SUMMARY

The new cinema hall, created as part of the expansion of the Sieradz Culture Centre, is a space designed in accordance with the latest trends and equipped with the latest technological solutions available on the market. Its 100-person audience can enjoy the highest quality picture and multi-channel Dolby Atmos sound.

In addition, the designer of the cinema system, Awaco Project sp. z o.o., using solutions from the Harman Professional portfolio, created a system that allows simple and effective management of the entire system, creating queues of displayed content and automatically starting and shutting down the entire installation, according to the prepared schedule.

Although multi-channel home cinema systems are still becoming popular, the diagonals of displays located in homes, and more and more often even projectors appear in them, allowing to display an image in a really impressive size, still going to the cinema is a real event for many, and watching the latest film productions, and according to the promises of cinema managers, such images will be presented here, it is a completely different experience than the inclusion of a streaming service at home. That is why we are calm about attendance at the new cinema in Sieradz!

BACKGROUND

Today, cultural centres have become places of truly interdisciplinary culture and boast many functionalities. Their structures include swimming pools, concert halls, sports halls, theatre halls, amphitheatres, and cinemas. While those in operation have long been overhauled, modernized, and redesigned, those built from scratch provide the highest picture quality and excellent multi-channel sound to the most up-to-date standards.

An example is the cinema room in the Sieradzki Culture Centre, where Awaco Project sp. z o.o designed the cinema system—reaching again for the proven solutions of the Barco brand and Harman Professional devices provided by ESS Audio distribution located in Poland.

SITUATION

The modernization of the Sieradz Culture Centre began in 2021, and the main goal of the whole task was to expand the facility and build a new cinema hall, art studios and administrative facilities. The newly created investment has been connected to the existing building of SCK – the Municipal Theatre, with the help of a connector suspended above a pedestrian passage. It has the shape of the letter “L”. The main entrance is located on the square in front of the Municipal Theatre, but the building can also be accessed through two entrances from Warszawska Street.

The foyer on the ground floor contains two staircases leading to the first floor, a buffet, a cash register, and sanitary facilities. A large glass roof illuminates the open, welcoming, and representative space. The western part of the new facility houses music rooms and rehearsal spaces. The first floor will house art, sculpture, painting, and ceramics studios.

A three-storey building was built on the side of Warszawska Street. It houses an art room with a technical room, storage, utility, and social rooms, and a cinema room. The cinema can accommodate 100 people and has a modern, powerful laser projector and a sound system that supports the latest multi-channel Dolby Atmos sound standards. This makes it the most modern cinema space within several dozen kilometres and one of the best outside the leading, largest urban centres.

The hall has a foldable stand that can be pushed and pulled apart. Thus, it can be easily used in other application scenarios, such as a ballroom or club space.

The construction works were carried out by the Sieradz-based company Defero Sp. z o.o, were part of the SCK expansion. They included constructing a building connected by a connector to the existing Municipal Theatre building and demolishing the existing buildings.

Awaco Project sp. z o.o. designed the entire cinema technology system, installed the devices, and launched the new cinema, which was created after the reconstruction of SCK. In the audio department, ESS Audio provided all the sound-related solutions implemented in the new installation in Sieradz.

SOLUTION

In the new cinema hall of the Sieradzki Culture Centre, a state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos multi-channel surround sound system has been implemented. For this purpose, the space was armed with dozens of speaker sets.
Behind the screen are three JBL 3732-M/HF mid-range tweeters supported by JBL 3739 woofers. Four JBL 3183F woofers are in the room’s corners and under the ceiling, and a powerful 4kW JBL subwoofer based on two 18″ speakers process the low frequencies. JBL 9300 and JBL 9310 are impressive surround speakers, while JBL SCS8 and JBL SCS12 two-way effect speaker systems installed above the audience support Atmos channels.

In addition, a wall-mounted loudspeaker system based on JBL Control 25-1L designs is installed in the projection booth. This system allows the operator to listen to what is happening in the room, which is crucial since the cabin has windows that tightly insulate the sound from the audience.

The power of the amplifiers
All of these speakers are powered by the JBL LA4-D four-channel cinema amplifiers (one), JBL MA4-D (eight) and JBL SA4-D (four). Since the audio signals between the projection booth, specifically the Dolby Atmos Cinema Processor CP950A and the amplifier where all the amplifiers are installed, are transmitted using the Dante protocol in the same rack, the BSS BLU-DAN converter, responsible for changing the Dante signals to BLU link, is also placed, so the standard with which most solutions from the Harman Professional group communicate, including of course the amplifiers used. Of course, because all solutions used in this implementation communicate based on the network, there could also be a suitable switch. The M4250-40G8XF-PoE+ network switch is used here.

The power of the amplifiers
All of these speakers are powered by the JBL LA4-D four-channel cinema amplifiers (one), JBL MA4-D (eight) and JBL SA4-D (four). Since the audio signals between the projection booth, specifically the Dolby Atmos Cinema Processor CP950A and the amplifier where all the amplifiers are installed, are transmitted using the Dante protocol, in the same rack, the BSS BLU-DAN converter, responsible for changing the Dante signals to BLU link, is also placed, so the standard with which most solutions from the Harman Professional group communicate, including of course the amplifiers used. As all solutions used in this implementation communicate based on the network, e a suitable switch is used: the NETGEAR M4250-40G8XF-PoE+ network switch which enables easy configuration of a reliable AVoIP network.

The uncompromising machine
The new cinema hall included in SCK is another project of Awaco Project sp. Z o.o., in which cinema specialists used a Barco projector. This choice was determined primarily by the excellent quality of the images offered by these devices, which make the reference projection not only reserved for the largest multiplexes and huge halls but can also be obtained in much smaller cinema spaces. A leading Polish company that designs equips and modernizes cinemas has cooperated with the Barco brand for many years. It has extensive experience designing systems whose heart is the manufacturer’s projectors and installation, commissioning, and subsequent servicing. This ensures uninterrupted operation and is ready to start up the projector as soon as needed.

This project uses the top Barco SP4K series laser projector, which provides native support for 4K resolution with support for 120 frames and the latest multi-channel audio standards, which was key here.
The investor can also be sure that the displayed image will have precisely the parameters Hollywood creators and directors expect. This is thanks to Barco ColorgenicTM technology covering over 98.5% of Rec. 2020 colour space.

The projector is installed in the cinema projection booth at SCK. It is equipped with an ICMP-X module, which combines the functionality of an integrated cinema multimedia server processor and is installed directly in the projector. This reduces the number of required pieces of equipment in the projection booth and simplifies the configuration of the entire system.

The ICMP-X module has a wide range of connectors, facilitating its integration with other system components and increasing configuration possibilities. Thanks to its vast resources, the module can play both 4K 2D and 4K 3D images in 60 frames, which prepares it for future expansion and allows it to respond to the changing requirements of the cinema hall.
With the simple interface “Barco Web Commander,” you can control the projector remotely, program the playback queue, and prepare playback and work schedules. Notably, the projector automatically detects potential problems and errors and informs and warns the user of unforeseen events.

The cinema system’s creators ensured that films encoded in the so-called DCP (Digital Cinema Package) packages could be played in the created room and from other media, including the Blu-ray player installed in the projection booth. The AMX DVX-2265-4 K all-in-one AV array facilitates switching sources and selecting the proper signal to be displayed with the installed projector.
To make it as easy as possible to select specific cinema settings and recall saved scenarios, we implemented the AMX VARIA-100 10” touch panel and an AV license from the AMX TPC-IPAD, which, in this case, gives remote access from the device with the logo of a bitten apple.

Source: AVIntegracje: “Sala kinowa w Sieradzkim Centrum Kultury | Awaco | Barco | JBL Professional | Crown | BSS | Dolby Atmos | ESS Audio” | link.