped with giant screens* in the heart of London’s West End—and equally, no cinema will be able to compete with the OLS as a premiere location?
(* Per the Giant Screen Cinema Association’s giant screen specifications. Whilst the IMAX of course exceeds requirements, strictly, the Superscreen actually misses out width-wise by ~1m, not being quite 70ft. wide—however, the auditorium’s geometry does place all seating under one screen width away from the screen, and otherwise the auditorium’s geometry, projection and sound should all fall within specifications.)
moviebuff82: The Odeon Leicester Square is always worth visiting but purely technically it might not be better than your local, in terms of acoustics, seat positioning relative to the screen, and screen size, which might well remain ~48ft. wide.
Good to finally get some idea of what the auditorium will look like, and interesting that it will branded as “LUXE.”
From a “heritage” standpoint, with so much missing—ceiling, and the splay walls/proscenium—indeed, all of the stage end—of the auditorium missing it’s really difficult to see what’s been (or being) restored?
It looks like the ribbed plasterwork on the circle sidewalls is being kept, presumably extending across the ceiling. I’m assuming that stretched fabric over acoustic absorption is used from there to the screen.
What looks like wooden panelling from stalls level up towards circle level is shown—possibly pleated fabric as certainly the cavity under the balcony should be heavily acoustically treated. For those who wish to see the flying ladies back, I’m thinking this could curve upwards as before to form that feature.
Not sure what to think! I suspect that, what appears to be a new darker colour scheme, will go down like a lead weight here… but renderings can be misleading!
On the bright side, the “glass box” feature on the LSQ facade looks like a fantastic addition and place to dwell before a movie.
Addendum: The Walnuts Shopping Centre multi-storey car park ticket can be validated at the cinema; however, this only covers 3 hours, which for longer features particularly seems insufficient given possibly eating in the foyer and getting to the auditorium before the programme starts.
However, an additional hour is currently £1, so it isn’t too bad.
(N.B. Sunday all-day parking is currently £1.)
The NEC 4K Xenon-lamp projection in the ISENSE auditorium was not far off that achieved by IMAX’s proprietary dual-projection systems (which actually work differently for their 4K laser projection system, with one projector being fed a more detailed image than the other, due to the impossibility of stable sub-pixel alignment at 4K) in terms of being a detailed yet smooth image—but still, the IMAX systems appear to be superior.
The NEC NC3240S is the only Xenon-lamp 4K DCI-compliant projector currently shown on NEC Display Solutions' site—presumably this is the model installed for the ISENSE auditorium.
On sections of fast motion, sometimes odd artifacts could be seen, somewhat reminescent of the early single-chip single-speed “colour wheel” (consumer-grade?) DLP projectors.
Whilst the programming of content and lighting was very good through trailers/adverts onto the main feature, after the feature ended, it took, IIRC, maybe 30 seconds or more for non-sync music playback to abruptly start, and the house lights to be raised.
Visited Odeon Orpington today to see “First Man” in the iSense (Screen 4) auditorium. The movie was disappointing, but intelligible and watchable.
This cinema was built as part of an extension to “The Walnuts Shopping Centre,” which, put politely, is a secondary location. The centre is partially covered; access to the cinema is outdoors, and opposite is a branch of “Poundland”! Value retailers can be places to find products at competitive prices, of course—but it is not a glamorous setting for a cinema.
However, all is forgotten on entering the cinema, via a small lobby onto escalators to the first floor main foyer. The foyer and lobby areas look better “in person” than in photos I’ve seen to date—they are bright and clean, but the added touches—such as the blue concealed LED lighting—add the necessary sparkle. All of the blue LED strips seem to have been placed in extrusions, the result being very even light output, competitive with cold cathode strips, rather than the patchy effect sometimes seen.
Due to tiredness, I found myself buying a large Coke Zero, for which I was charged, IIRC, £4.30(!)
All staff were friendly and efficient.
As mentioned in a previous post, the cinema was the subject of a Cinema Technology Magazine (as it was then known) article, September 2016 issue; the previous link no longer works—however, this issue has been reposted.
A minor quibble: when trying to book tickets, on proceeding to card payment, the website returned. Unfortunately, on reattempting the booking, the seats that I had selected were still shown as unavailable; therefore, as I preferred centre-row seats, I had to select seats in the next row (i.e. closer to the screen,) and as this happened several times, the final seats booked were closer to the screen than the original selection.
Fortunately, these seats turned out to be, if on the low side, a suitable distance from the screen—however, I had hoped to sit further back, in order to be in or near the “sweet spot” for the Dolby Atmos sound system.
Entering the iSense auditorium and being seated, the impression was that, although decoratively a “black box” auditorium, I had entered a “real” cinema—one that had been thoughtfully designed. Whilst the screen (nor auditorium width) was not on quite the same scale, it almost felt like I had entered a modern version of the Odeon Marble Arch! (N.B. The screen is ~49ft. wide, and was sufficiently large, but not in the “giant” category as found in the BFI IMAX or Cineworld (Empire) Leicester Square IMAX.)
The row spacing provided fairly generous legroom, and the black “leather” seating was clearly of a very high quality; however the lack of “rocker” capability, I thought, made them slightly uncomfortable, and the seating is not as wide as I would have liked.
The ceiling lights use a “honeycomb” design and are not too bright or distracting when lowered for the main feature, and they were gradually dimmed, IIRC, through the adverts and trailers.
Where adverts and trailers were in scope format, these suffered from being “letterboxed;” however, if I’m not mistaken, moveable masking is installed, and the screen definitely opened up for the main feature to full width, making full use of its height.
A Dolby Atmos trailer was played before the main feature.
Picture quality was very good; the screen is slightly curved, and tilted upwards, and as far as I could tell did not have the curved “chamfered” corners that many “floating” screens suffer from. Brightness was sufficient, and the calibration/alignment seemed excellent, with accurate colours and almost perfect geometry with no, or virtually no, “smiley face” barrel distortion towards the bottom of the screen.
However, the black level was not comparable to laser light source projection (nor high-end OLED TVs), and there was a fair degree of clipping of low level detail. Further, the expanded gamut potential of such systems was, of course, not on display here, either—a shame that the cinema was built on the cusp of the wider rollout of laser light source projection.
The Clarus XC screen installed is suitable for polarised 3D, as well as 2D, and this was a 2D presentation. Uniformity seemed pretty good; but the end credits revealed that, for my seating position, the centre to bottom edge of the screen was brighter than the rest.
The sound system (specifications in previous post) was excellent, with good timbre matching between the fronts, rears, sides and overheads. It was clean and bright sounding, with plenty of headroom, reaching high sound pressure levels without strain, including right down to the bottom octaves. However, it did seem to be playing at slightly less than reference level.
Acoustics were also very good, affording excellent dialogue intelligibility and imaging; poking the sidewall stretched fabric on entry suggested generous acoustic absorption had been fitted underneath, and certainly sidewall reflections appeared to be highly controlled.
A couple of minor quibbles; the fronts did seem to be slightly peaky in the mid-high range, and the noise floor was on the high side, and could clearly be heard in quiet moments—in fact, it was louder than the inaudible HVAC system! Absolutely no leakage could be heard from the other auditoria.
Kudos to whoever calibrated the system; they have done a first class job!
The auditorium’s temperature was fairly consistent throughout, although I didn’t quite feel that the fresh air intake rate was as high as I would have liked.
Toilets were clean with some veneered finishes, and down-firing Dyson hand dryers are fitted.
A massive thumbs-up for this premium cinema no doubt aimed at the leafy suburbs nearby.
A planning application for the development is available on the website of the London Borough of Bromley — the relevant documents are “PROPOSED FIRST FLOOR PLAN,” “PROPOSED SECOND FLOOR PLAN-PROJECTOR LEVEL,” and “PROPOSED SECTIONS AA AND BB RETAIL AND CINEMA OPTION.”
The iSense auditorium (Screen 4) is marked “Screen 1” on these plans.
Dimensions as estimated off drawings (scales are conveniently included):
iSense Auditorium: ~16.2m (width) x ~22.5m (depth) x ~8.5m (floor to false ceiling height.) (≈53ft. x74ft. x 28ft.)
iSense screen width (as drawn): ~15m (≈49ft.)
Main foyer/concessions: ~17m x ~23.5m. (≈59ft. x 77ft.)
PhilipWW: The cinema was totally refurbished by Empire Cinemas, and 4 of the 6 original auditoria were subdivided. The 2 auditoria that were not are now the two IMPACT screens.
The “Existing Upper Level Floor Plan” which is available among the documents the above-mentioned planning application, and it shows the “Downtakings,” with the screens being marked for removal.
Additionally, to summarise notes on that drawing: all raised floors, blockwork as marked (subject to confirmation by structural engineer), ceilings inc. grid/tiles/lights, and all services inc. duct, pipework, etc. were to be removed.
I suspect ~1.9:1 screens are used to make auditoria look like a Digital IMAX?
CF100
commented about
Vue Buryon
Oct 12, 2018 at 6:11 pm
LARGE_screen_format: Low-rise developments with flat parking are so much more flexible than high density multi-level developments, and also typically offer ample free parking.
With parts of the UK overscreened there are now many secondary multiplexes that require considerable investment to bring them up to expectations.
It is odd to see multiplexes turning into “flea pits” and also “partial” refurbishments where not all finishes or fittings are replaced. Whatever their merits, and certainly presentation standards and auditoria haven’t always been adequate, and some might describe them bland, one might think of multiplexes as, above all else, mostly clean, shiny and new. Not anymore!
Still, not too much reason for nostaglia with the increasing number of “next generation” multiplexes, whether refurbishments/alterations/extensions of existing or entirely new build, with fancy foyers, PLF auditoria and luxury seating.
Sidewall, rear LFE speakers, and overhead speakers can clearly be seen.
The fit-out has achieved an exceptional quality of finish—I’m hard pressed to find any glaring flaws—everything looks straight and fabricated or fitted to tight tolerances. If I’m not mistaken, wall carpet has been applied to the walls of the corridor to the auditoria.
The entrance to the IMPACT LUXE auditorium features a small seating area in a corridor under the stadia and/or booth, which leads to the vomitory access.
Difficult to tell the exact model (possibly JBL 8330 or 8340) but the side speakers certainly do not appear to have been upgraded to the more recent superior models intended for “premium large format”/Atmos installations.
Being in Leicester Square today, on this occasion the sheeting had been removed. Work continued past sunset, and thus afforded a good look into the foyer from LSQ; a photo has been uploaded.
Would seem to be a some prospect of it reopening this year, if not early next year.
Thinking further, considering that lift and escalator installation may not yet have been initiated and the extent of work required to create the “glass box” feature is also unknown, perhaps early next year is more likely.
Addendum: The Section 106 agreement available in 15/10072/FULL (Description field: “WHITELEYS+CENTRE+S106+AGREEMENT”) includes a clause stating that the cinema must be ready for occupation prior to the occupation of the retail units.
Further, in the previously linked variation application (16/12203/FULL,)the “Decision Notice” document in which permission is granted includes a condition stating that the cinema demise is restricted to such use only, with one reason given being “to safeguard the amenities of adjoining residents and future residents of the development.”
CF100
commented about
Vue Buryon
Oct 11, 2018 at 4:18 am
“UrbEx” photos are available over at 28DaysLater, including for one visit dated January 2015. Throughly “smashed up!”
A “ghost” view of the demolished cinema can be seen in satellite images on the desktop version of Google Earth. (For some reason, presently Google Maps is still showing an older image in which the cinema building is still intact.)
Per Google’s Usage Guidelines, which allow for limited reposting, I have uploaded the exported satellite image to the Photos section for this cinema.
The essential layout of the cinema is visible, including foyer, partitions between auditoria, and the curve on which the seating was fitted therein.
Whitleys Redevelopment — 15/10072/FULL is the main planning application; however, as changes were made to basement levels, the more obvious one to reference is a later variation application.
To quote from the summary: (My emphasis.)
“Demolition of and redevelopment of building behind retained and refurbished facades to Queensway and Porchester Gardens facades to provide a mixed use development comprising three basement levels, ground floor and up to 10 upper floor levels, containing up to 103 residential units (Class C3), retail floorspace (Class A1 and A3) facing Queensway and arranged around a new retail arcade below re-provided central atrium and central retail courtyard, public car park, hotel (Class C1), cinema (Class D2), gym (Class D2), crèche (Class D1)…”
263 documents (yes, REALLY!) are associated with this application.
The proposed cinema is accessed from Ground Floor Level, with three lifts down to Basement Level 3, with the cinema’s demise shown on the documents titled “GROUND FLOOR PLAN” and “BASEMENT 03” in the above-linked planning application.
The cinema is briefly covered in the Design and Access Statement, specifically p3 (PDF page number) of the document titled “DAS PART 2” in the above-linked planning application.
It says that the proposed cinema was moved to level B3 to allow for an increased “clear height of 6.5m… to meet the spatial requirements of contemporary cinemas” and “minimise the potential impact to its immediate adjacenies.”
The page mentions “potential operators” and states that “it is assumed that the unit will be developed to shell and core only… the final demise configuration will be further developed…”
Hence, the cinema layout shown in the plans appears to be indicative only of a possible arrangement.
Nevertheless, here are the details:
On level B3 three auditoria are shown, each identical in size, with near wall-to-wall screens of ~15.5m (~50ft. width), in auditoria measuring ~18m (~60ft.) wide by ~19m wide (~62ft.) internally, or ~3700sq.ft. in area.
Each is shown having 5 rows of recliner seats in straight lines, except for 2-3 seats on each sides which are “toed in,” and the last row has 6 accessible spaces. Total seats per auditorium – 62 + 6 accessible.
A foyer area is also shown in the B3 plans, and the cinema’s entrance is shown on the Ground Floor Plan, with another lobby area, including seating (?).
Noting that the Design and Access Statement states a “clear height of 6.5m (~21ft.), it is clear that a 50ft. wide "scope” screen would, vertically, at best be a tight fit indeed, or impossible, suggesting that these “indicative” layouts are illustrative only.
Having a quick look at the first “Basement Impact Assessment” document, it provides an overview of the history of the site, alterations made to the Whitleys Department Store, and other historical material including “lost” rivers, should anyone reading this be interested in such.
N.B. For clarity, previous two posts removed; contents of which were amalgamated and revised for this post.
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Looking at Cineworld’s booking pages, it seems that “First Man” isn’t programmed for the IMAX auditorium, only 4DX and Superscreen. In fact, nothing is presently scheduled for the IMAX according to Cineworld’s site; the IMAX is being used for the BFI Film Festival, though hardly continuously, unless there are private screenings also held there?
With 15/70 prints not being made, the only option in London for “full scale” IMAX will be Xenon-lamp projection at the BFI, and no option at all to see it “full height” 1.4:1.
As of last weekend, the opening into the OLS circle foyer had been largely obscured by flame retardant sheeting. Looks like Zappomatic took a photo at an opportune time!
Addendum: The “new” block is the “Glow” exhibition centre repurposed, with alterations shown in the above-linked plans.
To be clear, the old KCS sidewall speakers have not been removed, but are disused, with two IMAX rear speakers, standard for multiplex-type IMAX installations, replacing them; IMAX do not use rear arrays but “discrete” rears only.
Having covered the IMAX auditorium, I shall now proceed with the additional 4 auditoria.
To the left (or more accurately, East—but as experienced when entering the cinema via the main foyer from the mall) of the existing cinema, an “exhibition” space, “Glow,” had been built. This was, reportedly, not a success, and a planning application is available for its redevelopment, the summary description of which is:
“Change of use from an Events and Exhibition Venue (Use Class D1) to a cinema and other family orientated leisure uses (Use Class D2), restaurant facilities (Use Class A3) together with internal and external reconfiguration and associated works incorporating demolition of some existing floor space end construction of new floor space.”
Essentially, there is now a block adjacent to the existing cinema, which includes restaurants, a “Gravity” Trampoline Park, and the four new auditoria. The plans for these can be seen in the document titled “PROPOSED FIRST FLOOR LEVEL”*; they are connected from the far end of the main foyer of the existing cinema via a link bridge—not that the non-curious patron would realise that they were walking over to another building!
(*Plans for the existing cinema can also be seen here, albeit only partial as cropped.)
A fairly generously sized foyer/lobby area is included for these four auditoria, including seating areas, at the other end of which is a corridor leading to the four new auditoria entrances.
The foyer/lobby area does not include a suspended ceiling, and so services above are visible; they are generally black in colour, but a mess of suspension wires and threaded rods can be seen. There are several trays containing very large bundles of cables.
“Honeycomb” features are also suspended down to ceiling height, and oddly domestic-looking wall curtains (?!) and stand-alone lamps are featured, the latter being incongruently connected to white coloured wall sockets.
Several impressive “XPlus Laser” wall signs are featured, faced with (presumably CNC-cut) metal, surrounded by concealed blue LED lighting.
One of these is positioned adjacent to the “link bridge” entrance, along with a wall continuing the “honeycomb” motif, with the hexagons painted in various shades of e.g. blue and yellow. Combined with the rectangular section of white faceted squares behind the XPlus Laser sign, it all looks somewhat 1960s-inspired—in a positive way!
All four new auditoria feature laser projection, Dolby Atmos sound, and reclining seating.
I briefly had a look into the XPlus Laser auditorium (Screen 15), and the scope screen appeared to be very large indeed, with clearly excellent colour rendering, and the sidewall speakers were JBLs.
A unfortunate qubble: These new lobby areas appeared to be unstaffed on this occasion, and popcorn had been strewn on the carpet outside the XPlus Laser entrance.
The 4 new auditoria and associated lobby areas appear to be a fantastic addition, and I will be returning to the XPlus Laser auditorium at the earliest opportunity.
Dimensions as drawn on planning application:
-Main foyer: ~43m long by ~13m wide (entrance)/~29.5 wide (“ticket tear” end) (~140ft.x42ft./97ft.)
-Extension main foyer area – ~18x10m (~60x33ft.)
-XPlus Laser auditorium – ~24m long by ~20.5m wide (~80x67ft.)
Visited the Showcase Cinema de Lux Bluewater last Sunday as LARGE_screen_format informed me that the MCU movies were being shown in the IMAX auditorium at £2.50 per screening for “INSIDER” members (sign-up to which is free), plus booking fee, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit this cinema, having not been here since the early 2000s.
With the relatively recent addition of four new auditoria, housed in a new block just to the left of the existing cinema, and linked to via a bridge at the end of the existing foyer, this is virtually “two cinemas in one.”
Therefore, I shall divide my comments into several posts, first covering the IMAX auditorium.
IIRC, this multiplex opened with two THX-certified auditoria, in which I attended several screenings. These were fitted with KCS rear array speakers, and at that time I did not consider the presentation to be of an exceptional standard.
Looking at satellite aerial photos, the IMAX auditorium (Screen 4) is one of the two largest (identical?) in the original multiplex, being situated in the South West corner. Thus, it is presumably a conversion of one of the two originally THX-certified auditoria.
The sidewall rear array speakers are retained, and the stretched fabric covering on these walls may well be original—or certainly pre-dates the IMAX conversion? It is not black, but more of a “muted” colour that appears dark grey during the feature; the stretched fabric wall areas are “staggered” in sections, forming “coves,” which are lit with downfiring spotlights, two per cove for the first 3 coves from the front, and one for the rear cove. Below these stretched fabric sections, the sidewalls are flat and covered with wall carpet.
House lights are at the edges of the ceiling only, dimmed for the feature, and only after the end credits were finished were they fully raised, with “cove” spotlights also raised.
The aisle steps are fitted with LED nosing profiles, and illuminated throughout the feature, which may well be distracting for those seated near an aisle. Otherwise, the auditorium was very dark indeed during the main feature.
As far as I could tell, most or all of the ceiling appeared to be smooth, and so I assume that ceiling tiles have not been used, rather stretched fabric, the colour of which also appeared to be dark grey during the feature. Possibly, the ceiling was fabricated in the way that theatre_of_varieties described for the LSQ IMAX—namely, to keep HF reflections from the ceiling at bay, insulation slabs are fitted, and the stretched fabric simply covers over them, rather than having a plasterboard layer behind the insulation also. The ceiling slopes up towards the screen, presumably an alteration made in the IMAX conversion.
The right sidewall features a backlit blue IMAX logo with a horizontal line above.
As the area surrounding the screen is dark black, the perception is created that the ceiling is sloped up to a level that’s higher than the screen—which doesn’t appear to be quite wall-to-wall and, overall, forming a proscenium “frame” around the screen. Combined with the “staggered” sidewall features, this—perhaps unintentionally!—creates a more “designed” feel than the typical black-box rectangular auditorium.
It is not difficult to see how more creative use of lighting and some additional features could turn this into a very attractive auditorium.
Presentation otherwise was fine, excepting the lack of moveable masking, with non-sync music played. However, the feature ended with a green “flash” on the screen.
The vomitory into the auditorium emerges behind the 5th row, with, IIRC, the front few rows on a slightly less steep rake than the rear seats.
I booked a seat in the centre of row “G” on the basis that this would be a satisfactory distance away from the screen; however, it turns out that the first row is in fact “D”—presumably the first few rows were eliminated in the IMAX conversion, with no changes to row lettering Nonetheless, it turned out to be about the right distance from the screen, albeit too low.
The screen was certainly on the small side for an IMAX, although from my seating position I considered it to be adequately sized. Certainly, being familiar with the near-90ft. wide screens at the BFI and LSQ IMAXs, I would have been unhappy had I paid full price for the tickets, which are currently £16.60 for the IMAX auditorium.
The IMAX projection system achieved very good results, with perfect geometry and alignment as expected, and a super-smooth yet detailed image. Centre-to-edge brightness consistency was good, slightly noticeable brightness fall off perhaps on the end credits. However, the black level was higher than I’d have expected, with clipping of low-level detail, and with the 3D glasses on, the brightness level seemed insufficient.
As the screen was presumably 1.9:1 ratio; these scope movies were presented in “letterboxed” form; with 3D glasses on, the black screen areas above and below the picture, though higher in level than would be preferred, were not overly problematic. However, as with my experience of “Avengers: Infinity War” at the LSQ 4DX, the picture width varied slightly from shot to shot, which I found distracting.
Possibly partially due to its lineage as a purpose-built THX-certified auditorium, the acoustics were outstanding. The HVAC system was inaudible, with excellent isolation. Only a distant rumble could very occasionally be distantly heard from an adjacent auditorium during the quiet moments.
In my view, it actually demonstrated that the rationale behind this, to ensure audibility of low level sounds in quiet scenes, is all very well at the mixing stage, but does not work in a theatrical environment open to the public with 10s or 100s of seats, simply because what one hears in quiet scenes is not low level audio detail so much as every last sound made by other patrons—even if they are not being noisy munching away at popcorn, the slightest rustle becomes distracting. I would actually prefer a slightly audible background hiss/rumble from the HVAC system—which certainly was the case in the corridor leading to the auditorium.
To meet THX specifications, the auditorium must have had a well controlled reverberation time, and combined with what I imagine to be the stretched fabric ceiling added in the IMAX conversion, an exceptionally low reverberation time is achieved, with excellent stereo imaging, including for sounds panned to the rears.
The sound quality was otherwise very good, with clean mids/high frequencies, and very good bass extension. Dialogue levels seemed about right; however, the system never seemed to reach the highest sound pressure levels that would be expected, and it felt like there was peak limiting—although the system never sounded strained.
Rear speakers were the same as those used in typical multiplex IMAX screens.
The HVAC system functioned well, although there was some temperature cycling in the evening performance from hot to cold, but at no time was the auditorium stuffy, overly hot, or cold.
Seating is upholstered in very high quality red fabric, with what felt like memory foam padding, and legroom was very generous. I am not sure if these are the original seats; if they are, their condition suggests that they have been reupholstered at some point.
However, the seats were on the narrow side, and I didn’t find them as comfortable as I’d have expected. The stadia for these front rows felt solid, and on using (after the feature had finished!) my phone’s “torch” facility to check if I’d dropped something behind the seat, I noticed that a concrete floor surface could be seen in a small area under the seat.
All in all, actually a pretty good auditorium to see a film—if you can swallow the price for an “IMAX Lite”-sized screen!
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The 11 weeks figure cited is presumably for fit-out only; it seems like a pretty straightforward job, with ample internal space, excellent access, and away from neighbouring properties.
As a comparison, Empire Walthamstow also took 3 months to fit-out.
(By “straightforward,” of course, I mean relatively speaking! As I mentioned on its CT page, according to an article in Cinema Technology Magazine, as many 80 workers were on site in a single day for the Vue West End refurbishment.)
Re: Bond premieres at the OLS—
Licence to Kill – 1989.
Exterior Shot of Large Format Advert on Facade.
GoldenEye – 1995.
Tomorrow Never Dies – 1997.
The World Is Not Enough – 1999.
Casino Royale – 2006 (Empire Leicester Square and Odeon West End also.)
Quantum of Solace – 2008 (Page features a photo of the facade with “ROYAL WORLD PREMIERE” banner, and links to other exterior photos.)
N.B. Not all of the above are “world” premieres.
“Die Another Day,” “Spectre,” and “Skyfall” all premiered at the Royal Albert Hall.
Contract GF Holding has a case study on the cinema’s refurbishment and expansion.
Photos are included, oddly, one being of the IMAX auditorium (not related to those works?) yet none of the new auditoria, including the XPlus Laser.
Thinking about it, having pleated fabric to floor level makes no sense, being too exposed to potential wear or outright damage. I expect it will be an acoustic wood product.
LARGE_screen_format: The early figures given for the projected cost were ~£10-15m, the actual cost of works has not been disclosed AFAIK. However, without knocking the building down and starting again, there are physical constraints.
As mentioned, the screen is marked as the same size as previous on the submitted licensing application plans, with horizontal viewing angles marked also. Revisiting the plans, given the positioning of the stalls' front row, I can’t see how a new screen could be placed ahead of the proscenium.
The screen is shown, however, as being moved to the front of the stage house compared to the existing. (c.f. 2015 licensing plans.)
The emphasis of these works, besides presumably essential to work to keep the OLS intact for the forseeable future, seems to me to be the creation of a luxury facility, including a “Royal Box” and other features (VIP rooms, keeping the stage, etc.) to cater to special events and premieres?
Perhaps you could think of it as being a “preview” of Dolby Cinema pending installation in a site that more readily allows for a larger screen and better optimised auditorium geometry, whilst keeping those who would like to hear the old “Dutchess” Compton organ happy? :–)
The Cineworld (Empire) Leicester Square IMAX is, as previously discussed, as near a “no compromise” PLF giant screen as it could be, both in size and auditorium geometry—(strikingly so) given the building’s history and physical constraints. I imagine it, and the Superscreen, will remain the only auditoria equipped with giant screens* in the heart of London’s West End—and equally, no cinema will be able to compete with the OLS as a premiere location?
(* Per the Giant Screen Cinema Association’s giant screen specifications. Whilst the IMAX of course exceeds requirements, strictly, the Superscreen actually misses out width-wise by ~1m, not being quite 70ft. wide—however, the auditorium’s geometry does place all seating under one screen width away from the screen, and otherwise the auditorium’s geometry, projection and sound should all fall within specifications.)
moviebuff82: The Odeon Leicester Square is always worth visiting but purely technically it might not be better than your local, in terms of acoustics, seat positioning relative to the screen, and screen size, which might well remain ~48ft. wide.
antovolk: Many thanks for the heads up!
Good to finally get some idea of what the auditorium will look like, and interesting that it will branded as “LUXE.”
From a “heritage” standpoint, with so much missing—ceiling, and the splay walls/proscenium—indeed, all of the stage end—of the auditorium missing it’s really difficult to see what’s been (or being) restored?
It looks like the ribbed plasterwork on the circle sidewalls is being kept, presumably extending across the ceiling. I’m assuming that stretched fabric over acoustic absorption is used from there to the screen.
What looks like wooden panelling from stalls level up towards circle level is shown—possibly pleated fabric as certainly the cavity under the balcony should be heavily acoustically treated. For those who wish to see the flying ladies back, I’m thinking this could curve upwards as before to form that feature.
Not sure what to think! I suspect that, what appears to be a new darker colour scheme, will go down like a lead weight here… but renderings can be misleading!
On the bright side, the “glass box” feature on the LSQ facade looks like a fantastic addition and place to dwell before a movie.
Addendum: The Walnuts Shopping Centre multi-storey car park ticket can be validated at the cinema; however, this only covers 3 hours, which for longer features particularly seems insufficient given possibly eating in the foyer and getting to the auditorium before the programme starts.
However, an additional hour is currently £1, so it isn’t too bad.
(N.B. Sunday all-day parking is currently £1.)
The NEC 4K Xenon-lamp projection in the ISENSE auditorium was not far off that achieved by IMAX’s proprietary dual-projection systems (which actually work differently for their 4K laser projection system, with one projector being fed a more detailed image than the other, due to the impossibility of stable sub-pixel alignment at 4K) in terms of being a detailed yet smooth image—but still, the IMAX systems appear to be superior.
The NEC NC3240S is the only Xenon-lamp 4K DCI-compliant projector currently shown on NEC Display Solutions' site—presumably this is the model installed for the ISENSE auditorium.
On sections of fast motion, sometimes odd artifacts could be seen, somewhat reminescent of the early single-chip single-speed “colour wheel” (consumer-grade?) DLP projectors.
Whilst the programming of content and lighting was very good through trailers/adverts onto the main feature, after the feature ended, it took, IIRC, maybe 30 seconds or more for non-sync music playback to abruptly start, and the house lights to be raised.
Errata: AFAICT the capitalisation for “ISENSE” is either all-capitals or all-lowercase, rather than “iSense.”
A few photos have been uploaded.
Visited Odeon Orpington today to see “First Man” in the iSense (Screen 4) auditorium. The movie was disappointing, but intelligible and watchable.
This cinema was built as part of an extension to “The Walnuts Shopping Centre,” which, put politely, is a secondary location. The centre is partially covered; access to the cinema is outdoors, and opposite is a branch of “Poundland”! Value retailers can be places to find products at competitive prices, of course—but it is not a glamorous setting for a cinema.
However, all is forgotten on entering the cinema, via a small lobby onto escalators to the first floor main foyer. The foyer and lobby areas look better “in person” than in photos I’ve seen to date—they are bright and clean, but the added touches—such as the blue concealed LED lighting—add the necessary sparkle. All of the blue LED strips seem to have been placed in extrusions, the result being very even light output, competitive with cold cathode strips, rather than the patchy effect sometimes seen.
Due to tiredness, I found myself buying a large Coke Zero, for which I was charged, IIRC, £4.30(!)
All staff were friendly and efficient.
As mentioned in a previous post, the cinema was the subject of a Cinema Technology Magazine (as it was then known) article, September 2016 issue; the previous link no longer works—however, this issue has been reposted.
A minor quibble: when trying to book tickets, on proceeding to card payment, the website returned. Unfortunately, on reattempting the booking, the seats that I had selected were still shown as unavailable; therefore, as I preferred centre-row seats, I had to select seats in the next row (i.e. closer to the screen,) and as this happened several times, the final seats booked were closer to the screen than the original selection.
Fortunately, these seats turned out to be, if on the low side, a suitable distance from the screen—however, I had hoped to sit further back, in order to be in or near the “sweet spot” for the Dolby Atmos sound system.
Entering the iSense auditorium and being seated, the impression was that, although decoratively a “black box” auditorium, I had entered a “real” cinema—one that had been thoughtfully designed. Whilst the screen (nor auditorium width) was not on quite the same scale, it almost felt like I had entered a modern version of the Odeon Marble Arch! (N.B. The screen is ~49ft. wide, and was sufficiently large, but not in the “giant” category as found in the BFI IMAX or Cineworld (Empire) Leicester Square IMAX.)
The row spacing provided fairly generous legroom, and the black “leather” seating was clearly of a very high quality; however the lack of “rocker” capability, I thought, made them slightly uncomfortable, and the seating is not as wide as I would have liked.
The ceiling lights use a “honeycomb” design and are not too bright or distracting when lowered for the main feature, and they were gradually dimmed, IIRC, through the adverts and trailers.
Where adverts and trailers were in scope format, these suffered from being “letterboxed;” however, if I’m not mistaken, moveable masking is installed, and the screen definitely opened up for the main feature to full width, making full use of its height.
A Dolby Atmos trailer was played before the main feature.
Picture quality was very good; the screen is slightly curved, and tilted upwards, and as far as I could tell did not have the curved “chamfered” corners that many “floating” screens suffer from. Brightness was sufficient, and the calibration/alignment seemed excellent, with accurate colours and almost perfect geometry with no, or virtually no, “smiley face” barrel distortion towards the bottom of the screen.
However, the black level was not comparable to laser light source projection (nor high-end OLED TVs), and there was a fair degree of clipping of low level detail. Further, the expanded gamut potential of such systems was, of course, not on display here, either—a shame that the cinema was built on the cusp of the wider rollout of laser light source projection.
The Clarus XC screen installed is suitable for polarised 3D, as well as 2D, and this was a 2D presentation. Uniformity seemed pretty good; but the end credits revealed that, for my seating position, the centre to bottom edge of the screen was brighter than the rest.
The sound system (specifications in previous post) was excellent, with good timbre matching between the fronts, rears, sides and overheads. It was clean and bright sounding, with plenty of headroom, reaching high sound pressure levels without strain, including right down to the bottom octaves. However, it did seem to be playing at slightly less than reference level.
Acoustics were also very good, affording excellent dialogue intelligibility and imaging; poking the sidewall stretched fabric on entry suggested generous acoustic absorption had been fitted underneath, and certainly sidewall reflections appeared to be highly controlled.
A couple of minor quibbles; the fronts did seem to be slightly peaky in the mid-high range, and the noise floor was on the high side, and could clearly be heard in quiet moments—in fact, it was louder than the inaudible HVAC system! Absolutely no leakage could be heard from the other auditoria.
Kudos to whoever calibrated the system; they have done a first class job!
The auditorium’s temperature was fairly consistent throughout, although I didn’t quite feel that the fresh air intake rate was as high as I would have liked.
Toilets were clean with some veneered finishes, and down-firing Dyson hand dryers are fitted.
A massive thumbs-up for this premium cinema no doubt aimed at the leafy suburbs nearby.
A planning application for the development is available on the website of the London Borough of Bromley — the relevant documents are “PROPOSED FIRST FLOOR PLAN,” “PROPOSED SECOND FLOOR PLAN-PROJECTOR LEVEL,” and “PROPOSED SECTIONS AA AND BB RETAIL AND CINEMA OPTION.”
The iSense auditorium (Screen 4) is marked “Screen 1” on these plans.
Dimensions as estimated off drawings (scales are conveniently included):
iSense Auditorium: ~16.2m (width) x ~22.5m (depth) x ~8.5m (floor to false ceiling height.) (≈53ft. x74ft. x 28ft.) iSense screen width (as drawn): ~15m (≈49ft.) Main foyer/concessions: ~17m x ~23.5m. (≈59ft. x 77ft.)
According to an article in a local newspaper, the screen in the iSense auditorium measures 15m x 6.2m.
Swindon Interiors' fit-out case study.
PhilipWW: The cinema was totally refurbished by Empire Cinemas, and 4 of the 6 original auditoria were subdivided. The 2 auditoria that were not are now the two IMPACT screens.
The “Existing Upper Level Floor Plan” which is available among the documents the above-mentioned planning application, and it shows the “Downtakings,” with the screens being marked for removal.
Additionally, to summarise notes on that drawing: all raised floors, blockwork as marked (subject to confirmation by structural engineer), ceilings inc. grid/tiles/lights, and all services inc. duct, pipework, etc. were to be removed.
I suspect ~1.9:1 screens are used to make auditoria look like a Digital IMAX?
LARGE_screen_format: Low-rise developments with flat parking are so much more flexible than high density multi-level developments, and also typically offer ample free parking.
With parts of the UK overscreened there are now many secondary multiplexes that require considerable investment to bring them up to expectations.
It is odd to see multiplexes turning into “flea pits” and also “partial” refurbishments where not all finishes or fittings are replaced. Whatever their merits, and certainly presentation standards and auditoria haven’t always been adequate, and some might describe them bland, one might think of multiplexes as, above all else, mostly clean, shiny and new. Not anymore!
Still, not too much reason for nostaglia with the increasing number of “next generation” multiplexes, whether refurbishments/alterations/extensions of existing or entirely new build, with fancy foyers, PLF auditoria and luxury seating.
The virtual tour can also be seen on Google Streetview, e.g.:
IMPACT LUXE auditorium.
Sidewall, rear LFE speakers, and overhead speakers can clearly be seen.
The fit-out has achieved an exceptional quality of finish—I’m hard pressed to find any glaring flaws—everything looks straight and fabricated or fitted to tight tolerances. If I’m not mistaken, wall carpet has been applied to the walls of the corridor to the auditoria.
The entrance to the IMPACT LUXE auditorium features a small seating area in a corridor under the stadia and/or booth, which leads to the vomitory access.
The 360° tour can also be seen on Google Streetview, e.g.:
XPlus auditorium.
Difficult to tell the exact model (possibly JBL 8330 or 8340) but the side speakers certainly do not appear to have been upgraded to the more recent superior models intended for “premium large format”/Atmos installations.
Cinema plans are available as part of the 1999 planning application for the 2 screen extension.
Being in Leicester Square today, on this occasion the sheeting had been removed. Work continued past sunset, and thus afforded a good look into the foyer from LSQ; a photo has been uploaded.
Would seem to be a some prospect of it reopening this year, if not early next year.
Thinking further, considering that lift and escalator installation may not yet have been initiated and the extent of work required to create the “glass box” feature is also unknown, perhaps early next year is more likely.
Addendum: The Section 106 agreement available in 15/10072/FULL (Description field: “WHITELEYS+CENTRE+S106+AGREEMENT”) includes a clause stating that the cinema must be ready for occupation prior to the occupation of the retail units.
Further, in the previously linked variation application (16/12203/FULL,)the “Decision Notice” document in which permission is granted includes a condition stating that the cinema demise is restricted to such use only, with one reason given being “to safeguard the amenities of adjoining residents and future residents of the development.”
“UrbEx” photos are available over at 28DaysLater, including for one visit dated January 2015. Throughly “smashed up!”
A “ghost” view of the demolished cinema can be seen in satellite images on the desktop version of Google Earth. (For some reason, presently Google Maps is still showing an older image in which the cinema building is still intact.)
Per Google’s Usage Guidelines, which allow for limited reposting, I have uploaded the exported satellite image to the Photos section for this cinema.
The essential layout of the cinema is visible, including foyer, partitions between auditoria, and the curve on which the seating was fitted therein.
“Imagery date” shown in Google Earth is 24th March 2017.
Whitleys Redevelopment — 15/10072/FULL is the main planning application; however, as changes were made to basement levels, the more obvious one to reference is a later variation application.
To quote from the summary: (My emphasis.)
“Demolition of and redevelopment of building behind retained and refurbished facades to Queensway and Porchester Gardens facades to provide a mixed use development comprising three basement levels, ground floor and up to 10 upper floor levels, containing up to 103 residential units (Class C3), retail floorspace (Class A1 and A3) facing Queensway and arranged around a new retail arcade below re-provided central atrium and central retail courtyard, public car park, hotel (Class C1), cinema (Class D2), gym (Class D2), crèche (Class D1)…”
263 documents (yes, REALLY!) are associated with this application.
The proposed cinema is accessed from Ground Floor Level, with three lifts down to Basement Level 3, with the cinema’s demise shown on the documents titled “GROUND FLOOR PLAN” and “BASEMENT 03” in the above-linked planning application.
The cinema is briefly covered in the Design and Access Statement, specifically p3 (PDF page number) of the document titled “DAS PART 2” in the above-linked planning application.
It says that the proposed cinema was moved to level B3 to allow for an increased “clear height of 6.5m… to meet the spatial requirements of contemporary cinemas” and “minimise the potential impact to its immediate adjacenies.”
The page mentions “potential operators” and states that “it is assumed that the unit will be developed to shell and core only… the final demise configuration will be further developed…”
Hence, the cinema layout shown in the plans appears to be indicative only of a possible arrangement.
Nevertheless, here are the details:
On level B3 three auditoria are shown, each identical in size, with near wall-to-wall screens of ~15.5m (~50ft. width), in auditoria measuring ~18m (~60ft.) wide by ~19m wide (~62ft.) internally, or ~3700sq.ft. in area.
Each is shown having 5 rows of recliner seats in straight lines, except for 2-3 seats on each sides which are “toed in,” and the last row has 6 accessible spaces. Total seats per auditorium – 62 + 6 accessible.
A foyer area is also shown in the B3 plans, and the cinema’s entrance is shown on the Ground Floor Plan, with another lobby area, including seating (?).
Noting that the Design and Access Statement states a “clear height of 6.5m (~21ft.), it is clear that a 50ft. wide "scope” screen would, vertically, at best be a tight fit indeed, or impossible, suggesting that these “indicative” layouts are illustrative only.
Having a quick look at the first “Basement Impact Assessment” document, it provides an overview of the history of the site, alterations made to the Whitleys Department Store, and other historical material including “lost” rivers, should anyone reading this be interested in such.
N.B. For clarity, previous two posts removed; contents of which were amalgamated and revised for this post.
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Or rather, metal extrusions in which LEDs are fitted.
More precisely, this “new” block is the “Glow” exhibition centre (2012) repurposed.
Looking at Cineworld’s booking pages, it seems that “First Man” isn’t programmed for the IMAX auditorium, only 4DX and Superscreen. In fact, nothing is presently scheduled for the IMAX according to Cineworld’s site; the IMAX is being used for the BFI Film Festival, though hardly continuously, unless there are private screenings also held there?
With 15/70 prints not being made, the only option in London for “full scale” IMAX will be Xenon-lamp projection at the BFI, and no option at all to see it “full height” 1.4:1.
As of last weekend, the opening into the OLS circle foyer had been largely obscured by flame retardant sheeting. Looks like Zappomatic took a photo at an opportune time!
Photo uploaded.
Addendum: The “new” block is the “Glow” exhibition centre repurposed, with alterations shown in the above-linked plans.
To be clear, the old KCS sidewall speakers have not been removed, but are disused, with two IMAX rear speakers, standard for multiplex-type IMAX installations, replacing them; IMAX do not use rear arrays but “discrete” rears only.
Having covered the IMAX auditorium, I shall now proceed with the additional 4 auditoria.
To the left (or more accurately, East—but as experienced when entering the cinema via the main foyer from the mall) of the existing cinema, an “exhibition” space, “Glow,” had been built. This was, reportedly, not a success, and a planning application is available for its redevelopment, the summary description of which is:
“Change of use from an Events and Exhibition Venue (Use Class D1) to a cinema and other family orientated leisure uses (Use Class D2), restaurant facilities (Use Class A3) together with internal and external reconfiguration and associated works incorporating demolition of some existing floor space end construction of new floor space.”
Essentially, there is now a block adjacent to the existing cinema, which includes restaurants, a “Gravity” Trampoline Park, and the four new auditoria. The plans for these can be seen in the document titled “PROPOSED FIRST FLOOR LEVEL”*; they are connected from the far end of the main foyer of the existing cinema via a link bridge—not that the non-curious patron would realise that they were walking over to another building!
(*Plans for the existing cinema can also be seen here, albeit only partial as cropped.)
A fairly generously sized foyer/lobby area is included for these four auditoria, including seating areas, at the other end of which is a corridor leading to the four new auditoria entrances.
The foyer/lobby area does not include a suspended ceiling, and so services above are visible; they are generally black in colour, but a mess of suspension wires and threaded rods can be seen. There are several trays containing very large bundles of cables.
“Honeycomb” features are also suspended down to ceiling height, and oddly domestic-looking wall curtains (?!) and stand-alone lamps are featured, the latter being incongruently connected to white coloured wall sockets.
Several impressive “XPlus Laser” wall signs are featured, faced with (presumably CNC-cut) metal, surrounded by concealed blue LED lighting.
One of these is positioned adjacent to the “link bridge” entrance, along with a wall continuing the “honeycomb” motif, with the hexagons painted in various shades of e.g. blue and yellow. Combined with the rectangular section of white faceted squares behind the XPlus Laser sign, it all looks somewhat 1960s-inspired—in a positive way!
All four new auditoria feature laser projection, Dolby Atmos sound, and reclining seating.
I briefly had a look into the XPlus Laser auditorium (Screen 15), and the scope screen appeared to be very large indeed, with clearly excellent colour rendering, and the sidewall speakers were JBLs.
XPlus Laser screen size: 64ft. x 27ft. (Source.)
A unfortunate qubble: These new lobby areas appeared to be unstaffed on this occasion, and popcorn had been strewn on the carpet outside the XPlus Laser entrance.
The 4 new auditoria and associated lobby areas appear to be a fantastic addition, and I will be returning to the XPlus Laser auditorium at the earliest opportunity.
Dimensions as drawn on planning application:
-Main foyer: ~43m long by ~13m wide (entrance)/~29.5 wide (“ticket tear” end) (~140ft.x42ft./97ft.)
-Extension main foyer area – ~18x10m (~60x33ft.)
-XPlus Laser auditorium – ~24m long by ~20.5m wide (~80x67ft.)
Visited the Showcase Cinema de Lux Bluewater last Sunday as LARGE_screen_format informed me that the MCU movies were being shown in the IMAX auditorium at £2.50 per screening for “INSIDER” members (sign-up to which is free), plus booking fee, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit this cinema, having not been here since the early 2000s.
With the relatively recent addition of four new auditoria, housed in a new block just to the left of the existing cinema, and linked to via a bridge at the end of the existing foyer, this is virtually “two cinemas in one.”
Therefore, I shall divide my comments into several posts, first covering the IMAX auditorium.
IIRC, this multiplex opened with two THX-certified auditoria, in which I attended several screenings. These were fitted with KCS rear array speakers, and at that time I did not consider the presentation to be of an exceptional standard.
Looking at satellite aerial photos, the IMAX auditorium (Screen 4) is one of the two largest (identical?) in the original multiplex, being situated in the South West corner. Thus, it is presumably a conversion of one of the two originally THX-certified auditoria.
The sidewall rear array speakers are retained, and the stretched fabric covering on these walls may well be original—or certainly pre-dates the IMAX conversion? It is not black, but more of a “muted” colour that appears dark grey during the feature; the stretched fabric wall areas are “staggered” in sections, forming “coves,” which are lit with downfiring spotlights, two per cove for the first 3 coves from the front, and one for the rear cove. Below these stretched fabric sections, the sidewalls are flat and covered with wall carpet.
House lights are at the edges of the ceiling only, dimmed for the feature, and only after the end credits were finished were they fully raised, with “cove” spotlights also raised.
The aisle steps are fitted with LED nosing profiles, and illuminated throughout the feature, which may well be distracting for those seated near an aisle. Otherwise, the auditorium was very dark indeed during the main feature.
As far as I could tell, most or all of the ceiling appeared to be smooth, and so I assume that ceiling tiles have not been used, rather stretched fabric, the colour of which also appeared to be dark grey during the feature. Possibly, the ceiling was fabricated in the way that theatre_of_varieties described for the LSQ IMAX—namely, to keep HF reflections from the ceiling at bay, insulation slabs are fitted, and the stretched fabric simply covers over them, rather than having a plasterboard layer behind the insulation also. The ceiling slopes up towards the screen, presumably an alteration made in the IMAX conversion.
The right sidewall features a backlit blue IMAX logo with a horizontal line above.
As the area surrounding the screen is dark black, the perception is created that the ceiling is sloped up to a level that’s higher than the screen—which doesn’t appear to be quite wall-to-wall and, overall, forming a proscenium “frame” around the screen. Combined with the “staggered” sidewall features, this—perhaps unintentionally!—creates a more “designed” feel than the typical black-box rectangular auditorium.
It is not difficult to see how more creative use of lighting and some additional features could turn this into a very attractive auditorium.
Presentation otherwise was fine, excepting the lack of moveable masking, with non-sync music played. However, the feature ended with a green “flash” on the screen.
The vomitory into the auditorium emerges behind the 5th row, with, IIRC, the front few rows on a slightly less steep rake than the rear seats.
I booked a seat in the centre of row “G” on the basis that this would be a satisfactory distance away from the screen; however, it turns out that the first row is in fact “D”—presumably the first few rows were eliminated in the IMAX conversion, with no changes to row lettering Nonetheless, it turned out to be about the right distance from the screen, albeit too low.
The screen was certainly on the small side for an IMAX, although from my seating position I considered it to be adequately sized. Certainly, being familiar with the near-90ft. wide screens at the BFI and LSQ IMAXs, I would have been unhappy had I paid full price for the tickets, which are currently £16.60 for the IMAX auditorium.
The IMAX projection system achieved very good results, with perfect geometry and alignment as expected, and a super-smooth yet detailed image. Centre-to-edge brightness consistency was good, slightly noticeable brightness fall off perhaps on the end credits. However, the black level was higher than I’d have expected, with clipping of low-level detail, and with the 3D glasses on, the brightness level seemed insufficient.
As the screen was presumably 1.9:1 ratio; these scope movies were presented in “letterboxed” form; with 3D glasses on, the black screen areas above and below the picture, though higher in level than would be preferred, were not overly problematic. However, as with my experience of “Avengers: Infinity War” at the LSQ 4DX, the picture width varied slightly from shot to shot, which I found distracting.
Possibly partially due to its lineage as a purpose-built THX-certified auditorium, the acoustics were outstanding. The HVAC system was inaudible, with excellent isolation. Only a distant rumble could very occasionally be distantly heard from an adjacent auditorium during the quiet moments.
In my view, it actually demonstrated that the rationale behind this, to ensure audibility of low level sounds in quiet scenes, is all very well at the mixing stage, but does not work in a theatrical environment open to the public with 10s or 100s of seats, simply because what one hears in quiet scenes is not low level audio detail so much as every last sound made by other patrons—even if they are not being noisy munching away at popcorn, the slightest rustle becomes distracting. I would actually prefer a slightly audible background hiss/rumble from the HVAC system—which certainly was the case in the corridor leading to the auditorium.
To meet THX specifications, the auditorium must have had a well controlled reverberation time, and combined with what I imagine to be the stretched fabric ceiling added in the IMAX conversion, an exceptionally low reverberation time is achieved, with excellent stereo imaging, including for sounds panned to the rears.
The sound quality was otherwise very good, with clean mids/high frequencies, and very good bass extension. Dialogue levels seemed about right; however, the system never seemed to reach the highest sound pressure levels that would be expected, and it felt like there was peak limiting—although the system never sounded strained.
Rear speakers were the same as those used in typical multiplex IMAX screens.
The HVAC system functioned well, although there was some temperature cycling in the evening performance from hot to cold, but at no time was the auditorium stuffy, overly hot, or cold.
Seating is upholstered in very high quality red fabric, with what felt like memory foam padding, and legroom was very generous. I am not sure if these are the original seats; if they are, their condition suggests that they have been reupholstered at some point.
However, the seats were on the narrow side, and I didn’t find them as comfortable as I’d have expected. The stadia for these front rows felt solid, and on using (after the feature had finished!) my phone’s “torch” facility to check if I’d dropped something behind the seat, I noticed that a concrete floor surface could be seen in a small area under the seat.
All in all, actually a pretty good auditorium to see a film—if you can swallow the price for an “IMAX Lite”-sized screen!
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